Loss of electricity and refrigerated foods: avoiding the danger zone

Recent events such as Winter Storm [Hurricane] Sandy and Hurricane Katrina have demonstrated that local food supplies must last as long as possible. Current recommendations are to dispose of all refrigerated food four hours after the power is lost. The purpose of this study was to determine if it is possible to safely hold food longer than four hours without power. The results indicate that the food can be held for up to six hours if the door is not opened. If ice is added to the refrigerator, then it will take the food approximately 10 hours to reach 5°C (41°F)

A Multiparent Advanced Generation Inter-Cross to Fine-Map Quantitative Traits in Arabidopsis thaliana

Identifying natural allelic variation that underlies quantitative trait variation remains a fundamental problem in genetics. Most studies have employed either simple synthetic populations with restricted allelic variation or performed association mapping on a sample of naturally occurring haplotypes. Both of these approaches have some limitations, therefore alternative resources for the genetic dissection of complex traits continue to be sought. Here we describe one such alternative, the Multiparent Advanced Generation Inter-Cross (MAGIC). This approach is expected to improve the precision with which QTL can be mapped, improving the outlook for QTL cloning. Here, we present the first panel of MAGIC lines developed: a set of 527 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) descended from a heterogeneous stock of 19 intermated accessions of the plant Arabidopsis thaliana. These lines and the 19 founders were genotyped with 1,260 single nucleotide polymorphisms and phenotyped for development-related traits. Analytical methods were developed to fine-map quantitative trait loci (QTL) in the MAGIC lines by reconstructing the genome of each line as a mosaic of the founders. We show by simulation that QTL explaining 10% of the phenotypic variance will be detected in most situations with an average mapping error of about 300 kb, and that if the number of lines were doubled the mapping error would be under 200 kb. We also show how the power to detect a QTL and the mapping accuracy vary, depending on QTL location. We demonstrate the utility of this new mapping population by mapping several known QTL with high precision and by finding novel QTL for germination data and bolting time. Our results provide strong support for similar ongoing efforts to produce MAGIC lines in other organisms

Disaster preparedness in foodservice: Government agency recommendations, industry behavior, and the impact of a power loss on refrigeration

Disaster preparedness can take many forms, depending on the locale, type of disaster (natural or man-made, intentional or unintentional), and type of foodservice operation. This study analyzed three aspects of preparation by means of three separate studies. The first analyzed the content of available government agency information concerning preparation for natural disasters by restaurant foodservice operations. This study was performed online, and was approached from the perspective of a restaurant owner or manager seeking information on the subject of disaster preparedness. Therefore a common Internet search engine (Google©) was used, and information was collected from government websites that appeared in the search results. Results from this analysis revealed that there is myriad information available, but that the information could be better organized or presented for the end consumer. The second study looked at what preparation measures were already in place in Indiana restaurants. This study consisted of an online survey of the members of the Indiana Hospitality Association, whose members are restaurant owners and managers from across the state. While the response rate to the survey was too low for the results to be generalizable, as a pilot survey results indicate that most restaurants carry insurance to cover losses due to natural disasters. Additionally, most had plans in place for dealing with commonplace disasters (i.e. fire) and disasters common to that region of the country (i.e. tornadoes, winter storms), but not for disasters that could be perceived as less likely to happen (i.e. flooding, earthquakes). However, less than half actually have written plans or a written chain-of-command for responding, and very few regularly drill their plans. The final study investigated what factors affected heat transfer to refrigerated food during a loss of power, and how the addition of ice changed that dynamic. Independent variables studied in this experiment were the starting temperature of the food inside the refrigerated cabinet, the amount of food contained within, the various positions of the food within, the external temperature, and whether or not ice was added after the power loss. Variables that impacted the final temperature were the starting temperature of the food, the amount of food, the external temperature, and the addition of ice. A model was created to predict surface temperatures after a loss of power; however it was not possible to create those predictions in trials involving the addition of ice