Reviews

A Taste of Food and Beverage Quality

Lisa Duizer1 | Chris Findlay2 Sensory evaluation has a number of different applications within the food industry, ranging from analytical testing for differences among products through to hedonic testing to understand consumer liking. Because of the breadth of tests available, sensory testing can be used for a number of different purposes. This includes new product development, product reformulation, process changes, …

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Food Protein-derived Bioactive Peptides

Rotimi E. Aluko The primary purpose of protein consumption is to provide essential amino acids, which are used by the body to synthesize various structural (muscles, bones, hair) and functional (enzymes, hormones) proteins required for homeostasis maintenance. However, the increasing popularity of functional foods and nutraceuticals has led scientists to seek protein-derived fragments (peptides) that could prevent or even treat …

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Fat: The Good, the Bad, and the Tasty

Alexia I. Blake | Alejandro G. Marangoni* Over the last 20 years, consumers have developed a love-hate relationship with fat. While fat is responsible for the textures and tastes of our favourite foods, such as ice cream, butter, and baked goods, its prevalence in today’s energy-dense diets has caused a drastic increase in obesity rates and cardiovascular disease observed worldwide1-3. …

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Food Recall Strategies for Small Business

Cameron Prince Recall! This is a word that can bring significant fear and concern for any food business. In particular, small companies who may not have the experience or systems to deal with recalls may find themselves in difficult circumstances in the event of a food safety issue and associated recall. Fortunately, significant food safety recalls are relatively rare. However, …

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Canada’s Role in Fighting Global Food/Nutrition Insecurities

Gebremedhin Gebreegziabher1,2 | Lisa Clark1,3 | Jill Hobbs1,3 | Hugo Melgar-Quiñonez4 Rickey Yada5 | Michael Nickerson1,2 According to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), ‘Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life’1. …

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The Impact of Salt Reduction in Baked Goods

Aleksandar Yovchev1 | Martin Scanlon2  | Michael Nickerson1* Dietary intake of sodium chloride (NaCl, commonly known as salt) has increased considerably over the last few decades due to changes in the human diet. The main source of NaCl in our diet is processed foods, accounting for ~70-75% of the total intake, with cereal and cereal products contributing 30-35% of overall …

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Maintaining Gut Health with Probiotics

Natallia V. Varankovich | Michael T. Nickerson | Darren R. Korber* The microbiota of the human gastrointestinal tract (GIT) is extremely complex, consisting of bacteria, archaea, some protozoa, anaerobic fungi and different bacteriophages and viruses, with more than 1,000 species and up to 5×1011 (100 billion) bacterial cells per gram of intestinal contents1. According to American Society for Microbiology (2008), …

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The Food Industry’s Conundrum About GM Labelling

Stuart Smyth In the mid-1990s, genetically modified (GM) crops and their resulting food products entered the North American and European markets virtually unnoticed. In fact, products in Europe labelled as containing GM ingredients and being made from GM products outsold similar products in the late 1990s. In Canada and the USA, GM crops and products triggered minimal consumer concerns or …

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Food irradiation adds cost but makes sense

by Richard A. Holley Canada was an “early adopter” of food irradiation, but its status in Canada has remained unchanged for almost 50 years. This article explores reasons for maintenance of the status quo and offers a glimpse of how irradiation can be strategically used to improve the safety of food and the health of Canadians. CURRENT SITUATION If government …

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The roles of physics in foods

modelling, computer simulation and things you probably never knew about David Pink1,2  | Michael Nickerson3 Before Alberta Einstein made it big, he served as a clerk in a Swiss Patent Office in Bern Switzerland around 1903, during which time he logged in the patent for Toblerone bar for its characteristic triangular prism shape resembling that of the Swiss Alps. Since …

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