Fried Foods scare-How justified are the present concerns?

Who does not love fried foods, whether young or old? But many health pundits advocate avoiding fried foods which according to them can spell danger. Though to some extent this is true, eliminating them altogether from the diet is not a choice at all. Such advocacy is not justifiable according to present scientific knowledge available to day. Acrylamide is a chemical artifact generated in foods when they are exposed to high temperature due to reaction between the naturally occurring amino acid Asparagine and reducing sugars like glucose and this has been found to be a health hazard with potential to cause cancer. If one really looks at the toxicity levels injurious to humans, most foods eaten moderately and not regularly cannot be a risk at all. Of course any food eaten without any control can be dangerous and fried foods are no exception to this well accepted rule. According to scientific data Acrylamide contents in some of the commonly eaten foods does not exceed the limit set by health experts and normal healthy consumer may not be at a risk by eating them at moderate levels. Here is a take on this issue which is being being highlighted by many journalists and scientists recently.  

"Yesterday, US Food Safety posted a blog about the How to Reduce Acrylamide in Certain Foods.Today took this one step further and posted an article about what foods to avoid. Cut out, or at least cut back on, fried foods. This is just a good idea, anyway, but it's an especially good idea if acrylamide makes you nervous. "If you want to make a big difference, have things that you boil or steam or eat raw," Fernstrom says.  Don't eat crispy or burnt french fries. The FDA says overcooked, crispy or burnt french fries are the ones most likely to have higher levels of acrylamide. Go for the golden yellow fries, and avoid the brown ones. Also, don't eat burnt toast. Same concept here: The dark brown or black areas on a piece of toast are more likely to contain acrylamide. Toast your bread to a light brown color instead. "The best rule of thumb is just don't cook things to death," Fernstrom says. Potatoes don't belong in the refrigerator. Keeping potatoes in the fridge can increase the amount of acrylamide produced during cooking, the FDA says. Instead, keep them stored in a dark, cool place, like a pantry." 

Foods containing Aspargine and sugars which undergo rigorous cooking can generate Acrylamide and that includes biscuits, bread, coffee, French fries, Potato crisps, home cooked potatoes etc. French fries are reported to contain about 40 ug (microgram) of Acrylamide per kg while potato crisps generate a whopping 65 ug per kg. In contrast home cooked potatoes have 32 ug, coffee 25 ug, biscuits 32 ug and bread 15 ug per kg. but from time to time high values exceeding 1000 ug per kg are also reported. Safety limit for Acrylamide is also a matter of debate though 500 ug per kg body weight is more or less accepted. If this is so why all these scare mongering about Acrylamide? Recent claim by a potato breeder about the development of a "gene silenced" version of potato which generates far less Acrylamide than the tradition varieties appears to be a direct outcome of the undue Acrylamide scare that can benefit only the organized potato using industry.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

FOOD-GOOD, BAD AND INDIFFERENT!

Scientists and policy makers world over are struggling to wrestle with the increasing dangers posed by the obesity epidemic which is not showing any abatement in spite of several measures taken by their governments. Food was compared with Tobacco and every body thought that making bad food costlier would persuade consumers from buying them frequently but this has not worked in a few countries which tried this approach. Industry was targeted in some countries to compel it to make only "good" foods though no one is sure what is a good food! No matter how much pressure the government puts on the industry, it is not to be forgotten that industry does not work for charity, being profit driven after heavy investments. One of the biggest mysteries of modern times is why obesity is more or less prevalent in economically rich countries, that too in the western continents though Japanese are least prone to obesity in spite of being a rich country. Same is true with Scandinavian countries where economic growth has not distorted their diets. It is a tragedy that many countries emerging as neo-rich ones are emulating the bad example of the US where the diets are predominated by red meat, fried foods and fat rich products churned out by the industry. On the other end too much dependence on starchy foods based on cereals can also be disastrous when it comes to good health. Here is a sharp analysis about the dynamics of obesity seen from the perspectives of dispassionate health pundits.

"Where is the best place in the world to eat? It all depends, as new calculations from Oxfam show, on what you mean by 'good'. Food in the United States is cheap, abundant, varied and tasty, but it might not be all that good for you - too much fat and sugar have led to 36 percent of Americans being diabetic and 46 percent obese. Japan's food, by contrast, is much healthier, but it's extremely expensive and not as varied. At the bottom end of the Oxfam table are countries like Chad and Angola, where food can be unaffordably expensive and not very nutritious. It can also be quite dull. In Madagascar (fourth from bottom) 79 percent of the food eaten comes from grains and starchy roots, with very little meat, fish, fruit or vegetables. Perhaps the most interesting figures are not from the richest or poorest countries, but those in between - emerging economies making the transition to middle- or higher-income status. Some of the unhealthiest diets of all are in places like Fiji and Mexico, where more than 40 percent of adults are not merely overweight, but obese. The mechanism is no mystery. As people get richer, they want to eat more meat, fish and dairy products, more fried food, more sweets and cakes, washed down with fizzy drinks. Favourite foods vary from country to country, but the dietary transition is the same all over the world. Combined with moving to the cities, having less time to cook and leading less active lives, the dietary shift has brought expanding waistlines and an epidemic of ill-health.The number of overweight or obese people in the developing world tripled between 1980 and 2008."

Sugar and fat are by far the most indicted food components that are implicated in high BMI among people in countries like the US. As the industry turns out more and more mouth watering varieties of processed foods with high convenience factor and rich in these two food ingredients, that too at a fraction of the cost of a nutrition dense fruit or vegetable, consumer just loses his appetite for buying healthy foods, in spite of knowing that sugar and fat rich foods are not good for the health! Obesity is a personal choice if one looks at the freedom consumers enjoys in buying what food is good for him though the food "environment" can over ride his logical choice. Recent revelation that the food habits are formed during the early childhood when kids are enrolled in kindergarten and improper handling of them during these formative years can create future obese people is indeed scary. Similarly cravings for high calorie foods are controlled by the brain and the way it is wired in different people! All these can only further make the world desperate vis -a-vis obesity and as of now the only route for attaining better sanity is through appropriate education at the appropriate time.  

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com 

LACTIC ACID BACTERIA-A PROCESSING AID?

Acrylamide scare is moving scientists to develop necessary means to tackle this issue at the processing level itself with minimum added cost to the processor. Though the danger posed by this chemical is not yet confirmed, there appears to be concerted move to "exploit" this "scare" and make a quick buck for the industry and fast fame for some scientists! Earlier there was this enzyme manufacturer in Europe offering appropriate enzyme system to preempt the Maillard reaction responsible for generating Acrylamide during high temperature processing. Now comes the report regarding the use of bacteria in making the precursors of Acrylamide innocuous and thus preempt the undesirable reaction.

"He and his research team found a method that limits the formation of acrylamide during the production of potato products and coffee. It was the patent for this method that provided the springboard for the company Zeracryl". "Our method is based on lactic acid fermentation," explains Dr Blom. "Acrylamide is formed as a reaction between the amino acid asparagine and simple sugars such as glucose and fructose. Put simply, the lactic acid bacteria remove these compounds and inhibit the formation of acrylamide." The team's ongoing experiments show that 10 to 15 minutes' immersion in lactic acid bacteria culture before cooking reduces acrylamide formation in the final product by roughly 90 per cent.

What effect LAB will have on the eating quality of fries made by the modified process has not been spelt out clearly. How far the modification will affect the continuous process of making fries is also an issue to be addressed by the industry while considering incorporation of the 15 min pretreatment step in the main process. Since maximum bacterial activity is obtained under optimum growing conditions and beyond the lag phase of growth, the 15 min process must have been based on an in vitro system where high density cell suspensions are used for eliciting the relevant enzyme activity to modify the constituents in the raw material responsible for Acrylamide reaction.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com