Improving health through agriculture-diet interfacing-New approach

Most ideal way to produce food is to shun the use of chemicals and other man-made inputs to boost production. Also selecting right variety for planting for crops with highest nutrient content is a desirable goal. It is true that evolution of food processing has seen progressive dilution of nutrition because significant part of the nutrients are removed as waste in order to improve functionality of raw material for various operations and also to improve the aesthetic quality to attract consumers. Plant breeder during olden days attempted to select plants with high nutrient denssity and diversity and cross breed them to improve the overall quality of these crops. Modern biotechnology has found newer techniques for genetic modification that can be done much faster compared to the old hybridization technology. Unfortunately modern day plant breeders using GMO technology have not been able to convince the consumers that they are absolutely safe. Look at the messy food landscape in the US where GMO foods have taken a vice like grip on the market and relentless fight back by the consumers going on to force the manufacturers to declare GMO foods on the front of the package label. A recent report from Africa claims that new sweet potato varieties with orange color in stead of white or yellow, can bring about dramatic improvements in the health status of the local population. Read further below to understand the implications of this development. 

"Farmers in Mozambique had been planting white and yellow sweet potatoes, not the orange-colored ones. The white and yellow potatoes have very little Vitamin A. However, one small, orange sweet potato has a fullday's supply of Vitamin A. A lack of Vitamin A is dangerous. Without enough Vitamin A, you face an increased risk of getting a serious disease or dying from infections.
Around the world, 190 million young children are not getting enough of this important vitamin in the foods they eat. That number comes from the spokesman of WorldHealth Organization. He saysabout 70 percent of children there were Vitamin A deficient. They were not getting enough Vitamin A. "About 70 percent of kids under the age of five were vitamin A deficient. So,you have this huge need for new solutions. If you can do something throughagriculture to increase the amount of vitamin in the diet … you're in muchbetter shape because that's much more sustainable.". Mr. de Brauw says the potatoes had a surprising effect on the health ofchildren. At the end of the three-year study, the researchers compared the health of children in villages growing orange sweet potatoes with those not growing them. Children living in the sweet potato villages had 40 percent fewer cases ofdiarrhea than other boys and girls. Among children under the age of three, the difference was 50 percent. According to Mr. de Brauw showing the impact of a food-growing project on health is very important, or as he says, a big deal.Health specialists say lack of vitamin A can cause blindness in children (Photo Courtesy - Light for the World)
"This is a big deal because nobody has shown in thepast that an agricultural production intervention can have big health impacts … have had any healthimpacts."Nutrition experts say vitamin supplements – that is,fluids or pills you take in addition to normal meals -- canonly do so much. One expert goes so far to say that supplements are a Band-aid -- a short-term fix to along-term problem. Anne Herforth is an expert on global food security andnutrition. She was not part of this study but talked about it with VOA's SteveBaragona on Skype."It's sort of a Band-Aid solution to a more fundamental problem, which is people not having access to high-quality diets."Experts are suggesting that linking agriculture and health issues is a natural and effective partnership.They say teaching farmers how to grow healthier food is among the best ways to improve health.Different types of millet are helping feed people in India, Africa and other parts of the world..Ms. Herfoth says the findings do a good job making the link between food production and health. "To say, 'You know, look, you produce a food and it'savailable to people to eat and they like it,' then it does good things for health."HarvestPlus is now helping farmers in other countries. In India, the group is helping farmers grow iron-richmillet. And in Bangladesh, it is helping farmers grow high-zinc rice."

No doubt the intention of the developers of orange variety of sweet potato must be noble but what is not revealed is how such new varieties have been evolved by the scientists achieving this breakthrough. According to the developers this variety has been evolved using traditional techniques which means that there is no gene level manipulation to get this special trait. Also of some doubt is whether the so called bio-fortified produce has carotenoids which are readily assimilated by the body as not much has been done on this aspect. But some trials seem to indicate that those fed on this variety were "healthier" than others with better vision and other biological functions. Similar efforts in Asia to evolve varieties of crops enriched with iron and zinc also are also going on though it may take some time before stable versions are developed. A big question that haunts policy makers is how to convince the farmers to switch over to the new varieties from their traditional ones to which they are used to for decades. Probably the farmers can understand only the language of "crop yield" which is linked to more profits and higher incomes. Nutritional superiority is rarely a USP for farmers world over. Unless the new varieties with better nutrition can compete economically with traditional crops, promoting them will be an arduous task.

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

NEW APPROACH IN FIGHTING BACTERIAL PATHOGENS-

Modern antibiotic treatment for various diseases started after the discovery of Penicillin in 1928 and man has been discovering more and more antibiotics with increasing potency. However the golden age of antibiotics seems to be fading fast with the disease vectors developing capability to withstand the lethal action of most antibiotics presently available in the arsenal. The pharmaceutical industry is slowing down its research to come out with new antibiotics because of the astronomical cost involved for such efforts and the increasingly rigid standards for safety establishment by the regulatory authorities world over. It is against such a bleak canvas that the new discovery reported from the US by a group of research scientists which claims that some chemicals can disrupt the protein synthesis in the invading cells of pathogens disabling their ability to replicate. This molecular approach involving screening of thousands of chemical molecules is tedious and time consuming. Years of research seems to have been rewarded with a single chemical identified by them capable of tackling virulent E.coli, Shigella bacteria, Mycobacterium and Anthrax  without harming the host body. Here is a take on this exciting development.

To discover which small molecules might be capable of disrupting trans-translation, the team began with a process called high-throughput screening -- a method of trying out many thousands of small molecules with the hope of discovering one or more that might be effective at combating certain pathogens. "Our team tested about 663,000 different molecules against a strain of E. coli bacteria and monitored how they were affecting its trans-translation process," Keiler said. At the end of this phase of testing, Keiler and his team had found 46 different molecules that appeared to be effective in disrupting the trans-translation process. The next step was to test these molecules' performance in another genus of bacteria (Shigella) that is known to cause food poisoning. This genus is related to Salmonella and to the organism that causes anthrax (Bacillus anthracis), which sometimes can be lethal in humans and other animals. "Of the 46 molecules that were shown to affect trans-translation, one called KKL-35 jumped out as the most promising," Keiler said. "We found that the KKL-35 molecule inhibits the growth of very distantly related bacteria, and this suggests that it may have antibiotic activity against a very broad spectrum of species." As for the Shigella and Bacillus anthracis bacteria, Keiler said his team was able to show that, "in the presence of the KKL-35 molecule, these cells died specifically because the molecule halted the trans-translation process." Keiler's team also found that, compared with currently used tuberculosis drug therapies, the KKL-35 molecule was 100-times more effective at inhibiting the growth of the strain of bacteria that causes tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis). Keiler added that one of the most exciting features of an antibiotic designed from the KKL-35 molecule is that drug resistance is not very likely to develop in mutant strains of the targeted bacteria. "In our laboratory experiments, we found no mutant strains that were resistant to KKL-35," Keiler said. "Resistant mutants probably could evolve eventually, but at least it looks like it will be very difficult. That means resistant mutants might be slow to arise and spread."

It is understandable that the successful scientists did not want to reveal the identity of the chemical as the expenditure for development might have to be recouped by patenting the discovery. What is significant is that this work has opened a new line of investigation that has potential to discover many more molecules with antibacterial potency. The claim that use of chemicals at molecular level does not allow the bacteria to develop resistance in the short term, though continuous use for years will only reveal whether such resistance is really not possible in this case. Of course the new development will take several years before becoming part of a standard treatment regime.  

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

A NEW APPROACH TO TRAINING-THE "FOOD TRUCK" WAY

The Food Truck phenomenon is growing much beyond the expectation of the pioneers who started this new system of food preparation and vending in the United States more than a decade ago. It is not that similar food catering practices were not existing before any where else in the world but the Food Truck vending is a modernized version with large flexibility to move around in urban areas, deploying even the latest tweeter technology to inform their customers abut their where abouts. Even to day in many developing countries road side food vending is very common but generally it is frowned upon because of lack of hygiene and sanitation. The modern Food Truck with its ultra modern kitchen facilities ensures safety of food preparations offered by them, even better than many of the regular established restaurants. The recent launching of a unique Food Revolution Truck in the US by a public minded person has brought out the possibility of mobile training facilities on wheels which can be used to make the families and interested consumers aware of the nuances of preparation of healthy foods. Here is a take on this development

"Jamie Oliver, who we last saw calling Sarah Palin a 'Froot Loop', is back with the mobilization of his Food Revolution -- literally. This week Oliver unveiled his Food Revolution food truck, a mobile kitchen designed to educate young people and their families about the preparation and perpetuation of affordable, healthy food. The truck can fit a class of 40 students and features a bevy of kitchen equipment, complete with eight kitchen stations, plasma screens for demonstrations, and an inflatable stage. The Food Revolution Truck was brought to life by contributions and partnerships enabled by Oliver's TED prize, awarded in 2010. Along with $100,000, Oliver was given the chance to realize his wish to change the world. His mission? In a tour of the truck with the BBC, Oliver explains his desire to 'create a sustainable movement to feed children better in schools and to educate them about food.' The truck, designed pro bono by architect David Rockwell, is intended to "create an immediate, unexpected spectacle' at schools, fairs, and farmer's markets."

While creation of such facilities can be achieved easily through grants from government and non-government organizations, most difficult logistical problem is how to ensure their regular functioning with adequate working capital funds. Years ago GOI had mobile canning demonstration vans in some states in India for training house wives in preserving seasonal perishables like fruits and vegetables by canning but the project was abandoned later because of lack of adequate response from the targeted groups. Probably in India there may be a need for such mobile training facilities in each state that can go to areas where street vendors are concentrated and cajole the vendors to undergo a minimum training to sensitize them on safety of foods cooked by them. It is for the MFPI to take the necessary initiative to create such facilities which may have much greater impact than the sporadic attempts to help these hapless road side entrepreneurs through impractical and useless programs.

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

A NEW "APPROACH" TO EXTRACTION- THE WASTE-LESS TECHNOLOGY!

What is meant by wastage-less food extraction technology? A new terminology seems to have been coined by an Indian scientist but it makes no sense to a trained food technologist. It could have been understandable if it was wastage-free but wastage-less is famously "vague". A close look at the claims by the scientist gives an impression that his technology involves macerating the raw material before drying while normally raw material is dried before grinding to get the final product. While such a process will save on energy as the surface area increases on maceration, how far it will affect the quality of the final product has not been brought out. How this can revolutionize the food industry is not clear as powdered dehydrated fruits and vegetables form a minuscule portion of the industry, probably accounting for less than 5% of industry turn over. Here is the report compiled by a journalist about the so called "innovation".

"Mumbai food technologist patents wastage–less food extraction technology. Think of orange powder, mango powder or garlic powder. A new food processing technology where the extraction is increased by nearly 90 per cent resulting in minimal wastage promises all that. Mumbai-based food technologist Dr Sailen Ghosh has made a breakthrough innovation, which is likely to revolutionalise food processing industry in the country. "The technology is versatile in application and will benefit the industry as almost 30-35% of our produce gets spoilt due to inadequate storage facilities," says Dr Ghosh. Elaborating on the process, Dr Ghosh says, "It is simple in operation. Firstly, fruits/ vegetables/ spices/ herbs etc are cleaned and then treated as per the protocol. After this, it's dried in a conventional sun drier to make powder of the particular produce. Dried product is then packed and sealed." Generally fruits/vegetables/herbs are dried and then powdered before packing. In Dr Ghosh's process it's the other way round: first the fruits/vegetables/herbs are powdered and then dried. Since the surface area of the food increases manifolds, the process of drying is quick. Reduction in exposure to heat while drying leads to the retention of nutrients, colour and flavour of the food item".

The above report reminds one of the earlier efforts in processing coconut to obtain oil through wet milling for which a patented process is available but not practiced by the industry, the traditional drying and extraction process still dominating the industry. Similarly wet processing of spices like ginger to extract oleoresin did not succeed because of the tendency of fresh agricultural materials to form emulsions which are difficult and costly to process. How far the above reported "innovation" has been able to overcome these practical difficulties is not clear in the absence of any technical details. Techniques like spray drying, roller drying, vacuum drying and freeze drying are already being widely practiced to get dry products from ground materials with some pre-processing steps and whether the new process is superior to them is also not known.

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