Safeguarding food quality

Book Reviews Food

Taints

and

Oy_ffEi

avours

edited by M.I. Saxhv, Blackie, 1993. £69.00 Ixii + 260 pages)ISBN 0 75] t (t09(~ 3 / 0 442 30863 9 (USAt

Another book with a similar lille, Offt'i,~v¢)rs in Food and Beverages, edited by George Charalambous t, ,.,,,as published in 1992. Charalambous's book discussed mainly off-flavors in different foods and beverages - grains, cereals, peanuts, rice, meat, cocoa, tea. etc. The intent of the current book is not to deal with the taints and off-flavors of individual food items. Instead, it provides the backgr()und information needed for the reader to recognize how food can becom(-~ tainted, l~ow to draw tlp guidelines to prevent such contamination, and how to plan the steps that should be laken in lhe event of an oulbreak. The book consists of nine chapters. Chapter I gives an excellent review of sensory testing for taints, Chapter 3 dis(usses various analytical lllethods for the isolation, separation and identifi-

cation of taints and off-flavors in foods. Gas chron,atography 'GC-sniffing' techniques, including the recently developed arnma extract dilution analysis, are brief!y described. GC-sniffing methods are an extremely powerful guide for the selection of off-flavor compounds, and they may deserve more thorough discussion. The oxidative pathways leading to the formation of offflavors are comprehensively reviewed in Chal?,ter 6. On the other hand, the Maillard reaction, another important pathway to the development of offflavors in foods, is totally neglected in the book. The most imporlant and interesting chap!er is probably Chapter 7, which discusses packaging material as a source of taints. The actual number of cases of foods contanfinated by the migration of odor coml)ounds from

Safeguarding Food Quality ediled by H. Sommer, B. Petersenand P.v. Witlke, Springer-Verlag, 1993. DM98.()O (xii + 1:39 pages) ISBN i:~ 540 56368 7

The term 'food quality' is used by some, particularly in continental Europe, to go beyond the organoleptic properties r:f f,'Tr;d t',: include microbiological and chemical contamination. Certainly there are links between the quality of food and the use of pesticides or veterinary (hugs I(7 hell) safeguard food qualiW. ,\n,d, as this book demonstrates, some of the techniques that may be used to, ensure f(x~d quality (an also be employed to (ontrol food safeb. This is an irnlJortant developnlent, since consumers need to be satisfied that the high-quality foed pr,,~dLicts they purchase are s,'ffe. The develol)ment of integrated systems, to control both the qu,dih.' aP.d dre safely of fix)d l)roducts, should hell) I~ sati~,fv tho cusUmter. ,A! presenl the considerable testing of food - for ~,xanlple, for the nlarW groul)s of chemi( al ( onlanfinants, including pesti-

~,84

fide residues, PCBs and metals - is not generally or fully integrated into food production. The book I)resenls 12 contributions If7 a workshop that ",*.'as jointly organized by the 13th International Conference on Bk;chemical Analysis and the International Sociely of Animal Clinical Biochemislry. One (71"the' aims of the workshop was to contribute to the integration of biochemical methods inlo quality contloh in the production of foodstuffs of animal origin. Thus the majority of chapters concentrate on the theory and practical applicativ,~ of quali W control methods in meat production. There are also coi~tributions :;f more general relevance to the agricullurai and food industries, notahly an insighi into the po!enlial use of enzyme-based serlsors in food qualily control [E. ~'~kllr) and a review of poss-

packaging i . . . . . i l ; h . . . . . . . . . . hen it happ. . . . it can b . . . . i. . . . [his chapter offers an excellent overview of various packaging materials, such as paper and board packaging and plastic.,, as well as printing inks and adhesives used in packaging, that may act as possible sources of food taints. In sumrnary, this book provides valuable information on the taints and offflavors of foods. Each chapter has a comprehensive and up-to-date listing of bibliographical references, and a good overall subjed i~c!r~x is included. It is highly recommended to fl~vor chemists, food chemists, and industrial researchers who are involved in food product quality control and problem solving. Chi-Tang Ho

Departnwntof FoodScience, Rotters. The State University of New jersey, New Brunswick, N/08903. USA.

Reference '

Charalambt~u.% C.,

ed.I!'~92i

Ot~itla~or~in FoodandBeverages.Elsevier

ible ways of employing solid-state chemistry to measure some possible markers of food quality rE. Bogin). There are also descriptions of two widely used food analytical techniques, immunoassays and high-performance liquid chromatography, by H. Meisel and E. Mi'ir|Ibauer. These specific methodologies are put into conlext by overviews of the criteria used in assessing food quality (C. Leitzmann and K. Paulus), with some further useful information, in Paulus' article, about the hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP) approach. Food chemical safety is introduced in a review, by M. Carl, of the main chemicals that can contaminate animal products. The main sources of chemical contamination of food, some of the toxicological and legislative termir~ology involved, and the surveillance of milk for chemical contaminants are all described and ilhJstrated in a chapter by W. Heeschen and A. Bl0thgen; a more specific review of residues of anabolic and antimicrohial agents in animal products is given l)y H. Schmidt. Much of this informaiion is illustrated by current research in Germany, which help:~ to

Trends in Food Science & Technology November 1993 iVol 41

illuminate many of the practicalities involved. However, although there are three chapters by experts from Denmark, France and Israel, the book would perhaps have benefited from an even more international perspective. While much of the information has been described and reviewed before, readers may find the book particularly useful as an up-to-date reference about the on-line control of meat production. B. Petersen describes the concept of computer-aided quality assurance and its application to pig production. W. Klinth-Jensen reviews the prospects of further developing online testing for carcase qudliiy, and

Advanced Dairy Chemistry - 1: Proteins (ADCP) succeeds Developments in Dairy Chemistry - 1: Proteins ~ (DDCP)

of 1982. The editor of both series, P.F. Fox, states that ADCP can be regarded as the second edition of DDCP. With these and numerous other contributions, including Food Enzymology 2, Fox has established dynamic sources of scientific information in dairy chemistry for lecturers, senior students and research personnel. ADCP contains I 8 chapters authored by 40 acknowledged scientists from universities and research institutions in 12 countries. It is an impressive collection of specialist reviews covering the main topics in dairy protein chemistry. Experience gained with DDCP has had an apparent influence on ADCP. Compared with D D C ? there are 7 new chapters in ADCP; 6 other chapters have been ,apdated and expanded; and the cha:~)ter on 'Chemistry of milk proteins' in DDCP now appears in 4 chapters on caseins, [3-1actoglol)ulin, o~-Iactalbumin and immuno~,lob,dins. The increased emphasis on basic knowledge in ADCP will no doubl he apl)reciated. Both as a consequence :')f th;s and because Developments in Dairy ClTemistry - 4

(Ref. 3) was devoted to functional milk proteins, ADCP contains only a con,:.lensed, one-chapter treatment of this topic. ADCP starts with a new chapter: 'Analytical metl'lods for milk proteir,~'. All types of analyses in current use for proteins in milk, dairy products and sr~m~ nen-daP/ products are included.

S. H6fer, R. Andersson and H. Sommer report on the computerized control of dairy herd health and milk quality. The development of such management tools promises to revolutionize the ways in which we contro! both the quality and safety of food up to the point of sale. This useful compilation of conference papers includes reference lists for most of the papers and transcripts of the question and answer sessions following some of them. Each chapter is summarized in French and Spanish, as well as in English and German. The main text of each contribution is in English, which is unfortunately difficult

~o follow in some places - the editors would be wise to consicler some subediting of the English text if a second edition is produced. The book is well indexed. Since the book covers a wide .ange of topics, albeit largely in relation to meat production, it should be of interest to food technologists and managers who wish to learn more about some of the latest techniques available to help ensure food quality and safety.

David Watson Food S(ience I, MAFF, R242, Erq~n Houri', ,. 4~ N~)bel House, I.-Smith Square, Lc,n(km, t..',~ SWIP ~,]R.

Advanced Dairy Chemistry- 1: Proteins edited by P.F. Fox, Elsevier, 1992. £135.00 (xi + 781 pages)ISBN I 85i66 761 X

The review thoroughly presents the principles, procedures and applications of each method. It is a welcome addition. 'Chemistry of the caseins' (Chapter 2) is a very good inlroduction to the physicochemical properties of the caseins. The comparative presentation of new and previous protein/peptide nomenclature is useful, particularly because the old nomenclature is used in some chapters. An excellent discussion of casein micelle models and the underlying theories follows in Chapter 3. Thp presentation is historically sound, anu concludes thai experimental data are best described by a combination of several models. The increasing information ai~out, and interest in, ~-lactalbumin and [3-1acidglobulin is reflected in their presentation in separate chapters (Chapters 4 and 5). The molecular characteristics of the proteins are treated in detail. Discussions of structure-function relationships emphasize the role of t~lactalbumin in lactose synthesis. ,3lactoglobulin is considered to be among the interesting group of bar'el ',aped binding, proteins, but its biological significance has not yet been clearly eslahlished. A shorl and clear description of the various classes of immunoglobulins in

Trends in Food Science & Technology November 199] [Vol. 4]

milk and of the mechanisms of passive immune transfer is given in Chapter 6. The roles of milk proteins as macronutrients (Chapter 11) and micronutrients /Chapters 7 and I1) are reviewed. Today, there is a tendency towards explaining and exploiting milk proteins other than simply in terms of their roles as macronutrients, and Chapter 7 focuses on their roles as metal- and vitamin-binding proteins, bifidus factors, growth factors, modifiers of the effects of cholesterol, and sources of biologically active peptides (from casein hydrolysatesL Discussion of indigenous enzymes in milk, constituting up to 60 different rnicrocomponents, covers ~80 pages. Enzymes important in dairy technology (lipases, proteinases, phosphatases and lactoperoxidase) receive thorough presentations, while 16 other enzymes are des(ribed only i)riefly. Chapters on I~iosynthesis, genetic polymorphism and the genetic engineering of milk ploteins (Chapters 10, t2 and 13) may be seen as the genetics section of the ix)ok. Genetic polynlorphisnl is con'rprehensively reviewed from the protein chemistry side. However, the addition of the most recent of the rapid developmenls in gene probe analysis v,,ould have been desirable. The chapter on

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