You are here: Home / Archives for Food Science Informative Articles
A Sandwhich in a Can…How Does it Stack up to the Real Thing? A Food Scientist Perspective on the Matter

A Sandwhich in a Can…How Does it Stack up to the Real Thing? A Food Scientist Perspective on the Matter

December 15, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

Get it sand-which because its which sandwich!!! hahaha i’m so funny.

In my packaging class a group did a presentation on the Canwhich.

 

No joke. There is really a sandwich in a can.

 

Yes, it’s as gross as you think it is.

 

I decided to evaluate the product from a food scientist perspective and compare it to the real deal…okay well my version of PB&J since everyone has there own personal preference when it comes to sandwiches.

 

The Canwhich is sold by Mark One Foods out of Utah. It comes in a can similar to a Pringles can as you can see from the pictures and has a pull top lid. At this time they only manufacture the PB&J version in grape and strawberry but they are looking to expand to a barbeque chicken flavor. This however would require a different type of can which could withstand retort thermal processing as it would be needed to prevent botulism. The Canwhich is only sold in UT and online.

 

Let’s talk logistics first. Everything comes individually packaged, this is to prevent staling as well as mold growth and other spoilage factors. The bread well actually its not bread its more of a hot dog bun-gluten mass-thing. After all, the ingredients listed under the “bread” state dough conditioners, do you know what that’s code for? PRESERVATIVES. I mean peep the picture, I’m being honest, the bread was falling apart and dense as can be. It makes sense though, because bread isn’t supposed to last for up to 1 year!!! The bottom of my can says it will be good until 10/12, which means the sandwich was packed two months ago. Interesting, considering the state of the sandwich, it’s only a couple months old, can you even venture to think what it will be like at 6, 8, or 12 months? SCARY.

The package makes claims such as “ Extended shelf life!, Great for school lunch, and kids love them” I have addressed the first of these statements, but I don’t really see how it’s great for school lunch since a child would be required to cut open the “bread” with the plastic knife provided and spread PB&J onto the “bread” that’s a lot of tasks considering its hard enough to get kids to eat an assembled lunch as it is already.

 

The picture above is an attempt to properly assemble the sando, the bread broke apart, (not my fault) and the jelly proved to be rather messy. I wonder what a kid would do with this, I’m picturing jelly being squirted into someones hair. Just a thought, not that I ever participated in any mean elementary school tricks like that….

 

I made my version of the classic using sourdough bread (my favorite) all natural peanut butter from Trader Joe’s and homemade Ollie berry jam. I taste tested both sandwiches. The Canwhich was…well, imagine. Let’s just say Dakota the dog will get a little appetizer to accompany his meal tonight.

Filed Under: Food Science Informative Articles Tagged With: , ,
Get You Movin’ Green Drink

Get You Movin’ Green Drink

November 30, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

Green drink. That just goes against everything we are told about beverages right? If it’s green, and it liquid, basic biology tells us to stay away. When you’re sick all you can think of is one of two things, or maybe both: How sick and miserable you are or, how badly you want to get well. Sick or not sometimes we all need a little pick-me up or if you’re still feeling sluggish from thanksgiving maybe a bit of detox.

Today, for my packaging class I did a presentation comparing baby food in a traditional glass jar package and baby food in a flexible package; more specifically a pouch. Glass is the primary choice for baby food it is estimated about 3.5 billion units will be produced in 2010. Why is glass so successful? Because parents want to see the food they are going to serve to their baby, it’s also inert package, which means that no chemicals leach into the food. Furthermore glass also dictates a certain premium-ness for the product. Think about it if you are shopping for lets say spaghetti sauce, and you were faced with the choice between a pretty glass jar of sauce and a steel plated can, which would you choose? I think it’s safe to say most of us would reach for the glass jar.

 

During my presentation I used my glass baby jars as a demonstration for the tamper evident button, which is found at the top of each jar. Consequently, the pouch that I had, of the peas, spinach, and pears flavor was unopened and needed to be used. Since I don’t have any babies or know anyone that does.  I got thinking…what to do with this pouch of baby food? Then it hit me, Get You Movin’ Green Drink. I could use it in a smoothie drink, that would hopefully make me feel better, as well as use up some kale and a frozen banana. Kale, especially in the raw form is a great source of vitamin A. The baby food of course is packed with nutrients, if you don’t have any on hand don’t worry just add an extra handful of kale.

Get You Movin’ Green Drink

Serves 1

 

|Gather

For Smoothie:

1 Frozen or overripe banana

½ Pouch of 12.4 oz. baby food: Peas, Spinach, and Pears

¼ C Mango Orange Juice

¼ C Low Fat milk

1 tbsp. Honey

2 Ice cubes

Small bunch of Kale (with the stem removed)

 

For Garnish:

Fresh Raspberries

 

|Create

Peel the banana and place in a blender. Add the juice, milk, kale, baby food, ice cubes, honey. Blend for two minutes to make sure that the kale and banana are well distributed. Taste test to make sure the flavor meets your liking.

 

*Note- any of the above ingredients may be substituted for your choice for example: almond or soymilk in place of cow milk or orange juice instead of mango peach.

 

|Enjoy

Garnish with fresh raspberries. A straw makes everything better when you’re hurtin’ so feel free to stick one in and slurp up!

Filed Under: Cooking, Food Science Informative Articles, Recipes Tagged With: , , , , ,
Do You Chia?

Do You Chia?

November 7, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

Chia seeds that is. A friend of mine, Scott who almost always texts or calls me with cooking/food related questions, calls me last week with a few. I’m always happy to answer food questions. First he wants to know about dehydrated pineapple for his trail mix, then he brings up chia seeds and asks me what I know about them. To be honest, NOTHING. Apparently those little chia pets remember those? I grew one as a kid, one of the many useless toys I just had to have. Turns out the starters for the green pets were chia seeds, an incredibly nutritionally dense seed. Anyways, during my shopping at New Frontiers I happened upon a chia seed kombucha. I’m a huge fan of kombucha and therefor limit my shopping at this particular store and now Target as my wallet takes a little dip every time I spot the tasty fermented tea. I’m like a moth to light I just can’t say no!

 

I reached for my favorite Gingerberry flavor by the Synergy brand when I spotted kombucha laced with these said, chia seeds. There are all sorts of flavors: grape, raspberry, strawberry, I choose raspberry. I decided I should try out the chia. The bottle makes claims along the lines of “runners food, twice as much antioxidants as blueberries, and double the omega-3 of flax” hmmmmm that’s quite a few claims there. The science nerd in me had to find out more…here’s a bit of what my preliminary research dug up…

 

Background Info:

 

  • They are native to Mexico and Guatemala although they are cultivated in numerous countries, cooler climates may yield a slightly higher antioxidant content
  • The seeds are typically 1mm in diameter and have an oval appearance with a gray, black, white, or brown color. A friend described them as mini dinosaur eggs.
  • A great source of omega-3 in the form of ALA (alpha linoleic acid) the plant form of omega-3 which can be converted in the body to reflect the omega-3 benefits from sources of the marine type
  • They contain 20% protein by weight, this protein is a complete protein- an important point for vegetarians and vegans who need complete protein sources from plants
  • Almost 27% fiber of that 12% is soluble fiber and 88% is insoluble
  • Chia seeds are high in antioxidants and have an advantage over flax as they can be ground without the risk of rancidity because of the naturally high antioxidant content
  • The most notable health claims about the seed are connected to reducing cardiovascular disease due to the high and concentrated amounts of both omega-3 and antioxidants.

 

In the next article I will begin to outline some of the primarily culinary applications for this super seed.

 

Part 1 of a 2 part article.

Filed Under: Food Science Informative Articles, POV Tagged With: , , , , , ,
Breakfast Cereal Includes More Than a Toy These Days

Breakfast Cereal Includes More Than a Toy These Days

November 4, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

 

Ready to Eat (RTE) breakfast cereal is a common place item for many American pantry’s. Although the packaging, variety, and flavors have changed over the years one major improvement has surfaced, literally. Most cereal’s contain two packaging items: a plastic bag which is known as the intimate layer, because it actually touches the food, in this case the cereal. Next is the secondary layer of packaging, for cereal, it’s the paperboard box which the plastic bag fits into.

The plastic bag is sprayed with synthetic antioxidants namely butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA). These antioxidants work to prevent deterioration due to oxidation within the product. These synthetic antioxidants are approved by the USDA for use on packaging material. Although, research is ongoing about the safety of these synthetic antioxidants.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Food Science Informative Articles, Food Science Weekly Facts, Tagged With: , , , , ,
Ultra Thin Water Bottles and Liquid Nitrogen

Ultra Thin Water Bottles and Liquid Nitrogen

November 3, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

 

The trend as of late in the packaging world is less is more. That being said many companies are trying to package there products in less material then ever before. These progressions are not without implications as less material creates other dilemmas. For example, the plastic water bottle has moved away from a bulkier bottle to a ultra thin bottle. This bottle is so thin that it can easily be crushed when it contains no water, but how do manufacturers keep water bottle from collapsing when many pallets of bottles are stacked on top of each other during shipping and storage?

 

Manufacturers of water bottled in ultra thin plastic water bottles add a drop of liquid nitrogen to each bottle before capping to prevent bottles collapsing when they are stacked in pallets. The nitrogen pushes against the walls of the bottle creating the strength and rigidity needed for stacking.

Filed Under: Food Science Informative Articles, Food Science Weekly Facts, Tagged With: , ,
A Day in The Life of A Harvest Lab Technician

A Day in The Life of A Harvest Lab Technician

November 2, 2011 by · 1 Comment

 

 

For the fall 2011 grape harvest I worked at Tolosa Winery. This winery is located in San Luis Obispo, CA in the wine region known as Edna Valley. A wine region known for producing cooler climate varietal’s such as: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Syrah, and Viogner to name a few. Tolosa is owned by Courtside Cellars and is a crush facility, meaning that they produce wine for other wineries as well as the Tolosa Winery brand.

Pictured below: Barrel Room on the left and tank room on the right.

 

My work entailed quality assurance and quality control checks in their cellar lab. I preformed many job functions, although for this post I’ll only go into detail on a few of my favorite job responsibilities. My primary role, when I arrived in the morning, was to preform fermentation checks on barrel samples and tanks. A fermentation check consists of measuring the temperature and the brix (the amount of sugar) of samples. The picture below shows how the barrel samples are collected using a syphon to extract the juice or wine for testing. This information goes to the winemaker so that she can evaluate when the wine or juice is ready for further processing.

Sexy safety vest, I know.

 

Fermentation Checks

 

Volatile Acidity (VA) checks are used to evaluate volatile acidity in wine and juice. Steam is used to distill out primarily acetic acid, but can include a number of different acids such as: lactic and formic acid among others. Acetic acid is generally considered a spoilage product in wine, but some winemakers seek a low undetectable level to add complexity to the wine. Pictured below is the process of a VA test. The first picture shows the initial set up with a red wine sample in the still and a clean empty Erlenmeyer flask to catch the distilled product. The following photo is of the sample as it begins to boil. Next is the condensation tube as the volatile acids enter the chamber and begin to condense into liquid. Finally the VA in progress as a little over 100ml is collected of the distilled acids, after which is head to the titration station to measure how much volatile acid is in the product.

I enjoyed my short harvest at Tolosa Winery, it was very fascinating to see the production side of wine making.

 

Filed Under: Food Science Informative Articles, POV Tagged With: , , , , ,
The Truth About Boiling Water and Salt

The Truth About Boiling Water and Salt

October 13, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

 

Salt does NOT make water come to a boil faster.  It rises the boiling point of a liquid and decreases the freezing point.

 

It does, however, make pasta taste better and should be added once the water has reached a boil.
Filed Under: Food Science Informative Articles, Food Science Weekly Facts, Tagged With: , , , ,

Nationwide Outbreak of Listeria in Tainted Melon

October 4, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

A juicy slice of fresh cantaloupe wrapped in prosciutto with a side of Listeria. Sounds tasty right? A recent nationwide outbreak of Listeria in cantaloupe has sickened 100 people and caused 18 deaths in 20 states according to the Center for Diseases Control Prevention (CDC).

 

Listeria monocytogenes often referred to as Listeria is a bacteria which can cause a serious bacterial infection known as listeriosis. A person may contract listeriosis by eating a food contaminated with the gram-positive bacilli (a rod shaped bacteria). As with most foodborne illness common targets for illness include those populations with compromised immune systems such as: pregnant women, the elderly, infants, and adults with weakened immune systems.

 

The bacteria are commonly found in soil, milk, uncooked meats, and on vegetables and fruit such as cantaloupe.  Listeria is of great concern as it has a fatality rate of nearly 25% compared with other common foodborne illnesses such as salmonella, which has a rate of about 1%.

 

The tainted cantaloupes were sold sometime during the first week in July, although Listeria has a very long gustation period consisting of nearly two months. This has complicated matters further in traceability; consequently the CDC has established that the outbreak stems from Cantaloupe distributed by Jenson Farms in Colorado under the Rocky Ford brand.

 

Prevention tips:

Rinse-Thoroughly rinse all raw produce under tap water even if the vegetable or fruit is to be peeled.

 

Scrub- firm produce such as melons and cucumbers

 

Dry-The produce with a clean cloth or towel

 

If you feel you have consumed tainted cantaloupe check the CDC’s website for more information.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Food Science Informative Articles Tagged With: , , , , ,

Reflections on my Summer Internship at Del Monte Foods

August 31, 2011 by · 4 Comments

 

 

 

Buonasera! I’m sitting down to write this blog post after perfecting my roasted garlic tomato aioli that will go with my zucchini fries for my summer intern presentation at Del Monte Foods tomorrow.

 

As I look back on the summer I cannot believe how much I have learned in 3 months both professionally and personally. My work at Del Monte was nothing like what I expected, honestly I thought I’d have half the responsibilities and projects let alone actually get to develop my very first product to be released NATIONALLY! Whoa. How many interns can say that?

 

My time at Del Monte has been packed with projects. TheTomato Sauce project being my favorite and most challenging. I received the first case of tomato sauce yesterday, and it feels so official that the labels are on. The chance to develop on the bench top and go out into the pilot plant to process the product was an eye-opening experience because up until now I’ve sat through lectures and done labs on these types of things, but have never been asked to step up and preform in this type of way.  There were numerous growth moments with this project especially when I thought I had the product just right and then I had to overhaul it, a bit disappointing at first. Though a major learning moment and lesson in research and the sooner you’re able to understand and work with this concept the stronger a product developer you will be.

 

About half way though the summer Nicole my absolutely amazing manager invited me down to Hanford to pack CLT (a type of consumer test) samples by hand at the Del Monte fresh pack tomato plant. I saw more tomatoes processed a minute then I could have figured possible and realized how much I take the safety and ease of caned goods for granted. The plant work taught me lots about not only the workers who work the lines each day but how a formulation from the bench top preforms in a plant commercialization scale up.  Twelve hours later a pair of shattered Dansko shoes and we were headed home with a car full of diced tomatoes. The plant work was extremely valuable and showed me another but ever important part of the food industry.

 

This internship has fueled me to pursue my professional options in product development. I could not have done it without the wonderful effort of the numerous folks on the tomato/broth/veg teams helping me along the way, and taking time from there busy schedules to teach. Your lessons were all too valuable and I appreciate them very much.

 

Truly, Del Monte Research & Development thank you for welcoming me and giving me a wonderful internship experience this summer.

 

Kayla Rockwell

 

(banana, bromatoe, red sauce)

Filed Under: Food Science Informative Articles, POV Tagged With: , , ,