January 2008 Archives
One of the hottest food marketing trends these days involves adding live bacteria to dairy products as a way to boost health.
Now lawyers have filed a class-action lawsuit against yogurt maker Dannon, one of the biggest sellers of "probiotic" yogurts, saying the claims of a health benefit dupe consumers. The company's Activia and DanActive line of yogurt products contain live bacteria and claim to help regulate digestion and boost the immune system. The suit, filed in United States District Court in California, seeks redress for consumers who purchased the yogurt products based on what it says are "bogus claims."
From the Dannon website "Specialists at Dannon selected
Bifidus Regularis for Activia because it survives passage through the digestive
tract, arriving in the colon as a living culture. Once there, it plays a
beneficial role in your intestinal ecosystem"
Gregor Reid, a scientist who runs the nonprofit Canadian
Research and Development Center for Probiotics, said there's a "huge
amount" of research done on the strains cited by Dannon - and their
benefits are clear.
For the suit to contend Dannon's claims are unfounded, Reid said, is like saying "the New England Patriots aren't in the Super Bowl."
Read more:
Dannon
San Francisco Chronicle
The Canadian Research & Development Centre for Probiotics
The rules for what a manufacturer can claim seem to be almost as confusing to many consumers.
The real lesson from the latest white bread debate is that consumers need to pay attention to bread labels, which are notoriously misleading. Often, breads with hearty-sounding words like "7 grains," "cracked wheat" and "multi-grain" on the label are made with bleached flour and brown food coloring rather than healthful whole grains. Some bread packages use terms like "100 percent wheat," which gives many shoppers the wrong impression they are buying 100 percent whole wheat bread.
Read more:
The New York Times - Controversy in the Bread Aisle
The Center for Science in the Public Interest
Popular for a variety of reasons, soup was actually served as
one of the first fast foods.
| There is documentation that as early as 600 B.C., the
Greeks sold soup as a fast food on the street, using peas, beans and
lentils as main ingredients. |
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Before there was soup, there was broth, which people used to pour over a piece of bread in a bowl. That bread was known as sop, and from sop came the word soup. |
| No
matter what you call it, there are lots of variations on the basic
theme of soup, each offering a wide range of nutritional benefits.
Cream soups such as chowders and bisques are often high in calories and
fat due to the cream or milk content. Broth-based soups such as
consommes will typically be low in calories because of the high water
content. Soups loaded with beans and vegetables, such as chili and
gazpacho are great sources of fiber and phytochemicals (like lycopene).
Canned and condensed soups typically contain large amounts of sodium to
enhance the flavor. One element that can make or break a soup is the stock you use. These days supermarkets carry some top quality ones, but making your own isn't that difficult or time consuming. Here are some great tips for making your own stock from Garden and Hearth |
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The most recognized soup company in the world is the Campbell Soup Company. It was founded in 1869, and originally called the Joseph A. Campbell Preserve Company. The business produced canned tomatoes, vegetables, jellies, soups, condiments, and minced meats. In 1897, the general manager of the company, reluctantly hired his 24-year-old nephew to join the company. Dr. John T. Dorrance, a chemist who had trained in Europe, was so determined to join Campbell that he agreed to pay for laboratory equipment out of his own pocket and accept a token salary of just $7.50 per week. |
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Dr. Dorrance quickly made his mark on history with the invention of condensed soup in 1897. By eliminating the water in canned soup, he lowered the costs for packaging, shipping, and storage. This made it possible to offer a 10-ounce can of Campbell's condensed soup for a dime, versus more than 30 cents for a typical 32-ounce can of soup. The idea became so hot with Americans that in 1922, the company formally adopted "Soup" as its middle name. |
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Read more: Home & Garden Television Campbells | ||
An article in the Wall Street Journal talks about Umami and how it is becoming a focal point in restaurant cooking as well as packaged goods from some well known food manufacturers like Nestle, Frito-Lay and Campbell's Soup. In the article they state that:
"Americans are taught from an early age that there are four basic tastes - sweet, salty, sour and bitter. But what describes the taste of chicken soup?
To an increasing number of chefs and food-industry insiders, the answer is "umami," dubbed "the fifth taste." First identified by a Japanese scientist a century ago, umami has long been an obscure culinary concept. Hard to describe, it is usually defined as a meaty, savory, satisfying taste."
I have been familiar with the term for a couple of years now but honestly would have been hard pressed to explain umami to someone if asked. So I turned to Google, How Stuff Works and Wikipedia to better understand this so-called fifth taste.
Umami was first identified as a taste in 1908 by Kikunae Ikeda of the Tokyo Imperial University while researching the strong flavor in seaweed broth. He found that kombu, a type of edible seaweed, had a different taste than most foods.
Ikeda that found that the high concentration of glutamate in kombu was what made it so tasty. From there, he crystallized and began commercial distribution of MSG products. Soon monosodium glutamate (MSG), the seasoning that would become popular the world over.
Umami is a Japanese word meaning "savory" or "meaty" and thus applies to the sensation of savoriness - specifically, to the detection of glutamates, which are especially common in meats, cheese and other protein heavy foods. The action of umami receptors explains why foods treated with monosodium glutamate (MSG) often taste "heartier".
Read more:Wikipedia
Umami Information Center
Sweet, Sour, Salty Bitter ... and Umami - NPR
How Stuff Works
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration could issue a final ruling as
early as next week that meat and milk from cloned animals poses no
special risks to consumers. After
more than six years of wrestling with the question of whether meat and
milk from them are safe to eat, the Food and Drug Administration is
expected to declare as early as next week that they are.A favorable ruling would open the way for producers to expand the technology and bring an end to the voluntary ban on marketing food made from cloned animals or their offspring.
Consumers are still highly skeptical about cloned foods in the food system and will move slowly to include these food products in their grocery carts.
Read more:
Reuters
USDA
An article from Rueters and another on Slate are just a couple of interesting mentions of the growing problem.
"The price of fruits and vegetables is climbing faster than inflation, while junk food is actually becoming cheaper, the findings of a new study suggest."
"A study says junk food is getting cheaper while healthy food gets more expensive."
With some cereal and grain prices already up over 50% this year, expect to see higher prices on; eggs, beef, chicken, pork, milk and your favorite breakfast cereals this year. Planning your grocery shopping and meals around sales and pricing fluctuations will save the average U.S. family over $4000.00 this year.
Planning tools such as GroceryGuide.com can help you locate the energy rich foods and make your grocery dollar go further.
