Like fine wines, sea salts are artisanal products that inspire talk of terroir, texture and provenance. Now there’s evidence that they can also be sources of spoilage moulds.
New research from Cornell mycologist Kathie Hodge and doctoral candidate Megan Biango-Daniels reveals varying levels of mould contamination in commercial sea salts. Among those moulds were important food spoilage moulds like Aspergillus and Penicillium, and even some notorious producers of mycotoxins.
“This new finding contradicts the conventional wisdom that salts are sterile ingredients,” said Biango-Daniels. The research stressed the importance of understanding the risk of using sea salt during food production.
Starting with seven different commercial salts, the researchers extracted living fungi and grew them in the lab for identification. The fungi discovered in the salt have potential to spoil food when used as an ingredient and can introduce mycotoxins or allergens when consumed.
At the levels discovered in the study, about 1.7 spores per gram, you’re not risking your health by sprinkling sea salt on food you are about to eat. But big problems may result when sea salts are used at home or industrially to make cured meats, fermented pickles or brined cheeses that mature over time, when moulds introduced with sea salt can begin to grow and spoil food, maybe even rendering it toxic.
“Fungi can survive in surprisingly hostile places. They can’t increase or grow in a container of sea salt – nothing can – but spores of some fungi survive quite happily there. Later they can wake up and make trouble in our food,” said Hodge, associate professor in the Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology Section of the School of Integrative Plant Science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Cornell Universityhttp://tinyurl.com/ydc7abxq

Health ingredients Europe & Natural ingredients 2018 will address the booming market for food with health benefits

FDF, in partnership with the UK Flavour Association, is launching new a UK guidance on pictorial representation relating to flavourings and ingredients that deliver flavour.
The free resource provides food businesses with advice on what to consider when declaring a pictorial representation of a food ingredient on the label of a pre-packed product. The guidance addresses the different components of a product that can deliver flavour, be it flavourings or ingredients, and how, being used in combination or individually, companies can substantiate the use of a pictorial of a certain food ingredient. Three comprehensive worked examples of how the principles apply to different foodstuffs are also included in the guidance.
The aim of the guidance is to maintain industry labelling practices relating to the concept of ‘wholly and mainly’ for the substantiation of a food ingredient depiction. Such practices were based on the UK Food Labelling Regulation 1996, which were superseded by the EU Food Information to Consumers Regulation (No. 1169/2011).
Sarah Church, Director, Food and Farming, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said:
“The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs commends the Food and Drink Federation and its supporting partner the UK Flavour Association for their work to provide industry guidance about pictorial representations on food labels. It is important that the approach is consistent to maintain current industry practices where these are in accordance with the law. This approach enables consumers to be fully informed and to prevent them being misled about the composition of the food they buy.”
Helen Munday, Chief Scientific Officer, Food and Drink Federation, said:
“Flavour is an incredibly important attribute of food and drink, but it is essential that manufacturers represent this very consumer-relevant aspect of their food in the right way. This practical, but at the same time detailed and technical guide will help manufacturers graphically describe flavours to agreed guidelines.”
Madeleine Jones, Head of Regulatory, Allied Technical Centre and Deputy Chair of FDF Food Law & Labelling Committee, said:
“This guidance was born out of a need to defend the current approved labelling practices that ensure consumers are not misled when ingredients are illustrated on a product. European guidance on depiction was being discussed and some Member States wanted to impose practices that are considered misleading in the UK such as allowing ‘stylized’ depiction when an ingredient is not present. The principles within the guidance have been successfully defended by Defra as the UK position. The worked examples were added to guide businesses stepwise through the points that need to be considered before an ingredient is depicted and should be particularly helpful to smaller businesses.”
Julie Young, Secretariat, UK Flavour Association, said:
“The UK Flavour Association is pleased to see the publication of this document which we hope will provide best practice guidance to our customers in the food industry with regard to correct product labelling. UK Flavour Association members are happy to provide further clarification to their customers on such matters. Our members can be viewed on our website”

Food and Drink Federationhttp://tinyurl.com/lwykpft

Vitamin D – the ‘sunshine vitamin’ – is well known for its beneficial effects on bone and muscle health, and a study by Queen Mary researchers last year found that it could also protect against colds and flu. Now new research from the team is revealing further benefits.