Edited by John Gilbert
Inherent toxicants and processing contaminants are non-essential, bioactive substances whose levels in foods can be difficult to control. This volume covers both types of compound for the first time, examining their beneficial as well as their undesirable effects in the human diet. Chapters have been written as individually comprehensive reviews, and topics have been selected to illustrate recent scientific advances in understanding of the occurrence and mechanism of formation, exposure/risk assessment and developments in the underpinning analytical methodology. A wide range of contaminants are examined in detail, including pyrrolizidine alkaloids, glucosinolates, phycotoxins and mycotoxins. Several process contaminants (eg acrylamide and furan), which are relatively new but which have a rapidly growing literature, are also covered. Providing a practical reference for specialist toxicologists (chemists and food chemists), hygienists, government officials and anyone who needs to be aware of the main issues concerning toxicants and process contaminants in food, this book is also a valuable introduction to the subject for post-graduate students.
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Thanks to its high-resolution and height-adjustable line scanners as well as its powerful image processing, the I 410 model from Multivac Marking & Inspection ensures that reliable marking and quality inspection from above and below is achieved. The space-saving inspection system can be used flexibly as a stand-alone solution at the end of a packaging machine or it can be integrated seamlessly into a line.
The areas of use for the I 410 range from completeness checks on the packs, through to presence and position inspection of the labels, and right up to checking the print – and this includes pattern and character recognition, character verification and inspection of legibility and codes. The progressive image-capturing technology enables extremely good images in high resolution to be transmitted and verified even at the highest speeds within the packaging procedure.
The I 410 is designed in the Multivac Hygienic Design for use in the food industry, and it is equipped with a separate transport conveyor. The packs can either be fed in manually or transferred from an upstream transport unit. Since a motorized ejection device ensures that reject packs are ejected consistently, compressed air is not required to operate the inspection system.
The system is operated simply and reliably via the Multivac HMI 2.0. Where the unit is installed in a packaging line, it is controlled centrally via the control terminal of the packaging machine, and all processes can be controlled intuitively on the 12 inch LCD touchscreen. Multivac Line Control ensures that efficient line integration is achieved, and it enables product changes to be carried out very quickly since the setting parameters for the particular product are saved in the recipe. The inspection results are also transferred to the line-motion control of the Multivac machine, so that packs detected as rejects can be tracked and then reliably ejected from the line. This ensures that only faultless packs reach the retail outlets.
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Anti-rancidity protection for traditional sausage products. An all-natural rosemary preservative for anti-rancidity protection of fresh traditional merguez and chipolatas sausages, VivOX 4 is an oil-soluble, water-dispersible product that can increase shelf life while keeping typical organoleptic characteristics and microbial stability. Merguez and chipolatas are fresh-type sausages made out of beef, pork, chicken and/or lamb. Due to high-fat content they are highly sensitive to oxidation and can rapidly undergo unwanted organoleptic changes, including rancidity. By adding the allergen-free preservative, the shelf-life of these sausages can be extended by 65-80% in comparison to unprotected sausages, while maintaining original taste and flavour components. The preservative outperforms gold standards for these types of sausage products, i.e. citric and ascorbic acid.

Anti-rancidity protection for traditional sausage products
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NAPCON
The production of whey powder is a complex and energy intensive process. It is particularly important to control the moisture content precisely. Too high water content causes stickiness of the whey powder that can disrupt or even stop the production. On the other hand, if the powder is too dry it generates dust and uses excess energy. The moisture content of the product is set within a spray dryer in the final stage of the production line. An advanced process control (APC) solution consists of two tools included in Neste Jacobs NAPCON Suite: NAPCON Indicator, which calculates the material and energy balance information and sends it to NAPCON Controller, the multivariable model predictive control software package which is optimized for control of processes with cross-dependencies. The result is that the APC solution automatically controls the process so that the factory significantly increases its production. At the same time the risk for system downtimes due to bag filter clogging is reduced. Overall a more than 10 per cent increase in whey powder production may be obtained with no increased energy consumption and improved process control allowing an increase in the average moisture content.
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Biochip screening for antibiotic residues in food. Antibiotics are sometimes used to control disease in food animals, however, drug residues in food can pose a health risk to consumers. Allergies to sulphonamide antibiotics are relatively common – causing skin rashes, hives, pruritus and anaphylactic shock. It is essential to restrict antibiotic drug residues in foods, both to avoid unnecessary consumer exposure to drugs, and to limit the development of antibiotic resistance by ensuring antibiotics are used correctly and responsibly. Recently, there have been a number of news reports about imported foods that are contaminated with drug residues.  This highlights the need for quick, sensitive and cost-effective tests suitable for screening large numbers of samples.
A biochip screening test to detect sulphonamide antibiotic drug residues in meat, honey, feed and livestock is available. The anti-microbial array utilises a biochip containing an array of immobilised antibodies, each specific to a different antibiotic. The biochip simultaneously tests for 12 sulphonamide antibiotics in just 50 microlitres of urine or one gram of tissue, honey or feed. Simple sample preparation procedures and simultaneous testing enable a rapid throughput with minimum effort – 540 tests in under 2½ hours. The Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) is the maximum level of drug residue that is permitted in food. The EU has assigned an MRL of 100 ppb for all sulphonamide drugs. The anti-microbial array has sensitivities below 10 ppb for each sulphonamide, more than adequate for drug residue screening. Positive samples are retested using a confirmatory method such as HPLC or LC-MS. Biochip screening for antibiotic residues in food
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