Journal articles on the topic 'Sel (condiments)'

Sin duda, el estudio de la alimentación ofrece claves importantes para profundizar en el conocimiento de un período histórico determinado. En la historia de la alimentación europea, la Edad Media supone la confluencia de dos modelos alimenticios distintos, el tradicional romano y el germánico. Por lo que respecta a Galicia, este tipo de estudios están en fase incipiente. Nosotros vamos a abordar, desde una perspectiva eminentemente filológica, el estudio del léxico de un campo semántico muy preciso y en un corpus también muy específico : los condimentos en la documentación notarial de la Edad Media gallega. El análisis y estudio de voces como acetum, butirum, condimentum, mel, piper, sagimen, sal y sinapis constituyen el objetivo de esta breve aportación. De ello se concluye que la cocina gallega de este período era muy básica.

Coagulase-positive Staphylococcus aureus were isolated from 449 (84.7%) of 530 meat and related samples obtained from traditional markets in Nigeria. All 100 fresh beef and associated 40 wash water and 40 drip water samples examined yielded coagulase-positive S. aureus compared with 258 (86%) of 300 Suya and 61 (61%) of 100 fried beef samples. Of the 449 coagulase-positive strains of S. aureus, 243 (54.1%) elaborated various enterotoxins. Suya (condiment - coated thin slices of skewered beef roasted over wood or charcoal flame) and fried beef yielded the highest proportions of enterotoxin producing strains of 59.3% and 58%, respectively. Relatively lower proportions of strains from fresh beef (52%) and water associated with fresh beef (45%) produced enterotoxin. Most of the organisms tested (139/57.2%) synthesized enterotoxin A (SEA). A few, 37 (15.2%), produced enterotoxin B (SEB), with fewer still producing enterotoxins D (SED, 6.2%) and C (SEC, 5.3%). It is suggested that the high level of contamination with S. aureus of the samples examined resulted from cross contamination, reflecting excessive hand contact with the foodstuffs.

Objetivo: desarrollar una propuesta de alimentación complementaria para niños de 6 a 12 meses.Materiales y m é todos: estudio realiz ado en tres fases, la primera descriptiva de corte transversal para caracteriz ar la alimentación complementaria en 191 niños, la seg unda y tercera ex perimentales, para definir la alimentación complementaria (alimentos, preparaciones y aceptabilidad). Resultados: la introducción recomendada de alimentos complementarios por g rupo de edad fue de 6 a 8 meses:frutas en compota, puré o en su jug o; verduras y carne molida sin sal ni condimentos y con adición de g rasa. Al sé ptimo mes adicionar tubé rculos y plátanos. D e 8 a 10 meses incluir cereales, a los 10 a 12 meses introducir leg uminosas con y sin cáscara, maceradas sin sal ni condimentos, pero congrasa. Amedida que se aumenta en edad se siguen incluyendo los alimentos que ya venía recibiendo, aumentando la cantidad y modificando la consistencia según tolerancia y aceptación. Conclusión: la alimentación complementaria se inició tempranamente en más de 50% de los niños estudiados. Los grupos de alimentos incluidos en las pautas de alimentación complementaria, preparación de los mismos y tamaño de porción varían según la edad, tolerancia y aceptabilidad. Se recomienda desarrollar estudios para validar esta propuesta.

Product of fish procecing industry called “juice water” contain a lot amino acid compound. The aim of this study was analyze sonsory characteristic of natural condiment made from” juice water” by product of fishery industry , coated with karagenan edible. The method of this study of natural condimenent coated karagenan coating where assessed by trained panelis using by sensory attributes (odor, colour apparance and taste).The result indicate potencial of natural condiment for seasoning development.This research aims to be able to produce natural flavor that made from raw material of liquid waste of stew and coating with edible coating of carrageenan. A natural flavor enhancer, as a food additive, needs to be done a hedonic organoleptic analysis to see the panelist's preference for natural flavorings. The results of a hedonic organoleptic test show that taste and odor are preferred over the texture and appearance of the natural flavorings.

OBJETIVO: Atualizar estimativas sobre consumo de sódio no Brasil.MÉTODOS: Foram utilizados dados da Pesquisa de Orçamentos Familiares 2008-2009. Realizou-se a conversão em nutrientes dos registros de aquisição de alimentos dos domicílios brasileiros por meio de tabelas de composição de alimentos. Foram calculadas a disponibilidade média de sódio/pessoa/dia e a disponibilidade média ajustada para um consumo energético diário de 2.000 kcal. Calculou-se a contribuição de grupos de alimentos selecionados para o total de sódio disponível para consumo no domicílio e comparou-se com aqueles da Pesquisa de Orçamentos Familiares 2002-2003.RESULTADOS: A quantidade diária de sódio disponível para consumo nos domicílios brasileiros foi de 4,7 g para ingestão diária de 2.000 kcal, mantendo-se mais de duas vezes superior ao limite recomendado de ingestão desse nutriente. A maior parte do sódio disponível para consumo provém do sal de cozinha e de condimentos à base de sal (74,4%), mas a fração proveniente de alimentos processados com adição de sal aumentou linear e intensamente com o poder aquisitivo domiciliar (12,3% do total de sódio no quinto inferior da distribuição da renda por pessoa e 27,0% no quinto superior). Observou-se redução na contribuição de sal e condimentos à base de sal (76,2% para 74,4%) e dos alimentos in natura ou processados sem adição de sal (6,6% para 4,8%) e aumento dos alimentos processados com adição de sal (15,8% para 18,9%) e dos pratos prontos (1,4% para 1,6%) na comparação com a Pesquisa de Orçamentos Familiares 2002-2003.CONCLUSÕES: O consumo de sódio no Brasil mantém-se em níveis acima da recomendação máxima para esse nutriente em todas as macrorregiões e classes de renda brasileiras. Observou-se estabilidade na disponibilidade domiciliar total de sódio e aumento na fração proveniente dos alimentos processados com adição de sal e dos pratos prontos, na comparação de 2008-2009 com 2002-2003.

Há cerca de 8 mil anos a espécie humana iniciou a exploração de sal, levando à sua troca e comercialização, sendo este usado principalmente como forma de conservar alimentos e consequente ingestão, tendo sido posteriormente utilizado como forma de tempero. O sal pode ser extraído da água do mar, depósitos minerais, lagos salinos, salmouras e de incrustações de superfícies, possuindo grande impacto a nível socioeconómico, cultural, simbólico e religioso. O sal é um dos principais fornecedores de sódio, um ião essencial à vida, que quando em défice ou em excesso aumenta o risco de doenças (e.g. cardiovasculares, renais e ósseas). Na maior parte dos países o consumo de sal é superior ao limite máximo recomendado (5 g diárias). Com o objetivo de reduzir esse consumo tem-se procurado alternativas, como por exemplo ervas aromáticas, especiarias, condimentos com baixo teor de sódio, sal light, sal de potássio e salicórnia.

Neste trabalho são estudadas as condições para a correta combinação entre o tempo de cura, acidificação e nível de sal para produzir uma semi-conserva de pescado de de água doce acondicionada em vidro, utilizando o efeito da combinalção sal/ácido. As espécies utilizadas foram jaraqui (Semaprochilodus spp.), Curimatá (Prochilodus nigricans), Dourado (Brachyplastistoma flavicans) e Pirarucu (Arapaima gigas). Na salmora de cura prelimiar o tempo indicado para se obter uma melhor textura foi de 4 semanas, a acidificação até 4,5 foi alcançada na solução contendo 5% de ácido/100 gramas de pescado e o nível adequado de sal foi de 15% (p/v). Na salmora flavorizante a proporção de ácido foi de 1% (v/v) o que torna o produto de sabor agradável, sal na concentração de 2% (p/v) e a adição de 1% de condimentos.

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La sal, llamada también oro blanco, ha constituido un producto de incalculable valor a lo largo de la historia de la humanidad. En efecto, este pequeño mineral ha sido utilizado y se utiliza actualmente como condimento en la alimentación humana y animal, como conservante de alimentos (carnes, pescados y verduras) y como elemento indispensable para la industria (curtido de pieles, detergentes, esmaltes, cerámica, textiles, medicamentos, cosméticos, etc.). La sal se obtiene principalmente de las salinas costeras, de las minas de sal y de las salinas de interior. Además, estas explotaciones salineras representan un paisaje reconocido tanto como patrimonio natural como cultural. Por ello, en este trabajo, presentamos un estudio léxico contrastivo español-francés sobre el léxico empleado en las instalaciones salinas con el fin de contribuir a su conocimiento, conservación y difusión, como muestra incuestionable del valor cultural de este patrimonio natural.

Una historia de relaciones andino-amazónicas dentro del territorio peruano subyace a la palabra quechua para sal, kachi. El estudio comparativo reveló un origen foráneo de la palabra e implicando, por lo tanto, un antiguo contacto andino-arawak en el piedemonte andino peruano que influyó en la formación de la palabra, así como en el léxico de otras lenguas de la región. En efecto, kachi se derivaría de la composición de dos protoraíces arawak, */kaʔ/ + */tsɨ/, que denotan nombres y verbos relacionados a la práctica de la fermentación o coagulación de líquidos, una técnica muy extendida en la Amazonía para producir licores, bebidas, condimentos, entre otras cosas.

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RESUMO: O repertório gastronômico é considerado como patrimônio cultural por sua importância imaterial e encontra-se inserido na memória coletiva dos diferentes grupos sociais. Esse conjunto de saberes e fazeres ligados à subsistência e à sobrevivência do diferentes grupos sociais garante o sentimento de identidade não só no campo histórico, como também no campo simbólico. O objetivo desse estudo foi registrar o repertório gastronômico, identificando quais são as receitas e condimentos tradicionais que melhor expressam os saberes do sertão do estado de Sergipe. Os dados são resultantes da observação participante no “modo de fazer” das comidas, análise dos cadernos manuscritos de receitas e entrevistas semiestruturadas aplicados às mulheres oriundas de comunidades rurais do município de Nossa Senhora da Glória, Sergipe. Nossos dados indicam que o repertório gastronômico sertanejo se baseia em diferentes tipos de alimentos a base de leite, mandioca, milho, ovos e açúcar, tendo a doçaria como principal estímulo para as diferentes sensações dos sentidos e das memórias afetiva gastronômica. Nossos dados ainda apontam que os principais condimentos utilizados na culinária sertaneja são o sal, cominho, pimenta e coentro e que o intercambio de ingredientes e técnicas têm mostrado uma tendência de hibridização do repertório gastronômico na região rural do município de Nossa Senhora da Glória. Ao fim desse estudo, constamos que o repertório gastronômico do sertão sergipano é caracterizado como sendo um importante patrimônio cultural, uma vez que comunicam questões identitárias, geográficas, históricas e culturais do povo sertanejo. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Repertório alimentar; cultura sertaneja; patrimônio cultural.

Bekasang of gonad sea urchin is one of the traditional fermentation products which generally involves microorganism spontaneous fermentation. Fermented paste products have a long shelf life and are processed quite easily using protease enzymes. Good exploration of producing protease from bakasang is needed to obtain the protease enzyme-producing microorganism with different characters. The method used in this research is screening with clear zone, measuring the activity of crude extract of protease enzyme characterization of bacteria through gram staining. Identification of potential microorganisms through 16S rRNA sequence. The results showed that there were eight isolates of protease enzyme-producing bacteria (G1, G2, G3, G4, G5, G6, G7, and G8) indicated by clear zones around single-colonic bacterial streaks. Only five bacterial isolates (G1, G4, G6, G7, and G8) were tested for the enzyme activity. These isolates have characteristics of positive gram bacteria. The interpretation of the results of molecular analysis using PCR and BLASTN sequences of 16S rRNA gene from five bacterial isolates, showed the identity of bacteria as: G1 was Staphylococcus piscifermentans strain CIP103958 with 99% similarity; Isolate G4 was Staphylococcus saprophyticus strain ATCC 15305 with 99% similarity; Isolate G6 was Staphylococcus condimenti F-2 strain with 99% similarity; Isolate G7 was Bacillus amyloliquefaciens subsp. plantarum strain FZB42 with 99% similarity; And G8 isolates was Lactobacillus plantarum strain JCM 1149 with 99% similarity.

Estudos prospectivos sobre doença isquêmica do coração detectaram fatores de risco para a doença coronariana: idade, sexo, presença de hipertensão arterial sistêmica, níveis elevados de colesterol sérico e tabagismo. Os três últimos podem ser modificados por meio de intervenções dietéticas, farmacológicas e/ou comportamentais. O potencial de uma dieta, ou de um alimento em aumentar os níveis plasmáticos de colesterol e promover aterosclerose está diretamente relacionado com seu conteúdo de colesterol e gordura saturada. Indivíduos com dietas restritas em sódio, colesterol e gordura saturada não devem consumir estrogonofe de carne, preparação tradicional russa de uso em nossa população, por conter os ingredientes: manteiga, sal e creme de leite. A fim de permitir a esses pacientes o consumo de estrogonofe e com menor teor desses nutrientes foram feitas adaptações como a substituição do creme de leite por leite desnatado e amido, da manteiga por óleo vegetal e do sal por outros condimentos. A receita modificada obteve redução no seu valor calórico, de lipídios, colesterol, sódio e gordura saturada e aumento no teor protéico e de ácidos graxos poliinsaturados. Essa receita foi avaliada sensorialmente pelo método de escala hedônica, tendo sido aprovada por 78% dos provadores e identificada como estrogonofe por mais de 90%. Estes resultados mostram que podem ser realizados experimentos com substituições de ingredientes em receitas e com sucesso, a fim de atender às especificidades de cada dieta.

Justificación y Objetivo: La yodación de la sal en Costa Rica, establecida en 1972, hizo que el bocio por deficiencia de yodo disminuyera en forma importante. Sin embargo, las notificaciones por bocio en todo el país han aumentado en los últimos años, siendo Cartago una de las provincias más afectadas. En el año 1994 la mitad de los casos de bocio en todo el país provenían de dicha provincia. La presente investigación trata de analizar esta elevada incidencia de bocios provenientes de la zona de Cartago.Métodos: Se analizó una muestra significativa de los casos de bocio reportados en la provincia durante el año1996. Se eligió dicho año porque eran los últimos datos estadísticos que tenía el Ministerio de Salud en ese momento. A todos los pacientes se les tomó la historia del bocio y se les hizo examen físico.Además se les midió en sangre los niveles de hormona estimulante del tiroides (TSH), tiroxina (T4), anticuerpos antitiroideos y antimicrosomas. También se midió de la excreción urinaria de yodo y se analizóel contenido de yodo en las muestras de sal que los pacientes trajeron de sus hogares.Resultados y Conclusión: El 96% de los pacientes con bocio eran del sexo femenino, la mayoría de edad media y dedicada a las labores del hogar. Un 68% de los bocios eran pequeños y 72% de crecimiento difuso. En el 24,5% de los casos el bocio se acompañaba de hipotiroidismo. La excreción urinaria actual de yodo se encontró disminuida en un 29% de pacientes. El 91% de las muestras de sal resultó adecuadamente yodada.Sin embargo se descubrió una sustitución en el uso de la misma por otros condimentos elaborados con sal no yodada.

O sódio usualmente encontrado nos alimentos na forma de cloreto de sódio ou sal é um nutriente essencial para a manutenção das várias funções fisiológicas do organismo. O alto consumo de sal na dieta pode ser explicado não só pela adição deste condimento durante a preparação dos alimentos, mas também pelo uso de produtos industrializados. O presente trabalho teve como objetivo verificar o teor de sódio, através das informações nutricionais presentes nos salgadinhos à base de milho e à base de trigo de acordo com a legislação vigente e relacionar a medida caseira com a porção declarada. Foi realizada uma avaliação no rótulo de 16 amostras, 8 á base de milho e 8 á base de trigo no período de maio a agosto de 2012 em que se observou a quantidade de sódio por porção, a porção e sua equivalência na medida caseira tendo como base o registro fotográfico e calculamos o teor de sódio presente em 100g de cada marca. O teor médio de sódio encontrado nos salgadinhos à base de milho foi de 812 mg de sódio/ 100g, enquanto que nos salgadinhos à base de trigo foi de 1018 mg de sódio/100g. Ficou evidenciado nesse trabalho que todas as amostras de salgadinhos apresentaram alto teor de sódio e que a relação entre a porção declarada no rótulo e a medida caseira em produtos à base de trigo, não apresentaram conformidade entre as dimensões da matéria-prima e a referida medida e o peso.

Realizou-se o estudo do efeito das diferentes concentrações de caseinato de sódio nos atributos sensoriais do presento "cook-in". Em cada uma das quatro repetições, vinte presuntos foram designados ao acaso num dos cinco tratamentos, nos quais a formulação da salmoura de cura foi injetada a 20% em relação ao peso da carne em todos os tratamentos. A composição básica da salmoura correspondeu a 0,5% fosfato; 2,0% sal; 0,4% sais de cura; 0,66% condimento para presunto e 0,25% ascorbato, as condições de processamento foram as mesmas para todos os tratamentos, mas foram utilizados diferentes concentrações de caseinato de sódio em cada tratamento (0,0%; 0,5%; 1,0% e 1,5%). Foram retiradas amostras para medir o pH. Calculou-se as perdas no tambleamento e no cozimento e o rendimento. As propriedades sensoriais do presunto "cook-in" também foram avaliadas quanto a cor, aroma, coesividade, fatiamento, sabor e textura. O pH não apresentou efeito significativo, devido à salmoura ter sido ajustada para pH 9,0 para todos os tratamentos. Os presuntos com 1,0% caseinato de sódio apresentaram uma ótima aceitabilidade, mas apresentaram também a maior perda no cozimento. Os presuntos com 0,5% de caseinato de sódio apresentaram a menor perda no cozimento e uma razoável aceitabilidade das propriedades sensoriais.

RESUMO:Plantas condimentares são amplamente utilizadas na culinária como alimento funcional. Pacientes hipertensos, que retiram o sal de cozinha (NaCl) de sua alimentação, relatam que os alimentos "perdem" o sabor. Visando alternativas para substituir o sal e melhorar a palatabilidade das preparações alimentares de pacientes hipertensos, o objetivo deste estudo foi desenvolver temperos à base de plantas medicinais e analisar os teores de compostos fenólicos, flavonoides e atividade antioxidante destes. Plantas (coentro, salsa, orégano, alecrim, manjericão, alho, cebola) cultivadas organicamente em Viçosa (MG) foram processadas e os temperos foram desenvolvidos a partir de combinação destas espécies, de acordo com teste aceitabilidade sensorial afetivo por meio de escala hedônica. Foram definidos três temperos, dos quais foram feitos extratos metanólicos por remaceração até esgotamento. Nas dosagens utilizou-se DPPH na avaliação da atividade antioxidante; reagente de Folin-Ciocalteu para compostos fenólicos e vanilina clorídrica para flavonoides. As análises foram feitas com quatro repetições e os resultados submetidos à análise de variância e teste de média a 5% de significância. Na aceitação subjetiva dos temperos a nota média foi 7,07±1,09 e 8,0±0,93 na ação afetiva como alimento. O teor mais elevado de compostos fenólicos foi no tempero 2 (alho, salsa e manjericão) (55,04±4,307 mg/mL), a maior ação antioxidante foi no tempero 1 (alho, cebola, coentro e orégano) nos tempos 0 (48,72%) e 30 minutos (78,37%). Os teores de flavonoides foram semelhantes nos 3 temperos. Todos os temperos tiveram boa aceitação por pacientes hipertensos e mostraram-se promissores na substituição dos condimentos convencionais.

OBJETIVO: Estimar a magnitude e a distribuição regional e socioeconômica do consumo de sódio no Brasil e identificar as fontes alimentares que mais contribuem para esse consumo. MÉTODOS: As estimativas foram baseadas nos dados da Pesquisa de Orçamentos Familiares, realizada no Brasil entre julho de 2002 e junho de 2003. Foram analisados 969.989 registros de aquisição de alimentos efetuados por uma amostra probabilística de 48.470 domicílios localizados em 3.984 setores censitários do País. Realizou-se conversão dos registros das aquisições de alimentos em nutrientes por meio de tabelas de composição de alimentos. Foram calculadas a disponibilidade média de sódio por pessoa e por dia e a disponibilidade média ajustada para um consumo energético equivalente a 2.000 kcal. Calculou-se a contribuição de grupos de alimentos selecionados para o total de sódio disponível para consumo no domicílio. As estimativas são apresentadas segundo regiões, situação urbana ou rural do domicílio, e estratos de renda. RESULTADOS: A quantidade diária de sódio disponível para consumo nos domicílios brasileiros foi de 4,5 g por pessoa (ou 4,7 g para uma ingestão diária de 2.000 Kcal), excedendo, assim, em mais de duas vezes o limite recomendado de ingestão desse nutriente. Embora a maior parte do sódio disponível para consumo em todas classes de renda provenha do sal de cozinha e de condimentos à base desse sal (76,2%), a fração proveniente de alimentos processados com adição de sal aumenta linear e intensamente com o poder aquisitivo domiciliar, representando 9,7% do total de sódio no quinto inferior da distribuição da renda per capita e 25,0% no quinto superior. CONCLUSÕES: Os resultados indicam que o consumo de sódio no Brasil excede largamente a recomendação máxima para esse nutriente em todas as macrorregiões brasileiras e em todas as classes de renda.

Natural food seasoning agents are gradually gaining prominence over artificial seasoning agents due to purported side effects, hence, the search for natural food seasoning with functional and improved nutritional quality becomes imperative. This research is aimed at investigating the amino acids composition, fatty acid contents, antioxidant and functional properties of Citrullus vulgaris fermented with mutant and non-mutant strains of Bacillus subtilis to produce ogiri. Bacillus subtilis strains were isolated from spontaneously fermented melon seeds (C. vulgaris) and the B. subtilis isolates were exposed to two different mutagenic agents [Ultraviolet (UV) irradiations and Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate (SDS)] at varying intervals of time to obtain mutant strains. Eight (8) mutated strains of B. subtilis that produced high D-ribose metabolites were used for controlled starter-fermentation of C. vulgaris to produce ogiri. The non-mutant (NMS00) and the market ogiri (RTE00) were included as control samples. The properties mentioned above were determined on the ogiri samples. The most abundant and limiting essential amino acids varied among the ogiri samples. Mutated fermented ogiri samples have improved antioxidant properties. Ogiri sample produced with B. subtilis mutant strain exposed to SDS at 110 sec (MSD51) have the highest monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) (15.67±0.00 mg/100 g) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) (50.29±0.00 mg/100 g). Free fatty acids and peroxide values are higher in control samples. Modified ogiri produced from the mutant strains of B. subtilis have good functional, amino acids, antioxidant properties and fatty acids. Therefore, may serve as functional condiments with improved nutritional quality.

O presente estudo teve por objetivo revisar as recomendações atuais sobre a alimentação complementar de crianças menores de dois anos a partir da pesquisa em banco de dados - SciELO, MedLine e Lilacs - e de publicações da Organização Mundial da Saúde e do Ministério da Saúde. Utilizou-se o descritor desmame ou weaning e definiram-se os limites de crianças de 0 a 23 meses, período de publicação de 2002 a 2006 e idioma de redação em português, inglês e espanhol. Nos últimos anos acumularam-se evidências científicas sobre a importância da amamentação exclusiva nos primeiros seis meses, da alimentação complementar oportuna e da manutenção do aleitamento materno até os dois anos ou mais. A alimentação complementar adequada deve compreender alimentos ricos em energia, proteína e micronutrientes, sem contaminação, sem excesso de sal ou condimentos, em quantidade apropriada, fáceis de preparar, assegurando-se a consistência e a densidade energética adequadas. A família tem papel decisivo na formação de novos hábitos, no autocontrole da ingestão alimentar e na formação de um padrão de comportamento alimentar que pode ser adequado ou não. A introdução da alimentação complementar é uma etapa crítica e vários são os prejuízos do aleitamento artificial e da introdução precoce e/ou inadequada dos alimentos. Aos profissionais da saúde cabe orientar os pais quanto às práticas da alimentação complementar apropriada e orientar as ações governamentais, tendo como objetivo máximo o crescimento e o desenvolvimento pleno das crianças menores de dois anos.

Introduction: The Solanaceae family is one of the most important families of angiosperms from an economic point of view. With nearly 100 genera and 3,000 species, it includes important food, condiment, and medicinal plants. One of the three most varied and extensive genera of Solanaceae is Lycianthes. Lycianthes sanctaeclarae (Greenm.) D’Arcy, is a species native to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panama. which is found in the rainforest at an altitude of 0 to 600 meters above sea level. Objective: The purpose of this research is to obtain information about the species Lychianthes sanctaeclarae for the determination of the ethnobotanical potential of said species, through a bibliographic database review. Method: A bibliographic review and an analysis of the possible ethnobotanical applications, biological activities, and chemical constitution of the Solanaceae family, specifically Lycianthes sanctaeclarae, were conducted. Results: Solanaceae has floristic, ethnobotanical, ornamental, ritual, economic, and medical importance. They include a wide variety of phytochemicals, among which alkaloids stand out, with interesting biological properties, with anticholinergic activity being the most investigated. Conclusions: The lack of information that exists on the species Lycianthes sanctaeclarae was determined. Even so, due to its relationship with the Solanaceae family, it is possible to consider that this species could be a striking option for the development of new drugs; However, it is necessary in the future to identify, isolate, purify, and characterize the bioactive compounds that this species has by constructing its phytochemical profile.

A inclusão de polpa de pescado em formulações alimentícias contribui para um maior aproveitamento de carne subutilizada no processamento e produzir alimento de alto valor nutricional à população. Logo, o objetivo deste estudo foi elaborar formulações de croquete utilizando filé e polpa (carne retirada da carcaça) de Prochilodus lineatus (grumatã) e avaliar composição proximal, características microbiológicas, sensoriais e intenção de compra. Foram elaboradas três formulações de croquetes contendo proteína texturizada de soja, condimentos (sal, alho, cebola e outros) e diferentes proporções da polpa em substituição ao filé, sendo uma à base de filé (0% polpa) e, nas demais, o filé foi substituído por 25 e 50% de polpa. Teor de matéria seca, cinzas, proteína bruta e gordura, além de contagem de coliformes a 45ºC, Estafilococos coagulase positiva e Salmonella sp foram avaliados nos croquetes pré-prontos. Para análise sensorial, os croquetes foram fritos em óleo de soja e avaliados em relação à aparência, cor, sabor, textura e aceitação global. Os croquetes à base de filé apresentaram menor teor de gordura e matéria seca comparados às preparações contendo polpa, enquanto os teores de proteína bruta e cinzas não diferiram entre as formulações. Os microrganismos pesquisados não foram detectados nas formulações. Na avaliação dos provadores, as formulações não diferiram entre si para nenhum dos atributos sensoriais pesquisados, com avaliações variando entre “gostei regularmente” e “gostei muito”. A formulação que apresentou maior intenção de compra foi aquela a base de filé. Assim, a carne de grumatã (filé e polpa) pode ser utilizada integralmente em formulações alimentícias, com boa composição nutricional e aceitação pelos consumidores.

O objetivo deste estudo foi elaborar hambúrgueres ovovegetarianos com adição de castanhas de caju e de baru, que é um fruto típico do cerrado brasileiro, avaliar as composições físico-químicas e realizar a análise sensorial para determinar a viabilidade dos produtos. Foram elaboradas duas formulações com semente de girassol, água, ovos, trigo para quibe, fumaça liquida, condimentos, sal, diferindo-se apenas o tipo de castanha utilizada, a castanha de baru e caju. A análise sensorial foi realizada com 53 julgadores não treinados, que avaliaram atributos de cor, odor, sabor, textura e impressão global mediante escala hedônica estruturada de nove pontos. Foi aplicado também testes de intenção de compra, e uma ficha para avaliação de consumo do provador. As analises físico-químicas realizadas foram para determinar umidade, cinzas, proteínas, lipídeos, fibras. O teor teórico de carboidratos foi determinado por diferença. Os resultados obtidos foram submetidos ao teste t Student com nível de significância de 0,05. Através da analise estatísticas pode-se observar que só houve variância significativa para o parâmetro de cinzas, porém sensorialmente não houve diferença significativa. De acordo com o índice de aceitabilidade (IA), os resultados revelaram que para os dois hambúrgueres avaliados os índices foram superiores a 83% para todos os atributos, indicando que os produtos foram bem aceitos pelos julgadores. Conclui-se que a elaboração de hambúrgueres ovovegetarianos apresentou ótima aceitação sensorial e intenção de compra, servindo como opção para pessoas que desejam diminuir o consumo de carne vermelha, ou para consumidores que seguem esse estilo de vida.

Cabeça de xara es un producto de carne listos para comer, cuya producción es muy característica en el Alentejo, una región de Portugal. Es una galantina que generalmente se moldea en forma de paralelepípedo. Se elabora con varias carnes obtenidas de la raza porcina Alentejana y criada en la misma región, cabezas de cerdo deshuesadas, lengua y tejido conectivo, a la que se le añade una serie de condimentos como sal, perejil, vino y pimienta. Este trabajo se pretende poner a prueba la viabilidad de añadir vinagre con el fin de aumentar la vida útil de la cabeça de xara, mediante la reducción de la microbiota contaminante responsables del deterioro, así como el control del patógeno Listeria monocytogenes. Tres lotes independientes fueron producidos y con composición proximal parecida, se evaluó pH, aw, parámetros microbiológicos y contenido de aminas biogénicas. El análisis sensorial se realizó también durante todo el período de almacenamiento. No se encontraron diferencias significativas entre las muestras control y vinagre en cuanto a la composición proximal de cabeça de xara. Como era de esperar, el pH fue menor en las muestras con vinagre, sin embargo se observaron diferencias en aw entre los dos tratamientos. L. monocytogenes estuvo presente desde el primer mes sólo en un lote, en el tratamiento control. Sin embargo, es inhibida por la adición de vinagre de vino hasta el tercer mes de almacenamiento, donde L. monocytogenes está presente pero por debajo del límite establecido en el Reglamento 2073/2005. La presencia de vinagre redujo significativamente el contenido de aminas biógenicas, en particular cadaverina, putrescina y tiramina, durante todo el período de almacenamiento. En cuanto a la evaluación sensorial, el sabor a vinagre fue evaluado por los panelistas de manera negativa.

The product can be defined as a “basket of attributes” which provides the customer with the functional value specific to that class of product, as well as a set of secondary values (called benefits or services) which may be necessary or added. These additional services differentiate the brands and may have determining influence on customer’s preferences. Within the “GLASOIL” project (ID CUP J77H18000280006) the research activity focused on the development of the new product (olive oil based dressing) as a whole through the evaluation of the basket of attributes. Once the main reference targets had been defined, the survey focused on the expectations and evaluations of potential customers with respect to the new product. Investigating consumer preferences, before a product is launched on the market, is fundamental for companies and makes it possible to reduce failure rates. Through the creation of a focus group, the preferences and opinions of potential consumers on a new olive oil-based condiment were investigated. From the results obtained, different combinations of packaging were elaborated, subsequently used as graphic stimuli to carry out tests with eye tracking, aimed at verifying the presence of possible weak points of the packaging before launching the product on the market. The results show that, for this specific type of product, consumers preferred a transparent package that makes the product visible inside, characterized by elegant lines and equipped with a drop breaking cap. On the label, on the other hand, consumers, in addition to the information required by law, wanted to see the origin of production and instructions on possible use. In conclusion, the analysis with eye tracking showed that images with elements such as a hand using the product, prove to be “winning”, as they attract the observer’s attention. Eye tracking analysis also confirmed that men and women look at the packaging and label differently.

El reposicionamiento de semillas ancestrales se está difundiendo en nuestro país, debido al excelente perfil nutricional que poseen (FAO, 2011) (Luis, 2018). Por ello el objetivo fue determinar la variación del perfil nutricional de pan, por el agregado de semillas ancestrales o condimento como orégano. Se realizaron cuatro formulaciones de pan, las cuales fueron evaluadas sensorialmente y analizadas para determinar la variación en su composición por el agregado de semillas. A la preparación base realizada con harina de trigo 000, agua, levadura y sal (pan común), se le adicionó semillas de amaranto y quínoa (previamente molidas) en una proporción del 5%, resultando la mezcla (1). El panificado (2) se reemplazaron por chía y amaranto, en igual proporción y en el (3) se realizó un pan sólo con orégano. Los productos fueron analizados determinando proteínas, grasas totales, carbohidratos, fibra por técnicas analíticas oficiales. Los panes con semillas incrementaron su humedad, pasando de 26,36±0,17g% en pan común a 32,94±0,17g% en la (2). Por otra parte aumentó su contenido de fibras de 0,7±0,04 g% (pan común) a 4,7±0,03 g% (1), 5,39±0,45 g% (2) y 2,4±0,15 g% (3). Si bien se incrementa su contenido proteico a 11 g%, y su contenido graso a 3,50±0,15 g% (1) y 5,21±0,12 g% (2). Su valor calórico total se vio disminuido por el aporte de fibra y el incremento de humedad, pasando de 291±1,02 kcal (común) a 259±1,27 kcal (1) y 262±2,05 kcal (1). En todos los casos la aceptabilidad fue superior al 93%. Aplicando análisis de la varianza (ANOVA) se determinó que todas las formulaciones presentaron diferencias estadísticamente significativas (a<0,05), en sus nutrientes. Se concluye que con la incorporación de semillas se incrementó la humedad y la fibra, disminuyendo el contenido calórico total, mejorando el aporte de proteínas y grasas totales. El pan con orégano sólo mejoró el aporte de fibra.

RACIONAL: Cerca de 35% dos casos de câncer estão envolvidos com fatores advindos da dieta e de outros como o álcool, o fumo, a luz solar, agentes químicos e infecções por vírus. O câncer de estômago é o segundo tipo de câncer mais diagnosticado no mundo, sendo responsável por cerca de 9,9% de todos os diagnósticos e cerca de 12,1% das mortes. OBJETIVOS: Comparar o peso corpóreo atual e habitual, grau de escolaridade, saneamento básico, tabagismo, etilismo e freqüência pregressa de consumo de alimentos entre pacientes com câncer de estômago e população controle. MÉTODO: Setenta pacientes com câncer gástrico foram pareados a outros 70 indivíduos sem diagnóstico de neoplasia. Foram coletados peso, altura, informações sobre grau de escolaridade, saneamento básico, tabagismo e etilismo e preenchido um questionário de freqüência alimentar pregressa. RESULTADOS: Dos 75 pacientes elegíveis para o estudo, 42 eram homens, com média de idade de 59,5 anos. O grupo de pacientes com câncer apresentou menor peso e índice de massa corporal atual do que o grupo controle. Em relação ao grau de escolaridade, verificou-se que, no grupo de pacientes com câncer, 21 indivíduos nunca ingressaram na escola e dos que estudaram, cerca de 55% não conseguiram concluir o primeiro grau. Nesse grupo, 32,9% dos indivíduos tiveram acesso ao saneamento básico e 37,1% à eletricidade no passado; no grupo controle, esse percentual foi de 68,6% para cada uma das variáveis. No grupo caso, 58,6% dos pacientes moraram na zona rural, enquanto no grupo controle apenas 7,1%. No grupo caso, 65.7% eram fumantes versus 44.3%, no grupo controle. Observou-se também que os pacientes com câncer fumaram por período maior. O alcoolismo também foi mais freqüente entre os pacientes com câncer (45% versus 19%). Verificou-se que, entre os pacientes com câncer, houve maior consumo de alimentos ricos em sal, condimentos, nitratos, gordura animal saturada, carboidratos complexos, açúcar refinado e salgados fritos, comparado ao grupo controle. CONCLUSÃO: Os doentes com câncer gástrico, quando comparados ao grupo controle, apresentaram: perda de peso, queda da qualidade de vida verificada pelo baixo acesso a saneamento básico, eletricidade e escolaridade, residiram predominantemente em área rural, alta incidência de alcoolismo e alta ingestão de alimentos ricos em gorduras, alimentos industrializados e álcool.

Background: Our ancient seers recognised the value of Aahara Aushadhi (medications in the form of diet) and adopted different cooking methods with addition of condiments to make our daily meal, our daily potion of health. Jeeraka is one of the herbs that has been well amalgamated in the daily food in Indian subcontinent. Though it is used regularly as a spice, its therapeutic benefits are not known to all. Besides, the same Jeeraka can be modified into different dosage forms and treat a number of diseases like Grahani (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), Agnimandya (loss of appetite), Jwara (fever) etc. Out of the countless formulations of Jeeraka, this research aims to see its potentials as mentioned in Bhaishajya Ratnavali. Materials and Methods: The present review has compiled the formulations containing any of the Jeeraka Traya i.e. Krishna Jeeraka, Shveta Jeeraka and Kalaunji from Bhaishajya Ratnavali. Recent researches regarding the pharmaceutical benefits also have been screened. Results and Discussion: Total 242 formulations contained Jeeraka. Out of these, maximum formulations are used in the treatment of Grahani. Conclusion: The present work showed that Jeeraka had been used in different dosage forms in 44 diseases.

Microplastics (MPs) are synthetic polymer pieces with a size of less than 5 mm that are ubiquitous in the marine environment. They have been recently detected in several wild species and sea products. An indispensable condiment in human food is marine salt that is produced from seawater. Since toxicity studies report potential health impacts when plastic debris is ingested, more attention must be paid to the MP contamination of sea salt and the underlying reasons for this. The central aim of this study is to evaluate the MPs contamination level of sea salt in correlation with the MPs contamination level of seawater in Vietnamese areas. Micro-Raman spectroscopy was employed to determine MPs in the samples collected from three artificial salt pans of Vietnam. The result revealed the presence of MPs in all study areas—Vung Tau (VT;14.54 MPs/L seawater and 114.67 MPs/kg salt), Ly Nhon (LN; 13.14 MPs/L seawater and 63.59 MPs/kg salt), and Can Thanh (9.42 MPs/L seawater and 93.69 MPs/kg salt). The comparisons highlight close correlations in the percentage, shape, size, and color of MPs, especially polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate, and polypropylene particles extracted from the seawater and its salt. This study proved that seawater is a plastic pollution source for salts produced by traditional seawater evaporation. The study also alerts the prevalence of MPs in the environment and human consumables, thereby indicating that actions must be taken to reduce the pollution of water sources in Vung Tau and at the UNESCO Can Gio Mangrove Biosphere Reserve and improve salt production and refinery processes in order to minimize the number of MPs in final salt products for safe consumption.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus a tortor nisi. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Nunc congue libero sit amet mauris ultrices laoreet. Praesent velit neque, lacinia non pulvinar quis, sollicitudin nec metus. Etiam pharetra placerat arcu id ullamcorper. Mauris euismod lectus at quam dapibus pretium. In eros erat, ultricies a tempus eget, lacinia iaculis ex. Vestibulum quis justo cursus, vulputate risus eget, porta neque. Sed lectus magna, vestibulum ut dapibus ut, tristique a purus. Pellentesque tempus lacinia elit, vel accumsan augue ultricies eu. Sed ut ornare quam, nec rhoncus ante. Cras volutpat ligula leo, vitae fringilla ligula luctus non. Maecenas pharetra dolor sed ex cursus cursus.Nullam eu ultrices elit, vel sollicitudin dui. Donec convallis, velit in euismod placerat, ligula sem varius est, vitae cursus mauris neque nec est. Donec orci urna, eleifend sit amet ante eu, pulvinar tempus diam. Nulla convallis tellus risus, quis gravida magna sollicitudin non. In eu lorem tincidunt, condimentum magna in, molestie nunc. Etiam eget massa ac nisi ultrices ultricies. Quisque eget augue et ex egestas scelerisque. Aenean vitae lorem dictum, porta mi id, finibus mauris. Vivamus leo odio, semper vitae mi et, vehicula viverra neque. Vivamus lobortis enim sed mi tempor vehicula. Suspendisse ac libero id sapien pellentesque vestibulum vitae a ligula. Pellentesque rutrum velit eu odio efficitur interdum. Ut at massa ac mi gravida facilisis in eget nisl. Ut tincidunt arcu at ex suscipit, sed aliquet dui faucibus. Morbi metus lacus, auctor at enim et, congue viverra neque. Duis varius tincidunt magna quis eleifend.Donec non justo ac massa convallis bibendum. Maecenas efficitur pharetra blandit. Nulla venenatis neque vel felis laoreet, lacinia posuere velit porttitor. Phasellus viverra magna id dolor facilisis pellentesque. Etiam sapien nulla, efficitur et felis ut, dapibus vulputate dolor. Cras ac odio eget elit ornare mattis. Nam.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus a tortor nisi. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Nunc congue libero sit amet mauris ultrices laoreet. Praesent velit neque, lacinia non pulvinar quis, sollicitudin nec metus. Etiam pharetra placerat arcu id ullamcorper. Mauris euismod lectus at quam dapibus pretium. In eros erat, ultricies a tempus eget, lacinia iaculis ex. Vestibulum quis justo cursus, vulputate risus eget, porta neque. Sed lectus magna, vestibulum ut dapibus ut, tristique a purus. Pellentesque tempus lacinia elit, vel accumsan augue ultricies eu. Sed ut ornare quam, nec rhoncus ante. Cras volutpat ligula leo, vitae fringilla ligula luctus non. Maecenas pharetra dolor sed ex cursus cursus.Nullam eu ultrices elit, vel sollicitudin dui. Donec convallis, velit in euismod placerat, ligula sem varius est, vitae cursus mauris neque nec est. Donec orci urna, eleifend sit amet ante eu, pulvinar tempus diam. Nulla convallis tellus risus, quis gravida magna sollicitudin non. In eu lorem tincidunt, condimentum magna in, molestie nunc. Etiam eget massa ac nisi ultrices ultricies. Quisque eget augue et ex egestas scelerisque. Aenean vitae lorem dictum, porta mi id, finibus mauris. Vivamus leo odio, semper vitae mi et, vehicula viverra neque. Vivamus lobortis enim sed mi tempor vehicula. Suspendisse ac libero id sapien pellentesque vestibulum vitae a ligula. Pellentesque rutrum velit eu odio efficitur interdum. Ut at massa ac mi gravida facilisis in eget nisl. Ut tincidunt arcu at ex suscipit, sed aliquet dui faucibus. Morbi metus lacus, auctor at enim et, congue viverra neque. Duis varius tincidunt magna quis eleifend.Donec non justo ac massa convallis bibendum. Maecenas efficitur pharetra blandit. Nulla venenatis neque vel felis laoreet, lacinia posuere velit porttitor. Phasellus viverra magna id dolor facilisis pellentesque. Etiam sapien nulla, efficitur et felis ut, dapibus vulputate dolor. Cras ac odio eget elit ornare mattis. Nam.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus a tortor nisi. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Nunc congue libero sit amet mauris ultrices laoreet. Praesent velit neque, lacinia non pulvinar quis, sollicitudin nec metus. Etiam pharetra placerat arcu id ullamcorper. Mauris euismod lectus at quam dapibus pretium. In eros erat, ultricies a tempus eget, lacinia iaculis ex. Vestibulum quis justo cursus, vulputate risus eget, porta neque. Sed lectus magna, vestibulum ut dapibus ut, tristique a purus. Pellentesque tempus lacinia elit, vel accumsan augue ultricies eu. Sed ut ornare quam, nec rhoncus ante. Cras volutpat ligula leo, vitae fringilla ligula luctus non. Maecenas pharetra dolor sed ex cursus cursus.Nullam eu ultrices elit, vel sollicitudin dui. Donec convallis, velit in euismod placerat, ligula sem varius est, vitae cursus mauris neque nec est. Donec orci urna, eleifend sit amet ante eu, pulvinar tempus diam. Nulla convallis tellus risus, quis gravida magna sollicitudin non. In eu lorem tincidunt, condimentum magna in, molestie nunc. Etiam eget massa ac nisi ultrices ultricies. Quisque eget augue et ex egestas scelerisque. Aenean vitae lorem dictum, porta mi id, finibus mauris. Vivamus leo odio, semper vitae mi et, vehicula viverra neque. Vivamus lobortis enim sed mi tempor vehicula. Suspendisse ac libero id sapien pellentesque vestibulum vitae a ligula. Pellentesque rutrum velit eu odio efficitur interdum. Ut at massa ac mi gravida facilisis in eget nisl. Ut tincidunt arcu at ex suscipit, sed aliquet dui faucibus. Morbi metus lacus, auctor at enim et, congue viverra neque. Duis varius tincidunt magna quis eleifend.Donec non justo ac massa convallis bibendum. Maecenas efficitur pharetra blandit. Nulla venenatis neque vel felis laoreet, lacinia posuere velit porttitor. Phasellus viverra magna id dolor facilisis pellentesque. Etiam sapien nulla, efficitur et felis ut, dapibus vulputate dolor. Cras ac odio eget elit ornare mattis. Nam.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus a tortor nisi. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Nunc congue libero sit amet mauris ultrices laoreet. Praesent velit neque, lacinia non pulvinar quis, sollicitudin nec metus. Etiam pharetra placerat arcu id ullamcorper. Mauris euismod lectus at quam dapibus pretium. In eros erat, ultricies a tempus eget, lacinia iaculis ex. Vestibulum quis justo cursus, vulputate risus eget, porta neque. Sed lectus magna, vestibulum ut dapibus ut, tristique a purus. Pellentesque tempus lacinia elit, vel accumsan augue ultricies eu. Sed ut ornare quam, nec rhoncus ante. Cras volutpat ligula leo, vitae fringilla ligula luctus non. Maecenas pharetra dolor sed ex cursus cursus.Nullam eu ultrices elit, vel sollicitudin dui. Donec convallis, velit in euismod placerat, ligula sem varius est, vitae cursus mauris neque nec est. Donec orci urna, eleifend sit amet ante eu, pulvinar tempus diam. Nulla convallis tellus risus, quis gravida magna sollicitudin non. In eu lorem tincidunt, condimentum magna in, molestie nunc. Etiam eget massa ac nisi ultrices ultricies. Quisque eget augue et ex egestas scelerisque. Aenean vitae lorem dictum, porta mi id, finibus mauris. Vivamus leo odio, semper vitae mi et, vehicula viverra neque. Vivamus lobortis enim sed mi tempor vehicula. Suspendisse ac libero id sapien pellentesque vestibulum vitae a ligula. Pellentesque rutrum velit eu odio efficitur interdum. Ut at massa ac mi gravida facilisis in eget nisl. Ut tincidunt arcu at ex suscipit, sed aliquet dui faucibus. Morbi metus lacus, auctor at enim et, congue viverra neque. Duis varius tincidunt magna quis eleifend.Donec non justo ac massa convallis bibendum. Maecenas efficitur pharetra blandit. Nulla venenatis neque vel felis laoreet, lacinia posuere velit porttitor. Phasellus viverra magna id dolor facilisis pellentesque. Etiam sapien nulla, efficitur et felis ut, dapibus vulputate dolor. Cras ac odio eget elit ornare mattis. Nam.

AbstractAccess to and availability of various food sources is not an issue in rural communities. However, there is no guarantee that households are not affected by nutritional inadequacy, which is still a problem in most underdeveloped nations. A mixed-methods study was conducted to determine the HDDS through the snowballing method for the last 12 months’ food groups-and-sources and the 48-h diet recall. Ninety-eight households in two rural communities surrounding Sikwafta (zone one) and Malu’u (zone two) participated in the interview between April and May 2019. The results were then analyzed through SPSS and QDA MINER. The aim is to analyze the household dietary patterns of the communities between the two zones. The study also hypothesizes that the dietary pattern of households has not changed. Results showed that a total of nine food groups were consumed: grain, white roots, tubers, plantains, oils/fats (95.90%), condiments (83.70%), and meat/poultry/sea foods (77.60%). The majority of the food consumed comes from the gardens, followed by other food sources, which make up the average HDDS of five. A correlation analysis found a statistically significant relationship between HDDS and total meal (0.504*), with no relationships between demographics. When comparing 48-h food sources-and-groups to the previous year, there was little to no difference in accessibility and availability. This implies that the majority of households are likely to achieve their nutritional needs within the parameters of their dietary trend. Even though households have adequate access to food, there is a significant need to improve their nutritional needs, even if they consume the average amount of the required food groups.

Previous studies have demonstrated that probiotic Lactobacillus plantarum CS was able to generate an appreciable amount of extracellular amylase, hence the need to purify and characterize it. The aim of the study was to purify and characterize crude amylase from probiotic Lactobacillus plantarum CS for its industrial applications Three purification steps including ammonium sulphate precipitation, ion exchange chromatography on carboxymethyl sephadex and gel filtration on Sephadex G-75 were utilized. The homogeneity of the purified enzyme was confirmed using sodium deodocyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). The purified amylase was characterized on different parameters including substrates hydrolyses, pH and temperature activity and stability profiles. The general purification elution profile revealed two different peaks of amylase activities with outstanding one having a molecular weight of 59.7kDa. Its purification fold was 4.0 with specific activity of 16.44U/mg protein and enzyme yield of 3%. Temperature optimal activity and stability was at 400C and 7.5 for pH activity and stability. Mangenese (Mn2+) (135.17%), tween 80 (128.30%) and some food condiments garlic, thyme, ginger, and tumeric) significantly (p> 0.05) enhanced amylase activity (≥262.40%). However, selenium (Se4+) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) were observed to have greatest inhibiting effect (≥30.9%) on the enzyme. Substrate hydrolysis profiles showed that the amylase hydrolyzed all the test starchy substrates with the highest hydrolytic potential on indigenous sweet potato starch (Km value/ Vmax of 1.33mg/ml/ 7.89ml). The rate of hydrolysis of other test substrates had yam> rice>cassava>corn with km values ≤ 4.0mg/ml and Vmax ≤ 25ml. The obtained results gave an insight that amylase produced from Lactobacillus plantarum CS met with the possessed properties suitable for any industrial application especially in food

Le poivron est une plante polyvalente utilisé soit comme épice, soit comme légume-fruit dans la plupart des mets. Sa poudre communément appelé paprika est un condiment largement consommé dans le monde. Au Niger, particulièrement dans la région de Diffa, le poivron est la spéculation la plus cultivée et la plus commercialisée, représentant ainsi le poumon économique de la région. Une prospection suivie d’une enquête et d’une collecte des accessions de poivron a été effectuée dans cinq (5) départements de production de la région de Diffa. Dix-neuf (19) sites/villages ont été prospectés à travers la région. Tous les sites/villages visités ont été géo référencées et une carte a été établie. Au total cinquante un (51) accessions ont été collectées. Il ressort de l’entretien que la culture du poivron est plus pratiquée par la classe d’âge moins avancée avec une fréquence qui varie de 77% (Nguigmi) à 50% (Diffa). Cette culture est pratiquée majoritairement par les hommes dans toutes les zones prospectées. Les résultats montrent également que les kanuri sont majoritairement producteurs de cette spéculation avec une fréquence qui varie de 100% (Bosso et Diffa) à 84% (Nguigmi). La culture est en régression dans certaines localité compte tenu des certaines contraintes biotiques (ravageurs) et abiotiques (inondation, insécurité). Apres les récoltes les fruits sont commercialisés dans les marchés locaux ou régionaux, majoritairement dans le département de Diffa (87%) et en moindre importance dans le département de Bosso (32%). Le prix d’un sac de poivron sec de 17 kg varie de 11 000 à 44 000 FCFA selon les périodes et la disponibilité en quantité et en qualité des fruits.

Abstract Background The emergence of antimicrobial resistant bacteria in food producing animals is of growing concern to food safety and health. Staphylococci are common inhabitants of skin and mucous membranes in humans and animals. Infections involving antibiotic resistant staphylococci are associated with increased morbidity and mortality, with notable economic consequences. Livestock farms may enable cross-species transfer of antibiotic resistant staphylococci. The aim of the study was to investigate antimicrobial resistance patterns of staphylococci isolated from livestock and farm attendants in Northern Ghana using phenotypic and genotypic methods. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed on staphylococci recovered from livestock and farm attendants and isolates resistant to cefoxitin were investigated using whole genome sequencing. Results One hundred and fifty-two staphylococci comprising S. sciuri (80%; n = 121), S. simulans (5%; n = 8), S. epidermidis (4%; n = 6), S. chromogens (3%; n = 4), S. aureus (2%; n = 3), S. haemolyticus (1%; n = 2), S. xylosus (1%; n = 2), S. cohnii (1%; n = 2), S. condimenti (1%; n = 2), S. hominis (1%; n = 1) and S. arlettae (1%; n = 1) were identified. The isolates showed resistance to penicillin (89%; n = 135), clindamycin (67%; n = 102), cefoxitin (19%; n = 29), tetracycline (15%; n = 22) and erythromycin (11%; n = 16) but showed high susceptibility to gentamicin (96%; n = 146), sulphamethoxazole/trimethoprim (98%; n = 149) and rifampicin (99%; n = 151). All staphylococci were susceptible to linezolid and amikacin. Carriage of multiple resistance genes was common among the staphylococcal isolates. Genome sequencing of methicillin (cefoxitin) resistant staphylococci (MRS) isolates revealed majority of S. sciuri (93%, n = 27) carrying mecA1 (which encodes for beta-lactam resistance) and the sal(A) gene, responsible for resistance to lincosamide and streptogramin. Most of the MRS isolates were recovered from livestock. Conclusion The study provides insights into the genomic content of MRS from farm attendants and livestock in Ghana and highlights the importance of using whole-genome sequencing to investigate such opportunistic pathogens. The finding of multi-drug resistant staphylococci such as S. sciuri carrying multiple resistant genes is of public health concern as they could pose a challenge for treatment of life-threatening infections that they may cause.

I’ve always thought that I should have been a baker. The profession, as I imagine it, appeals to my romantic sense of the art: the thrill of being awake before everyone else with my fingers in a pliant ball of dough; the warmth of the baking ovens at my back, imagining, in between sips of espresso, the joy my fresh baked goods will bring the world as the people in it start their day. Destiny saw fit to set me on another path – that of tenure-track, assistant professor of American literature – and doomed my dreams of a baking career, along with the opportunity for any regular home cooking. With the exception of holiday and special occasion cooking, the nearest I come to my romanticised notion of being a baker is the seasonal session of jam-making. I choose jam-making over jelly-making because in making jam you utilise the whole fruit, as opposed to using only the juice of the fruit to make jelly. However, I console myself with the thought that it is now pointless for me, in this era, to wish to be either a baker or a jam-maker, since both jobs are far from my romanticised notions of them, having succumbed, for the most part, commercially, to the site of the factory and the industrialisation of the assembly line. In fact, why does anyone bother to make homemade jams when they can drive to the neighbourhood supermarket and buy a jar of it for less than half the price of what it might cost to make it at home? The answer to this question calls us to investigate the contemporary foodways of home fruit preservation and canning as they gesture to jam as a cultural sign system whose meaning surpasses mere physical nourishment. From the sixteenth century (when sugar became readily available to the general populace in Europe) until the Industrial Revolution, cooks “put up” seasonal fruits, as jam- and jelly-making used to be called, for three main reasons: in order to 1) enjoy them at other times of the year, 2) preserve an abundant harvest from going to waste, and 3) store them for possible future times of scarcity (see Wilson and Eden). However, with the Industrial Revolution came commercially prepared products at prices below the cost of the total ingredients for home preparation of such items (Hunter 140). In fact, cookbooks written and published after the mid-eighteen hundreds contain far fewer recipes for jams and jellies than previous cookbooks do, indicating the move away from home preservation of fruit condiments because of the ready availability of commercial ones (Hunter 140). By the twentieth century, it became simply unnecessary for homemakers to prepare jams and jellies at home. By this time, most Western countries offered consumers a year-round supply of fresh fruits (flown, shipped, or trucked in from somewhere else), as well as an array of choices in cheap, factory-processed condiments; and few households would have stockpiled jams and jellies to safeguard against food scarcity when agricultural subsidies by national governments guaranteed a surplus of production. So why is it that home canning, specifically the making of jams, has not disappeared entirely as a cooking practice? Its continued existence suggests that jam-making, as an art, has cultural symbolism beyond its mere preservation of fruit, and that a growing distrust of factory food products has provided a new rationale for jam-making at home, signifying it one of those “clandestine forms taken by the dispersed, tactical, and make-shift creativity of groups or individuals already caught in the net of ‘discipline,’” one of those “procedures and ruses of consumers [that] compose the network of an antidiscipline” (de Certeau xiv-xv). With the ready availability of jams at supermarkets, with no nutritional requirements of dietary sugar that require our daily consumption of it, and with no further need of it as a “travel” food (in its earlier history, jam was used to aid travel by sea without incurring scurvy, and as a food for military troops), the continued practice of jam-making in the home emerges in the twenty-first century with a different cultural identity. C. Anne Wilson, in her introduction to “Waste Not, Want Not”: Food Preservation from Early Time to the Present Day, identifies the apparent stakes in the continued practice of making jam at home when she states that freezing produce and making jam are probably the two kinds of preservation most often carried out at home. To some extent they link up with other present-day food trends, such as concern about the use of chemicals in growing and processing the factory-produced versions. Some of those who blanch and freeze their own vegetables have chosen to grow them organically in the first place because so many of the vegetables on sale in shops, whether fresh or frozen, contain the residues of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. (3-4) The stakes noted above by Wilson are part of a growing trend of resistance to industrialised process of food production. Another author in Wilson’s edited collection, Lynette Hunter, provides the historical context for reading jam-making as a form of cultural resistance. She states that Eliza Acton, a radical journalist, published her 1857 cookery book The English Bread Book as a way to take back control of bread baking processes; in other words, she wrote the cookbook “to address the problem of the adulteration of shop-bought bread by encouraging people to make their own” (141). Indicative of a large-scale historical shift in foodways, Hunter finds that Acton makes a similar argument about fruit preserving in her Modern Cookery book of 1868: Acton feels the need to make the same intentions clear for her section on preserving and scathingly criticises the ‘unwholesome [preserved] fruit vended and consumed in very large quantities’ by the shop-buying public. Acton’s stress on the ‘wholesome’ is a significant precursor of the direction that preserving recipes will take when they re-enter cookery books at the end of the nineteenth century. No longer can the housewife claim to be frugal when she uses preserving skills, but she can claim to produce more nutritious and healthy food. (141) Thus, Acton’s cookbook reveals a trend away from conceiving home preserving as a means to save money and toward viewing it as a healthier alternative to commercially produced preserves because the consumer maintains control over all steps in the process. However, in the twenty-first century, there is no nutritional need for jam-making in the home: contemporary proponents of healthy eating proclaim the nutritional values of fresh fruits, not those preserved in sugar, and marketing trends in jams reflect this with the advertisement of many “low sugar” or “no sugar” varieties. Hunter states that making jam at home appeals to cooks at the end of the twentieth-century because “there is the confidence of knowing exactly what has gone into the foodstuff: home preserving is the only sure way of evading major additives and of controlling sugar content, and so on” (153). However, with new varieties of low or no sugar jams available at this time, and with familiar brand names, as well as organic farms, producing organic lines of jam (many offering these for sale at local farmer’s markets or via the internet), Hunter’s argument no longer reflects a primary concern of the home jam-maker. Instead, consumers do not want a relationship with a faceless jar of jam whose conditions of production are beyond their control and whose ingredients and labour come from somewhere else. They want to maintain a relationship with their local landscapes. As Hunter writes, jam-making in the home permits us “to recognise quite precisely how the network of food distribution and supply, quality and quantity, changes from year to year” (153). The exchange of homemade foodstuffs may even suggest an economy of barter that thwarts the exchange of capital for goods. Thus, home jam-making in the twenty-first century breaks with earlier methods of this practice and comes to represent this contemporary historical moment. The practice of making jam at home is counterculture and radical if it seeks to resist the heavily advertised and marketed brand name jams and provide the consumer with a sense of agency and control over the processes of production. Although it may cost cooks more money and take more time than simply purchasing jam at the supermarket, every jar of jam they make themselves is an act of defiance, however small, because it refuses to put money into the pockets of multinational corporations. Here, to use the terms of Michel de Certeau in the Practice of Everyday Life, the consumer unmakes his own domination by developing practices of everyday life that “poach … on the property” of the corporation and factory owners. Making jam at home is one of the “‘ways of operating’ [that] form the counterpart, on the consumer’s … side, of the mute processes that organise the establishment of socioeconomic order” (xiv). Contrary to the romantic notion of baking with which I began this essay, where I imagine getting up early in the pre-dawn darkness to practice my craft, jam-making disturbs my sleep on the other end of the day: if I start a batch of jam at night after everyone is out of my way in the kitchen, I am frequently up until one or two o’clock in the morning with my fingers, hands, arms, apron, stove, and countertop coated with sticky smudges of jam, my face roasted from the heat of the hot steam coming off the liquid fruit and sugar mixture, and my stirring hand burned from its proximity to the rolling boil, imagining, as I sip my espresso, the joy my mattress and pillow would bring me if I were using them to sleep. Due to the amount of time, money, scrubbing, and lack of sleep associated with my late-night jam-making sessions, my relationship with homemade jam is a conflicted one; but one that I always manage to value whenever I offer a friend, neighbour, or relative a jar of homemade jam. This communal or social aspect of the place of homemade jam in gift-giving is perhaps one of the most enjoyable ways in which jam-making in the home thwarts global capitalism. References De Certeau, Michel. The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley: U of California P, 1984. Eden, Trudy. “The Art of Preserving: How Cooks in Colonial Virginia Imitated Nature to Control It.” Eighteenth-Century Life 23.2 (1999): 13-23. Hunter, Lynette. “Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Trends in Food Preserving: Frugality, Nutrition or Luxury.” “Waste Not, Want Not”: Food Preservation from Early Times to the Present Day. Ed. C. Anne Wilson. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 1991. 134-158. Wilson, C. Anne. “Waste Not, Want Not”: Food Preservation from Early Times to the Present Day. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 1991. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Houston, Lynn. "Putting Up with “Putting Up”: A Cultural Analysis of Homemade Jam in the Twenty-First Century." M/C Journal 9.6 (2006). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0612/06-houston.php>. APA Style Houston, L. (Dec. 2006) "Putting Up with “Putting Up”: A Cultural Analysis of Homemade Jam in the Twenty-First Century," M/C Journal, 9(6). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0612/06-houston.php>.

How much do you know about yourself if you’ve never been in a fight? (Fight Club) …The fabric of the rhizome is the conjunction, “and…and…and…” This conjunction carries enough force to shake and uproot the verb “to be.” Where are you going? Where are you coming from…These are totally useless questions. (Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari 25) Fight Club (1999) depicts the struggle of Jack (Edward Norton) to determine a sense of identity in late capitalism, under which discipline gives way to control (Deleuze 177-182), and consumer culture feminises men. Within this social structure, people no longer occupy singular subjectivities, but instead are compelled to slide between infinite subject positions, always in a state of becoming, never arriving. Jack’s sense of identity, gleaned from shiny, new possessions, is exemplary of the postmodern subject who is all malleable surface and no depth, or, to use Jean Baudrillard’s lexicon, a schizophrenic “pure screen, a switching center [sic] for all the networks of influence” (a 133). As an alternative to this hollow and meaningless subjectivity, Fight Club suggests that there is a connection between pain and aggression and ‘knowing yourself’. Confronting and engaging with the primal feelings of pain and oblivion, it is implied, will bring Jack closer to a more authentic sense of identity than he could ever buy for himself from Ikea. Jack begins to attend support groups for the ill, in search of “real pain.” The crying and sense of oblivion experienced at these groups prove cathartic for Jack. These early scenes anticipate the idea that it is not through external things that one can attain an authentic sense of identity; rather, that the quest for authentic identity has become redundant and the only way out is to aspire to something less inauthentic. The way to do this, Fight Club suggests, is to embrace hopelessness, to return to degree zero and proceed in a simpler way. Jack’s apartment and the objects it contains are metonymic for his personality: recall the scene depicting his condo complete with descriptive captions and mood music, as if it were an advertisement. This is a visual enactment of Baudrillard’s theorisation of hyperreality, defined as the kind of reality that has resulted from an ideology that no longer represents real conditions of existence, because there are no longer any real objective truths to represent (b 6, 25). By extension, Jack’s personality is a piecemeal construct of these superficial objects: “I loved that condo. I loved every stick of furniture. That was not just a bunch of stuff that got destroyed; it was me.” After destroying Jack’s apartment, Tyler (Brad Pitt) confronts Jack with a critique of the consumer ideology by which he has lived his life. Confounding distrust of women and contempt for consumerism, Tyler points out that things “could be worse. A woman could cut off your penis while you’re asleep and toss it out of the window of a moving car,” before launching into an assault on Jack’s consumerist lifestyle asking why Is a duvet essential to our survival in the hunter-gatherer sense of the word…We’re consumers, we are by-products of the life-style obsession. Murder, crime, poverty: these things don’t concern me: celebrity magazines, television with five hundred channels, some guy’s name on my underwear…I say, “never be complete.” I say, “stop being perfect.” I say, “let’s evolve.” It is curious that Tyler carries out this tirade while consuming mass-produced beer and cigarettes. Fight Club overtly criticises ‘feminine’ modes of consumption—agonising over which ruffled valance to buy; taking pride in one’s home wares and condiments. However, this is undercut by its complicity with more ‘masculine’ modes of consumption—smoking and drinking - which are contingent on the rugged mode of masculinity it promotes. Fight Club does not only depict postmodern subjectivity in general as in crisis; rather, the suggestion is that in the postmodern era masculine subjectivity in particular is in trouble. Jack’s struggle to recuperate a sense of authentic masculine identity involves two different types of conflict: physical and political. Through physical violence we see fighting enacted in its arguably rawest sense: hyperreal violence with no coherent objective. Political conflict in this film includes but is not limited to physical brutality, propaganda, and acts of terrorism. The two different types of struggle in this film conduct themselves under the auspices of ‘Fight Club’ and ‘Project Mayhem’, respectively. Superficially, it would appear that Fight Club and Project Mayhem are two different things: Fight Club is for the sole purpose of men engaging in physical violence and an ensuing sense of abandon, while Project Mayhem is a tightly regimented organisation devoted to resisting and attacking the capitalist system and consumer culture. While considering the two different types of conflict in isolation would make it easier to unpack the complex set of ideas which the narrative device of fighting acts as a vehicle for in this film, this would be to ignore the fact that according to Fight Club the struggle for authentic subjectivity under late capitalism is a dubious objective to begin with, that “maybe it’s a mistake to believe in the existence of things, persons, or subjects” (Deleuze 26). Fight Club is represented as a way for Jack to subvert the ideology of late capitalism and its inherent consumerism that has, up to this point, defined his subjectivity. Fight Club potentially subverts the ideology of late capitalism in two ways: first, it provides a space where class hierarchy does not apply and allows lower-class workers to be momentarily “like gods” (this inversion proves, however, to be a hierarchical structure). Secondly, the evidence of physical violence can be read as subverting the ideology of respectable presentation in the bureaucratic work place. As Jack explains: “I got right in everyone’s hostile little face. Yes, these are bruises from fighting. Yes, I’m comfortable with that. I am enlightened.” Exactly what it is that is enlightening about fighting in this film is worth consideration. In the article ‘Fuck you Hero’ in Face magazine, Edward Norton describes the point of Fight Club as “needing the punch in the face to wake yourself up.” I think it’s about more than this. Notice that Jack continues to attend Fight Club long after he proclaims, “I am enlightened.” So, it’s safe to say it’s about more than simply ‘waking yourself up’. Jack describes how fighting makes him feel saved from the emptiness of his life, that it is “not about words.” An understanding of the explicit bodily violence depicted in Fight Club can be enhanced when considered with reference to John Fiske’s ‘Offensive Bodies and Carnival Pleasures’ (1989). Developing Michel de Certeau’s thesis that “there is no law that is not inscribed on bodies” (139), Fiske asserts the primacy of the body in ideological struggles, arguing “the body is where the social is most convincingly represented as the individual and where politics can best disguise itself as human nature” (70). In actively damaging the external façade of their bodies, therefore, the members of Fight Club reject the conservative politics that inscribe themselves on the neatly presented bodies of obedient workers. Fiske also makes reference to the psychoanalytic concept ‘jouissance’ defined as “a moment of pleasure when the body breaks free from social control” (94). Given that Jack describes the experience of Fight Club as defying words, fighting could be read as an experience of jouissance which allows members to escape the dominant system of signification and that momentarily transports these men, if not closer to the ‘truth’, at least further from social constraints. While Fight Club implicates other factors as being responsible for the contemporary demise of masculinity—including the breakdown of the family unit and absentee fathers—Tyler’s address to Fight Club foreshadowing Project Mayhem is perhaps the clearest articulation in Fight Club of the disaffection felt by these men and its alleged cause: I see in Fight Club the strongest and smartest men who have ever lived—an entire generation pumping gas and waiting tables; or they’re slaves with white collars…Advertisements have them chasing cars and clothes, working jobs they hate so they can buy shit they don’t need. We are the middle children of history, with no purpose or place. We have no Great War, or great depression. The great war is a spiritual war. The great depression is our lives. We were raised by television to believe that we’d be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars—but we won’t. And we’re learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off. Following this speech, Tyler hands out homework assignments. Tasks include the incitement of violence in the wider community, and the calculated vandalism of billboards, car-yards and public art. Tyler completes his own homework assignment, threatening a convenience store attendant with death unless he takes steps immediately to return to college and pursue his dream. This scene is exemplary of the ideology of ‘following your dream’, a perversion of the capitalist ethos, that pervades Fight Club. While threatening to drive the car they are both in into oncoming traffic, Tyler urges Jack to decide what it is he wants to accomplish before he dies. This appeal to individual fulfilment contradicts the hyper-collective mentality of Project Mayhem, which dictates that members renounce their names, shave their heads, wear identical black clothing and immerse themselves in dogma: “You are not special. You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake.” Tyler’s appeal to Jack to “stop trying to control everything and just let go” is dissonant with the tightly regimented structure of Project Mayhem, complete with teams and committees. The notion of pain as a portal to ‘your true self’ is recalled when Tyler gives Jack a chemical burn. Tyler expounds: Without pain…we’d have nothing…what you’re feeling is premature enlightenment. This is the greatest moment of your life…It’s only after you’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything. This ideology of abandon, of ‘losing it all,’ is contradicted throughout Fight Club by Tyler’s equal appeal to rules and structure. Furthermore, Jack’s description of the feelings he experienced after fighting—“when the fight was over, nothing was solved, but nothing mattered”—seems to be embracing the converse: if nothing was solved and nothing mattered, surely ‘finding yourself’ is not important. Slavoj Zizek’s consideration of the postmodern individual can stand as a summary of the depiction of subjectivity in Fight Club. Zizek posits a subjectivity that knows no limits, when [t]he inherent obverse of ‘Be your true Self!’ is…the injunction to cultivate permanent refashioning, in accordance with the postmodern postulate of the subject’s indefinite plasticity…in short, extreme individualism reverts to its opposite, leading to the ultimate identity crisis: subjects experience themselves as radically unsure, with no ‘proper face’, changing from one imposed mask to another, since what is behind that mask is ultimately nothing, a horrifying void they are frantically trying to fill in with their compulsive activity… (373) In this sense, the narrative on subjectivity in Fight Club becomes extremely complicated, conflating extreme individualism (“follow your dream”), extreme collectivism (“you are not special”), and an endless shifting from mask to mask to mask (Cornelius—Jack—Tyler…) where no mask is privileged as more authentic than another. Fight Club is fundamentally ambivalent towards all of the issues it would explore. It promotes a discourse of ‘finding yourself’ while simultaneously insisting “you are not a beautiful and unique snowflake.” Does it all simply dissolve into postmodern irony, or does a kernel of significance remain? Beneath the contradictions the message regarding subjectivity seems to be this: the only ‘authentic’ thing about contemporary subjectivity is that at its heart lies a void. Embracing this void, while a bleak prospect, rather than frantically trying to compensate for its absence, is the only authentic gesture that remains. Works Cited Baudrillard, Jean. ‘The Ecstasy of Communication’. 1983. Trans. John Johnston. Postmodern Culture. Ed. Hal Foster. London: Pluto Press, 1990. . Simulations. Trans. Paul Foss, Paul Patton and Philip Beitchman. New York: Semiotext(e), 1983. De Certeau, Michel. The Practice of Everyday Life. 1984. Trans. Stephen Rendall. London: University of California Press, 1988. Deleuze, Gilles and Felix Guattari. A Thousand Plateaus: capitalism and schizophrenia. 1987. Trans. Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002. Deleuze, Gilles. Negotiations: 1972-1990. New York: Columbia UP, 1995. Fight Club. Dir. David Fincher. Twentieth Century Fox, 1999. Fiske, John. ‘Offensive Bodies and Carnival Pleasures’. Understanding Popular Culture. 1989. London: Routledge, 1996. McLean, Craig. ‘Fuck you Hero.’ Face. #35, December 1999. Zizek, Slavoj. The Ticklish Subject: the Absent Centre of Political Ontology. London: Verso, 1999. Citation reference for this article Substitute your date of access for Dn Month Year etc... MLA Style Greenwood, Kate. "“You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake” " M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 6.1 (2003). Dn Month Year < http://www.media-culture.org.au/0302/09-snowflake.php>. APA Style Greenwood, K., (2003, Feb 26). “You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake” . M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture, 6,(1). Retrieved Month Dn, Year, from http://www.media-culture.org.au/0302/09-snowflake.html

"verbiage very thinly sliced and plated up real nice" (Barrett 1)IntroductionMany of us share in an obsessive collecting of cookbooks and recipes. Torn or cut from newspapers and magazines, recipes sit swelling scrapbooks with bloated, unfilled desire. They’re non-hybrid seeds, peas under the mattress, an endless cycle of reproduction. Desire and narrative are folded into each other in our drive, as humans, to create meaning. But what holds us to narrative is good writing. And what can also drive desire is image—literal as well as metaphorical—the visceral pleasure of the gaze, or looking and viewing the sensually aesthetic and the work of the imagination. Creative WritingCooking, winemaking, and food and wine writing can all be considered art. For example, James Halliday (31), the eminent Australian wine critic, posed the question “Is winemaking an art?,” answering: “Most would say so” (31). Cookbooks are stories within stories, narratives that are both factual and imagined, everyday and fantastic—created by both writer and reader from where, along with its historical, cultural and publishing context, a text gets its meaning. Creative writing, in broad terms of genre, is either fiction (imagined, made-up) or creative nonfiction (true, factual). Genre comes from the human taxonomic impulse to create order from chaos through cataloguing and classification. In what might seem overwhelming infinite variety, we establish categories and within them formulas and conventions. But genres are not necessarily stable or clear-cut, and variation in a genre can contribute to its de/trans/formation (Curti 33). Creative nonfiction includes life writing (auto/biography) and food writing among other subgenres (although these subgenres can also be part of fiction). Cookbooks sit within the creative nonfiction genre. More clearly, dietary or nutrition manuals are nonfiction, technical rather than creative. Recipe writing specifically is perhaps less an art and more a technical exercise; generally it’s nonfiction, or between that and creative nonfiction. (One guide to writing recipes is Ostmann and Baker.) Creative writing is built upon approximately five, more or less, fundamentals of practice: point of view or focalisation or who narrates, structure (plot or story, and theme), characterisation, heightened or descriptive language, setting, and dialogue (not in any order of importance). (There are many handbooks on creative writing, that will take a writer through these fundamentals.) Style or voice derives from what a writer writes about (their recurring themes), and how they write about it (their vocabulary choice, particular use of imagery, rhythm, syntax etc.). Traditionally, as a reader, and writer, you are either a plot person or character person, but you can also be interested primarily in ideas or language, and in the popular or literary.Cookbooks as Creative NonfictionCookbooks often have a sense of their author’s persona or subjectivity as a character—that is, their proclivities, lives and thus ideology, and historical, social and cultural place and time. Memoir, a slice of the author–chef/cook’s autobiography, is often explicitly part of the cookbook, or implicit in the nature of the recipes, and the para-textual material which includes the book’s presentation and publishing context, and the writer’s biographical note and acknowledgements. And in relation to the latter, here's Australian wine educator Colin Corney telling us, in his biographical note, about his nascent passion for wine: “I returned home […] stony broke. So the next day I took a job as a bottleshop assistant at Moore Park Cellars […] to tide me over—I stayed three years!” (xi). In this context, character and place, in the broadest sense, are inevitably evoked. So in conjunction with this para-textual material, recipe ingredients and instructions, visual images and the book’s production values combine to become the components for authoring a fictive narrative of self, space and time—fictive, because writing inevitably, in a broad or conceptual sense, fictionalises everything, since it can only re-present through language and only from a particular point of view.The CookbooksTo talk about the art of cookbooks, I make a judgmental (from a creative-writer's point of view) case study of four cookbooks: Lyndey Milan and Colin Corney’s Balance: Matching Food and Wine, Sean Moran’s Let It Simmer (this is the first edition; the second is titled Let It Simmer: From Bush to Beach and Onto Your Plate), Kate Lamont’s Wine and Food, and Greg Duncan Powell’s Rump and a Rough Red (this is the second edition; the first was The Pig, the Olive & the Squid: Food & Wine from Humble Beginnings) I discuss reading, writing, imaging, and designing, which, together, form the nexus for interpreting these cookbooks in particular. The choice of these books was only relatively random, influenced by my desire to see how Australia, a major wine-producing country, was faring with discussion of wine and food choices; by the presence of discursive text beyond technical presentation of recipes, and of photographs and purposefully artful design; and by familiarity with names, restaurants and/or publishers. Reading Moran's cookbook is a model of good writing in its use of selective and specific detail directed towards a particular theme. The theme is further created or reinforced in the mix of narrative, language use, images and design. His writing has authenticity: a sense of an original, distinct voice.Moran’s aphoristic title could imply many things, but, in reading the cookbook, you realise it resonates with a mindfulness that ripples throughout his writing. The aphorism, with its laidback casualness (legendary Australian), is affectively in sync with the chef’s approach. Jacques Derrida said of the aphorism that it produces “an echo of really curious, indelible power” (67).Moran’s aim for his recipes is that they be about “honest, home-style cooking” and bringing “out a little bit of the professional chef in the home cook”, and they are “guidelines” available for “sparkle” and seduction from interpretation (4). The book lives out this persona and personal proclivities. Moran’s storytellings are specifically and solely highlighted in the Contents section which structures the book via broad categories (for example, "Grains" featuring "The dance of the paella" and "Heaven" featuring "A trifle coming on" for example). In comparison, Powell uses "The Lemon", for example, as well as "The Sheep". The first level of Contents in Lamont’s book is done by broad wine styles: sparkling, light white, robust white and so on, and the second level is the recipe list in each of these sections. Lamont’s "For me, matching food and wine comes down to flavour" (xiii) is not as dramatic or expressive as Powell’s "Wine: the forgotten condiment." Although food is first in Milan and Corney’s book’s subtitle, their first content is wine, then matching food with colour and specific grape, from Sauvignon Blanc to Barbera and more. Powell claims that the third of his rules (the idea of rules is playful but not comedic) for choosing the best wine per se is to combine region with grape variety. He covers a more detailed and diversified range of grape varieties than Lamont, systematically discussing them first-up. Where Lamont names wine styles, Powell points out where wine styles are best represented in Australian states and regions in a longish list (titled “13 of the best Australian grape and region combos”). Lamont only occasionally does this. Powell discusses the minor alternative white, Arneis, and major alternative reds such as Barbera and Nebbiolo (Allen 81, 85). This engaging detail engenders a committed reader. Pinot Gris, Viognier, Sangiovese, and Tempranillo are as alternative as Lamont gets. In contrast to Moran's laidbackness, Lamont emphasises professionalism: "My greatest pleasure as a chef is knowing that guests have enjoyed the entire food and wine experience […] That means I have done my job" (xiii). Her reminders of the obvious are, nevertheless, noteworthy: "Thankfully we have moved on from white wine/white meat and red wine/red meat" (xiv). She then addresses the alterations in flavour caused by "method of cooking" and "combination of ingredients", with examples. One such is poached chicken and mango crying "out for a vibrant, zesty Riesling" (xiii): but where from, I ask? Roast chicken with herbs and garlic would favour "red wine with silky tannin" and "chocolatey flavours" (xiii): again, I ask, where from? Powell claims "a different evolution" for his book "to the average cookbook" (7). In recipes that have "a wine focus", there are no "pretty […] little salads, or lavish […] cakes" but "brown" albeit tasty food that will not require ingredients from "poncy inner-city providores", be easy to cook, and go with a cheap, budget-based wine (7). While this identity-setting is empathetic for a Powell clone, and I am envious of his skill with verbiage, he doesn’t deliver dreaming or desire. Milan and Corney do their best job in an eye-catching, informative exemplar list of food and wine matches: "Red duck curry and Barossa Valley Shiraz" for example (7), and in wine "At-a-glance" tables, telling us, for example, that the best Australian regions for Chardonnay are Margaret River and the Adelaide Hills (53). WritingThe "Introduction" to Moran’s cookbook is a slice of memoir, a portrait of a chef as a young man: the coming into being of passion, skill, and professionalism. And the introduction to the introduction is most memorable, being a loving description of his frugal Australian childhood dinners: creations of his mother’s use of manufactured, canned, and bottled substitutes-for-the-real, including Gravox and Dessert Whip (1). From his travel-based international culinary education in handmade, agrarian food, he describes "a head of buffalo mozzarella stuffed with ricotta and studded with white truffles" as "sheer beauty", "ambrosial flavour" and "edible white 'terrazzo'." The consonants b, s, t, d, and r are picked up and repeated, as are the vowels e, a, and o. Notice, too, the comparison of classic Italian food to an equally classic Italian artefact. Later, in an interactive text, questions are posed: "Who could now imagine life without this peppery salad green?" (23). Moran uses the expected action verbs of peel, mince, toss, etc.: "A bucket of tiny clams needs a good tumble under the running tap" (92). But he also uses the unexpected hug, nab, snuggle, waltz, "wave of garlic" and "raining rice." Milan and Corney display a metaphoric-language play too: the bubbles of a sparkling wine matching red meat become "the little red broom […] sweep[ing] away the […] cloying richness" (114). In contrast, Lamont’s cookbook can seem flat, lacking distinctiveness. But with a title like Wine and Food, perhaps you are not expecting much more than information, plain directness. Moran delivers recipes as reproducible with ease and care. An image of a restaurant blackboard menu with the word "chook" forestalls intimidation. Good quality, basic ingredients and knowledge of their source and season carry weight. The message is that food and drink are due respect, and that cooking is neither a stressful, grandiose nor competitive activity. While both Moran and Lamont have recipes for Duck Liver Pâté—with the exception that Lamont’s is (disturbingly, for this cook) "Parfait", Moran also has Lentil Patties, a granola, and a number of breads. Lamont has Brioche (but, granted, without the yeast, seeming much easier to make). Powell’s Plateless Pork is "mud pies for grown-ups", and you are asked to cook a "vat" of sauce. This communal meal is "a great way to spread communicable diseases", but "fun." But his passionately delivered historical information mixed with the laconic attitude of a larrikin (legendary Australian again) transform him into a sage, a step up from the monastery (Powell is photographed in dress-up friar’s habit). Again, the obvious is noteworthy in Milan and Corney’s statement that Rosé "possesses qualities of both red and white wines" (116). "On a hot summery afternoon, sitting in the sun overlooking the view … what could be better?" (116). The interactive questioning also feeds in useful information: "there is a huge range of styles" for Rosé so "[g]rape variety is usually a good guide", and "increasingly we are seeing […] even […] Chambourcin" (116). Rosé is set next to a Bouillabaisse recipe, and, empathetically, Milan and Corney acknowledge that the traditional fish soup "can be intimidating" (116). Succinctly incorporated into the recipes are simple greyscale graphs of grape "Flavour Profiles" delineating the strength on the front and back palate and tongue (103).Imaging and DesigningThe cover of Moran’s cookbook in its first edition reproduces the colours of 1930–1940's beach towels, umbrellas or sunshades in matt stripes of blue, yellow, red, and green (Australian beaches traditionally have a grass verge; and, I am told (Costello), these were the colours of his restaurant Panoroma’s original upholstery). A second edition has the same back cover but a generic front cover shifting from the location of his restaurant to the food in a new subtitle: "From Bush to Beach and onto Your Plate". The front endpapers are Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach where Panoroma restaurant is embedded on the lower wall of an old building of flats, ubiquitous in Bondi, like a halved avocado, or a small shallow elliptic cave in one of the sandstone cliff-faces. The cookbook’s back endpapers are his bush-shack country. Surfaces, cooking equipment, table linen, crockery, cutlery and glassware are not ostentatious, but simple and subdued, in the colours and textures of nature/culture: ivory, bone, ecru, and cream; and linen, wire, wood, and cardboard. The mundane, such as a colander, is highlighted: humbleness elevated, hands at work, cooking as an embodied activity. Moran is photographed throughout engaged in cooking, quietly fetching in his slim, clean-cut, short-haired, altar-boyish good-looks, dressed casually in plain bone apron, t-shirt (most often plain white), and jeans. While some recipes are traditionally constructed, with the headnote, the list of ingredients and the discursive instructions for cooking, on occasion this is done by a double-page spread of continuous prose, inviting you into the story-telling. The typeface of Simmer varies to include a hand-written lookalike. The book also has a varied layout. Notes and small images sit on selected pages, as often as not at an asymmetric angle, with faux tape, as if stuck there as an afterthought—but an excited and enthusiastic afterthought—and to signal that what is informally known is as valuable as professional knowledge/skill and the tried, tested, and formally presented.Lamont’s publishers have laid out recipe instructions on the right-hand side (traditional English-language Western reading is top down, left to right). But when the recipe requires more than one item to be cooked, there is no repeated title; the spacing and line-up are not necessarily clear; and some immediate, albeit temporary, confusion occurs. Her recipes, alongside images of classic fine dining, carry the implication of chefing rather than cooking. She is photographed as a professional, with a chef’s familiar striped apron, and if she is not wearing a chef’s jacket, tunic or shirt, her staff are. The food is beautiful to look at and imagine, but tackling it in the home kitchen becomes a secondary thought. The left-hand section divider pages are meant to signal the wines, with the appropriate colour, and repetitive pattern of circles; but I understood this belatedly, mistaking them for retro wallpaper bemusedly. On the other hand, Powell’s bog-in-don’t-wait everyday heartiness of a communal stewed dinner at a medieval inn (Peasy Lamb looks exactly like this) may be overcooked, and, without sensuousness, uninviting. Images in Lamont’s book tend toward the predictable and anonymous (broad sweep of grape-vined landscape; large groups of people with eating and drinking utensils). The Lamont family run a vineyard, and up-market restaurants, one photographed on Perth’s river dockside. But Sean's Panoroma has a specificity about it; it hasn’t lost its local flavour in the mix with the global. (Admittedly, Moran’s bush "shack", the origin of much Panoroma produce and the destination of Panoroma compost, looks architect-designed.) Powell’s book, given "rump" and "rough" in the title, stridently plays down glitz (large type size, minimum spacing, rustic surface imagery, full-page portraits of a chicken, rump, and cabbage etc). While not over-glam, the photography in Balance may at first appear unsubtle. Images fill whole pages. But their beautifully coloured and intriguing shapes—the yellow lime of a white-wine bottle base or a sparkling wine cork beneath its cage—shift them into hyperreality. White wine in a glass becomes the edge of a desert lake; an open fig, the jaws of an alien; the flesh of a lemon after squeezing, a sea anemone. The minimal number of images is a judicious choice. ConclusionReading can be immersive, but it can also hover critically at a meta level, especially if the writer foregrounds process. A conversation starts in this exchange, the reader imagining for themselves the worlds written about. Writers read as writers, to acquire a sense of what good writing is, who writing colleagues are, where writing is being published, and, comparably, to learn to judge their own writing. Writing is produced from a combination of passion and the discipline of everyday work. To be a writer in the world is to observe and remember/record, to be conscious of aiming to see the narrative potential in an array of experiences, events, and images, or, to put it another way, "to develop the habit of art" (Jolley 20). Photography makes significant whatever is photographed. The image is immobile in a literal sense but, because of its referential nature, evocative. Design, too, is about communication through aesthetics as a sensuous visual code for ideas or concepts. (There is a large amount of scholarship on the workings of image combined with text. Roland Barthes is a place to begin, particularly about photography. There are also textbooks dealing with visual literacy or culture, only one example being Shirato and Webb.) It is reasonable to think about why there is so much interest in food in this moment. Food has become folded into celebrity culture, but, naturally, obviously, food is about our security and survival, physically and emotionally. Given that our planet is under threat from global warming which is also driving climate change, and we are facing peak oil, and alternative forms of energy are still not taken seriously in a widespread manner, then food production is under threat. Food supply and production are also linked to the growing gap between poverty and wealth, and the movement of whole populations: food is about being at home. Creativity is associated with mastery of a discipline, openness to new experiences, and persistence and courage, among other things. We read, write, photograph, and design to argue and critique, to use the imagination, to shape and transform, to transmit ideas, to celebrate living and to live more fully.References Allen, Max. The Future Makers: Australian Wines for the 21st Century. Melbourne: Hardie Grant, 2010. Barratt, Virginia. “verbiage very thinly sliced and plated up real nice.” Assignment, ENG10022 Writing from the Edge. Lismore: Southern Cross U, 2009. [lower case in the title is the author's proclivity, and subsequently published in Carson and Dettori. Eds. Banquet: A Feast of New Writing and Arts by Queer Women]Costello, Patricia. Personal conversation. 31 May 2012. Curti, Lidia. Female Stories, Female Bodies: Narrative, Identity and Representation. UK: Macmillan, 1998.Derrida, Jacques. "Fifty-Two Aphorisms for a Foreword." Deconstruction: Omnibus Volume. Eds. Andreas Apadakis, Catherine Cook, and Andrew Benjamin. New York: Rizzoli, 1989.Halliday, James. “An Artist’s Spirit.” The Weekend Australian: The Weekend Australian Magazine 13-14 Feb. (2010): 31.Jolley, Elizabeth. Central Mischief. Ringwood: Viking/Penguin 1992. Lamont, Kate. Wine and Food. Perth: U of Western Australia P, 2009. Milan, Lyndey, and Corney, Colin. Balance: Matching Food and Wine: What Works and Why. South Melbourne: Lothian, 2005. Moran, Sean. Let It Simmer. Camberwell: Lantern/Penguin, 2006. Ostmann, Barbara Gibbs, and Jane L. Baker. The Recipe Writer's Handbook. Canada: John Wiley, 2001.Powell, Greg Duncan. Rump and a Rough Red. Millers Point: Murdoch, 2010. Shirato, Tony, and Jen Webb. Reading the Visual. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin, 2004.