This journal started in 2009 has already published four editions in 2010. Although editorial staff is international there does appear to be an operation focus on Indian accademics.

The first five editions appear to have quite a strong focus on West African studies, mainly in the analytical area (chemical and microbial) and often focussed on local produce.

The finding of this study reported on in Science Daily raises the question of how well the food manufacturers are, or want to educate the consumer to understand what their products contain and how this compares to other products.

So the consumer has understood correctly that the antioxidants (mainly polyphenols) in tea are good for them. Wanting tastier and more convenient sources of polyhenols they try and start to use bottled tea based beverages.

But what health benefit are the processors giving them – as always that depends, but a recent study by Shiming Li, a natural product chemist at WellGen Inc showed that bottled teas have polyphenols as low as 5% of a brewed cup of tea. This means that the antioxidant benefit of 1 cup of tea would be equivalent to 20 bottles of this tea.

Besides missing the health benefits bottled teas contain sugar, additives which means that drinking the large volumes to get the antioxidants can have other negative effects on the diet.

How many other products reflect a similar situation where the consumer is not really aware of what they are getting. Many fruit juice blend proclaim “100 % pure juice” not clearly noting the addition of water. Amarula Cream leads consumers to think it is produced from fruit collected in the community but in fact only a small fraction of the alcohol is. The actual quantity of sugar in carbonated beverages is not well understood. Organic, free range, corn fed and other similar terms related to “new age” foods are also not well understood and the certification of compliance is completely unclear to the consumer.

Think about it and email me your examples which I will publish!

This has no Food Processing but focusses in detail on the small scale management of cereals giving details information on spoilage, treatment, storage equipment and storage practices.

It is a well illustrated book that is aimed at the extension worker.

This is so simple but so powerful its sad its taken so long to happen and is the exception rather than the practice.

For years we have known and seen in reports and comments lately that the food aid is as much a mechanism for selling excess crops produced with farming subsidies and transporting it halfway around the world as feeding starving people.

In Timor-Leste the World Food Programme has worked with coffe exporter and government to modify a coffee factory into a processing facility producing corn soya blend (CSB) for the feeding of undernourished mothers and children.

The article goes through the difficulties such as introducing a quality structure, sourcing equipment, supporting farmers. However, the plant now produced 200 tons a year which meets a substantial part of the needs.

This Zambian company produces a wide range of canned fruit and vegetables.

These include a wide range of products using beans, tomatoes, onion, sweet corn, sundried tomatoes, cherry peppers, pineapple, guava, and gooseberries.

I remember some years ago when functional foods was one of the focuses of research at the CSIR Food Processing programme because it was an agreed on major trend in the Food Industry. At the CSIR it was difficult to find the food processors roll, it being more a discovery and testing focus. This lead to the programme loosing its enthusiasm and changing focus. It now seems that the Industry might loose its enthusiasm for functional foods as well, but for different reasons.

(click the image to open website)

The Industry’s problem lies in the complexity of advertising and selling the health claims associated with the foods.

The European Union has introduced new regulations for food health claims which seem to be approaching the demands of the pharmaceutical certification process, which makes no sense for the Food Industry which works on much smaller margins. There’s an interesting discussion on Beetroot health claims on the BBC Food Programme I posted on a few weeks ago.

In the United States there are a number of cases where major companies (Nestle, Damone, Wrigleys and General Mills included) are settling class action claims or being forced by the FederalTrade Commission to withdraw advertising.

I suppose well informed consumers will have learnt enough to continue buying these products but it must effect the projected growth. What opportunities will the consumer, not be offered, because of the less attractive business from a suppliers viewpoint.

I’m a firm believer in people doing best, if they work for themselves rather than accept handouts. I therefore support SMME job creation as one of the tools to removing poverty in rural areas of South Africa. However, many of those in poverty in South Africa need information to support them in starting their own business – that’s why I run this website. I hope people working with those in poverty are able to use this information to assist.

For Nelson Mandela’s birthday I have spent my 67 minutes putting this free spreadsheet online.

The spreadsheet can be run by anyone by clicking on the image above or using the link http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AqVCDdQFhqhwdGI3ZVM1RUVKVzNXUlprSXE5ampPZVE&hl=en and I also provide it free to anyone who emails me here.

The spreadsheet is easy to use and could therefore also be used by any potential entrepreneur able to access the INTERNET.

This manual, as its title implies is focussed on the farming of snails covering the topic in great depth.

There is, however quite a lot online on the marketing and processing of snails in a number of different sources. To have a look click this link and you will be assisted to make a google search which should give you a good start to finding useful information.

Anyone with information to share can email me here. and I will add links here.

This is a useful 40 page document from a USAID project. What is interesting about the document is that it addresses two levels, the overall GMP & HACCP process and suggestions on how to introduce them as well as the detailed information on design, finishes, practices, conditions of processing plants that all require attention.

The table of contents clarifies the scope of the report.