© 2001 British Nutrition Foundation Nutrition Bulletin, 26, 263–265

BOOKS AND OTHER MEDIA REVIEWS

Book reviews

Food Safety and Food Quality

Issues in Environmental Science andTechnology, no. 15

Edited by RE Hester and RM HarrisonRoyal Society of Chemistry2001ISBN 085404 270 9Price £32.50

Issues relating to the safety and quality of food receivefrequent and widespread coverage in the media. Clearly,consumers are anxious about the possible hazards, andrisks to their health, of the food they eat. In particular,genetically modified (GM) crops, pesticide residues infruit and vegetables, carcinogenic chemicals (such asdioxins), harmful micro-organisms (e.g. Escherichiacoli) and the incidence and control of bovine spongi-form encephalopathy (BSE) and variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD) raise public concern. Food Safetyand Food Quality provides a balanced and up-to-dateoverview of a wide range of these issues by a group ofauthoritative experts. The editors, Ronald E. Hester and Roy M. Harrison, are both former chairmen of theEnvironmental Group of the Royal Society of Chemistryand both are active in the field of environmental chemistry.

The book begins with a rational assessment of thesafety of GM food crops written by Andrew Chesson(Rowett Research Institute, Aberdeen, UK). He gives abalanced opinion on the possible hazards and analysisof risk, but concludes that there is currently no evidence

to suggest that GM food crops pose any risk to humanhealth.

Research priorities in food quality and food safety areaddressed by Geoff Andrew (Northern Foods), AlistairPenman (Unilever) and Chris Hart (Weetabix). Theauthors also cover chemical safety issues (including vet-erinary residues, such as hormones and antibiotics) anddiscuss the use of hazard analysis and critical controlpoints (HACCP) as a risk management tool.

Sewage sludge and agricultural wastes are just two ofthe biosolids that are involved in the increasing practiceof recycling. Jim Wright (Environmental ResourcesManagement) gives a detailed examination of the foodsafety issues relating to this, comparing practice in theUK and USA. The benefits of applying HACCP methodsare also described.

The next two chapters tackle the highly emotive issuesof BSE, vCJD and dietary carcinogenic hazards. DavidTaylor (SEDECON 2000) has a wealth of experience in researching the nature of transmissible degenerativeencephalopathies. Under the adventurous title ‘MadCows, Demented Humans and Food’, he approachesthis publicly debated topic with authority. A team fromthe University of California (Lois Gold, Thomas Sloneand Bruce Ames) next give an evaluation of the avail-able data on the natural and synthetic chemicals in thenormal diet that may cause cancer. They conclude that current methods for cancer risk-assessment of synthetic chemicals are flawed and can greatly exagger-ate risk. Conversely, the risks associated with many naturally occurring food chemicals are commonlyunderestimated.

Vision-based modelling of food quality is just one of the areas of research funded by the Ministry of

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Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF; now DEFRA)through their highly acclaimed Food LINK pro-grammes. Christina Goodacre (Head of MAFF’s FoodTechnology Unit), who wrote this chapter, explains thebackground to the programmes, providing a usefuloverview of how they work and explores the potentialfor science and engineering research to enhance foodquality and safety as well as the efficiency of manufacturing.

What is quality and how should we measure it? Thisdifficult question is posed by Peter Lillford (UnileverResearch) who addresses the issues of quality controland assurance. The pivotal role of the consumer and theimportant part played by expert tasting panels withrespect to perceived flavour, texture and ‘taste in themouth’ are discussed.

Food Safety and Food Quality is an easy-to-followtext for a wide readership, although some technicalpoints may be beyond the interest of a lay audience. Itdoes not pull any punches when tackling even the mostcontroversial issues, and certainly provides a well-balanced account of these.

This book would mainly be of relevance as a basicreference text to food scientists in industry and researchas well as food legislators and policy bodies. Severalchapters would be of interest to health professionals, inparticular, public health specialists and nutritionists.Students of food science and environmental sciencewould find it essential UK-focused reading, with usefulreferences provided within each chapter for more in-depth study.

Dr Frankie RobinsonBritish Nutrition Foundation

The Science of Cooking

Peter BarhamSpringer 2001ISBN 3 540 67466 7Price £19.95

This book comprises 13 chapters relating to scientificprinciples and different food commodities, plus a glos-sary of terms. The first chapter explains the author’s

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passion for food, and his interest in food science,through which we learn how he applies methodologiesused at his physics laboratory to his kitchen at home.The chapter explains the author’s beliefs of science insociety, and argues how a basic grounding in science isessential. Chapters 2–5 provide an introduction to theprinciples of food science, indicating the chemical andphysical changes that occur in foods as they are cooked.These changes are also well supplemented with a carefulappreciation of sensory characteristics and aspects offood.

Those with a strong science background may find theexplanations too simplistic, while others with little foodscience understanding may find it hard going. However,with the good use of everyday examples of food sciencein action, the chapters are easy to read and useful anno-tated diagrams help to visualise in the mind’s eye theinteraction at a molecular level. These opening chaptersoffer a useful reference to the basics of food science, asin later chapters their understanding is important toappreciate the complexity of different commodities.

Chapters 6–13 demonstrate the science behind arange of commodities and cooking techniques, withuseful experiments, i.e. recipes, to try yourself. A usefulpattern to these chapters is the short introduction witha summary of key learning points (each with an appro-priate reference to earlier chapters). These key pointshelp the reader to consolidate their learning, offer prac-tical cross-references to other chapters for more infor-mation and prepare the reader.

Most of the recipes provided could easily be made athome or at school, and are presented in a no-nonsensefashion. The descriptions and illustrations of things thatcould go wrong is particularly useful, as we often learnfrom our mistakes through the understanding of whatwent wrong and why. Peppered throughout are experi-ments that the author suggests could be tried at home.These experiments are intended to illustrate some of thescientific issues addressed in the chapters, while in addi-tion the author suggests they might just help to improveyour culinary skills and be a ‘bit of fun’.

Tinted boxes are provided within chapters to helpexplain complex scientific concepts in a lighter style.Some of these are based on the author’s experiences ofpresenting the science of cooking to various audiencesaround the UK, including one memorable anecdoteabout the Women’s Institute and a lecture entitled ‘ThePhysics of a Black Forest Gateau’.

Overall, I would recommend this book; it manages tobring the complex world of food science to life throughgood uses of real life explanations and experiences. Key

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© 2001 British Nutrition Foundation Nutrition Bulletin, 26, 263–265

audiences would be anyone with an inquiring mindabout the food they eat, but particularly for studentsundertaking courses in a food-related discipline. Theauthor suggests that ‘if he can influence a few young-sters to take science careers he would be well pleased’.With this publication, perhaps being used in school for

the new A-level food technology courses, his ambitionmight just be realised.

Roy BallamBritish Nutrition Foundation