italian food technology 65/2011

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ITALIANTECHNOLOGY

n. 65 - October 2011ISSN 1590-6515

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ITALIANTECHNOLOGY

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DEPARTMENTS

CONTENTS5 - CHEESE

Effects of different starter cultures on quality parameters of Fontina cheese

A. BarmazF. BianchiE. ChiavaroM. Musci

14 - EDIBLE OILDetermination of benzo[a]pyrene content in oils as a food ingredient

L. Le Grottaglie R. ScottiG. De VitaM. SicuranzaD. Naviglio

October2011

number 65

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ISSN 1120-1770

Italian Food & Beverage Technology - LXV (2011) october - 5

CHEESE

INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, cheeses are com-monly produced in industrial countries by means of commer-cial starter cultures. Addition of bacteria is an essential step in cheese-making towards a good-flavored cheese; in fact, cheeses produced without bacteria often fails to develop flavour during ripening (Gobbetti et al., 2007). Starter cultures also play an important role in the develop-ment of the final quality charac-teristics of cheese as colour, tex-ture and appearance. The prin-cipal starter culture species used in cheese manufacture belong to genera Lactococcus, Lactobacillus, Streptococcus, Leuconostoc, and Enterococcus. Either mesophilic or thermophilic cultures are used, depending on the cheese being manufactured. Mesophilic cul-tures are mainly composed of Lc.

lactis ssp. cremoris and Lc. lactis ssp. lactis, which may include citrate metabolizing strains in order to enhance flavour and eyes formation. Addition of lactobacilli in cheeses has been associated with an increased pro-teolysis and intensification of flavour (Ong et al., 2007; Buriti et al., 2005). Thermophilic start-ers are composed of either single or multiple strains of S. ther-mophilus and thermophilic lacto-bacilli such as Lb. delbrueckii spp. delbrueckii, Lb. delbrueckii spp. lac-tis or Lb. helveticus (Beresford et al., 2001).The primary role of starter bac-teria is to produce acid during the fermentation process; how-ever, they also strongly contrib-ute to the development of the unique flavour characteristics of each cheese variety (Gobbetti et al., 2007; Ong et al., 2007; Buriti et al., 2005; Beresford et al.,

A. BARMAZ1 - F. BIANCHI2 - E. CHIAVARO3* - M. MUSCI2

1Institut Agricole Régional - Regione La Rochère 1/A - 11100 Aosta - Italy2Dipartimento di Chimica Generale ed Inorganica, Chimica Analitica, Chimica Fisica

Università degli Studi di Parma - Parco Area delle Scienze 17/A - 43124 Parma - Italy3Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale - Università degli Studi di Parma

Parco Area delle Scienze 181/A - 43124 Parma - Italy*email: [email protected]

EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT

STARTER CULTURES ON QUALITY

PARAMETERS OF FONTINA CHEESE

Key words: Fontina cheese, starters, physical properties, volatile compounds

ABSTRACT

Selected physical properties (texture, colour and appearance) and volatile profi le of Fontina samples produced

by means of two different starter cultures were evaluated at 3 months

of ripening. Starter A was formed by 3 Streptococcus thermophilus strains; starter B was obtained by adding to starter A one strain of Lactobacillus

delbrueckii and one strain of Lactococcus lactis.

All data were statistically treated to evaluate and compare samples

produced with by the two different starter cultures. Slight differences were found among samples A and

B. In particular, samples produced with starter B were found to exhibit

higher hardness as well as higher percentage of small pores with more

regular shape. In addition, cheeses produced with starter B were

found to be generally characterized by higher amounts of alcohols,

aldehydes, ketones, esters, furans and hydrocarbons. In conclusion,

these results encouraged the development of research project for the assessment of the evaluation of alternative starter culture to those traditionally employed to improve organoleptic properties of Fontina

cheese.

CHEESE

6 - Italian Food & Beverage Technology - LXV (2011) october

2001; Smit et al., 2005; Marilley and Casey, 2004) and affect cheese properties as texture and appearance (Sousa et al., 2001). In fact, starter cultures are the main source of the enzymes that are involved in proteoly-sis, glycolysis and lipolysis, each pathways leading to aroma for-mation and organoleptic charac-teristics. Bacterial enzymes can degrade the caseins to peptides and free amino acids, which are major precursors of volatile com-pounds responsible for cheese flavour as sulfur compounds and branched-chain aldehydes, alcohols and esters (Smit et al., 2005). Starter bacteria are also involved in glycolysis: lactose is mainly converted to lactate, but a fraction of the intermedi-ate pyruvate can alternatively be converted to various flavour compounds, including diacetyl (Smit et al., 2005). Lactic acid bacteria contribute relatively lit-tle to lipolysis, another impor-tant pathway for aroma com-pounds formation (Smit et al., 2005).Fontina is a typical semi-hard cheese produced from raw cow’s milk in Valle d’Aosta (North-Western Italy), following well established traditional rules. Due to its specific organoleptic characteristics and to the partic-ular technology of production, the European Community regu-lation assigned it the Protected Designation of Origin status (Commission Regulation (EC) No 1107/96 of 12 June 1996, published in the Official Journal of the European Union, L148 of 21 June 1996). Traditionally, Fontina was produced with-out the addition of starter cul-tures. However, the quality

of the cheese production was not homogeneous and several defects were often detected in the finished product, so the use of starter cultures rapidly spread.In order to enhance and stand-ardize the quality of the cheese production, still maintaining its typical characteristics, a research project was developed to isolate native characteristic lactic bacteria from Fontina (Andrighetto et al., 2002). As a part of this project, selected physical properties (texture, col-our and appearance) and vola-tile profile of Fontina produced by using the same milk added with two different starters were evaluated in this work. In par-ticular, starter A, formed by 3 Streptococcus thermophilus strains, and starter B, obtained by add-ing to starter A one strain of Lactobacillus delbrueckii and one strain of Lactococcus lactis, were employed.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Starter culturesTwo starter cultures were used for Fontina cheese produc-tion: the starter A, formed by 3 Streptococcus thermophilus strains (M16PTZA4’96, MTH17CL3’96 and MT17BA7’96), and the starter B, obtained by adding to the starter A one strain of Lactobacillus delbrueckii spp. lac-t i s ( M R S B A F 2 4 0 4 3 ) a n d one strain of Lactococcus lactis (M17LELF24041) whose use is permitted by Fontina produc-tion rules. Freeze-dried starter cultures were both supplied by the Institut Agricole Régional.

Cheese samplesFontina cheeses were pro-duced during winter 2006 in the Montfleury dairy factory by the Institut Agricole Régional. A 500 L batch of milk was divided into two vats, one of which was added with 375 mg of freeze-dried starter A and the other one with 375 mg of freeze-dried starter B. Fontina samples were then prepared according to the production rules as described in a previous work (Berard et al., 2007) and analyzed after 3 months of ripening. Whole procedure was repeated using four independent milk batches; for each batch, 2 cheese samples produced with Starter A and 2 cheese samples produced with Starter B were analyzed.

Physical propertiesColour determination was car-ried out on three central slices (30 mm thickness) of each cheese using a Minolta Colourimeter (CM 2600d, Minolta Co., Osaka Japan) equipped with a standard illuminant D65. L* (lightness, black = 0, white = 100), a* (redness, a*> 0, greenness, a*< 0), b* (yellowness, b* > 0, blue <0) and H° (Hue angle, red =0°, yellow =90°, 180°=green, 270°=blue) were quantified on each sample using a 10° position of the standard observer. The instrument was calibrated before each analysis with white and black standard tiles. Colour was determined on 3 pre-selected locations on both sides of the slice. A total of 18 determina-tions were performed for each cheese.The individual differences in L*, a* and b* values of cheese sam-ples differently inoculated were

CHEESE


evaluated using ΔE calculation (CIE, 1978).Texture evaluation was per-formed using a TA.XT2 Texture Analyzer equipped with a 25 kg load cell (Stable Micro Systems, Goldalming, UK) and Texture Expert for Windows software (version 1.22) for data analysis. The load cell calibration was daily performed according to the TA.XT2 manual (Stable Micro Systems).Texture profile analysis was car-ried out to evaluate cheese tex-ture using a cylindrical aluminum probe (35 mm diameter) and a crosshead speed of 120 mm min-1 to compress cheese samples to 30% of their original height at room temperature (25°±0.5°C). Measurements were carried out on three central slices of each cheese. Three cheese samples (30 mm x 30 mm x 30 mm) were extracted from each slice. A total of nine samples were evaluated for each cheese.The textural parameters consid-ered were hardness (Hd, peak force of the first compression cycle in N), cohesiveness (Co, ratio of positive force area dur-ing the second compression to that during the first compression area, dimensionless), springiness (Sp, ratio of the time duration of force input during the second compression to that during the first compression, dimension-less), and chewiness (Ch, hard-ness multiplied by cohesiveness multiplied by springiness, N) (Bourne, 1978).Cheese grain was evaluated by means of a digital image analysis system. For each cheese sample, images of both faces of three central slices (30 mm thickness) were captured with a flatbed

scanner (Model Scanjet 8200, HP, Cupertino, USA), with a resolution of 600 dots per inch (dpi) and converted from true colour to 256 level grey scale. The images were calibrated, standardized and optimized applying appropriate filters to measure pore size and their dis-tribution using the Image-Pro Plus 4.5 (Media Cybernetics Inc., USA) software.Cheese grain was character-ized by enumerating the holes present in six pre-selected dimensional classes based on their area (class 1 = <2 mm2;

class 2 = 2-4.99 mm2; class 3 = 5-9.99 mm2; class 4 = 10-24.99 mm2; class 5 = 25-40 mm2, class 6 = >40) and the number of holes by each class (expressed as percentage of the total number of holes) was evaluated. Cheese grain was also characterized by means of radius ratio (RR), defined as the ratio between major and minor hole radius, enumerating the holes present on each slice in four pre-selected dimensional classes based on their values (class 1 = 1-1.99; class 2 = 2-4.99; class 3 = 5-10; class 4= >10) and the number of holes by each class (expressed as percentage of the total number of holes) was eval-uated. Holes with perfect circu-lar shape showed RR = 1.

Characterizationof the volatile profileFontina samples, rind deprived, were frozen under liquid nitro-gen, ground in a domestic blend-er and stored at -20°C in screw-cap glass vials until analysis.Ten grams of finely ground cheese were placed in a 200 mL Erlenmeyer flask at the tempera-

ture of 40°C and submitted to the dynamic headspace extrac-tion (DHS) for 30 min using purified nitrogen (60 mL min-1).The extracted volatiles were concentrated on a Tenax TA®

trap (Chrompack, Middelburg, The Netherlands) filled with 90 mg, 20-35 mesh of the adsorb-ent material. The adsorbent trap was then back-flushed with the purified gas for 5 min to remove trapped moisture. Volatiles were automatically thermally des-orbed and transferred to the GC column by using a TCT thermal desorption cold trap (TD800, Fisons Instruments, Milan, Italy). Desorption was performed at 280°C for 10 min under a helium flow (10 mL min-1): the volatile compounds were cryofocused in a glass lined tube at -120°C with liquid nitro-gen and then injected into the GC capillary column by heating the cold trap to 240°C. Three independent DHS extractions were performed for each sample. In order to verify possible envi-ronmental contamination, blank analyses were carried out using an empty 200 mL Erlenmeyer flask following the same pro-cedure as for the sample. To assess the presence of carry-over effects, the adsorbent trap was also desorbed before and after each entire sampling procedure.A TRACE GC 2000 gas chro-matograph (Thermo Electron Corporation, Walthan, MA, USA) equipped with a Finningan TRACE MS mass spectrometer (Thermo Electron Corporation) was used for GC-MS analysis. Helium was used as the carrier gas at a flow rate of 1 mL min-1. Chromatographic separation was performed on a 30 m 0.25 mm,

CHEESE


df 0.25 µm Supelcowax-10™

capillary column (Supelco, Palo Alto, CA, USA). The follow-ing GC oven temperature pro-gram was applied: 35°C for 8 min, 6°C min-1 to 60°C, 4°C min-1 to 160°C, 20°C min-1 to 200°C, 200°C hold for 1 minute. Transfer line and source were maintained at the tem-perature of 250° and 230°C, respectively. Electron impact mass spectra were recorded at 70 eV ionization energy scan-ning the mass spectrometer from 35 to 350 amu (scan time, 0.5 s). Signal acquisition and data processing were performed using the Excalibur V 1.2 (Thermo Electron Corporation). The identification of the volatile compounds was performed by comparing the obtained mass spectra with those stored in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) US Government library. In addition, retention indices (RIs) were cal-culated for each peak and com-pared with those stored in a proprietary database (Bianchi et al., 2007). C6-C16 normal alkanes used for RIs calculation were supplied by Sigma-Aldrich (Milan, Italy). In order to evalu-

ate quantitative differences in the aromatic profile of the sam-ples investigated, gas chroma-tographic peak areas were cal-culated as Total Ion Current (TIC) for all the analytes with the exception of coeluting com-pounds for which the signal of one or more characteristic ions (quantifier ions) was extracted and integrated.

Statistical analysisAll statistical analyses were car-ried out by using the Excel soft-ware version 2000 (Microsoft Corporation, USA). A F-test (p ≤ 0.05) was firstly performed for each volatile compounds to evaluate the homogeneity of the variance between chroma-tographic data of cheeses com-ing from same milk batch and processed with different starters (i.e. data from sample 1A were compared with those from sam-ple 1B). Depending on the F-test results, suitable Student t-tests (p ≤ 0.05) were performed. Hotelling’s T-square (T2) test was performed for the evalua-tion of the overall effect of the starter culture on physical prop-erties of Fontina (Johnson et al., 2003).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Physical propertiesThe effect of the addition of different starter cultures on Fontina cheeses was evaluated taking into account colour, tex-ture and macroscopic appear-ance of cheese. Data for physical properties were all summarized in Table 1.Color indices of the analyzed samples were found to not sig-nificantly differ according to T2 test. Low ΔE value (0.7) was also obtained comparing sam-ples obtained with the two starter cultures. This ΔE value was reported to correspond to the sensory difference threshold for cheese (Rohm et al., 1996). Color of cheese was reported to be influenced by composition of milk employed for its production (profile of lipid fraction) that also may vary according to sea-sonality factors (Chatelain et al., 2003) and ripening (Rohm et al., 1996). Since milk used for the production of all Fontina samples was the same, differences in the color of cheeses produced with different starter cultures were not

Table 1 Mean±standard deviation of physical properties for Fontina samples.

Sample L* a* b* H° Hd (N) Co Sp Ch (N)

1A 79.9±1.5 -0.04±0.12 13.0±0.6 90.2±0.3 54.4±5.5 0.62±0.01 0.87±0.02 29.2±3.7

1B 77.6±1.7 -0.69±0.09 13.1±0.6 93.0±0.5 70.7±2.7 0.61±0.01 0.90±0.02 38.6±4.4

2A 75.9±2.4 -0.35±0.21 13.0±0.4 91.6±0.4 62.0±5.9 0.60±0.01 0.84±0.03 31.7±5.5

2B 78.1±1.7 -0.09±0.13 13.1±0.6 90.4±0.6 67.9±4.0 0.61±0.01 0.87±0.02 41.6±4.4

3A 75.5±2.5 -0.59±0.11 13.3±0.6 92.5±0.5 60.6±4.6 0.61±0.01 0.86±0.01 32.0±3.2

3B 75.1±2.5 -0.33±0.10 12.9±0.6 91.5±0.4 71.3±3.1 0.62±0.01 0.88±0.03 38.7±4.0

4A 80.3±1.2 -0.25±0.30 12.5±0.4 92.5±0.5 47.8±3.5 0.61±0.01 0.85±0.02 25.0±2.3

4B 77.9±1.3 -0.22±0.23 12.9±0.5 91.5±0.4 58.7±5.2 0.62±0.01 0.86±0.03 31.0±3.0

CHEESE


expected, as confirmed by the obtained results. Hardness (Hd, N), springiness (Sp, dimension-less) and chewiness (Ch, N) of all samples were shown in Table 1. Hardness and chewiness were found to be higher for samples inoculated with starter B, except

for samples coming from milk batch no. 1.Cheese texture was reported to be largely influenced by prote-olysis (Lucey et al., 2003) and in a less extent by fat composition (Pollard et al., 2003). A differ-ent pattern and/or amount of

small molecules may be formed by proteolysis in samples differ-ently inoculated. Thus, the dif-ferent degree of water retention by solvation of carboxylic and amino group formed by prote-olysis may have influenced hard-ness of Fontina samples, as tex-ture was found to be related to water and its availability to bond components in cheese (Lawrence et al., 1986). The influence of lipolytic pathway that may have induced a different degree of breakdown in fatty acid moie-ties of triacylglycerols on texture cannot be excluded.The evaluation of number of pores for each dimensional class of evaluated area was reported in Fig. 1. Significant differences were found among differently inoculated cheeses according to T2 test. In particular, a sig-nificantly higher percentage of small pores (area < 2 mm2) was present in samples inoculated with starter B that accounted for about 40% of the total evaluated holes. In addition, Fontina sam-ples produced with the starter B exhibited holes with more regu-lar shape (RR values, data not shown).These results appeared to con-firm the hypothesis of a dif-ferent proteolytic activity and/or metabolic pathways of the two starter cultures employed as the presence of gas holes (and mechanical openness and/or fissures) on cheese was pre-viously related to the produc-tion of CO

2 by Lactobacilli and

other microorganism, as a result of their heterofermentative or citrate metabolism, as well as to the decarboxylation of free amino acids following proteoly-sis (Menendéz et al., 2000).

Fig. 1 - Number of pores as percentage of the total number of pores for the selected six dimensional classes of hole area of Fontina samples: A) samples produced with starter A; B) samples produced with starter B (n = 3, sample size = 6). Error bars represent +/-1 standard deviation, RSD < 15%.

CHEESE


Volatile profilecharacterizationDHS-GC-MS allowed to char-acterize the volatile profile of Fontina cheese samples in terms of both nature of the volatile compounds and their relative abundance.A total of 75 compounds belong-ing to several chemical classes was identified in the volatile fraction of the 3-month ripened Fontina samples, namely 13 alcohols, 12 aldehydes, 11 esters, 11 ketones, 6 aromatic hydrocarbons, 6 linear hydrocarbons, 5 furans, 4 sul-fur compounds, 4 halogen com-pounds and 3 terpenes (Table 2).Fig. 2 showed typical gas chroma-tograms of DHS extracts obtained from Fontina samples produced using the milk batch no. 1 inocu-lated with different starters. From a qualitative point of view, not significant differences were found in volatile profile of the analyzed samples depending on the starter culture used, as similar patterns were observed (Table 2). In order to evaluate quantitative differ-ences among volatile profiles of differently processed cheeses, gas chromatographic peak areas were submitted to statistical analysis. A good repeatability of the uti-lized procedure was proved by a coefficient of variation of the method lower than 20% (n =3) for most of the compounds. From a quantitative point of view, not significant differences were found for most of the volatile com-pounds present in the aromatic profile of the analyzed Fontina samples, meaning that the sam-ples obtained by using starter B maintained the typical flavour characteristics of Fontina cheese. However, significant differences were found for a limited number

of volatile compounds, probably due to different metabolism of the used lactic bacteria. In fact, it can be observed that all the Fontina samples produced by using the starter B showed, a higher amount of the compounds listed in Table 3 with respect to those produced by using the starter A.As for the branched-chain alde-hydes, the amount of 2-meth-ylpropanal in samples produced with starter B was 1.5-3 fold high-er than that observed in corre-sponding samples produced with starter A, whereas for 2-methyl-butanal and 3-methylbutanal the increase is about of 1.5-2.5 fold.The production of branched-chain amino acid-derived aldehydes has been reported for lactococci and lactobacilli (Marilley et al., 2004). It is well known that branched-chain aldehydes 2-methylbutan-al and 3-methylbutanal derive from the corresponding amino acids leucine and isoleucine by Strecker degradation (Smit et al., 2005; Belitz et al., 1987). As for sensory characteristics, 2-meth-ylpropanal, 2-methylbutanal

and 3-methylbutanal are char-acterized by a malty flavour. In addition, 3-methylbutanal was reported to play an important role on the flavour of many chees-es as Proosdij and Parmigiano-Reggiano (Bosset et al., 1993; Ayad et al. 2003; Barbieri et al., 1994). Unfortunately, no data are available about the impact of branched-chain aldehydes on Fontina flavour.Among aliphatic linear aldehydes, only butanal showed a signifi-cant difference among two kinds of cheeses, being 1.5-3 folds higher in samples obtained from starter B (with the exception of cheeses samples obtained from milk batch no. 2, for which the difference was not significant). Straight-chain aldehydes such as butanal, responsible of the “green grass-like” aroma, may be formed through β-oxidation of unsatu-rated fatty acids released from enzymatic lipolysis of milk trig-lycerides (Marilley et al., 2004; Belitz et al., 1987).The amount of the corresponding methylketone 2-butanone dou-bles in samples obtained with

Fig. 2 - GC-MS volatile profiles of cheese samples (a) 1A and (b) 1B.

CHEESE


Table 2 Volatile compounds identifi ed in the Fontina headspace.

Na RIcalc

RItab

b IDc

Alcohols (13)

27 ethanol (m/z=45)d 937 932 MS,RI

39 2-butanol 1032 1035 MS,RI

41 1-propanol 1047 1052 MS,RI

47 2-methylpropanol 1102 1097 MS,RI

52 2-pentanol (m/z=45)d 1140 1142 MS,RI

56 1-butanol (m/z=56)d 1154 1152 MS,RI

57 1-penten-3-ol 1174 1176 MS,RI

58 4-methyl-2-pentanol 1178 MS

64 3-methylbutanol 1216 1215 MS,RI

67 1-pentanol 1254 1256 MS,RI

71 2-heptanol 1325 1334 MS,RI

72 2-methyl-2-buten-1-ol 1327 MS

74 1-hexanol 1355 1354 MS,RI

Aldehydes (12)

8 propanal (m/z=58)d 79 801 MS,RI

10 2-methylpropanal (m/z=72)d 812 814 MS,RI

12 2-propenal 844 MS

17 butanal 879 878 MS,RI

18 2-methyl-2-propenal 880 MS

23 2-methylbutanal 916 914 MS,RI

24 3-methylbutanal 920 917 MS,RI

33 pentanal 979 977 MS,RI

45 hexanal 1081 1080 MS,RI

61 heptanal 1188 1186 MS,RI

70 octanal 1286 1286 MS,RI

75 nonanal 1397 1396 MS,RI

Ketones (11)

11 acetone (m/z=58)d 819 814 MS,RI

21 2-butanone (m/z=57,72)d 901 901 MS,RI

26 3-methyl-2-butanone 932 MS

32 2-pentanone 979 980 MS,RI

34 diacetyl 982 986 MS,RI

37 3-methyl-2-pentanone 1013 MS

43 2,3-pentanedione 1065 1071 MS,RI

55 3-hexanone-2,5-dimethyl (m/z=57,85)d 1161 MS

60 2-heptanone 1188 1185 MS,RI

69 cyclohexanone 1283 1282 MS,RI

73 2,3-octanedione 1331 MS

Esters (11)

19 ethyl acetate 891 893 MS,RI

22 methyl propanoate (m/z=88)d 914 911 MS,RI

25 methyl isobutanoate 932 930 MS,RI

Na RIcalc

RItab

b IDc

30 ethyl propanoate 955 957 MS,RI

31 ethyl isobutanoate 959 960 MS,RI

35 methyl butanoate (m/z=74)d 986 982 MS,RI

36 methyl 2-methyl butanoate (m/z=88)d 1008 MS

50 isopentyl acetate 1126 1125 MS,RI

63 methyl hexanoate (m/z=74)d 1194 1190 MS,RI

65 ethyl hexanoate 1239 1238 MS,RI

68 isopentyl butanoate 1268 1267 MS,RI

Hydrocarbons (6)

1 hexane 600 600 MS,RI

2 1-hexene 639 MS

3 heptane 700 700 MS,RI

5 1-heptene (m/z=56,70,98)d 727 MS

9 octane (m/z=57,71,85)d 800 800 MS,RI

13 2-octene 850 846 MS,RI

Aromatic hydrocarbons (6)

28 benzene (m/z=78)d 937 936 MS,RI

40 toluene 1038 1040 MS,RI

49 ethylbenzene 1124 1125 MS,RI

51 p-xilene 1129 1127 MS,RI

53 m-xilene(m/z=91,106)d 1140 1132 MS,RI

59 o-xilene 1182 1182 MS,RI

Furanes (5)

14 tetrahydrofuran 855 MS

15 2-methyltetrahydrofuran 865 MS

16 2-methylfuran 870 876 MS,RI

20 3-methylfuran 898 MS

29 2-ethylfuran 948 945 MS,RI

Halogen compounds (4)

7 2-chloro butane 795 MS

38 chloroform 1020 1018 MS,RI

54 1-chloroheptane 1155 MS

66 1-chlorooctane 1245 MS

Sulfur compounds (4)

4 carbon disulfi de (m/z=76)d 720 MS

6 dimetilsulfi de (m/z=62)d 743 745 MS,RI

42 S-methyl thioacetate 1052 MS

44 dimethyldisulfi de 1072 1075 MS,RI

Terpenes (3)

46 β-pinene 1093 1095 MS,RI

48 p-menth-2-ene 1118 MS

62 limonene 1195 1194 MS,RI

aN = elution order;bRItab = identifi cation by comparison with RI home-made data-base;cID: MS = identifi cation by comparison with NIST mass spectrum; RI = identifi cation by comparison with retention indices;dIn parentheses, fragments used for GC-MS peaks integration.

CHEESE


starter B, except for samples com-ing from batch no. 2, for which the increase was not significant. 2-butanone can derive from free fatty acids by enzymatic oxida-tive decarboxylation (McSweeney et al., 2000) as well as from diacetyl (Gobbetti et al., 2007).Statistically significant differenc-es were found also for diacetyl (2,3-butanedione) levels, which amount increased about 1.5 fold using starter B, except that for samples produced by using the milk batch no. 3. Diacetyl is a typical compound character-izing cheese flavour, produced by metabolism of citrate and lactose (Marilley et al., 2004) and respon-sible for a creamy flavour (Welsh et al., 1989). Thermophilic starter bacteria are usually citrate-nega-tive (Cogan et al., 1993) so the increase of the content of diacetyl in samples obtained with starter culture B could be ascribed to

the presence of the mesophilic citrate-positive Lc. lactis.A significant increase was also observed for some alcohols, as 2-butanol, 2-methylpropanol and 3-methylbutanol. The amount of 2-butanol, the most abundant volatile compound in Fontina (Berard et al., 2007), was found to increase from 2 (milk batch no. 2) to 5 fold (milk batch no. 3). The levels of 2-methylpro-panol and 3-methylbutanol also increased using starter culture B, particularly for cheeses obtained using milk batch no. 3. 2-butanol could be formed by the reduc-tion of diacetyl (Urbach, 1993) whereas branched-chain alco-hols, producing a slightly sweet, fresh flavour, could be obtained from the reduction of the cor-responding branched-chain alde-hydes by alcohol dehydrogenase (Smit et al., 2005; Marilley et al., 2004).

CONCLUSIONS

In conclusion, significant dif-ferences were found for texture and appearance, but not for col-our, depending on starter cul-tures used. Differences were also obtained in the amount of some volatile compounds depending on starter culture; in particular, cheeses produced with the starter B were found to be generally characterized by higher amounts of alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, esters, furans, and hydrocarbons. Anyway, these differences cannot be considered discriminant for the quality of the product, and this statement was also enforced by the appliance of sensorial test on both samples (data not shown).The obtained results encourage the development of other research projects aimed to compare the

Table 3 Mean±standard deviation of signifi cantly different values for volatile compounds areas of Fontina samples.

Sample 1a Sample 1b Sample 2a Sample 2b Sample 3a Sample 3b Sample 4a Sample 4b

mean SD mean SD mean SD mean SD mean SD mean SD mean SD mean SD

2-methyl-propanal

901 188 2633 121 1294 47 1577 11 1442 258 2333 310 565 107 1580 461

2-propenal 152 17 433 49 447 39 399 66 164 28 361 16 157 34 915 245

2-methyl-furan

424 87 1116 166 793 11 1007 29 750 163 1233 157 339 85 1099 254

butanal 1277 259 5685 564 2214 168 2083 271 3234 887 4816 350 785 57 1738 266

2-butanone 15941 3626 41966 462 53725 8248 46786 239 10738 947 20886 3736 45152 10827 72907 9992

2-methyl-butanal

5103 59 11716 1577 6041 129 6620 128 2733 156 7166 602 4493 1030 8356 2088

3-methyl-butanal

41811 5696 89820 6375 26549 1202 41029 54 20632 1836 44228 2556 30192 5149 65008 15798

methyl isobutanoate

473 119 2089 165 641 83 877 24 729 104 1100 244 602 13 706 44

diacetyl 8888 2019 13477 1161 8400 2059 12163 547 14874 835 16152 2690 7374 1796 12761 1934

2-butanol 18906 3525 60265 8277 140303 24358 114250 2562 7256 1789 37548 5373 102998 24066 227165 73164

2-methyl-propanol

81881 6034 170787 27007 84851 6553 122197 10629 52263 10571 90214 16623 91316 17885 82782 19824

3-methyl-butanol

225526 37578 524485 58325 297075 45929 483842 60228 126176 11989 318960 39157 252192 45499 346437 35606

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CHEESE


effect of new starter cultures to those traditionally employed with the final aim to improve the organoleptic properties and the overall quality of Fontina cheese.

Acknowledgements

The Authors gratefully acknowl-edge the assistance of Doralice Grossi and Corrado Visantini in performing part of the experi-ment.

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EDIBLE OIL


L. LE GROTTAGLIE1 - R. SCOTTI1 - G. DE VITA1

M. SICURANZA1 - D. NAVIGLIO2*1Laboratorio Oleifi cio Basso Fedele & Figli srl

Via Nocelleto 28/B - Zona Industriale - 83020 San Michele di Serino - Avellino - Italy2Department of Food Science - Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II

Via Università 100 - 80055 Portici - NA - Italy*email: [email protected]

DETERMINATIONOF BENZO[A]

PYRENE CONTENTIN OILS AS A

FOOD INGREDIENTKey words: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, benzo[a]pyrene,

oil, GPC, HPLC, spectrofl uorimeter

INTRODUCTION

The polycyclic aromatic hydrocar-bons (PAH) are molecules made up of two or more condensed aromatic rings, they are lipophilic compounds (1), therefore, they have chemical characteristics of non-polar molecule that prove similar to those possessed by the oil and, consequently, they are highly soluble in the oil. Table 1 reports the names with the relative molecular formulas of the PAH which most commonly contami-nate food matrices and which are encountered in the environment.The PAH are substances present in nature, where they form prevalent-ly due to the partial combustion of vegetable material, to volcanic activities, and especially to forest fires; among the anthropic sources, the partial combustion of fuels in automobiles should be quoted, which leads to an increase of PAH concentration in densely populat-

ed and poorly ventilated cities (2), to such an extent that the norms in force on environmental issues pose certain maximum reachable concentration limits (3).There is a considerable similar-ity between the distribution of PAH in the air and the distribu-tion that is found in oils intended for food use (4), and the latter explains the potential pollution that foods with a high content of fatty substances and especially oils can incur. The contamination can come from natural sources like forest fires, or from the prox-imity of farm areas to roads or highways (5). For this reason, fol-lowing an ongoing consumption of fatty matrices contaminated by PAH (especially benzo[a]pyrene), they tend to accumulate in the adipose tissues of mammals because they are not immediately metabolized. PAH accumulation in adipose tissues induces, in the long run, alterations of the DNA,

ABSTRACT

Determination of the content of benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) in oils has, over the last few years, become a

pressing problem, because the norms in force have established limits that

are much more restrictive compared to the maximum acceptable limit of

its content in oils, which has been fi xed to 2 micrograms per kg. In

order to determine BaP content in edible oils, it is necessary to resort

to instrumental methods that are not very common in analytical

laboratories and that are costly, such as Gel Permeation Chromatography

(GPC) coupled to High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)

analysis with fl uorimetric detection, using a specifi c reverse phase column for the analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). This procedure

allows to reach a limit of detection precision in BaP analysis of 0.1

micrograms per kg, more than enough to ensure good accuracy of the result

required by the norms in force.

EDIBLE OIL


Table 1IUPAC name, molecular formula and molecular weight (g/mol) of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons most common in food matrices.

IUPAC name Molecular formula Molecular weightg/mol

Naphthalene C10

H8

128.1

Acenaphthene C12

H10

154.2

Phenanthrene C14

H10

178.2

Anthracene C14

H10

178.2

Fluoranthene C16

H10

202.3

Pyrene C16

H10

202.3

Crysene C18

H12

228.3

Benzo-a-pyrene C20

H12

252.3

which can lead to the insurgence of tumors (6). Among the differ-ent PAH, the compound acknowl-edged to be the most noxious and highly dangerous to the human organism is BaP and, therefore, it is considered as a risk indica-tor both in environmental and in food matrices.The problem of controlling PAH in oils intended for consumption as a food ingredient is a very relevant one, to the extent that the recent norms have brought the maximum limit of benzo[a]pyrene content to 2.0 micrograms per kg (7).In literature, different methods exist for the analysis of PAH con-tent in edible oils and nowadays, too, other alternative, unofficial methods are proposed, that essen-tially aim at reducing the time needed to carry out the analysis. The absence of an official method in this field generates confusion and can lead to disputes that are difficult to settle, on an interna-tional level as well. At present, the main methods of analysis are based on liquid-liquid repar-tition, selectively extracting the PAH from an oil solution diluted

in hexane-acetonitrile, while oth-ers are based on the preventive chromatographic separation on a silica gel column of the enormous mass of triglycerides, or on the isolation of the fraction of inter-est, prior to saponification of the major component (8-9-10).The method that will be illus-trated and that has been chosen to determine benzo[a]pyrene content in oils is the one based on the passage of an oil sam-ple on a GPC (Gel Permeation Chromatography) column; in this procedure, the large mass of trig-lycerides that make up the oils is separated for molecular exclusion and consequently elutes as the first fraction; the fraction contain-ing the PAH is collected in a time between 20 to 35 minutes in the conditions of analysis adopted. This fraction is dried by means of a rotating evaporator and retaken with a minimum solvent volume, for it to be analyzed via high per-formance liquid chromatography (HPLC), using a spectrofluorim-eter as a detector.Finally, it should be considered that, though the initial invest-ment to prepare it is expensive,

this method leads to precise and accurate results, to the extent that in a dispute it is difficult to contest.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Solvents and reagentsDichloromethane (Sigma Aldrich, St. Luois, MO, USA); cyclohex-ane (Sigma Aldrich, St. Luois, MO, USA); acetonitrile (Sigma Aldrich, St. Luois, MO, USA); distilled water (Chromasolv plus, Sigma Aldrich, St. Luois, MO, USA); working solution (benzo[a]pyrene) 100 µg/mL in methyl-ene chloride (Sigma Aldrich, St. Luois, MO, USA); calibration mix for the GPC made up of: maize oil 250 ppm, bis-(2-etilesil)-phthalate 10 ppm, methoxy-chloride 2 ppm, perylene 0.2 ppm, sulphide 0.8 ppm. All the solvents used in the experimentation are of analytical grade.

Instrumentationand conditions of the analysis- GPC System DSCS IV (LS Analytica, Bologna, Italy) equipped with spectrofluorim-eter UV-visible connected to the collection cell and loop (5 mL); glass column 450x25 mm packed with polymeric resin Styrene/Divinylbenzene 200-400 mesh with exclusion limit 2000 Dalton in benzene. Eluent: dichlorometh-ane cyclohexane 3:7 at a flow rate of 5 mL/min.Rotating evaporator model R-200 (Buchi, Milan, Italy);- Pinnacle™ PAH column 150x3.2 mm, particle diameter 4 µm (Restek Corporation, Bellofonte, PA, USA) and Pinnacle PAH pre-column 10x4.0 mm (Restek

EDIBLE OIL


Corporation, Bellofonte, PA, USA), Zorbax ODS column 5 µm 4.6X250 mm (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA, USA); HPLC chromatograph 1100 Series (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA, USA) equipped with fluorescence detector, model G1321A (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA, USA). The elu-ent phase used is A: acetonitrile and B: distilled water. An elution in gradient at a flow of 1.1 mL/min has been used, starting from 60% of A up to 100% of A in 30 minutes.

ProcedureApproximately 1 g ± 0.0001 g of oil have been weighed in a volu-metric flask (10 mL) and brought to volume with the mixture of GPC elution. The sample has been injected in a GPC column via loop (5 mL) and the fraction ranging between 20 and 35 mL has been collected. The eluted phase has been dried via the use of a rotating evaporator, set-ting the temperature in advance to 70°C. Once the solvent has been moved away, the sample has been retaken with 500 µL of acetonitrile and injected in the HPLC/FLD, using the conditions described.

Purification of the oil on GPCAs already mentioned in the introduction, the method used in the work has foreseen a pre-liminary phase on GPC column packed with styrene/divinylben-zene resin. Benzo[a]pyrene purifi-cation is obtained as the result of two combined effects: one is typi-cal of the GPC and implies the selective diffusion of molecules of solute through the pores of a three-dimensional mesh system

made up of the resin; the other effect is the one of the chromato-graphic affinity of the PAH for the stationary phase by which, espe-cially the heavier ones, are elut-ed at a slower pace (11). Fig. 1 reports the chromatogram of the standard that contains four differ-ent molecules, each representing a class of contaminant substances diluted in maize seed oil.In particular, the first peak cor-responds to the elution of the triglycerides (maize oil), the sec-ond to the one of the phthalates (bis-(2-etilesil)-phthalated C=10 ppm), the third to the methoxy chlorides (methoxy chlorides C=2,000 ppb), the fourth rep-resents the class of aromatic hydrocarbons (perylene C=200 ppb) while the fifth represents the sulphides (sulphide C=800 ppb). Based on this chromato-gram, the time needed to collect the eluate that contains the PAH and, in particular the fraction that contains the benzo-a-pyrene, has been set; as one can observe in Fig. 1, the time ranging between 20 and 35 minutes is sufficient to guarantee total recovery of the fraction of interest.

The added advantage of using the GPC technique is the pos-sibility to immediately highlight strong contaminations from the chromatographic result, because the reading is based on the UV revelation.

Spectrofluorimetric analysisof the benzo-a-pyreneTo determine the BAP with the FLD detector, diverse pairs of wavelength (λ), of excitation (ex) and of emission (em) have been tested, starting off from cer-tain values indicated in literature (12-14). Fig. 2 depicts the chro-matograms obtained in different conditions, the values of highest sensitivity detected for the benzo-a-pyrene are λ ex: 280 nm and λ em: 410 nm.The elution of the BAP has been tested on a Zorbax ODS column 5 µm 4.6X250 (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA, USA) and on a Pinnacle PAH col-umn 150x3.2 mm, particle diam-eter: 4 µm (Restek Corporation, Bellofonte, PA, USA). The sec-ond, specific to the PAH sepa-ration, significantly increases signal response, using the same

Fig. 1 - Elution of the standard of maize seed oil added with bis-(2-etilesil)-phthalated, methoxy chloride, perylene, sulphide in the conditions reported under materials and methods.

PERYLENE

EDIBLE OIL


Fig. 2 - Optimal fl uorimetric detection of the benzo[a]pyrene: λ ex. 280 nm and λ em 410 nm.

conditions of analysis indicated in the Materials and Methods paragraph. The gradient used is useful to separate the most repre-sentative molecules of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and the benzo-a-pyrene is eluted between 24 to 25 minutes (Fig. 3).Having found the optimal con-ditions for analysis of the BaP, we have proceeded to elaborate the calibration curve in the ana-lytical interval, that allows us to quantify the BaP in accordance with the limits foreseen by the norms in force, and in the inter-val of concentrations included between 0.10 and 2.00 ppb. Table 2 reports the values of the integration obtained for three repetitions of four concentrations analyzed, the average values, and the standard deviation; while Fig. 4 displays the calibration curve elaborated by interpolating the experimental values obtained with the method of the squared mini-mums. As one can observe, the points are well aligned and the correlation coefficient is close to the unit. The concentration of benzo[a]pyrene in the oil being analyzed, expressed in µg/kg, is calculated based on the equation of the curve.

Recovery testsTo check the recovery percentage of the contaminant of interest, a sample of sunflower seed oil void of PAH has been contaminated with a concentration of BaP equal to 0.50 ppb. Fig. 5 depicts the chromatogram of the sample analyzed (C) overlapped with the chromatogram of the BaP stand-ard having a concentration equal to 0.50 ppb (S). Chart 3 reports the values of the analysis obtained for three repetitions of the added

Table 2Integrations of the benzo[a]pyrene peak with different concentrations, and the relative average and standard deviation in the points injected.

Standard I (Area) II (Area) III (Area) Average Std. dev.

0.10 ppb 1.15 0.99 1.20 1.11 0.11

0.50 ppb 4.73 4.45 4.10 4.43 0.32

1.00 ppb 8.05 7.63 8.24 7.97 0.31

2.00 ppb 13.20 12.70 13.10 13.00 0.26

Fig. 3 - Comparison between the chromatograms relative to a sample of sunfl ower seed oil added with BaP, obtained by using the Pinnacle PAH column 150x3.2 mm, 4 µm (A) and a Zorbax ODS column 5 µm 4.6X250 (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA, USA) (B).

AB

EDIBLE OIL


sample; as one can observe, the standard deviation is well below 1%, while the recovery percentage is 90%. This experimental data can be attributed to the sample purifi-cation phase on the GPC column;

Fig. 5 - Chromatogram of the contaminated sunfl ower seed oil (C), up to a concentration of BaP equal to 0.50 ppb, overlapped with the chromatogram of the standard solution of BaP (S), with a concentration equal to 0.50 ppb.

Fig. 6 - Chromatogram of the extra-virgin olive oil belonging to the correlation circuit of the vegetable oils (C) overlapped with the chromatogram of the standard solution of BaP (S) with a concentration equal to 1.50 ppb.

in fact, the same manufacturer of the GPC points out in the techni-cal documentation that accompa-nies the product, that there may be losses of analyte up to 10% in the case of the PAH analysis.

Accuracy of the methodTo evaluate the reliability of the results obtained by applying the method proposed, a sample of extra-virgin olive oil submitted to a correlation circuit of vegetable oils and a sample of sunflower seed oil, preventively analyzed by three different laboratories, have been subjected to analysis.Fig. 6 depicts the chromatogram of the extra-virgin olive oil belong-ing to the circuit of correlation, overlapped with the chromatogram of the BaP standard with a concen-tration equal to 0.5 ppb. From a comparison between the two chro-matograms, it is deducible that the concentration of benzo[a]pyrene is lower than 0.5 ppb (Table 3), a value that agrees with the aver-age of the results supplied by the other laboratories that participate to the circuit.Fig. 7 depicts the chromatogram of the sample of sunflower seed oil, overlapped with the chromatogram of the BaP standard with a concen-tration equal to 1.50 ppb. Table 4 reports the results of the analysis on the sample of sunflower seed oil declared by three different lab-oratories that carry out chemical analyses, as well as the percentage waste compared to the value found experimentally thanks to the pro-posed method. As one can observe, the values obtained agree within the margin of experimental errors.

CONCLUSIONS

In the work, a method has been proposed to determine the ben-zo-a-pyrene that is simple and rapid, because only one puri-fication phase is required in its application, carried out on a col-umn for gel permeation packed

C

Fig. 4 - Calibration curve of the benzo[a]pyrene obtained in the chromatographic conditions described in Materials and Methods.

EDIBLE OIL


Table 3Concentrations detected in the sample of sunfl ower seed oil contaminated with a concentration of BaP equal to 0.50; average; standard deviation.

I II III Average Std. deviation

0,47 0,45 0,44 0,45 0,02

Fig. 7 - Chromatogram of the sunfl ower seed oil (C) overlapped with the chromatogram of the standard solution of BaP (S) with a concentration equal to 1.50 ppb.

Table 4Results of the analysis of the BaP of the sample of sunfl ower seed oil relative to the three different laboratories, and standard deviation (%) compared to the value found.

Laboratory Ppb St. deviation %

I 1.65 1.21

II 1.73 2.98

III 1.68 0.69

with styrene/divinylbenzene resin and subsequently identified via HPLC/FLD. A comparison has been made between a traditional C:18 column and a C:18 column specific to the PAH analysis, choosing the second one, because it allows to optimize PAH separa-tion and to considerably improve response sensitivity. A gradient

of linear elution has been cho-sen, using water and acetonitrile, based on which the benzo-a-pyrene is eluted in around 24-25 minutes; with the same gradient, it is possible to separate all the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons most commonly found in food matrices. To evaluate recovery of the method, a sample of sunflow-

er seed oil contaminated with a concentration of BaP equal to 0.5 ppb has been analyzed; the result obtained agrees with what indi-cated by the GPC manufacturer, which indicates a loss of analyte of up to 10%. To evaluate method accuracy, a sample of extra-virgin olive oil belonging to a correla-tion circuit of vegetable oils hav-ing a concentration of BaP lower than 0.5 ppb has been analyzed, and a sample of sunflower seed oil analyzed by three different laboratories that conduct chemi-cal analyses. The results obtained from the comparison point out that the percentage of waste of the value obtained compared with the present method, compared to the one declared by the three lab-oratories, is lower than 3%.In conclusion, it has emerged that the purification of the ben-zo-a-pyrene from oils intended for human consumption using the GPC technique leads to precise and accurate results. In view of the initial investment to equip the laboratory with the gel permeation chromatography, the advantages that ensue are enor-mous, because a reliable, repro-ducible, and altogether fast meth-od is available, so fast that it is possible to process about four oil samples in one day of work.

REFERENCES

1. S. Moret, L.S. Conie. Polycyclic aro-

matic hydrocarbons in edible fats and

oils: occurrence and analytical methods.

J. Chromatography Acta, 882, 245-253

(2000).

2. M.L. Lee, M.V. Novotny, K.D. Bartle.

Analytical Chemistry of Polycyclic

Aromatic Compounds. Academic Press,

London, 1981, p. 24.

C

EDIBLE OIL


3. Legislative Decree of August 4, 1999,

no. 351. Implementation of Directive

96/62/CE concerning evaluation and

management of air quality.

4. R.E. Laflamme, R.A. Hites. The glo-

bal distribution of polycyclic aromatic

hydrocarbons in recent sediments.

Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 42

(3), 289-303 (1978).

5. E. Corradetti, C. Abbondanza, L.

Mazzanti, G. Poli. Boll. Chim. Igienisti,

39, 297 (1988).

6. M.R. Stampfer, J.C. Bartholomew,

H.S. Smith, J.C. Bartley. Metabolism

of Benzo[a]pyrene by human mam-

mary epithelial cells: Toxicity and DNA

adduct formation. Proceedings of the

National Academy of Sciences of the

United States of America; October 1,

Vol. 78 no. 10, 6251-6255 (1981).

7. Reg. CEE no. 1881/2006 of December

19, 2006 which defines the maximum

concentrations of certain contaminants

in food products.

8. S. Moret, L.S. Conte. A rapid method

for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

determination in vegetable oils. Journal

of Separation Science, 25(1-2), 96-100

(2002).

9. N. Halim, A. Kuntom, T. Yew Hai.

Determination of benzo[a]pyrene in

vegetables oils. Journal of Oil Palm

Research, 19, 428-434 (2007).

10. P.W. Hendriske, A. Dieffenbacher.

Determination of benzo[a]pyrene in

oils and fats by reversed phase high

performance liquid chromatography -

Results of collaborative study and the

standardized method. Pure & Applied

Chemistry, 63(11), 1659-1666 (1991).

11. F. Fiume, F. Ferrieri, G. Froio, S. Spinelli,

O. Lattarulo, G. Fanuzzi. Determination

of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons con-

centration in food oils. Italian Magazine

of Fatty Substances, 78(5), 151-157

(2002).

12. S. Martinez-Lopez, A. Morales-Noe, A.

Pastor-Garcia, A. Morales-Rubio, M. de

la Guardia. Sample preparation improve-

ment in polycyclic aromatic hydrocar-

bons determination in olive oil by gel

permeation chromatography and liquid

chromatography with fluorescence detec-

tion. J. of AOAC International, 1, 1247-

1254 (2005).

13. C. Nerin, C. Domeňo. Determination of

poly-aromatic hydrocarbons and some

related compounds in industrial waste

oils by GPC-HPLC-UV. The Analyst,

124, 67-70 (1999).

14. A. Seidel. Analysis of PAH’s in food.

International Workshop “Foods to Dye

for Contaminants sampling, analysis,

legal limits”. AOAC Europe Section

International Workshop November 6-7

2006, Limassol, Cyprus.

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RECEPTION and WASHING

PROCESS and TRANSFORMATION

PASTEURIZATION and PRESERVATION

FOOD and BEVERAGE PROCESSING EQUIPMENT

LABS S.r. l . Food Process ingV i a F o l l e r a u 1 2 - 4 3 1 2 2 P A R M A - I T A L Y

P h . + 3 9 0 5 2 1 7 7 5 1 9 1 - F a x . + 3 9 0 5 2 1 7 7 8 2 0 5i n f o @ l a b s - s r l . i t - w w w . l a b s - s r l . i t


RESEARCH

“There is a very high correlation between high levels of cysteine and obesity,” explains Helga Refsum of the University of Oslo’s Department of Nutrition. People with high levels of the amino acid cysteine carry 6-10 kg more fat than other people. The question is whether this is a causal relationship.Is much of the body’s fat due to a high cysteine level, and if so, what is the connection? Why do some people have higher cysteine levels than others? How much is owing to genetic factors, and how much is affected by diet? Re-searchers are now closing in on some answers and generating knowledge which could help to

prevent and treat life-threatening obesity. A comprehensive study, funded under the Research Council of Norway’s funding scheme for independent basic research (FRIPRO), aims to shed light on the underlying biological mech-anism linking cysteine to obes-ity. The project started up in 2010 and will run until 2013. As an outstanding young re-searcher in Norway in 1998, Refsum was awarded a grant which she used to build up a working relationship with Ox-ford University and Dr Amany Elshorbagy; their collaboration led to the discovery of a con-nection between cysteine and obesity. The project has evolved

into a close collaboration be-tween the University of Oslo and Oxford University, involv-ing several other research insti-tutions as well. Obesity is caused by the in-take of more calories than are burned; any surplus is stored as fat in the body. The concept is a simple one at the general level, but at the molecular level, many more facets to this relationship emerge, making it more difficult to pin down. The long, complex biochemical processes of enzymes convert-ing food to energy and build-ing blocks can be affected by many factors. The same is true for the breakdown of fat. Refsum’s research indicates that cysteine plays a key role in how the body metabolises energy, stores fat, and breaks down fat. In this project, the re-searchers will also study how cysteine affects the brain, for instance, whether cysteine can influence the feeling of being satiated. “Genes play a large part in determining weight. We know there is a strong ge-netic component to the body’s weight and fat content”, says Refsum, pointing out that 50-80% of body weight is due to genetic factors. “Look at the difference between males and

females: women always have more body fat than men. Na-ture intended it this way; this is how it should be”. Body fat per-centage varies widely between ethnic groups. Taking these dif-ferences into account, health personnel tailor their body mass index (BMI) criteria for obesity to different populations. Ge-netic factors are undoubtedly involved in cysteine levels, the professor stresses. Indeed, two known genetic conditions dem-onstrate a clear relationship : people with the most common form of a genetic condition known as homocystinuria lack one of the enzymes that convert homocysteine to cysteine. These people have low cysteine levels and are extremely slender. By contrast, people with a differ-ent genetic condition, Down’s syndrome, have 50% more of that same enzyme than normal and they also have higher-than-average cysteine levels and tend to be overweight. The connection between cysteine and obesity-related diseases is a major topic of Refsum. “We particularly want to find out if cysteine is associated with obesity-related morbidity, the myriad of diseases such as dia-betes, cardiovascular diseases and certain types of cancer that

CYSTEINE MAY BE AT ROOT OF OBESITY


are associated with obesity. From a public health perspec-tive, it is this aspect of obesity we need to worry about”. Ref-sum et al. have demonstrated that reducing cysteine levels leads to weight loss in mice and rats. With subsequent sup-plements of cysteine, the weight returns, along with a higher risk of diabetes. The researchers are now investigating the entire, complex chain of chemical re-actions during metabolism, from ingesting food to cysteine func-tions. Cysteine is clearly related to weight, but what determines cysteine levels? Where does it all begin? “Our experiments with mice and rats have thus far ruled out methionine (an amino

acid involved before cysteine in the metabolic process) as the culprit. And we are mak-ing continual progress towards an explanation”, says Refsum. Further studies will include ex-periments on human fat cells, liver cells and stem cells, in ad-dition to more studies on mice and rats. Refsum also wants to further analyse data from stud-ies on Norwegian and inter-national populations. Findings from other studies indicate that cysteine level is not directly af-fected by diet. “We need to investigate this more closely, of course,” she says. “Once we determine whether it is possible to alter cysteine levels through diet, we can propose new nutri-

tional recommendations”. Scientists envision the develop-ment of medications that regu-late cysteine levels in order to prevent obesity and to treat the morbidly obese. The research group is preparing to test med-ications that may be able to influence cysteine metabolism in mice. Their project receives funding under the Research Council’s scheme for independ-ent, researcher-initiated basic research projects. Cysteine is a sulphur-containing amino acid. It is non-essential, which means is it manufactured in the body and does not need to be supplemented through diet. Through a complex bio-chemical process, non-essential

amino acids are formed from nutrients consumed and serve as the building blocks for pro-teins. The precursor to cysteine is the essential amino acid me-thionine, so if intake of methio-nine is insufficient, cysteine must be supplemented.

A Turkish study published in International of Food Science and Technology has evaluated

the optimisation of formulation and cooking of gluten-free breads containing chestnut and

OPTIMISATION OF FORMULATION AND COOKING OF GLUTEN-FREE BREAD

rice flour and xanthan-guar gum and baked in infrared-microwave combination oven.Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to optimise gluten-free bread formulations and processing conditions; weight loss, firmness, specific volume and colour change of the breads were determined. Rice flour mixed with different proportions of chestnut flour and different emulsifier con-tents were used to prepare breads; the gluten-free formu-lations were baked using two halogen lamps (1,500 W) located at the top of the oven and one was at the bottom, mi-

crowave powers, and baking time which were varied from 40 to 80%, 30 to 70% and 9 to 17 min, respectively. Gluten-free breads and wheat breads baked in conventional oven were used for comparison.A rotary table was introduced into the microwave-infrared oven in order to improve heat-ing uniformity of samples, while to maintain humidity in the oven beakers containing 400 mL of water were placed.Breads containing 46.5% chestnut flour and 0.62% emul-sifier and baked using 40% infrared and 30% microwave power for 9 min had statisti-cally comparable quality with conventionally baked ones; moreover the conventional baking time was significantly reduced.


RESEARCH

FOOD PERCEPTIONS MAY ALSOINFLUENCE HUNGER AND FULLNESS

A study published online ahead of print in the journal Health Psychology found that when people with differ-ent mindsets drank identical milkshakes, they experienced different levels of satiety. Re-searchers concluded that people’s food perceptions may influence hormonal regu-lation of hunger and fullness, beyond the intrinsic nutrients of the food on the plate.Scientists from Yale University and Arizona State University (USA) set out to observe the power of beliefs on appetite.

To achieve this, they asked 46 healthy men and women to drink milkshakes labelled as “620-kCal indulgent” or “140-kCal sensible.” Par-ticipants rated the taste and label of the milkshakes and reported their subjective feel-ings of fullness. To measure physiological fullness, blood samples were drawn before, during, and after the milk-shake, and were analysed for changes in ghrelin. Gh-relin is a gut hormone that transports hunger messages between the stomach and the

brain; ghrelin levels increase in the absence of food and decrease when food enters the stomach.Unknown to the participants, underneath the labels, both the “indulgent” and “sensible” milkshakes contained 380 kCal. Even more intriguing, the researchers discovered that subtle changes in drink-ing mind-set altered ghrelin levels, independent of the identical nutritional content. When drinking the “indul-gent” milkshake, participants experienced more satiety, re-

flected by a sharper decrease in ghrelin levels; in compari-son, drinking the “sensible” shake resulted in a less pro-nounced ghrelin response, suggesting that despite drink-ing the same nutrients, “sensi-ble” food perceptions left the participants less physiologi-cally satisfied.These observations are impor-tant, given that ghrelin regu-lation is essential for weight maintenance. Previous re-search has connected high ghrelin levels with increased food consumption and weight gain and there is a growing interest in the pharmacologi-cal use of gut hormones for weight loss. In principle, the rise and fall of ghrelin should complement the stomach’s re-ception of food, however this study confirms that communi-cation between stomach and brain is not straightforward.The study had several limita-tions, namely the small sam-ple size and lack of control group to standardise the pro-cedure. Regardless, further research is needed to under-stand ghrelin’s mechanism of action, and explore the pow-er of the mind on appetite.For practical application, can the influence of food perceptions be used to pro-mote healthy eating behav-iours? The Authors propose, “Perhaps if we can begin to approach even the healthiest foods with a mind-set of in-dulgence, we will experience the physiological satisfaction of having had our cake and eaten it too.”

EUFIC


BITTER CUMIN: A POTENTIALNATURAL ANTIOXIDANT

A study published in BMC Complementary and Alterna-tive Medicine by researchers from the Indian Central Food Technological Research Institute has indicated that bitter cumin (Centrarherum anthelminticum (L.) Kuntze) is a good source of natural antioxidants and has a powerful free radical scaveng-ing ability.Naidu et al. extracted defatted bitter cumin seed powder with either methanol:acetone:water (7:7:6), 80% methanol, or water. The total phenol content was estimated using Folin-Cio-calteu reagent and the values expressed as gallic acid and tannic acid equivalents. Then they characterised the antioxi-

dant activity of the bitter cumin extracts in various in vitro model systems such as DPPH free radi-cal, ABTS radical scavenging, reducing power, oxidation of liposomes, and oxidative dam-age to DNA.The study reports that the aque-ous methanol acetone extract showed the highest total phenol content, with the aqueous extract having the lowest total phenolic content. It was found that bitter cumin inhibited the oxidation of liposomes (used as a model for cell membrane oxidation) and offered complete protection against DNA damage. The results showed that the bitter cumin extract were strong elec-tron donors and hence reducing

agents, which also serves as an indicator of antioxidant activity. The antioxidant activity of bitter cumin correlated significantly with the total phenol content.Naidu et al. concluded that

phenol extract of bitter cumin contained an array of phenol-ic compounds which may be responsible for its antioxidant activity.

RSSL

NATURAL ANTIOXIDANTS ADDEDTO FRYING OIL MAY IMPROVEDEGRADATION

Deep fat frying can cause physical and chemical chang-es in the frying oil which caus-es loss of quality of both the oil and the fried food.A study published in the journal of Agricultural and Food Chem-istry by Priego-Capote et al. has evaluated the effects of the addition of natural antioxidants to vegetable oils, subjected to 20 cycles of simulated deep frying, on the stability of on the unsaponifiable fraction represented by phytosterols, aliphatic alcohols and triter-penic. Phytosterols are thought to lower total serum cholesterol and LDL cholesterol in humans; however, during frying sterols can lead to the formation of oxysterols which, when incor-porated in the small intestine with chylomicrons, can cause a toxic effect. Aliphatics are reportedly endowed with anti-cancer, antiviral and antifungal properties; triterpenic com-pounds are reported by some as possessing healthy proper-ties whilst others report that high amounts deteriorate organolep-tic oil quality.Priego-Capote et al. compared

the stability of enriched refined sunflower oil containing an ex-tract of phenolic compounds with a total phenol concentra-tion of up to 400 µg/mL ex-pressed as caffeic acid (ASO), a refined sunflower oil with an artificial autoxidation inhibitor (DSO), a refined sunflower oil (SO), and an extra virgin olive oil with a natural presence of phenolic antioxidants (VOO). All oils were subjected to 20 cycles of simulated deep fry-ing, each cycle from ambient temperature to 180°C main-tained for 5 minutes. Using GCMS, the scientists deter-mined sterols, fatty alcohols, and triterpenes content.In brief, the study found that degradation of triterpenic acids was delayed for ASO compared to VOO, with the VOO having a decrease in concentration after 6 heating cycles, with no-detection after 8 heating cycles. For ASO, ur-solic and maslinic acids were practically undetectable after 10 heating cycles and olea-nolic acid after 14 heating cycles. The study states that during the simulated frying the


RESEARCH

concentrations of the sterols in the oils differently decreased depending on the oil. For ex-ample the sterol campesterol was at the lowest level in the VOO (42 µg/mL) and the highest in DSO (230 µg/mL) before heating; however these levels decreased to 11 and 62 µg/mL respectively. Levels in SO and ASO behaved simi-larly. β-sitosterol was the most concentrated phytosterol in all tested oils with the concentra-tion in VOO decreasing dur-ing the first 8 cycles and then remaining at a stable value. However, in the DSO samples degradation occurred after 12 cycles with the SO and ASO having a no significant decrease. Aliphatic alcohols

were found in all the oils. In VOO, the concentration of docaosanol, tetracosanol, and hexacosanols decreased with the number of heating cycles whereas as octacosanol was not detected at any time.In conclusion, the research-ers report that the presence of natural or artificial antioxi-dants can influence the chemi-cal behaviour of the oils dur-ing heating depending on the compounds used; they state that natural antioxidants could be considered an excellent strategy to decrease the deg-radation of the lipidic fraction during heating, improving the stability of the oils for frying without affecting their quality.

RSSL

CLAMS AND MUSSELS SAFE TO EAT

Eating raw or undercooked mollusks may pose a safety hazard if they are harvested from waters polluted with pathogenic microbes. For this reason, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists are exploring new techniques that will decontaminate mol-lusks while protecting the fla-vor, texture, and color.In order to inactivate viruses, it is investigating the use of a specialized commercial pro-cedure known as High Pres-sure Processing (HPP), which is already used commercially to pasteurize some juices and meats and by some shellfish processors to deactivate Vi-

brio bacteria. Dr Kingsley with USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is the first to show that HPP also can inac-tivate some foodborne viruses.HPP equipment compresses water to create intense pres-sures as high as 90,000 pounds per square inch. Normal atmospheric pres-sure is about 15 pounds per square inch at sea level. In tests targeting hepatitis A vi-rus (the cause of a contagious liver disease), whose findings have been published in Food and Environmental Virology, Virus Research, the team showed that an HPP treat-ment of 60,000 pounds per square inch of pressure for 5 minutes inactivated 99.9% of the virus in oysters that had

been exposed to the patho-gen in laboratory tanks. The hepatitis A studies led to the collaboration with researchers in Italy, where raw or lightly cooked Mediterranean mus-sels, popular in European mar-kets, are sometimes a vector for the virus. The ARS scientists and Italian colleagues found that the 5-minute, HPP treat-ment inactivated 99.9% of the virus in North American blue mussels and in Mediterranean mussels.However HPP is not perfect. For instance, the pressure needed to inactivate hepati-tis A virus may alter the taste and texture somewhat. Thus additional research may re-veal ways to mitigate these changes.


RESEARCH

PALM OIL NOT A HEALTHY STAND-IN FOR TRANS FATS

In terms of daily diet, the type of fat one consumes has a greater effect on heart disease risk factors than the amount of fat. And bothtrans fatty acids and saturated fatty acids are associated with elevated risk, according to Authors of an ARS-supported study that was published in early 2006. The clinical trial was designed to compare the effect − on plas-ma lipoprotein profiles − of four different oils as they are commonly consumed.Trans fatty acids (trans fats) are produced in vegetable oils dur-ing a hardening process called “hydrogenation.” Hydrogena-

tion makes vegetable oils chem-ically more stable and extends the shelf life of food products made with them.Manufacturers are now re-quired to state on food labels the amount of trans fats in pack-aged foods. So the research-ers addressed the question of whether palm oil, whose func-tional characteristics are simi-lar topartially hydrogenated fat, would be a good substitute to reduce trans fats in foods.Lead scientist Alice H. Lichten-stein et al. conducted the study. She is the director of the Car-diovascular Nutrition Laborato-ry at the Jean Mayer USDA Hu-

man Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts.Fifteen adults, both male and fe-male, volunteered for the study. All were aged 50 or older. Their levels of LDL “bad” cho-lesterol were moderately high at 130 mg/dL of blood or above. Palm oil was studied because it has been touted as a potential substitute for hydrogenated fat.The volunteers consumed each of four experimental fat diets for 35 days. The fats tested were partially hydrogenated soybean oil (moderately high in trans fat), palm oil (high in saturated fat), canola oil (high in monounsatu-rated fat), and soybean oil (high in polyunsaturated fat).At the end of each phase, the volunteers were tested to obtain

plasma lipoprotein and fatty ac-id profiles and other measures related to heart disease.The findings suggest that con-suming either of the diets en-riched with equivalent high amounts of palm oil or par-tially hydrogenated soybean oil resulted in similar, unfavo-rable levels of LDL cholester-ol and apolipoprotein B (a protein that carries bad cho-lesterol throughout the blood-stream). That’s when com-pared to consuming either of the diets enriched with cano-la oil or soybean oil, which are high in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, re-spectively. The results suggest that palm oil would not be a healthy substitute for trans fats by the food industry.

The presence of plastidial DNA fragments of plant origin in animal milk samples has been confirmed. An experimental plan was arranged by E. Ponzoni et al. of the Istituto Sperimentale Italiano “Lazzaro Spallanzani” in Rivolta d’Adda (Italy) with 4 groups of goats, each provided with a different monophytic diet: 3 fresh forages (oats, ryegrass, and X-triticosecale) and one 2-wk-old silage (X-triticosecale). Feed-derived rubisco (ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase, rbcL) DNA fragments were

detected in 100% of the ana-lyzed goat milk samples, and the nucleotide sequence of the PCR-amplified fragments was found to be 100% identical to the corresponding fragments amplified from the plant spe-cies consumed in the diet. Two additional chloroplast-based molecular markers were used to set up an assay for distinctive-ness, conveniently based on a simple PCR. In one case, dif-ferences in single nucleotides occurring within the gene encoding for plant maturase K (matK) were exploited. In the other, plant species

recognition was based on the difference in the length of the intron present within the transfer RNA leucine (trnL) gene. The presence of plastidial plant DNA, ascertained by the PCR-based amplification of the rbcL fragment, was also assessed in raw cow milk samples collected directly from stock farms or taken from milk sold on the commercial mar-ket. In this case, the nucleotide sequence of the amplified DNA fragments reflected the multiple forages present in the diet fed to the animals.

FROM MILK TO DIET:FEED RECOGNITION FOR MILK AUTHENTICITY


LESS OIL CONTENT IN POTATO CHIPS

potato chips can be lowered significantly by combining at-mospheric frying with draining under vacuum.

A study published in Journal of Food Science by scientists from University of Reading, Berkshire (UK) has investigated the possi-bility of lowering oil content of potato chips by combining at-mospheric frying with postfrying vacuum application.Four protocols involving the ap-plication of low pressures, ei-ther toward the end of frying or after frying, were investigated with the aim of lowering the oil content of potato chips. Proto-col 1 involving frying at atmos-pheric pressure followed by a 3 min draining time constituted the control. Protocol 2 involved lowering of pressure to 13.33 kPa, 40 s before the end of fry-ing, followed by draining for 3 min at the same pressure. Pro-tocol 3 was the same as pro-tocol 2, except that the pres-sure was lowered 3 s before

the end of frying. Protocol 4 involved lowering the pressure to 13.33 kPa after the prod-uct was lifted from the oil and holding it at this value over the draining time of 3 min. Proto-col 4 gave a product having the lowest oil content (37.12 g oil/100 g defatted dry mat-ter), while protocol 2 gave the product with highest oil con-tent (71.10 g oil/100 g de-fatted dry matter), followed by those obtained using protocols 1 and 3 (68.48 g oil/100 g defatted dry matter and 52.50 g oil/100 g defatted dry matter, respectively). Pro-tocol 4 was further evaluated to study the effects of draining times and vacuum applied, and compared with the con-trol. It was noted that over the modest range of pressures in-vestigated, there was no sig-

nificant effect of the vacuum applied on the oil content of the product. This study demon-strates that the oil content of

PACKAGING CHANGES COLOR WHEN FOOD NEARS SPOILAGE

Researchers at Strathclyde Uni-versity in Glasgow, Scotland, are developing packaging that alerts consumers to food which is starting to spoil. The project aims to improve food safety and cut unnecessary food waste by developing a new type of indicator, made of “intelligent plastics” that chang-ing color when food is about to lose its freshness because it has broken or damaged packag-

ing, has exceeded its “best be-fore” date, or has been poorly refrigerated.An estimated 8.3 million tons of household food is wasted in the United Kingdom each year. The indicator is to be used as part of a form of food packaging known as modified atmosphere packaging, which keeps food in specially-created conditions that prolong its shelf life. Freshness indicators typically take the form

of labels inserted in a package but these come at a significant cost. Strathclyde researchers are looking to create a new type of indicator which is an integral part of the packaging, and so is far less expensive. The project has received £ 325,000 in sup-port from the Scottish Enterprise Proof of Concept Program.“At the moment, we throw out far too much food, which is environmentally and economi-cally damaging. Modified at-mosphere packaging is being used increasingly to contain the growth of organisms which

spoil food but the costs of the labels currently used with it are substantial. We are aiming to eliminate this cost with new plastics for the packaging in-dustry”, said professor Andrew Mills, who is currently leading the Strathclyde project.By giving a clear and unam-biguous sign that food is be-ginning to perish, the indicators being developed at Strathclyde could resolve potential confu-sion about the different signifi-cances of “best before” dates and “sell-by” dates.

IFT


RESEARCH

SHELF LIFE EXTENSION OF SLICEDBREAD BY ACTIVE PACKAGING

“Shelf life extension of sliced wheat bread using either an ethanol emitter or an ethanol emitter combined with an oxy-gen absorber as alternatives to chemical preservatives” is the title of a study published in the Journal of Cereal Science (52, 3).The Authors, Latou et al., have investigated the effect of active packaging [ethanol emitter (FE) or ethanol emitter combined with an oxygen absorber (EE + DA)] on shelf life extension of sliced wheat bread stored at 20°C. Bread containing com-mercial preservatives (WP) and

no preservatives (WOP) were taken as controls. Microbiologi-cal, physicochemical and sen-sory changes occurring in the product as a function of treat-ment and storage time were monitored for 30 days. Counts for yeasts and molds were 5.1, 3.8, 2.0 and 2.0 log cfu/g and for Bacillus cereus 4.7, 2.5, 2.3 and 2.0 log cfu/g for WOP, WP, EE and EE + DA treatments, respectively af-ter 30 days of storage. Initial pH 6.3 and 6.4, for WP and WOP samples, remained fairly constant irrespective of specific treatment. Aroma quality dete-

rioration during storage was due to the loss of volatile com-pounds and the formation of “off-flavors through lipid oxida-tion. Neither the EE nor the FE + DA had an adverse effect on initial odor, taste and texture of bread. Based on sensory (tex-

ture) and microbiological data, shelf life was ca. 4 days for samples WOP; 6 days for sam-ples WP; 24 days for samples containing the EE and at least 30 days for samples containing the EE + DA.

Elsevier

FERMENTED WHEAT FLOURMAY BE SAFE FOR CELIAC PATIENTS

A study by Italian researchers and published in the Journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology has investigated the safety of patients with celiac disease consuming baked goods made from a hydrolysed form of wheat flour. Sufferers of celiac disease can not tolerate gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, rye, and spelt. The hydrolysed form of wheat flour used in this study was formulated by fer-menting wheat flour with sour-dough lactobacilli and fungal proteases, which decreases the concentration of gluten.“This is the first time that a

wheat flour-derived product is shown to not be toxic after being given to celiac patients for 60 days,” said Dr Luigi Greco, of the University of Naples, Italy, lead Author of the study. This study by Greco et al. randomly assigned 13 pa-tients, aged 12-23 years, to consume one of three differ-ent baked goods daily for sixty days. Six participants consumed 200 g per day of natural flour baked goods containing 80,127 ppm of gluten, two participants con-sumed extensively hydrolysed flour baked goods containing

2,480 ppm of residual gluten, and the remaining five con-sumed fully hydrolysed baked goods containing 8 ppm of residual gluten. Two of the participants who consumed the natural flour baked goods had to withdraw from the study as they suffered with abdominal pain, malaise and diarrhoea. Greco et al. report that all of the participants consuming the natural flour baked goods had increased levels of anti-tissue transglutaminase antibodies and small bowel deterioration. The two participants who con-sumed extensively hydrolysed flour baked goods suffered with no clinical complaints however they developed sub-total atrophy, which is a com-plete absence of finger-like

protrusions in the gut which are necessary for absorption. Those who consumed the fully hydrolysed baked good re-ported no clinical complaints and the researchers found no changes in their levels of anti-tissue transglutaminase anti-bodies. In conclusion, Greco et al. state that although a 60-day diet was shown to be sufficient to investigate gluten toxicity in the majority of pa-tients, this may not be long enough for those who have different sensitivity to gluten. The study indicated that sero-logia, morphometric and im-munohistochemice parameters are the most accurate method to evaluate new therapies for celiac disease.

RSSL

Complete processing plants for semi-finished fruit juices by hot and cold technology

Fruit creams and pulpy juicesNectars treatment and preparing plantsSyrup roomsProcessing total automationAseptic treatments for concentrates, creams, juices fruit

High performance fruit processing plants

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RESEARCH

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists in Beltsville have developed and patented an experimental, cutting-edge optical scanning system that would use two different kinds of lighting, a sophisticated camera and other pieces of equipment to scrutinize produce-section favorites while they are still at the packinghouse. The system would provide, in a single im-age, evidence of certain kinds of defects, cuts and bruises, or contaminants, specks of ferti-lizer from orchard or field soil.The team’s system harnesses the capabilities of a type of cam-era known as a high-speed multispectral/hyperspectral line-scanner which, positioned above a conveyor belt, cap-tures images of each fast-mov-ing item, such as an apple. Each apple is exposed simulta-neously to ultra-violet light from a UV fluorescent lamp and near

infra-red light from a halogen lamp. The near infra-red light that bounces off the apple can be captured by an instrument known as a spectrograph and analyzed for tell-tale patterns of defects, while the UV light beamed on the apple can dis-close the whereabouts of con-taminants.The system combines informa-tion from both forms of illumina-tion into a single image with contaminant and defect results. When linked to a sorting ma-chine, the system can signal the sorter to separate the problem apples from others.At present, the system offers, at the rate of about 3 to 4 apples per second, a 180-degree view of each apple’s exterior, but the scientists are working to improve the process so it will provide a 360-degree whole-surface view for thor-ough inspection.

BACTERIA AND OBESITY

Research discussed at the 10th

American Society of Microbiol-ogy meeting in San Diego (May 23-27/2010) suggests that the composition of microbes in the human gut may have an impact on human obesity. A team from the University of Maryland (Usa) chose to study volunteers from a genetically closed and relatively homoge-nous population, viz the Old Or-

der Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The patient cohort included 50 lean volunteers, 50 obese volunteers without meta-bolic syndrome (MetS), and 50 obese volunteers with MetS. In-itial results indicated that the hu-man gut microbiota is dominat-ed by two bacterial phyla, the Bacteroidetes and Fimicutes, and that the relative proportions of these two phyla vary widely

between individuals. At higher levels of phylogenetic resolution, the researchers found that with-in the Fimicutes the abundance of one bacterial family, the Ery-sipelotrichaceae, differs signifi-cantly between lean and obese individuals, with a mean abun-dance of 4.1% in lean individu-als and 1.8% in obese individ-uals (p value = 0.0020). The team is currently in the proc-ess of collecting and analyzing a second batch of fecal samples from this volunteer cohort to un-

derstand the extent to which the human gut microbiota in lean and obese individuals chang-es over time. However a report of the meeting also notes that not all research presented at the meeting found a link between gut bacteria and obesity. One study, focusing specifically on children and childhood obesity, failed to identify any significant differences in the gut microbial communities of obese and nor-mal-weight children.

RSSL

HIGH-TECH APPROACH TO SCRUTINIZE FRESH PRODUCE


Italian and Spanish researchers have investigated the effects of consuming strawberries on plasma biomarkers of antioxi-dant status and resistance of red blood cells to oxidative haemolysis (fragmentation).Battino et al. recruited 12 healthy volunteers aged be-tween 25 and 42 years old; ten days before the start of the study, the volunteers were asked to consume a

STRAWBERRIES BOOST REDBLOODCELLS’ RESPONSE TO OXIDATIVE STRESS

strawberry-free and low-in-polyphenolics diet and for the next 16 days the participants consumed 500 g of the Sveva variety of strawberries per day, preferably at mid morning and mid-afternoon between meals. Blood samples were taken be-fore the pre-study, at baseline, and then at days 4, 8, 12 and 16 and 1 month after the end of the study. The researchers analysed the fruit for its total

antioxidant capacity (TAC), total flavonoid content (TFC), total anthocyanins and micro-nutrient content including vita-min C and total folate. They found that the selected straw-berry cultivar had high TAC values and indicate that this strawberry expresses an even higher TAC than citrus and kiwi fruit. They note that vitamin C is responsible for more than 20% of the TAC.

The study reports that when analysing the TAC in plasma by the assay ferric reducing antioxidant power, there was a 8.5% increase in TAC after 4 days of strawberry consump-


RESEARCH

NEW FREEZE-DRY METHODFOR PROCESSING FISH

A quicker freeze-dry technique used to process salmon cubes could potentially be applied to add value to meat components considered to be less appealing, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) researcher.The new freeze-dry method, which requires less energy and processing time, was developed by scientists at the University of

Alaska-Fairbanks (UAF) in col-laboration with Peter Bechtel, a food technologist at the Agri-cultural Research Service (ARS) Subarctic Agricultural Research Unit (SARU) in Kodiak, Alaska.One of the goals of the study was to set up a process that would produce freeze-dried cubes with less than 10% mois-ture, according to Chuck Crapo,

tion, reaching an 11.4% rise at the end of day 16. A highly significant increase of the se-rum concentration of ascorbic acid was also observed with a 24.1% increase after 4 days, increasing to 35.5% on day 16. The scientists report that their observed findings may be directly attributable to the daily dose of strawberries consumed by the subjects in this study as they represented 300% of the European recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of vitamin C (60 mg).This study shows that some varieties of strawberries make red blood cells more resistant to oxidative stress. Further re-search is being carried out to see the blood response to eat-ing smaller quantities of straw-berries and different varieties of strawberries as each variety

contains differing amounts and proportions of antioxidants.Also, a rat study published in the journal PLoS ONE by re-searchers from Salk Institute for Biological Studies has recently found that a rare flavone, fi-setin, may help combat some aspects of diabetes and protect neurons in the brain by inter-fering with a specific protein glycation mechanism. The high-est levels of fisetin (160 µg/g) are found in strawberries with 5-10 fold lower levels in ap-ples and smaller amounts in kiwi fruit, peaches, grapes, tomatoes, onions, and cucum-bers. The amount of fisetin con-sumed by the rats in the study is equivalent to that found in 37 strawberries, however the bio-availability of fisetin from these sources has yet to be studied.

RSSL

Microwavable frozen baked goods are widely used by the food industry. However, the altered heat and mass transfer patterns associated with micro-wave radiation result in tough and rubbery baked products due to reduced plasticization of the polymers. Ingredients with high water-holding ca-pacity and high content of po-lar lipids have been shown to enhance gluten plasticization and to improve water retention.A study published in Journal of Food Science explored the

EFFECT OF SOY ADDITIONON MICROWAVABLE FLAT DOUGHS

physicochemical changes im-parted by microwave baking of pocket-type flat doughs with and without soy added at 10, 20, and 26% and compared these to their conventionally baked counterparts. Microwave baking resulted in a soft, rub-bery, and tough wheat prod-uct with increased “freezable” water. Soy was added to the formulation as a means to im-prove polymer plasticization. Conventional baking of soy doughs resulted in rubbery and tough products due to chang-

es in water state and mobility (freezable water approximately 15 compared with 7.09 of the control). However, soy reduced the cohesiveness of the micro-wave baked products reaching the lowest value at 20% soy ad-dition (cohesiveness 0.33±1, comparable to that of the conventionally baked control). These data suggest that reduc-tion of water mobility induced

by soy proteins and polar lipids (confirmed by thermogravimetric analysis [TGA] and 1H nuclear magnetic resonance [1H NMR]) possibly plasticized the starch-gluten network of microwave baked soy doughs. Thus, soy was shown to improve the tex-ture of microwave baked pock-et-type flat doughs although further formula optimization is warranted.


seafood technology specialist with the UAF Marine Advisory Program. This was achieved by manipulating temperature and time. Scientists created a process that took only 9 hours by rais-ing the temperature from minus 40 to 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Traditional processing can take 20 hours or more.The new method removed 97% of the moisture from fillets of Alas-ka’s most abundantly harvested Pacific salmon species, pink, sockeye and chum. The freeze-dried salmon cubes maintained their original colour, rehydrated quickly and shrank less in a shorter period of time than food processed by traditional freeze-drying.

Such products could offer health-ful alternatives for less desirable portions of fish muscle, accord-ing to Bechtel. For example, when the salmon gets too close to spawning season, its muscle quality declines. Edible portions of the meat, which are then con-sidered by-products, could be freeze-dried.Cubes made from salmon are rich in Omega-3 fatty acids and could eventually offer a healthful option for people who want to increase seafood in their diets as recommended by the new Di-etary Guidelines for Americans; they could be used to make tasty snacks, salad toppings and ready-to-eat soups.

ARS

Ever since the establishment in 1924, the company has been devoted to the construction of citrus processing machines. Throughout its history it has constantly been updating and perfecting its machines in order to satisfy the demands of an increasingly complex and diversified international food and beverage market. We guarantee our machines with the following features: •high performance •producing juices and essential oil of high quality •producing peels to be reused into candied fruit and jams •designed to last a lifetime •completely made out of stainless steel •high mechanical reliability for all parts •qualified and fast technical assistance adapted to clients’ needs •immediate availability of all spare parts.

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RESEARCH

There had been renewed inter-est in using lupin flour in regu-lar foods, because of its unique high protein, high fibre compo-sition, and its ability to be incor-porated easily into typical food products such as bread. Lupins are legumes often grown or-namentally in gardens for their flowers, but their beans have been eaten since Roman times. About 80% of the world’s com-mercial lupin crop is produced in Western Australia where it conditions the soil and is sold for livestock feed. There had been renewed interest, but the West Australian Country Wo-mens Association produced a cookbook of recipes using lupin flour decades ago.The scientific discovery arrives from the University of Western

LUPIN FLOUR REDUCESHEART DISEASE RISK

Australia: we can lower the risk of heart disease significantly, just by using flour containing 40% lupin beans in the place of conventional wholemeal flour.Over the course of a year, working with the Centre for Food and Genomic Medicine in Perth, the Dr Belski et al. monitored more than 100 over-weight, but otherwise healthy, Western Australian men and women to whom they provid-ed everyday foods made either with wholemeal flour or incorpo-rating lupin flour. “Consuming lu-pin flour lowered blood pressure and reduced the risk of heart disease”, finally Belski said.Those taking part in the study were put on a weight loss diet and split into two groups. For a year, one group ate food in-

corporating the 40% lupin flour, and the other foods made sole-ly with wholemeal flour. During the course of the experiment, the scientific team monitored heart disease risk factors, in-cluding blood pressure, and the level of fats, sugar and insulin in the blood. The food provided to participants during the study included bread, pasta, and biscuits. The researchers found that while both the lupin group and the wholemeal group lost similar amounts of weight, the lupin group displayed bigger improvements in several heart disease risk factors. ”So simply consuming foods incorporating lupin flour can improve heart health in overweight people at higher risk of heart disease,” dr Belski said.The study suggested that lupin flour might also be good for those suffering from Type 2 or adult onset diabetes, because

This is great news for who rely on dietary changes to help in the attenuation of post-meal blood glucose responses. A study published in the Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism illustrates that adding almonds to a carbohydrate-rich break-fast may result in lower post-meal blood glucose concen-trations both after breakfast and lunch when compared to carbohydrate-rich breakfasts alone. “Several components

ALMONDS MAY STABILIZEBLOOD GLUCOSE LEVELS

even non-diabetic individual sensitivity to insulin improved during the trial. For this reason, commercial food manufactur-ers in Western Australia had already begun making and sell-ing products which incorporate lupin flour.

of almonds are thought to help moderate post-meal glucose levels, including unsaturated fatty acids and fiber”, said Richard Mattes, Distinguished Professor of Foods and Nutri-tion at Purdue University who co-authored the study along with Mori and Considine from the Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine, Indi-ana University in Indianapolis. The researchers assessed the effects of various forms of al-

monds on markers of insulin sensitivity and satiety in pre-diabetic subjects. Participants consuming a break-fast containing whole almonds experienced more sustained feelings of fullness and had low-er blood glucose concentrations after breakfast and a second meal compared to subjects con-suming the control breakfast. It was noted that whole almonds provided the greatest feeling of fullness. The test breakfast that included whole almonds moderated post-meal glucose concentrations better than those that included almond butter, oil

or flour. Although the test meals were matched for available car-bohydrate content, they were not matched on energy value or macronutrient composition. Additional research is needed to assess the long-term effects of including almonds in the breakfast meal on blood glu-cose concentrations. The study was a randomized, 5-arm, crossover trial involving 14 adults with impaired glu-cose tolerance, average age of 39 years. Each participant was given either a breakfast of orange juice and farina (Cream of Wheat) containing 1.5 ounc-


es of a form of almonds (whole almonds, almond butter, almond oil, defatted almond flour) or a control breakfast consisting of orange juice and farina (Cream of Wheat) with no almonds or almond products. The control and test breakfasts were matched for carbohydrate content. After breakfast, blood glucose, insulin, non-esterified free fatty acids (NEFA), gluca-gon-like pepetide-1 (GLP-1) and appetite sensations were meas-ured. Four hours later, each par-ticipant was given a standard lunch, after which the same

measurements were collected.The study found that the addi-tion of whole almonds to the breakfast meal significantly in-creased satiety and decreased blood glucose concentrations throughout the day compared to the control breakfast meal. Almond oil had lesser, but similar, effects on post-meal blood glucose concentrations as whole almonds; but, both whole almonds and almond oil significantly reduced the insulin response after the second meal compared to the control break-fast meal.


RESEARCH

A Unilever study published in the Journal of Food Science has investigated the impact of increased levels of com-plex savoury flavourings and single aroma compounds on perceived saltiness and how this can be used to compen-sate for lower levels of salt in healthier foods without signif-icantly affecting flavour. The study by Battenburg et al. reports that sodium chloride is used as an ingredient by the food industry to add salti-ness, enhance flavour inten-sity, maintain texture, and as a preservative. Salt replacers

such as potassium chloride can produce off tastes de-scribed as bitter and metal-lic. They state that due to the negative side effects of salt replacers, the acceptable so-dium reduction in soups and sauces remained limited to 15 to 20%; however previ-ous studies have investigated the “taste-aroma interactions” which may lead to greater reductions in sodium.Therefore Battenburg et al. aimed to investigate if the principle of multisensory in-tegration of aroma and taste can be used in “real-life”

TASTE-AROMA INTERACTIONAND SALT REDUCTION

food products. The study used a number of sensory panels including a naïve and untrained panel, a flavour profile panel, a spectrum descriptive panel, and a consumer panel. The differ-ent panels evaluated some or all of a number of 30% salt reduced chicken and beef bouillons, including one made up to 100% sodium chloride, one with extra com-mercial flavour and one with extra commercial flavour and added sodium replacers. The panellists also evaluated a 30% reduced salt chicken bouillon with either the addi-tion of 90% salt or single aro-ma compounds with the vari-ous classes of “seasoning”

or “brothy”, “meaty” and “roasted”. The naïve panel found that a 30% reduction in total sodium chloride from all ingredients lead to an increased reduction of salti-ness, however the addition of extra aroma lead to resto-ration of most of the original saltiness. The sensory profile panel found that the addition of extra beef flavour brought back the fullness and roast-ed character of the bouil-lon which the 30% reduced bouillons did not have. Simi-lar results were found by the sensory profile panel when evaluating the chicken bouil-lon with the addition of a salt replacer at a low dosage and extra chicken flavour-ing. The study reports that all 3 classes of single aroma compounds enhanced the saltiness; they report however that sotolon, a “seasoning” or “brothy” compound had the strongest effect.In conclusion, the research-ers reiterate that at least a 15% salt reduction can be compensated for by the use of savoury aromas. The extra aroma was found to amel-iorate the off flavour of the potassium based salt replac-ers and the combination of the extra of aroma and salt could replace significant amounts of sodium chloride without significantly chang-ing the overall flavour pat-tern. However they note that although a 30% sodium re-duction is significant, it is not sufficient to meet the WHO guidelines.

RSSL

When the sanitary system integratorTetraPak approached our Process

distributor Hijaz Al Raqia Trading in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for a cost effective solution to transfer tomato paste from Goodpak crates into the mixing kettles, our Process distributor Hijaz Trading proposed the new GRACO BES system (Bin Evacuation System) as a solution.

The traditional method and system used for this type of application proved costly, un-hygienic and cumbersome. The end user, SADAFCO had limited factory fl oor space for the above mentioned traditional unloading system. This system required for the bag of tomato paste to be manually unloaded onto a conveyor and then squeezed out via rollers onto a conveyor, which then transports the paste into the kettles.

The customer and integrator immediately liked (not just the systems affordability) but also its foot print size, ease of operation and more importantly the clean fast methods of transferring the paste directly from the Goodpack supply bins into their mixing kettles. In particular GRACO’S claims that the BES can evacuate tomato paste with a viscosity of 190.000 centipoise at fl ow rates of 1.135 litres per minute.

The system supplied was the BES 3FS, which comprised of two SaniForce 3150

Air Operated Double diaphragm pumps mounted on a follower plate. The system was controlled manually, but does have an option to incorporate the electronic Micrologic controls.

GRACO BES system is mounted over a loading conveyor system. The system is cleaned out with the GRACO HydraCleanTM , and is ready for a new fresh bin.

The operator engages an air supply to the control box, which manually

lifts the follower plate up in the air. The unique fl oating ram plate eliminates the need for exact positioning of the bin under the ram place. The infl atable wiper seal increases the effi ciency of the BES system, and makes easy quick change out of the bins.

The bin is then moved from the conveyor under the GRACO BES system, where the operator then lowers the follower plate into the bin. The whole system is then plumbed into the main supply kettles, which feeds the factory.

GRACO BES SYSTEM

(Bin Evacuation System)

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FOOD PROCESSING

READY-TO-EAT MEALSLIKE CHEF PREPARED DISHES

With more people eating at home, the soft economy is creat-ing opportunities in the prepared food business. The segment that may be making the greatest strides is the ready-to-serve in-dustry. Thanks to more advance cooking technologies and chef-driven recipes, ready-to-serve meals are now healthier, more sumptuous, and delicious than alternatives including takeout and frozen foods.“We are going to see a tremen-dous amount of growth in the ready-to-serve marketplace,” says Walter Sommers, president of Ruprecht Company, a Chicago

area meat processor and distribu-tor, serving the foodservice and retail sectors. “And the cooking equipment we’ve recently pur-chased will allow us to partici-pate in that growth.”Sommers refers to the major advancements that have been made in the availability of food processing machinery that by far exceeds conventional restaurant-style cooking equipment when it comes to consistent quality and yields.The advanced cooking equip-ment available to processors today is a new generation of machines that are more com-

pact, more flexible, and more affordable than was available to the ready-to-serve segment in the past. Systems such as the Unitherm mini flame griller, a rapid flow oven, and a mini spiral oven that Ruprecht pur-chased are replacing less reli-able processes such as batch cooking, which are harder to control and often produce meals that are inconsistent in quality and taste. Ruprecht, which produces chick-en, beef, pork, lamb and a lim-ited selection of seafood entrees, fully cooks about 30% of its products. These heat-and-serve items are prepared according to either customer specifications or those of its in-house chef.“Our chef is using the equipment to process products that meet the same expectations as you would have if you were cooking at home on a barbeque,” says Sommers.Thanks to this newly available cooking technology, quality foods such as Ruprecht’s whole-sale meats have the look and taste of gourmet dishes.Progressive ready-to-serve meal processors like Ruprecht are incorporating continuous proc-esses into its production, using equipment such as Unitherm’s automated flame grills and spiral

ovens to control the production of meals and ensure that they are always consistent in quality. This consistency results from the equipment’s built-in controls and the ability to program parameters that are maintained within very tight tolerances throughout the cooking process. The food pre-parer simply sets the temperature, sets the time a food item will reside in the equipment, sets the humidity and fan speed. All these parameters are stored in the equipment controls to ensure that one product is exactly the same as the next. Touch-screen controls are available on ad-vanced cooking equipment that allows the processor to alter equipment settings if they so choose, thereby creating new recipes that are stored for future use. Such controls enable proc-essors to further develop their current products or to develop new ones.Using such innovative cooking techniques, scratch recipes, and the finest ingredients, B Roberts Foods (Charlotte, NC) develops custom programs to meet the specific needs of customers. It produces sauces, salads, side dishes, and entrees for grocery stores, as well as customized recipes for the restaurant industry.The majority of B Roberts Foods A detail of the flame griller with multiple ribbon burners (Unitherm).


recipes are truly chef inspired and prepared. One of its best sellers is a fresh grilled chicken breast cut into strips and served over shell pasta that has been tossed in a sun-dried tomato pesto and sprinkled with parsley. The firm, which recently ex-panded into a new and larger plant, recently acquired a Unitherm flame grill and spiral oven to enhance its production capabilities.The Unitherm flame griller fea-tures multiple ribbon burners, some of which can be turned off or on to achieve the wanted pro-duction scale. Using this equip-ment, chefs are able to achieve the look of flamed highlights and other home- or chef-style char-acteristics in the ready-to-serve meals. They also can develop uniform color on the top as on the bottom of various foods, such as chicken and steaks.“We purchased the grill for the purpose of doing grilled chick-en, so that we can express our unique culinary talents in creat-ing with our own grilled chicken breast products,” explains Robert Shore, general Manager. “We also intend to use the grill for other things, such as kabobs, fish, and vegetables. We intend to use the spiral oven in conjunc-tion with the grill or by itself.”What chefs like about the spi-ral oven is that they are able to achieve exactly what they want in their rotisserie and their baking and basting. With the spiral oven, a built-in basting effect can be incorporated; as foods such as chicken spiral up-ward in the oven, the juice from each piece of meat falls on the next one, enhancing both color

and texture. Spiral ovens enable steaming, roasting, broiling and baking, as well as and post pasteurization, can be coupled with a chiller and loading sys-tems to suit users’ needs with a limited footprint. The capacity of these spiral ovens is surprisingly great in terms of both product throughput and heat. Although some equipment manufacturers build machines that can cook up to 10,000 lbs. per hour, it is the availability of the smaller equipment that makes it such a good solution for ready-to-serve processors. The micro machine, for example cooks up to 500 lbs. per hour. The mini machine can handle up to 2,000 lbs. per hour.The ability of equipment such as the Unitherm flame grill to reach very high temperatures is another feature that appeals to

ready-to-serve meal chefs. The flame temperature of the flame grill is much higher than that of restaurant-type grilling equip-ment. It can be set as high as 1,500 degrees (F), and can be throttled back to get the desired finishing effect. In addition to throughput cook-ing capacity, this equipment has much more thermal capacity than restaurant equipment, heat en-ergy delivered to the product. As a result, it’s able to cook food items like steaks very quickly. Compact ovens can be set for temperatures of 500 degrees (F) and maintain that set point within one degree. In the ready-to-serve meals busi-ness, the ability to change pro-duction frequently is important. These advanced ovens have thyristors to control the output of the heat source on a percent-

age of the actual demand; this allows the oven to hold its set-points within one degree with optimal efficiency. The quality of the product is also more consist-ent and does not experience the abuse from a heat source that is constantly banging on and off to try and hold temperature.The flexibility of these advanced cooking machines also gives processors the flexibility to create more products without adding to capital equipment, another important benefit of having a lot of powerful capabilities in a smaller cooking package.“We produce millions of pounds of fully cooked food annually,” says Ruprecht’s Sommers. “With the new continuous production equipment we’ve recently in-stalled, we are nowhere near exceeding their capacities.”www.unithermfoodsystems.com

Maximun flexibility with the Unitherm spiral oven.


FOOD PROCESSING

Ariete NS5355 homogenizer (Gea Niro Soavi).

The SUPER-REX plant for sugar grinding (Italo Danioni).

WHEN TECHNOLOGY WINSTHE WORLDWIDE CHALLENGE

At Cibustec 2011 in Parma, Gea Niro Soavi is exhibiting its top range homogenizer, the Ariete NS5355, featured with the new generation of NanoVALVE, HomoGENIUS concept and HMI (Human

Machine Interface) system. This synergy of technologies allows Ariete NS5355 to be the most powerful and com-pact machine ever made, able to achieve the largest flow-rate with 5 pistons, thus

giving the highest reliability, best integration features and with an energy saving and total cost of ownership for the benefit of the customer. Strong points are safety, reli-ability, efficiency, easy use and reduced maintenance costs.The new NanoVALVE HP technology enables Ariete NS5355 to achieve the larg-est flow-rate at middle-high pressure, thus optimizing ef-ficiency, energy and cost saving with perfect homog-enization results on the prod-uct. The homogenizing effect on the product is improved thanks to a better fluid-dynam-ic effect of the homogenizing valve. NanoVALVE HP, suit-able for processing applica-tions where high capacities at high pressure ranges are required, offers clear advan-tages in terms of efficiency and performance for various applications from nutraceu-ticals, foods containing aro-mas, probiotics and nutrition-al emulsions, to the chemical,

pharmaceutical, cosmetic and biotechnological industries.HomoGENIUS touch-screen technology is a new concept in the use of homogenizers; it enables the homogenizer to interact with the user and allows to control opera-tions in the easiest and most smart way. This technology is a clever system which al-lows to monitor the homog-enizer functions and signals if maintenance operations are needed in order to pre-vent unexpected machine stops and production halts. HomoGENIUS is designed to improve user interaction with the system and to maximize the machine’s production ef-ficiency saving costs. Gea Niro Soavi’s technicians are available, on request, to all clients to provide assistance and training.(Gea Niro Soavi - ViaM. da Erba Edoari 29 -43123 Parma - Italy - Tel. +39 0521 965411 - Fax +39 0521 242819 - email: [email protected])

FOOD PRODUCTS GRINDING

Since 1918, Italo Danioni has been specialised in manu-facturing machines and plants for grinding alimentary, chemi-cal, and pharmaceutical prod-ucts. The company uses the most suitable systems for every product and applies the most advanced automation and ad-justment technologies. The test

room, provided with industrial size machines, is at the dis-posal of the customers in or-der to verify the most suitable treatments and the capacity rates.Italo Danioni presents the SUPER-REX plant for sugar grinding which is specially suitable for obtaining high

milling with thermo-sensitive or greasy products. The ventila-tion grinding effect is exalted to the maximum grade, due to the large blades of this rotor. In fact, due to the very high peripheral speed (more than 120 meters/second) and to the special conformation of the rotor, there are very inten-sive and effective crash results in the flowing air of the grind-ing chamber, thus allowing


Different screens for grinding (from left): SUPER-REX, AER-REX, VIBRO-REX, MICRO-REX, and VELO-REX (Italo Danioni).

to obtain a fineness of a few microns. The adjustment of grinding is done by changing the air speed with the inter-position of different type and size screens or impedances.

SUPER-REX is especially suitable for grinding very fine icing sug-ar, spices, lyophilized products, dehydrated fruits and vegeta-bles, flours, and chemical and pharmaceutical products.

Italo Danioni proposes also the following models:- AER-REX for salt, Arabic gum, grinding; - VIBRO-REX for the extrac-tion of various roots, rhu-

barb, gentian, dry herbs and the crushing of various materials; - MICRO-REX for flours reject, bran, liquorice, cinnamon, dry products, dry herbs and fibrous product grinding; - VELO-REX for toasted nuts and peanuts, toasted carob, flours, animal feed, and greasy product grinding.(Italo Danioni - Via Mecenate 78/b - 20138 Milano - Italy -Tel. +39 02 504095 -Fax +39 02 5062646 -email: [email protected])


FOOD PROCESSING

Pasta based ready meal production plant (Moriondo).

PASTA MAKING LINES

Moriondo has been part of the pasta making industries for a long time. The first machines it commercialized were, in fact, hydraulic presses, granola, manual mixer, etc. In 1937, it presented its first continuous extruder at the Milan fair. This was to be the first step towards automation which later also in-cluded the drying process, to arrive at the realization of con-tinuous automatic lines for all shapes of pasta. In the 70’s, besides the normal production of plants for the production of dry pasta, Moriondo began to make complete plants for the production of fresh and cooked pasta. Today the company is able to meet any requirement for the

industrial production of any shape and type of pasta. The production of the plants for cooked pasta is divided into two sectors, one for the produc-tion of cooked lasagne, cannel-loni and rotoli, the other one for the production of normal pasta also with a filling.For both these productions, Moriondo proposes solutions that meet the requirements of high, medium and small pro-duction capacities. The plants are fully computerised and of-fer the most advanced robot for the manipulation of the product.Finally, Moriondo has devel-oped a complete line for ready meal production which consists of a rotating filling machine, a

VERTICAL GARNISHINGONTO BAKING PAN PRODUCTS

The ADV-S4 is an automatic line designed and developed by Alimec and suitable for ver-tical injection of baking pan products such as cakes, muffins, madalenas, croissants, mini-cr-oissants, cream puffs, etc. with jam, creams, and chocolate.The standard version has been equipped with an accelerator belt for automatic insertion of pans from the previous line, and a chain conveyor belt with intermittent function for transporting the trays under the filling units. One or more injec-

tion heads then use upward and downward movement to fill the products. Brushless motors allow for constant and accurate filling with recipes that can be easily adapted to personal preference.The line can be equipped with heated hoppers with mixers, pressurized collecting hoppers, and storing tank with automatic feeding; it has been designed and created according to vari-ous production requirements such as different tray sizes, hourly ca-pacities, product requested, etc.The ADV-S4 is electronically

controlled and functions can be regulated by means of a display screen, allowing in-formation and recipes to be memorised and quickly recalled on the touch-screen.

(Alimec - Via Prà Cabrolo68 - 36036 Torrebelvicino -VI - Italy - Tel. +39 0445662600 - Fax +39 0445662601 - email: [email protected])

ADV-S4 automatic line for vertical injection of baking pan products (Alimec).

sauce doser, a cheese doser and a tank for sauce; its pro-duction capacity can be set ac-cording to the customer need.(Moriondo - Casella Postale

20/B - 20842 Besana in Brianza - MB - Italy - Tel. +39 0362 995110 - Fax +39 0362 996300 - email:[email protected])


SRC retort unit for sterilization and pasteurization processes(Gea Levati Food Tech).

NEW CONCEPT IN ROTARYSTERILIZATION TECHNOLOGY

The new SRC System Rotary Combined is a totally new concept in sterilization and pasteurization technology that represents just the next stage of GEA Levati programme for continual innovation.The patented system will be launched at the Cibustec exhi-bition in Parma and represents a step change in retort design that reduces processing time, thereby helping to ensure the quality of the sterilized product and significantly improving pro-ductivity when compared with ordinary rotary or static retorts.The SRC is the only retort that

Up gradingof existing plants

to ATEX

combines both fixed and rotat-ing nozzles to achieve the best possible temperature distribu-tion throughout the retort and significantly reduce the process-ing time. The flexibility to bal-ance the water flow between the static and rotary nozzles allows sterilization recipes to be optimized.The constantly changing water jet angle means to achieve a much faster and more uniform heat penetration. This reduces the level of cold spots, reduces the processing time, avoids the product damage, through ex-cessive heat treatment and sig-

nificantly improves the overall quality of the product.Faster processing means bet-ter quality and reduced costs, it means higher production levels as well as improved product quality. Large installations may also benefit from an improved footprint as fewer retorts are nec-essary to maintain production at any given level.

The SRC also includes a host of technical advances to make the equipment easier to use, simpler to maintain, to extend its operational life and reduce Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).(Gea Levati Food Tech - Via Aldo Moro 1/a - 43044 Collecchio - PR -Italy - Tel. +39 0521 838311 -Fax +39 0521 838335 - email: [email protected])


BAKERY AND CONFECTIONERY

PASTRY AND BAKERY PRODUCTS

Minipan machines are suit-able for forming pastry and bakery products, in particular bread specialties, typical re-gional specialties, and fresh bread substitutes such as breadsticks, “Taralli” (bite-size bread cracker snack), “Friselle” (hard, thick crispbread), and crackers. The most recent tech-nological developments have allowed Minipan to become an international leader in the forming of baked snacks, with a special aptitude for dietetic and organic bread products,

including gluten-free bread products especially for celiac people. Constant attention to the production processes and a strong push towards efficien-cy allowed the company to ob-tain ISO 9001:2000 quality certification as early as 1999, with the sole aim of satisfying the most demanding clients. With widespread distribution, today Minipan works world-wide with the most important companies in the sector. In terms of product policy, the company intends to pursue fur-

ther differentiation with respect to the competition, qualifying as a producer of quality ma-chines and widening the pos-sibilities of use of its products. Minipan is investing in the per-formance, versatility and auto-mation fronts with the aim, in the short term, being to serve a clientele that is ever more important in terms of size and product customisation needs. For this purpose they have in-creased the design resources investing huge efforts in R&D.The variety of products that can be created with Minipan equipment is divided into 4 main sections, machines for biscuits and cookies (deposit-ed, wire-cut and hard biscuits, long extruded biscuits, co-ex-truded biscuits), machines for bread snacks (breadsticks of all shapes, decorated with seeds, seasoning and herbs, “schiac-ciatine”, crackers, “Taralli”, “Friselle” and double strand, twisted bread rings – patented system –), machines for speci-ality breads (“ciabatta” artisan bread lines, rusks, sandwich and tin bread lines, sheeted flat breads such as hamburger, pizza bottoms, pita, piadina, tigelle, “ferrarese” and typical regional shapes), and gluten-free breads and biscuits.

Minipan refiners have been serving and satisfying the most demanding bakers for the last forty years. Continu-ing this glorious heritage, the latest RAFF range provides sophisticated technology to-gether with the most solid construction. For application field and advantages, RAFF is the only machine able to re-fine chunky dough for bakery products and is particularly efficient in the lamination of flat breads, crackers, grissini, and bread snacks. Employing the unique company automat-ic cross lamination feature, RAFF is able to improve the gluten protein network and to provide a perfect distribu-tion of the carbon dioxide bubbles, yielding a very fine crumb. As a result, the struc-ture in products such as tin bread and sandwich loaves is supported by a completely homogeneous development, as well as perfect crumb strat-ification for products like “gal-letas de agua”, “hallulla” and “piadina”.(Minipan - Via Trebeghino 47 -48024 Massa Lombarda -RA - Italy - Tel. +39 0545971593 - Fax +39 0545971595 - email: [email protected])The Minipan RAFF plant.

Italian Food & Beverage Technology - - LXV (2011) october - 47

LINES FOR CHOCOLATE PRODUCTS

Ceda has patented a new continuous-rotation spread-ing chocolate system for automatic plants. The main challenge of all automatic plants for chocolate hol-low bodies is a good and uniform thickness. An ideal spreading requires that the mould performs continuous rotation movements around several axes in the short-est possible time. Ceda has spent several years in study-ing and developing a system which guarantees accurate rotations of the mould on four wheels and eliminates

the first cause for inconsist-ent spreading, the machine downtime for loading the mould. Thanks to this system, Ceda plants guarantee ex-cellent results even for small productions.The RSC 20 is equipped with the Ceda patented continuous-rotation spread-ing system for hollow bod-ies of different shapes and dimensions (eggs, little eggs, Christmas and Easter charac-ters, etc.). With this line the user can produce table choc-olate with or without nuts, single or double coat hol-

low bodies (dark chocolate outside and white chocolate inside for example) and dou-ble colours, hollow bodies with granulated product or nuts and marbled.The machine can be inserted in automatic line and oper-ate in independent mode; it can also be equipped with special conveyor belts which permit the insertion and the automatic extraction of moulds on wheels.The double requirement of high quality standards of products and observation of security laws is satisfied with a protection cab for thermal air conditioning and protec-tion of operators.

(Ceda - Via del Lavoro 98 - 14100 Asti - Italy - Tel. +39 0141 271765 - Fax +39 0141 271291 - email: [email protected])

Automatic mould openingsystem on SC line (Ceda).


BAKERY AND CONFECTIONERY

CHOCOLATE MOULDING

Five presents the “Give me five” plant as an important step forwards in chocolate production. The plant does

not need to be assembled by fitters, since it is mechanically and electrically pre-assembled in the factory. The moulding

line will be supplied in sec-tions which only need to be fastened to each other by means of bayonet connections and bolts.The cooling tunnel is divided into 2 zones and equipped with 1 compressor and 2 in-dependent circuits of air with adjustable speed and temper-ature. The conveyor chains of mould-carrier are pre-ten-sioned to grant accuracy in the position. The motorization is supported by means of an inverter in order to set times of acceleration/deceleration of the carrier-mould move-ment. The covers, thermally insulated, are in preformed foam, in 1 meter sections and entirely removable and very light.The Five Depositor is the new and revolutionary patented conception which assures pre-cision in the dosing. There is no hopper since the product

keeps on flowing and flows down inside the dosing cham-ber, ensuring a fresh temper-ing product and lack of air bubbles. The dosing system is adjusted by means of 2 servo-drive motors and the dosing plate is without grooves but with direct holes on the cavi-ties. The machine is fixed on wheels and the dosing head can turn 180° ensuring an eas-ily cleaning.The demoulding is carried out on plates conveyed crosswise on the production line; the hammering station is provided with 3 hammers which work in different times, in millesimal of a second to grant the total demoulding of the products. All the equipment is in conformity to EC regulations.(Five - Via delle Industrie 29 -20035 Lissone - MB - Italy -Tel. +39 039 2454400 -Fax +39 039 2452277 - email: [email protected])The “Give me five” plant for chocolate production (Five).

T600 tempering machine (Gami).

TEMPERING MACHINE

Gami presents the tempering machine model T600. It is an automatic continuous temper-ing machine, from melting by “bain-marie” to tempering by cooling gas with refriger-ant compressor. The bowl features a capacity of 80 kg and is provided with a mixer that keeps the chocolate fluid and even. The machine is equipped with a wire-mesh

belt thus obtaining an enrob-ing system complete with dis-penser, blower, wire-mesh belt beater, and tail-cutting device. Finally, the enrobing wire-mesh belt has a working width of 600 mm.(Gami - Via Lago di Lavarone 14 - 36015 Schio - VI - Italy -Tel. +39 0445 576205 -Fax +39 0445 500026 - email: [email protected])

28066 Galliate (NO) - Italy - Via A. Grandi, 25 - Zona Industriale Peco - tel (+39) 0321 806564 - fax (+39) 0321 861187 - e-mail: [email protected] - www.trivisrl.com

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PACKAGING EQUIPMENT

FIGHTING GLOBAL FOOD LOSSWITH LOCAL PACKAGING

Life on the poverty line: rising food prices make food in Uganda a luxury.

Resources are becoming more and more scarce around the world and it is more effective to reduce food losses than to increase food production. Inno-vative packaging solutions have a central role to play here.These are the results obtained by international research teams of the Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology and Uni-versity of the Philippines in two studies commissioned by the Food and Agriculture Organi-zation (FAO) of the United Na-tions which will be presented at the Save Food congress in

Düsseldorf in May at Interpack, the world biggest packaging trade fair.The researchers investigated the extent and reasons for food losses in various regions of the world and throw light on the role that packaging can play in avoiding these losses. The findings of these studies could fundamentally change global food policy. Until now, it has always been considered neces-sary to boost food production by 70% by 2050 in order to feed everyone but new goals now apply: “With limited natu-

ral resources, it is more effective to reduce food losses than to in-crease production,” says Robert von Otterdijk, FAO Officer for Save Food.Speculators have got their sights set on agricultural commodities such as wheat, rice, soya, and maize. Having bought them cheaply from farmers and ce-real wholesalers, they gamble on an increase in prices. This is a lucrative business, because food is becoming scarcer and scarcer. With arable produce being used increasingly for fuel production and harvests being cut by droughts, rising affluence and world population growth are causing demand for wheat and other cereals to spiral. Ac-cording to FAO of the United Nations, there will be two bil-lion people more than today by 2050.“One third of food produced around the world, amounting to about 1.3 billion tonnes, is lost on its way from the farm to the fork, or is wasted,” says one of the Swedish authors of two studies commissioned, Jenny Gustavsson.In the context of the Save Food campaign, the packaging in-dustry wants to fight food loss more effectively. Decentralised packaging machines for emerg-

ing markets can improve food security, while the “throwaway” mentality in Western industrial-ised nations can be combated with smart packages.

THE WASTEFUL WEST

There are many approaches to food security. It is wasted right across the supply chain, starting with agricultural produc-tion through to consumption in the home. In the low-income Countries of Africa and Asia, the problem lies at the start of the value chain. According to SIK, six to eleven kilograms of food are lost per capita per year owing to shortcomings in harvesting techniques or be-cause food doesn’t make it from the producer to the consumer in time. In the some extreme cli-matic conditions, fruit and milk spoil, and meat becomes ined-ible due to contamination with dangerous germs. However, far more food is wasted per head of population in Europe and North America. In the industr-ialised nations, 95 to 115 kg of food still fit for consumption are simply thrown away per person per year.What consumers fail to con-sider on their way to the bin is that unnecessary wastage


War on waste: with their throwaway mentality, the developed Countries are partly to blame for rising food prices, says UN expert Klaus Töpfer (Image: Messe Düsseldorf).

fosters hunger in the poorer regions of the world. “Food is traded internationally. Peo-ple in wealthy Countries who waste food have an impact on prices in other parts of the world, ultimately making some products unaffordable to peo-ple in low-income Countries,” Gustavsson explains. If edible food ends up in the bin, this also pushes up the consumption of energy and resources. The equation is simple: when a third of the food produced spoils, a third of the resources consumed in production, e.g. water, are wasted and a third more cli-mate-damaging emissions than necessary are pumped into the atmosphere.Demands for an immediate rethink can therefore be heard from the highest quarters. “In the fight against the throwaway mentality and energy wastage, the developed Countries have to set clear targets,” says Klaus Töpfer, former Executive Direc-tor of the UN Environment Pro-gramme and head of the Ger-man Federal Government’s Ethics Commission for a Safe Energy Supply. In addition to policy-makers and consumers, he considers that the packag-ing industry, in particular, has a major obligation to collaborate with other sectors in developing solutions along the food value chain.The packaging industry wants to do its bit and is work-ing on new strategies for the production and distribution of packaging machines and smart packaging ideas. “For instance, packages that them-selves measure the contents’

freshness could help to reduce the quantities of still consumable food being discarded,” says Christian Traumann, Managing Director of German packaging machine manufacturer Multivac. In emerging markets, on the oth-er hand, small, decentralised solutions could improve food security and fight poverty.

GERM ALARM

However, the industry has to strike a difficult balance, as it is acting in two worlds. While it first has to convince farmers in Nigeria of the need to pack-age their produce at source in-stead of sending it on its way unprotected, it can only combat Western carelessness with high tech. “Many consumers regard the ‘best before’ date as a li-cence to waste food, although many foods are still fresh after that date,” explains Stephan Grünewald of the Cologne-based rheingold market and media analysis institute. To remedy the problem, the in-dustry is reaching deep into its box of tricks. For instance, it is developing time-temperature in-dicators that report continuously on the product’s state of fresh-ness. BASF is already offering so-called OnVu labels printed on the package. These come with a special pigment colour that changes when the contents are no longer fit to eat.However, such innovations will only make their mark if food corporations cooperate. Oc-cupying a key position in the chain from the farm to the dis-count retailer, they control de-mand among local producers

and the supply of foods from which the consumer choos-es. The good news is that a number of the big players, like the Swiss food manufacturer Nestlé, have already joined the Save Food campaign. Nestlé wants to cut its emissions by 20% by 2015 by improv-ing efficiency in packaging and production and making greater use of renewable en-ergy. “We want to do business more sustainably and thus al-leviate hunger in the world,” says Philippe Roulet, head of Global Packaging Materials & Training at Nestlé. To this end, the group aims to use, among other things, more bioplastics from non-food sources such as wood or algae as packaging materials.Packaging manufacturers and

suppliers of packaging ma-chines are supporting food suppliers in the realisation of their sustainability strategies. “Smart packaging” is one of the buzzwords. These are in-telligent and active systems that indicate the product’s state of quality and, armed with oxygen absorbers or special acids, are even capable of helping foods to stay fresh for longer. Such packages can help anywhere around the globe, because – and this is true the world over – the longer food stays fit to eat, the less food is lost.The US-based Sonoco com-pany is one of the innovation powerhouses in developing packages with integrated mi-crochips that, via sensors, con-stantly gather information on the state of a product such as


PACKAGING EQUIPMENT

moisture and temperature. And set off an alarm when values move outside programmed up-per or lower limits. These chips can also improve distribution se-curity and uncover gaps in the supply chain by enabling huge quantities of data on goods to be up- or downloaded at light-ning speed with radio frequen-cy technology.

A TREND TOWARDS ASEPSIS

There are plans for Sonoco packages to do even more, by interacting with the contents, removing oxygen and harm-ful germs and thus improving product quality and prolong-ing its freshness. Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging (IVV) is already offering such preservation solutions: “We in-

tegrate oxygen absorbers such as iron in the polymer matrix of the packaging material,” says IVV researcher Sven Sänger-laub. In PET bottles prepared in this way, oxygen-sensitive beverages like beer and fruit juices stay drinkable for longer. In addition, the IVV has devel-oped an antimicrobial film that releases sorbic acid onto the surface of the food, the point of attack for contamination, and thus preserves it.Aseptically packaged foods also stay fresh longer. In the aseptic process, the product and packaging are sterilised independently. The package is then filled with the product in a closed, sterile system and sealed. This way, all bacteria are killed and cannot recon-taminate the goods. The advan-tage of this technology is that

the food no longer has to be heated in the package at high temperatures. “This means that much less packaging material can be used and the energy input for packaging is about 70% lower than for conven-tional systems,” explains Fried-bert Klefenz, Group President of Bosch Packaging Technol-ogy. What’s more, aseptically packaged foods don’t need a chill chain. “With this form of packaging, we can also sup-ply people who don’t have fridges.” Bosch already has a variety of machines to offer for the aseptic processing of liquid and pasty foods.In emerging markets, there’s unlikely to be much demand for such technologies for the time being. For who’s going to pay for them and operate them? Instead, the demand for small, decentralised packag-ing machines is on the rise. “In India, we have truck-mounted packaging machines specially adapted to local conditions

in order to demonstrate the benefits of packaged food to farmers as well as local au-thorities. Farmers soon realise it makes sense to package their harvest,” says Klefenz. Bosch therefore wants to export more machines to these emerging markets. “The goal is nation-wide distribution as far as possible so that produce can be protected from spoilage at source.” The German machine manufacturer Multivac also sees huge potential in up-and-coming nations for its vacuum packaging machines. “They’re easy to handle,” says market-ing boss Valeska Haux.Absorbers and asepsis for the West, and new machines and help for self-help for Africa and similar regions, industry has made big plans and an-nounced numerous innovations. Whether they’ll actually make their breakthrough remains to be seen. Ultimately, it will be the consumer who decides that over the next few years.

Shopping Indian-style: the Countries of Asia are growing fast and urgently need packaging machines to improve the safety their harvests (Image: Messe Düsseldorf).


PACKAGING EQUIPMENT

BAG PACKAGING LINEFOR DEEP-FROZEN VEGETABLES

The best system for preserving the organoleptic features of fresh vegetables (straight after harvesting) is packing them deep-frozen in bags; one thing that must be clear is that low temperatures kill only a mini-mum part of microbes, therefore once the bag is open the same condition do not apply.The bags should only contain perfectly clean products. In addition, in conformity with the law, the caption “once de-frosted, do not refreeze” should be written on the outer part of the bag, except when the prod-

uct has already been cooked in boiling water, considering that the product has lost some vitamins and mineral salts but has preserved carbohydrates and proteins.Movinox has developed an automatic bag packaging line that fills, forms and seals bags holding one type of vegeta-ble such as peas, asparagus, green beans, cauliflower ro-settes, broccoli rosettes, sliced mushrooms, beans, sliced or whole artichokes, sliced-diced or baby carrots, sliced or diced onions, broad beans, sliced Bag packaging line for deep-frozen spinach (Movinox).

THERMOFORMING MACHINES

customer requirements and the quality control throughout the production process ensures that the specifications, agreed with the customers, are met.A complete and flexible ma-

Reepack is a dynamic compa-ny specialized in food pack-aging machinery with vacuum technology and modified at-mosphere processing (MAP). Its first objective is always the

chine range has been devel-oped and improved by the staff in these last years and thermoforming machines mod-el “E” and “T” are the new developments. The machine frame and sheeting are made of stainless steel for easy sani-tation in wash down environ-

ments. An easy open frame enables to check all the parts of the machines and carry out any adjustment or change in the process straightaway. All the systems are situated in the machine frame and protected from any damage. A user-friendly control panel makes the setting and recording of different programs easy. Freely programmable movements re-sult in maximum flexibility with respect to different formats and products.Several kinds of equipment with different features can be added to the machines to sat-isfy any packaging demand.(Reepack - Via dell’Artigianato 19 - 24068 Seriate - BG -Italy - Tel. +39 035 2924911 -Fax +39 035 2922891 -e-mail: [email protected])Reeform E 40 thermoforming machine (Reepack).

fennel, sliced aubergine, sliced or whole potatoes, etc.By means of a forklift, the box, which contains a single prod-

uct, is placed on top of the mo-torized rollers and these convey the box through the crusher fit-ted with a roller conveyor. This


AUTOMATIC LINEFOR CHOCOLATE BARS AND SNACKS

Record presents a completely made in Italy packaging system for chocolate bars in protective atmosphere (PAP) in order to achieve high productivity. The system can pack the product single or multiple and it consists of two flow-pockets, a flow-card and a Jaguar Classic MD long seal.The flow-pockets receive the products in a consistent flow

from the linking conveyor belts; each flow-pocket is capable of handling up to 350 bars per minute. The flow-card phases the card base – after inserting the bars underneath loaded by the flow-pockets – into the infeed conveyor. The card taken directly from a reel is cut to a pre-established length. Finally, the Jaguar Classic MD Long Seal flow-pack machine

receives the group of products on a card base and packages them in a barrier film at speeds of up to 140 packages per minute.The whole system is provided with a specific set of acces-sories to control the various stages of packaging and mini-mize line stoppages. A double reel mounting for easy card exchange, bars position control

system, and cooling system of deck plates, automatic film reel splicer, gas injection system, continuous residual oxygen analyzer, quality control on discharge for the flow-card, flow-pocket, and Jaguar Clas-sic MD Long Seal respectively.The whole line is provided with specifically designed safety guards.(Record - Via Italia 46 - 23846 Garbagnate Monastero -LC - Italy - Tel. +39 031 850607 - Fax +39 031 850704 - email: [email protected])

Flowpack machine for chocolate bars and snacks (Record).

procedure makes sure that the product no longer appears as a monobloc during the following steps. The box is automatically inserted into the special box tilter which pours the product into the bulk feeder.A vibrating extractor conveys the product from the bulk feeder to an elevator belt which con-stantly pours the product into the multihead weigher. This

particular type of weighing machine is based on a com-plex operating system and it allows to carry out weighing procedures based on grams, even though the granulometry of the product is not uniform.Once the correct quantity of product has been weighed, the multihead weigher pours it into one or more packag-ing machines placed below it.

These machines form and seal the bags by means of a single reel of hot-sealable plastic film previously lithographed.The processing system automati-cally checks the correct weight of the bags by means of a con-tinuous homologated scale; it checks that the bag does not contain any metallic elements by means of a metal detector and it also checks that the bags

are not broken. The bags are packed in cardboard boxes on a swivel table; the boxes are moved onto idle roller convey-ors and sealed automatically by means of a taping machine and finally placed on pallets.(Movinox - Via A. Gramsci - 63030 Acquaviva Picena - AP - Italy - Tel. +39 0735 764522 -Fax +39 0735 764405 - email: [email protected])


PACKAGING EQUIPMENT

AUTOMATIC PACKAGINGMACHINES

ADVANCED PACKAGING SOLUTIONFOR POUCHES AND BAGS

and the film waste rewind is automatic. An automatic arm opens and holds open the film for the introduction of the prod-uct and a motorised discharge conveyor takes the sealed pack away. The machine is ultra-compact and with an ex-tremely good price-to-capacity ratio.The fully automatic packaging machine SBM-500 is based on the basic principles of

chinery. Robino&Galandrino is spread over a total area of 15,000 m2 with 100 em-ployees. The steady growth in research and development,

Norvita presents a completely new automatic L-sealer series GPM-640 which is based on a sensational concept and represents a very economical packaging solution.It is the first automatic L-sealer specifically designed for the operator who just places the product inside the film and “the machine does the rest” as the company says. The film feed is automatic and adjustable

TS is a packaging division of Robino&Galandrino, a com-pany specialized in secondary sealing, such as capping, wire-hooding and packaging ma-

continuous motion, continuous side-seal, and servo-controlled drives. These translate into soft movements of the products, and accuracy without unnecessary stress or jolting.The SBM-500 is based on to-tal reliability and a rock solid construction, which is easy to operate and maintain, with the added advantage of low maintenance.(Norvita - Via Felice Maritano 5/f - 40023 Castel Guelfo -BO - Italy - Tel. +39 0542 53388 - Fax +39 0542 54584 - email: [email protected])

GPM-640 series automaticL-sealer (Norvita).

ETNA L HFFS machine for pouches and bags (TS).

the constant search for new packaging solutions, and the direct contact with customers, means that the company is able to meet all requirements of a wide market. Together with Hosokawa Yoko Co. Ltd., they released the Corner Zip project: an International pat-ent that has many economic advantages for the packaging industry.TS provides machinery for the production of pouch and bags for food and non food indus-tries, and is ideal for powder products, creamy and viscous products, liquids, ready made meals, sauces and dressing, baking aids, honey, catering and food service products, pickles and onions, preserved vegetables, products in pieces, and ingredient base for food.

TS presents the ETNA L1 and L2 models (where L for Line-ar). These are two Horizontal Form Fill & Seal mechanical machines (HFFS) of small di-mensions, which are precise, easy to use and to maintain for small pouches and bags with a high quality and sealed on 3-4 sides.Corner Zip is an innovative and functional opening and closing solution, which is easy to open thanks to the er-gonomic grip. The wide range of bags for Corner Zip con-sists of packaging solutions for semi-liquid foods, chocolates, sweets and sugared, dried fruit and snacks, leaf teas, chewing gum, powders and granules, grated cheese, and lyophilized condiments.(TS - Viale Italia 140/142 -14053 Canelli - AT - Italy - Tel. +39 0141 821411 - Fax +39 0141 832539 - email: [email protected])


THERMOFORM PACKAGINGFOR SMALL SPACES

The compact R 095 has been designed by Multivac to proc-ess flexible films and pack prod-ucts of any type (also with MAP) automatically, hygienically and economically. The space-sav-ing concept and the internally housed forming die allow a large infeed line, even though the total machine length is only 2.30 m. The R 095 has been optimized for perfect cleaning and hygiene, offers a very high variability (availability of 12 basic formats), a very high energy efficiency (electric drive systems), and quick times for the format changes.The compact T 300 is de-

Robotic system for end-line solutionsRobo.Line MP/HS (Futura Robotica).

HIGH FLEXIBILITY IN PACKAGING

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experience in this field make the achievement of highly flexible equipment possible for product manipulation and packing treatment. Robo.Line MP/HS processes products coming in bulk, identified by means of a camera, to pack in wrap-round cases, with prod-ucts inserted flat or standing up, or pack in trays and lids with products inserted flat or standing up.(Futura Robotica - Via Enrico Mattei 1/B - 29010 Alseno -PC - Italy - Tel. +39 0523 945708 - Fax +39 0523 945814 - email: [email protected]).

signed for a wide spectrum of trays and incorporates Multi-vac groundbreaking hygienic design as well as the com-pany superlative technology and quality standards. Simple to operate (thanks to the user interface HMI 2.0 with touch screen), easy to clean, the high-ly flexible T 300, thanks to the space-saving concept (overall machine length of only 2.45 m), has an infeed line with two loading positions (optionally ex-pandable with two or four load-ing positions) in order to allow an ergonomic loading of the trays; it also offers a high en-ergy efficiency level. The large


PACKAGING EQUIPMENT

CARTONING AND PALLETIZING SYSTEMS

EoLA (End of lane automation) is the new way of conceiving carton-ing and palletizing systems by Italproject. The range of solutions is very wide and full of options to customize the EoLA to all customer requirements.The Italproject OR P18 is an anthropomorphic robot capable of palletizing at a speed of up to 180,000 eggs/hour with plastic trays, paper trays or both, while keeping the different products separate. Naturally, the system can handle plastic or carton dividers as well as plastic or wooden pallets of the most used

dimensions. It picks up 4 stacks at the same time with a special head fork system, both paper and plastic trays. Paper tray stacks on full pallets can also be turned 90°.Italproject OR P18 can be installed downstream on a Farm Packer as well as a Grader. Solu-tions vary from 1 to 2 (or more an request) stack feeding conveyors and from 1 to 2 (high number is available for tailor-made solutions) full pallet positions. The full pallet can be discharged automatically or manually. This also applies to dividers and empty pallets. Highly useful is the integration

The anthropomorphic palletizerrobot by Italproject.

of a weighing system at the end of the full pallet discharge roller conveyor, including also printing of labels to facilitate recognition and source.Italproject offers several options such as the tray stack feeding conveyor extension; full pallet discharge modular extension to obtain increased full pallet buffer; weighing and labelling system; YEP (Yesterday’s End Pallet) possi-bility for finishing the previous day full pallet production (excluded for the automatic discharge system).(Italproject - Via Leonardo Da Vinci 6 - 35015 Galliera Veneta - PD - Italy - Tel. +39 049 9475211 - Fax +39 049 9475200 - email: italproject@ italproject.net)

base format of 420 x 300 mm is divisible for up to three uses, with a maximum tray height of 110 mm.

R 095 thermoforming packaging machine with Bizerba slicer (Multivac).

The compact T 300 packaging machine (Multivac).

The Xbelt is the new Multivac patented labelling system which applies labels on thermoformed packs by means of a complete-

ly new process: the labels are delivered onto a transfer belt in the same pack format as the die configuration. The advantage of this system, which can be directly mounted on the thermo-forming machine, is that there is no need for vacuum fans.Finally, the new tunnel BAKEjet with infrared heaters is particu-larly compact, very simple to

use, energy efficient and is also easy to clean and to maintain. It allows a uniform and gen-tle browning and assures the minimum weight loss and short production times.(Multivac - Via Leonardo Da Vin-ci 27 - 20094 Corsico - MI -Italy - Tel. +39 02 4503208 -Fax +39 02 45863819 - email: [email protected])


LABELLING SYSTEMS FORWRAPPING APPLICATION

The System 1 Series has been developed by Etipack for cy-lindrical products, with specific solutions to meet the applica-tion requirements in different sectors, pharmaceutical, food, and chemical. These systems have been developed as a modular and flexible assem-bly concept, and they can be easily equipped, according to production requirements, with medium or high speed label-lers, with accessories such as print units, or alarm and control devices.System 1 Full, developed for high speed labelling, adopts

such technical solutions so as to ensure a high degree of reliability for labelling and printing operations by means of control and alarm devices, end-of-reel, tearing of backing paper, minimum and maximun load, completion of labelling and printing, ejection of the non labelled/non printed product. The Full configuration also al-lows to choose the most suit-able labeller for the specific customer need.System 1 Twist is the compact and functional solution for a perfect labelling of cylindri-cal products. The DRP device

makes the product spin around during the labelling phase. A very compact machine body makes it suitable for any envi-ronment.

(Etipack - Via Aquileja 55/61 - 20092 Cinisello Balsamo - MI - Italy - Tel. +39 02 660621 - Fax +39 02 6174919 - email:[email protected])

System 1 Twist for cylindrical product labelling (Etipack).


ANCILLARY EQUIPMENT

In recent years, a number of new technologies, such as wire-less technologies, Ethernet, and asset management systems, have entered the food produc-tion industry and substantially changed the world of process automation. Despite all that, one thing has remained the same: the central importance of sensors. Measurement tech-nology is more important than anything else when it comes to monitoring operations in the production process and supply-ing the control system with the necessary signals. Modern “in-telligent” measuring instruments know more about the process than generally thought and even make it possible to react

earlier to critical conditions at the production plant.

SOPHISTICATED ENVIRONMENT:HIGH DEMANDS

ON THE SENSORS

No matter what food is being produced, the measurement conditions are seldom ideal in practice. Dynamic process conditions represent a particular challenge, because each point of measurement is subject to changing operating conditions. In the vats, tanks, and process equipment, the raw materials used vary in density, consist-ency, conductivity, and pH value. If extreme temperature

MODERN SENSORS PROVIDE PRECISEINSIGHTS INTO PRODUCTION

fluctuations come into play as well, as in the case of freeze drying, normal sensors quickly reach their limits.As a general rule, producers have to choose between sen-sors that come into contact with the product and those that don’t. And measuring instruments used for dry bulk goods have to meet require-ments that are very different from those imposed by liquid media. Beverages involve their own specific factors, ranging from flow properties in pipes to aspects of frothing and gas overlay. Moreover, the meas-urement technology must not only be precise and reliable, it also has to satisfy the stringent hygienic regulations in the food industry. As one might expect, chief among these requirements is a high protection rating. In other words, the sensors must be optimised for CIP and SIP processes as well as external cleaning.

WHICH TECHNOLOGYFOR WHICH APPLICATION?

Whether it be beverages, delicatessen food, or baked goods, temperature is an important parameter in all sec-

tors. Temperature sensors in the food industry are almost always equipped with Pt100 sensors of various levels of precision. These sensors are based on the way in which changes in tem-perature cause changes in the electrical resistance of platinum. Because of their low response time, special thin-film sensors based on this technology are faster than simple platinum ele-ments. In cases where filling level is measured, a distinction is made between continuous measurement and limit level detection. For continuous meas-urement of bulk goods, the established technology uses radar or microwaves. Freely radiating devices are usually In-line concentration analyser (ProMec).

Level meters (Valcom).


used, but sensors with rod or cable antennas are becoming increasingly popular also. Limit level detection is accomplished with both capacitive probes and vibronic level switches, with the latter detecting the rate of attenuation of a vibrating fork or rod. Fill level measure-ment in liquids is based on the measurement of hydrostatic pressure; this pressure results from the liquid column above the sensor and is directly proportional to the fill level. But liquid fill levels can also be measured with microwave systems, either freely radiating devices or systems that come into contact with the product. The less expensive variants include capacitive sensors and ultrasound sensors.A large number of diverse options are available once again when it comes to flow measurement. Since most foods are conductive, they can be

measured with the established magnetic-inductive sensors. If the product is not conductive, Coriolis sensors are used. In contrast to magnetic-inductive sensors, these measure not volume flow but mass flow. Another advantage of Coriolis devices is their robustness. The measuring tube can be made of stainless steel, Hastelloy, titanium, or zirconium, which means that the benefits of this measurement principle can also be exploited when critical media are involved. Measur-ing instruments with ultrasound sensors are less precise than the Coriolis technology. They make up for that by being more hygienic, however. They are attached to the outside of the pipe or tube (clamp-on method) and have no contact with the product: the sensor never becomes dirty, and there are no signs of wear and tear.

MULTI-PARAMETER INSTRUMENTS,

THE ALL-ROUNDERS

Coriolis mass flowmeters and ultrasound volume measure-ment instruments are some of the innovative multi-parameter technologies with the greatest growth potential in the food industry. In particular, Coriolis mass flowmeters are now re-garded as state of the art and considered true all-rounders; they provide safe and highly accurate measurements of gas-es and liquids and they permit the simultaneous measurement of multiple parameters, such as

mass flow, density, temperature, and concentration (degrees Brix, degrees Plato). The fact that these instruments measure such a large number of param-eters suggests that they might also be used for inline quali-ty control. Corrosion or depos-its, which lead to changes in food, are already reliably de-tected and signalled with Co-riolis mass flowmeters. Many devices are also capable of de-tecting when pipes are empty or only partially full. There are now flowmeters available that can detect gas bubbles starting at only 1.5 to 2% air content in the media being measured. That makes it possible for the plant control system to react much earlier to critical condi-tions, such as a dry running pump. With modular designs, the user can always extend the functionality of his measurement equipment and adapt it more closely to his process by means of upgradeable software.

At Anuga FoodTech 2012, which will be held from the 27th to the 30th of March 2012 in Cologne, the latest develop-ment in the field of sensor tech-nology will be.

Level transmitter (Endress + Hauser). Fouling probe (Neosens).

ANCILLARY EQUIPMENT

INDUSTRIAL METAL DETECTION SYSTEM

Regulation (EC) No. 852/2004 and FDA Code Title 21 CFR110 require that effective measures shall be taken to protect against the inclusion of metal in food. CEIA presents the best metal de-tection solution for compliance with them.Ceia THS 21 Metal Detec-tion System is a highly sensi-tive and high-precision meas-uring instrument; its detection, construction quality and reli-ability characteristics make it the most suitable and effec-

tive solution for the automatic elimination of metal contami-nants. In this manner, the re-quirements regarding security, integrity and traceability are satisfied.As FDA Code Title 21 Part 11 prescribes, rigorous cri-teria for access to program-ming and computer data protection have been fully adopted in the CElA THS 21 Series firmware. A new function, simply activated by pressing a dedicated key,

allows the most frequently-used functions to be directly recalled. These functions are programmable by the opera-tor, and maintain the access protection criteria according to FDA requirements.A capacious incorporated memory allows up to 500 products to be stored, each identifiable by a specific al-phanumeric string. The prod-ucts are automatically listed in alphabetical order, and searches are facilitated by

the progressive recognition of the characters selected on the keypad.The data relating to each detection and ejection stored certify production quality, the inspection itself and program-ming operations, as well as the periodic functional test phases using standard test samples. Moreover, continu-ous Auto-Test function ensures the maximum production safety. Special electronic sti-muli are sent to the transmis-

The technological innovation tothe service of your craftsmanship

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www.gsitalia.com - [email protected]


THS 21 belt conveyor metal detection system (Ceia).

sion and reception chain of the THS 21 Metal Detector Series, causing variations in the detection signals which provide checks on detection characteristics. These varia-tions are compared with the reference values stored in the factory at the time of the cali-bration test. This produces an automatic certified check of the system’s sensitivity; any deviations from permitted tolerances are followed by a signal and the anomaly is recorded.In the THS 21 Series, local connection to the Metal De-tector can be made directly

via a Bluetooth device incor-porated in the Control Power Box module, without physical contact, with a consequent saving of time and greater safety for technical and op-erational personnel. The Blue-tooth connection can be used for programming, monitoring of the signals via the CElA MD-Scope program and the transfer of the data contained in the Metal Detector events memory.(Ceia - Zona Industriale Viciomag-gio 54/56 - 52041 - Arezzo -Italy - Tel. +39 0575 4181 -Fax +39 0575 418296 -email: [email protected])


ANCILLARY EQUIPMENT

FOOD SAFETY AND QUALITY CONTROL

RayBox is the new compact inspecting X-ray machine multifunction by Raytec Vi-sion. The inspector meets the requirements of compactness and flexibility in plant design and is particularly accurate in the distribution of components and in the focus of rays, thus reducing the necessary en-ergy for the X-ray inspection process. Convenient access to the machine makes it very easy to make checks and rou-tine maintenance.According to the specific ap-plication, RayBox is equipped with different power genera-tors for pipe, can, and belt re-spectively. The non filtered liq-uid product can be analyzed

continuously by the system which allows metallic foreign bodies to be found from 0.8 in size up to 2 mm pieces of glass. The machine is avail-able for diameters of 50 and 100 mm and equipped with 3-way rejection valves. The system can inspect cans from 400 g to 5 kg, brick heights up to 210 mm with no need of an external tunnel due to the low energy emission and the conveyor belt is straight without curves.RayBox is also ideal for bulk products, which are packed in boxes or envelopes, as di-mensions have widths (200 mm max) inversely propor-tional to the height (max 120

mm). The heart of the RayBox system is the CVS software, with advanced algorithms that allow even very complex calculations to determine the presence of defects and for-eign bodies. The detection capacity depends on the con-figuration of the product and container. The interface will automatically put in evidence, for any rejection made, the thresholds involved in the type of defect. There is, therefore, an immediate picture of the situation so the operator can make safe decisions about how and what to possibly change to increase or de-crease the sensitivity.(Raytec Vision - Via Paradigna

RayBox inspecting X-ray machine

(Raytec Vision).

THERMAL TRANSFER DIGITAL PRINTING

Eidos is the leading Italian company for the design and manufacture of printers for labelling, marking and auto-matically encoding industrial products. The technology has been developed and perfect-ed over 35 years of growth of the company.Eidos proposes the “ther-mal transfer” digital printing technology. It is a very ad-vantageous solution: clean, ecological and safe for the operator because it does not use solvents. Above all, it is

94/a - 43122 Parma - Italy -Tel. +39 0521 303427 -Fax +39 0521 339325 - email: [email protected])

a technology that enables variable data such as expiry dates, numbers in ascending or descending order, bar-codes, 2D codes, identifica-tion codes, etc. to be printed in real time. The result is that Eidos printers permit direct encoding on the production line.Each Eidos product is born from a completely independ-ent and original idea, both in terms of hardware and soft-ware. This enables highly ef-ficient solutions and applica-

tions to be developed, many of which are protected by international patents.From the beginning, Eidos has been a byword for efficiency and reliability. A brand that has known how to grow by expanding and continuously improving its range of prod-ucts and services until it could be presented as a complete structure. A company that is able to support the custom-er from the design of the sys-tem to operational assistance with the installed products.

Eidos machines are born from the ideas and design talent of outstanding spe-cialized engineers and are made entirely in independent workshops using only Italian technology.Swing is the electronic thermal transfer printer able to print directly and automatically on the plastic or paper film used on packaging machines. It is used to encode with text, bar-codes and logos that can be easily changed, the various production lots with extreme


The Swing printer (Eidos).

flexibility and high print qual-ity and speed. The printing is made directly on the produc-tion line, enabling the prod-uct to be personalised as it is packaged, thus avoiding hav-ing to keep a large stock of pre-printed rolls.The Electronic Unit has a 5.7” graphic colour display with touch screen in order to al-low viewing of the text which is being printed and makes setting the parameters easier and more intuitive.

The printer is available in dif-ferent versions for intermittent, continuous, and multi-tracks type packaging machines, and for printing on medical bags, cardboards, cards, tags, blisters, bags, iden-tifying arm bands, flexible sleeves, and glossy leather.(Eidos - Via dell’Industria 11 -ZI Fontaneto - 10023 Chieri -TO - Italy - Tel. +39 011 947781- Fax +39 011 9477865 - email: [email protected])


PACKAGING MATERIALS

PRESERVING THE SHELF-LIFEOF THE PRODUCT

Eurekabox is the range of pack-aging developed by Tecnowerk that meets all the demands for safety and function in the food industry. Eurekabox has met those demands by producing the ideal packaging for food prod-ucts, because it is designed to preserve all the sensory appeal of the food and make it stand out on the shelf. To guarantee brand awareness and visibility, all packaging can be fully per-sonalised, in both colour and shape, with labelling affixed to all parts of the surface, even when the product has been consumed.Here is how Eurekabox works, at every stage in its lifecycle.• Packaging and communica-tions: every Eurekabox pack can

be fully personalised with IML labelling.• Transport: Eurekabox packag-ing has been designed to op-timise pallet stacking, for safe and trouble-free transport.• Shelf display: the personalised shapes and the brand and prod-uct information labelling all over the packaging create immediate visual impact, highlighting the product’s uniqueness whether it is displayed on shelves or in chilled or freezer cabinets.• Safety: consumers can rely on Eurekabox packaging, made from non-toxic, completely recy-clable PP, thanks to our strict in-house standards and BRC/IoP quality certification. What’s more, the patented Eurekabox anti-tamper closure system ena-

bles consumers to check the qual-ity of the product immediately.• Use: The tough, functional ma-terial not only guarantees safety but can be used to keep the product in after opening.• Re-use: the long-lasting mate-rial means that once the product has been consumed, the pack-aging can live on, keeping the brand in the public eye.Tecnowerk places its experience at the disposal of the customer, employing all the expertise in customising packaging, seeing the whole process through from design, to prototyping to produc-tion. Eurekabox represents the ideal fast and accessible pack-aging solution for food industry companies.

(Tecnowerk - Via Angelo Arboit 1 - 32030 Arsiè - BL - Italy -Tel. +39 0439 750038 -Fax +39 0439 759161 - email: [email protected])

Eurekabox, the high-visibility pack (Tecnowerk).Eurekabox, tough, functionaland long-lasting (Tecnowerk).

Eurekabox, safety guaranteed by the anti-tamper system (Tecnowerk).


Candies wrapped with Nativiacompostable BoPLA film(Taghleef Industries).

Masterlabel, a revolutionaryre-closable system (Masterpack).

INNOVATIVE ANDCOMPOSTABLE FILMS

PACKAGING SOLUTIONS

Taghleef Industries, headquar-tered in Dubai, is one of the international suppliers of BoPP and CPP and recently BoPLA films. Recently, it has launched its extensive range of innova-tive products primarily for the food and beverages sectors.New Nativia compostable BoPLA films, made from an-nual renewable sources, pro-vide outstanding optical prop-erties (high gloss, low haze), superior mechanical strength, a strong seal even at low tem-peratures, excellent twist and dead fold properties, and a high moisture transmission.

Nativia NTSS (transparent) and Nativia NZSS (metal-lised) are the right choice for food packaging and pressure sensitive applications.A complete range of films specially developed for the In-Mould Label market, con-solidated products with excel-lent performance for both their aesthetic features and high-quality workability in transpar-ent for a “no label look” or white voided for a shinier fin-ish and larger size containers. Self Adhesive Labels with face films featuring excellent trans-parency specially tailored for

“no label look” applications and white voided with high yield and white opaque ap-pearance suitable for most of the simple decoration ap-plications. WAL reel-fed and cut-stack applications in clear, white voided and metallised films which are appreciated for their high yield. High gas barrier films, in transparent and metallised, are technologically advanced films able to extend the shelf-life and maintain product per-formance (freshness, flavours, aroma). This film range means a smaller quantity of raw ma-terials used, whilst maintain-ing the protection perform-ances high and also having a reduced impact on the en-vironment.

(Taghleef Industries - Via E. Fermi 46 - 33058 SanGiorgio di Nogaro - UD - Italy -Tel. +39 0431 627111 - Fax +39 0431 621135 - email: [email protected])

Masterpack is specialized in designing and producing industrial flexible packaging and it has gained significant experience in Italian and Inter-national markets, thanks to its skill in the flexographical print-ing field which guarantees the excellence of the final result, along with a quality as good as a rotogravure print.The three innovative Master-pack solutions are Masterzip, Masteroven, and Masterlabel.Masterzip is characterized by the Inno Lock patented system, suitable for wrapping ready salads, frozen foods, cocoa,

and dried fruit. With this sys-tem, the company supplies reels with zipper applications on PE or laminated films (PET/PE OPA/PE PET/ALU/PE OPP/PE). Barrier holding for modified atmosphere wrapping is also provided. Masterzip is also usable on vertical and hori-zontal wrapping machineries with only a simple modifica-tion to the forming tube neck.Masteroven is the innovative laser micro-perforated film to be placed directly in the micro-wave oven without the need to be perforated or pre-cut. While cooking, the film allows pres-

sured vapour to leave the pack-age preserving the fragrance and nutritional characteristics of the content. It is the appropriate package for fresh or frozen veg-etables and ideal as a top for trays containing ready cooked meals.Finally, Masterlabel is a revolu-tionary re-closable system real-ized by Masterpack after years of research and development. It is applied directly onto the film with no modification to the wrapping nachines. It can be applied on all films, from thin polypropylene to three layered film including aluminium, and the adhesive strip provides a barrier even for gasses used in modified atmosphere packag-ing. It is not suitable for pow-

dered products and freezer storage, for which the company recommends the application Masterzip.(Masterpack - Via G. Ferraris 9 - 21020 Monvalle - VA - Italy -Tel. +39 0332 799258 - Fax +39 0332 799357 - email: [email protected])


PACKAGING TRENDS

US demand for food contain-ers is forecast to increase 3.0% per year through 2015 to $26.7 billion, or nearly 300 billion units. Advances will be based on an expand-ing population base, im-proved real growth in dispos-able personal income, smaller household sizes, consumer demand for foods offering a combination of convenience and value, and heightened us-age of value-added packag-ing providing enhanced fresh-ness protection and conven-

ience of use. Unit expansion will be aided by the growing popularity of single-serving packaging in an increasing range of applications. These and other trends are present-ed in “Food Containers: Rigid & Flexible”, a new study from The Freedonia Group.Plastic containers, and bags and pouches will experience the fastest growth among food container types, continuing to supplant paperboard, metal and glass containers. Plastic container advances will be driven by advantages over glass, metal and paperboard alternatives, including light weight, strength, heat resist-ance and barrier properties. Plastic containers have a well-

established presence in many markets and their combination of light weight and good bar-rier performance will propel continued growth. Above-average growth for bags and pouches will be the result of cost and performance advan-tages that will enable contin-ued inroads into rigid packag-ing applications. Moreover, inherent sustainability qualities of bags and pouches, such as reduced material requirements and shipping costs compared to rigid containers, will drive gains as brand owners seek to reduce the environmental footprint of their packaging. Paperboard container de-mand will benefit from further introductions of microwave-

able foods, which often use susceptor-equipped folding cartons for improved micro-wave oven performance. Aseptic cartons will gain ground against metal cans in uses such as soups and canned specialties, and sauces and condiments. Metal can demand will be supported by advantages of long shelf life, improved con-venience via easy-opening tops and the positioning of canned foods as a means of controlling food expenditures. Glass food container demand will be helped by a premium image, which will promote opportunities in the growing organic and/or natural foods segments.

FOOD CONTAINERDEMAND IN THE USA

US food container demand in million dollars (The Freedonia Group).

% Annual growthItem 2005 2010 2015 2005-2010 2010-2015

Food container demand 19,120 22,950 26,650 3.7 3.0

Bags and pouches 7,615 9,325 11,280 4.1 3.9

Rigid containers: 11,505 13,625 15,370 3.4 2.4

paperboard 4,504 4,920 5,330 1.8 1.6

metal 3,370 3,920 4,050 3.1 0.7

plastic 2,721 3,860 5,065 7.2 5.6

glass 910 925 925 0.3 --


MEAT AND SEAFOODPACKAGING MARKET

The report “Meat, Poultry & Seafood Packaging” by The Freedonia Group presents these data: demand for meat, poultry and seafood packag-ing will increase 3.0% per an-num to $9.2 billion in 2015.Gains will be fueled by ex-panding meat, poultry and seafood production for the domestic market, as well as rising export opportunities to Countries such as Japan and Chile. Packaging demand will also be stimulated by the on-going shift to case-ready pack-aging by many retailers as a means of reducing in-store la-bor costs.Flexible packaging demand growth will continue to outpace that of rigid packaging. Gains will be bolstered by good op-portunities for high barrier film and pouches. Demand for high barrier film will benefit from a favorable outlook for case-ready packaging, which requires value-added materials to prolong shelf life and protect

contents during shipping and handling. Pouch demand will be driven by further inroads by retort pouches into traditional can applications and healthy gains for stand-up pouches in frozen meat, poultry and sea-food applications.Gains for rigid packaging will lag those for flexible packag-ing, reflecting maturity in the large corrugated box segment and minimal advances for metal cans. However, plastic containers and trays will post robust gains. Demand for plas-tic containers will be driven by heightened demand for pre-pared meat and poultry items in supermarkets and other retail locations as a result of consum-er preference for convenience foods that require little or no preparation. Tray demand will be aided by the growing use of case-ready packaging, which often employs larger foam or more costly rigid bar-rier trays. Increasing use of more expensive biodegradable trays will also stimulate value gains. Demand for packaging accessories will benefit from

regulations requiring nutrition information and country-of-ori-gin labels on a variety of meat and poultry items. Meat applications will con-tinue to account for the largest share of packaging demand as a result of red meat’s sta-tus as a favored main dish in the foodservice sector and the growing presence of case-ready meats in retail sites.

However, demand growth in meat applications will lag the pace of poultry and seafood due to concerns over the fat and cholesterol levels of red meat. Although seafood ap-plications will account for the smallest portion of packaging demand, gains will outpace those for meat and poultry as a result of seafood’s perceived health benefits.

US meat, poultry and seafood packaging demand in million dollars (The Freedonia Group).


Packaging demand 6,300 7,920 9,180 4.7 3.0

Rigid packaging 3,553 4,425 5,010 4.5 2.5

Flexible packaging 2,415 3,090 3,705 5.1 3.7

Packaging accessories 332 405 465 4.1 2.8


PACKAGING TRENDS

DEMAND FOR ACTIVEAND INTELLIGENT

PACKAGING GROWS

The Freedonia Group reports that demand for active and intelligent packaging is fore-cast to climb 8.0% annually to $2.3 billion in 2015, signifi-cantly outpacing overall pack-aging demand. Advances will be driven by the availability of products with more reasonable price points and those offer-ing enhanced shelf life and/or improved quality. Addition-ally, gains will be supported by new mandates aimed at improving food safety and by the leveraging of smartphone applications to bring interactivity to packaging.Demand for intelligent packag-ing is expected to expand at nearly 20% annually to $370 million in 2015, propelled by rapid growth for Quick Response (QR) and other two-dimensional (2D) barcodes. Demand will also be fueled by greater use of time-temperature indicator (TTI) labels and tags

due to the increased presence of temperature-sensitive drugs and new regulations calling for increased track and trace ca-pabilities with perishable foods.Demand for active packaging is projected to increase 6.5% per year to $1.9 billion in 2015. Gains will be driven by above-average advances for gas scav-engers, the result of expanded applications for oxygen scav-engers in food, beverage and pharmaceutical packaging. Additionally, growth will be propelled by solid prospects for susceptor packaging in ap-plications other than microwave popcorn and robust increases for self-venting packaging.Food and beverages were the two largest markets for active and intelligent packaging in 2010. Above-average gains in food uses will be based on heightened requirements for longer shelf life for processed foods and packaged fresh foods containing fewer or no preservatives. Moreover, oppor-tunities will reflect the need for enhanced tracking and tracing

capabilities with perishables in light of the passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act of Jan-uary 2011. The pharmaceutical market is expected to post the fastest growth through 2015,

driven by the health care needs of the aging US population, along with the increasing pres-ence of high-value, temperature-sensitive biotechnology drugs in the product mix.

US active and intelligent packaging demand in million dollars (The Freedonia Group).


Active and intelligent packaging 1,087 1,545 2,270 7.3 8.0

Active packaging: 1,043 1,390 1,900 5.9 6.5

Gas scavengers 271 510 795 13.5 9.3

Corrosion control packaging 360 345 415 - 0.8 3.8

Moisture control packaging 250 300 365 3.7 4.0

Other 162 235 325 7.7 6.7

Intelligent packaging 44 155 370 28.6 19.0


WORLD DEMANDFOR GREEN PACKAGING

World demand for recycled content, reusable and de-gradable packaging, the so-called “green packaging”, is projected to rise 5.7% per year to $212 billion in 2015 according a new study from The Freedonia Group.While recycled content pack-aging will remain by far the largest product type through the forecast period and be-yond, this segment will see the slowest increases due to the maturity of products such as metal cans and glass con-tainers. On the other hand, above-average demand growth is expected in reus-able and degradable pack-aging. In particular, demand for degradable packaging will continue to see double-digit annual growth rates.Gains in recycled content packaging will be supported by increased collection activ-ity and processing capacity, coupled with greater use of recycled content packaging by firms seeking to demon-strate environmental respon-sibility and differentiate their products.Demand for reusable pack-aging will be boosted by an acceleration in global manu-facturing activity. Degradable

packaging will continue to see the fastest advances in demand, but will only account for approximately one percent of the overall green packag-ing market through 2015.The Asia/Pacific region will see above-average gains and remain the largest regional market in the world, due to its large food and beverage industries (which represent the main green packaging appli-cations). Central and South America, Eastern Europe, and the Africa/Mideast region will also experience above-aver-age growth, though advances in these areas will stem from smaller bases (collectively, these three regions only ac-

growth rate through 2015. Nonetheless, good opportuni-ties will still be found in de-veloped Countries, especially for degradable packaging products.

World green packaging demand in billion dollars (The Freedonia Group).


Green packaging demand 128.8 160.8 211.8 4.5 5.7

North America 38.4 44.6 54.3 3.1 4.0

Western Europe 36.6 41.5 50.8 2.5 4.1

Asia/Pacific 40.6 55.8 79.1 6.5 7.2

Other regions 13.2 18.9 27.6 7.5 7.9

counted for 12% of global green packaging demand in 2010). Overall, some of the fastest growth will be seen in Asia, specifically in India, China and Indonesia. Other developing countries such as Russia, Turkey, Brazil and Mexico are also expected to see healthy gains.The US, which accounted for 23% of global sales in 2010, is the largest national green packaging market in the world by a wide margin. Other large, generally mature markets include Japan and Germany. While Japan will remain one of the largest mar-kets in the world, the country is forecast to see the slowest


PACKAGING TRENDS

AMCOR LEADS EUROPEANPLASTICS PACKAGING INDUSTRY

Recent changes in the structure of the plastics packaging in-dustry have been documented in a new report from Applied Market Information. Updating its survey of the leading 50 plastics packaging produc-ers in Europe, AMI has found that the sector has recovered quickly from the effects of the recession leading to a spate of merger and acquisition activity as the leading groups increas-ingly focus on core activities.The major change that has occurred in recent years was Amcor’s acquisition of Alcan’s flexible packaging business in 2010 further reinforcing its position as Europe’s largest plastics packaging producer in

terms of value. This acquisition followed earlier divestments by Amcor of its rigid packaging operations to focus more on its consumer flexible packaging business in Europe.Other significant changes in-clude Huhtamaki’s divestment of most of its rigid plastics packaging operations and RPC’s acquisition of Superfos to enhance its position as a supplier of injection moulded containers. Rexam is another major packaging group which has chosen to divest various food packaging plants to fo-cus on healthcare and beauty packaging.The second largest company – and the largest packaging

producer in volume terms con-suming in excess of 700,000 tonnes of polymer/year at its European plants – is the Austro-German group, Alpla. Unlike most other leading players, this group continues to grow its business mainly by investment in greenfield and in-plant fac-tories. The last five years have been a particularly intense pe-riod of growth for Alpla hav-ing added nearly 40 new sites worldwide for the manufacture of various bottles, containers, and closures.In AMI’s analysis special-ity food packaging producer Sealed Air Corporation ranks as the third largest producer with plastics packaging related

sales in Europe in excess of one billion Euro for 2010. Challenging for that spot in 2011 will be RPC following its acquisition of Superfos which was completed in Feb-ruary 2011 so not taken into account in AMI’s listing. The combined sales of these two businesses is expected to top Euro 1.1 billion with a polymer purchasing requirement in ex-cess of 300,000 tonnes. RPC’s strategy has been to grow its business through such strate-gic acquisitions, although ris-ing costs have also seen the group review its operation to ensure that it focuses on the most appropriate and attractive plastics packaging businesses.

Top 10 plastics packaging producers in Europe by value (AMI).

Company Head office location Sector Plastics technology used

Amcor Australia Flexible/Rigid Injection moulding/film extrusion

Alpla-Werke Austria Rigid Blow moulding/injection moulding

Sealed Air USA Flexible/Rigid Film extrusion/sheet extrusion

Aptar Group France Rigid Injection moulding

Linpac Group UK Flexible/Rigid Film extrusion/sheet extrusion/injection moulding/rotational moulding

RPC UK Rigid Blow moulding/injection moulding/sheet extrusion

Constantia Flexibles Austria Flexible Film extrusion

Klöckner Pentaplast Germany Rigid Sheet extrusion/calendering

Promens Group Iceland Rigid Blow moulding/injection moulding/sheet extrusion

APPE UK Rigid Blow moulding/injection moulding

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MARKETING REPORTS

CONSOLIDATION IN PRIVATE LABEL

Private label is expected to double its market share to 50% by 2025. Not only will this growth change the ap-pearance of retailers’ shelves, but it will also cause gradual changes in the competitive landscape on the supply side. Notably, the pressure on

smaller suppliers will rise. Even more than before, the strategic focus for many suppliers will be on achieving cost leader-ship. This pursuit of economies of scale is expected to trigger a wave of specialisation and consolidation among smaller suppliers. The pace of this

consolidation process differs across categories.The state of affairs in a category can be mapped by rating the companies in the category by their size, their relative cost advantage and the perceived value of their products, and using that data

to create a ‘market positioning diagram’. Comparing the diagram to six archetypes representing the stages of maturity reveals how mature the category is. This process grants insight into the common drivers of the consolidation process. The catalysts and

hurdles identified provide a clue to the market dynamics and consolidation pace that are to be expected in different categories.

SUPPLY LANDSCAPE CHANGING DRASTICALLY

The private-label market is set to grow dramatically: the global market share of private label currently stands at about 25% and is expected to dou-ble to about 50% by 2025. As both food retailers and consumers need A-brands, these are expected to maintain their market share.The growth of private label will be at the expense of B-brands. The resulting volume losses are expected to weigh heavily on production utilisa-tion rates. As many categories are already characterised by production overcapacity, and as asset utilisation rates are key to staying out of the red, the volume squeeze will fuel severe price competition on the B-brand and private-label supply side. To cope with the increased competitive pres-sures, B-brand suppliers need to pursue market niches or pro-duction scale. The challenge for B-brand suppliers will be

to pick their battles carefully. A market positioning diagram rating companies on their cost advantages relative to their competitors and the perceived value of their products helps to visualise the issues (Fig. 1). Suppliers either want to go ‘up’, increasing the perceived value of their products and the prices those products command, or ‘right’, lowering costs. Trying to do both at the same time seldom leads to a win-win situation.

THE EMERGENCEOF PRIVATE-LABEL

SPECIALISTS

The squeeze among B-brand suppliers will affect the private-label market as well. Triggered by the growth in private-label demand, many B-brand suppliers will be eyeing the production of private-label products to restore/retain production utilisation rates. In a highly competitive market space, food retailers set the purchasing price, which trends to the variable cost level of the cheapest producer. This provides a strong incentive among private-label suppliers to produce ‘more of the same’, pursue cost leadership (e.g.,

Fig. 1 - Market positioning. The strategic challenge for B-brand suppliers.


through leveraging overhead, increasing asset utilisation, reducing waste levels/switch-ing times) and specialising in private-label production.However, specialisation in private-label supply is motivated by more than just cost leadership. As private label gains a larger share of the retailer’s wallet, the requirements for private-label products will be greater in terms of traceability, health, quality control, consistent stocking levels, new product development and internation-alisation, among other things. Risk reduction also plays an

important role in pursuing scale. Scale should allow for more efficient production and the ability to leverage specific client requests in an international context. Finally, scale and internationalisation reduce client dependency and strengthen the supplier’s posi-tion on the sourcing side.

DIFFERENCES IN MATURITY LEVELS BETWEEN PRODUCT

CATEGORIES

The quest for economies of scale is bound to lead to a consolidation wave among private-label specialists. The timing of this consolidation wave will depend on the maturity of each product category. No two product categories mature at the same rate. Each category has its own structure shaped by factors such as the pres-ence of brands, the availabil-ity of raw materials, barriers to entry, regulation, potential

economies of scale, food miles and retail attention. Although the speed at which categories mature differs, they all seem to go through a similar consolidation process (Fig. 2).Young, phase I product cat-egories have many entrepre-neurs and a scattered supply

base. The most appealing and/or efficient companies surface as so-called local heroes in phase II. These local brands start leveraging their competitive advantage abroad and start turning into true A-brands in phase III. A-brands only work if they have top-2 positions, so in phase IV the brand space is likely to consolidate quickly. In a broad sense, this is what has been happening over the past few years as A-brand powerhouses like Unilever, Nestlé, Danone and Kraft have thoroughly reshuffled their portfolios. The

smaller companies without cost leadership and pricing power are left to look for ways to survive in a more competitive market. Speciali-sation into niche markets or private label could help these companies improve their returns in phase V by either improving their perceived

value or slashing costs. The companies struggling for sur-vival tend to be small in size and large in number; severe price competition turns this race to specialise into a con-solidation wave, the result of which is phase VI. In the most mature categories, very few companies with relatively high costs and relatively low prices remain in the market. A mature market is divided between A-brands, niche brands and a few large private-label producers.

MEASURING MATURITY

The maturity of a product category can shed some light on the market dynamics and the consolidation pace that are to be expected. This is best illustrated by examining a few specific product categories. In the case of ‘chilled ready meals’ or ‘margarine’, determining the maturity level is relatively straight-forward. They are in phase I and phase VI, respectively. ‘Frozen vegeta-bles’ presents a challenge: based on economies of scale and product characteristics, ‘frozen vegetables’ would fit into phase VI even though fragmentation levels in this category are still very high. Beer, on the other hand, has all the characteristics of a phase II local-hero market, yet it is rapidly on its way to a final consolidation round. Clearly, a more comprehensive way to cap-ture the maturity level of a product category is needed.

Fig. 2 - Supply structure changes over time. Accelerated by growing private-label share.


MARKETING REPORTS

MARKET POSITIONING VS. RETURN ON CAPITAL

EMPLOYED

In the market positioning diagram, suppliers are ex-pected to improve their market position by either becoming more efficient in the produc-tion process (‘relative cost advantage’) or by being able to charge a higher price for the products they manufacture (‘perceived value’). In essence, an asset turn graph uses the same param-

eters. To improve its return on capital employed (ROCE²), a company must either raise its asset turn by using its capital more efficiently or generate a higher EBIT margin. The outcomes are also similar. The best ROCEs are found in the upper right quadrant, among companies with low costs

and high margins; the most efficient companies are in the two right-hand quadrants. Managing at least to keep their costs low, and staying out of the competitive heat should render higher profit-ability margins in the upper left quadrant. Here again, the bottom-left quadrant, where both efficiency and margins are low, is the least attractive position. In a scale-led environment like the food industry, cost leadership and asset utilisation

are closely linked. It therefore makes sense to use asset turns as a proxy for cost leadership. Similarly, although there is more to generating higher EBIT margins than just offering a differentiated product, a fa-vourable consumer perception is an important prerequisite for financial success. These com-

parisons are far from perfect, but this data will at least allow us to analyse the current state of affairs in various product categories.

DIFFERENCESIN CONSOLIDATION PACE

The consolidation process among private-label special-ists, who generally thrive in maturity level categories V or VI, follows different timelines in different product categories. The ROCE-based market

positioning diagram (Fig. 3) re-veals the catalysts and hurdles in the consolidation process. The diagram representing the fully matured ‘margarine’ cate-gory neatly reflects one strong A-brand player, a sizeable niche brand and two large private-label specialists, all of them in the quadrants where

Fig. 3 - Consolidation and maturity level differences between categories.

we would expect them to be. Also, categories like ‘dairy’ and ‘orange juice (100%)’ are well on their way to phase VI. Despite the typical phase IV market characteristics of categories such as ‘sauces’ and ‘frozen vegetables’, these categories show no signs of consolidating into phases V and VI. There are some com-mon factors that either drive or hinder the consolidation process.

TO CONSOLIDATEOR NOT?

The conclusion that private label is set to expand its footprint, B-brand suppliers are facing most of the pressure and private-label suppliers are expected to consolidate into private-label specialists leaves one important question unanswered. ‘How important is this consolidation trend for the product category that I am active in?’There is no single answer. Each product category is different and therefore has to be assessed on its own merits. Mapping different product cat-egories along a maturity scale reveals some general conclu-sions regarding the pace of consolidation. The pace ap-pears to depend on catalysts such as the interest of private equity or A-brand presence, and typical consolidation hurdles such as physical dis-tance, consumer perception, ownership structures and low barriers to entry.

Rabobankwww.rabotransact.com

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MARKETING REPORTS

NEW ROLE FOR CHINA AND INDIAIN GLOBAL DAIRY MARKET

Developments over the last 12 months have changed Ra-bobank’s view on the likely role of China and India in the world marketplace through to 2014. Long advocates of the likely self-sufficiency of these markets, Ra-bobank now believes that China faces a structural market deficit that will be difficult to erode in coming years, and even India is likely to call on the world market more frequently over the next three to four years. And as we learned in recent years, when China and India come calling, the interna-tional market feels their presence.The arrival of these two giants on the world stage will impact many players, both inside and outside the Countries themselves. In terms of the general market out-look, it broadens the basis for our medium-term story: another source of demand has arisen for internationally traded dairy products, and that demand will be difficult to fill without a sus-tained period of high prices to encourage more milk contribu-tions from higher cost regions. However, while improving the prospects for the continuation of high prices, it doesn’t mean that prices will be even higher-due to the simple fact that buyers’ willing-ness to pay ultimately limits price upside in dairy.For processors, the rise of China and India – in terms of both do-mestic growth and expanding trade requirements – is a difficult opportunity to ignore. Both mar-kets offer a range of prospects for

companies with well-considered strategies, whether seeking export opportunities, selling know-how and services, or investing on the ground to generate milk or dairy products.Processors will also likely see more of Chinese companies, particularly beyond the borders of the Middle Kingdom, as the Chinese continue to contemplate closer relationships and offshore investments to secure supply go-ing forward.For farmers, China and India are the new faces of a global market that has undergone substantial changes in recent years. Most evidence suggests that producers’ adjustment to this new operating environment will be very much an ongoing process. Deleveraging and refocusing on returns apart from capital gain are likely to con-tinue for several years, though it should yield a group of farmers that has evolved to survive and thrive in a world of high and volatile prices on both sides of their business.In the Northern Hemisphere, the structural increase in the price of dairy commodities (and inputs) is impacting the efficacy of industry support measures (in the US and the EU) and highlighting the costs of imperfect engagement with the world market (in the US). Care-ful consideration of how to best address these challenges are required, for responses now will shape industry fortunes for many years to come.Recent years have brought such

extraordinary gyrations in the glo-bal dairy market that the casual observer might be forgiven for concluding that there is no actual trend at all. However, peering through the fog of market vola-tility, it soon becomes evident that some crucial structural shifts have in fact occurred. Notable amongst these are:- global dairy commodity prices have indeed shifted to a higher average trading range;- higher dairy commodity prices have been manifest along the supply chain in higher prices at retail and farm-gate levels;- farmers in export-oriented re-gions have fared better, narrow-ing traditional premiums for raw milk prices in the United States (US) and the European Union (EU);- regional commodity markets are showing signs of convergence.As Rabobank foreshadowed in previous years, it appears we have indeed entered a new market era. However, structural change does not herald the end of commodity market cycles, and 2010 has been no exception.The first half of the year brought what could be characterised as a supply-driven price recovery in world markets. In a lagged response to low milk pricing during the global financial cri-sis, milk production fell for the better part of a year from July 2009. And with existing stocks either not for sale or of the wrong product types, even the modest demand recovery evident in 1H

2010 was sufficient to sustain high commodity pricing in inter-national trade.The cycle turned somewhat in 2H 2010, as the supply tide started coming in again. Milk production began an expansionary phase from May 2010 as farmers re-sponded to improved milk prices, US industry price signals began diverting product to the world market, and EU intervention stocks were put up for sale. With demand likely to have softened over the same period, partly re-flecting the pace of the global economy itself, international mar-ket prices softened again in the back half of the year. Only vig-orous buying from Russia, in the wake of a savage drought, and the ongoing strength of Chinese imports looked set to save the market from a substantial price fall as 2010 was drawing to a close.

OUTLOOK FOR 2011

While uncertainty remains high, Rabobank anticipates that the global dairy market will again remain tight in 2011. Given the influence of higher feed costs, ongoing requirements for farm-ers to reduce debt levels and the likelihood of limited South-ern Hemisphere growth beyond New Zealand, the current phase of supply growth may well prove relatively weak and short- lived by the standards of previous cycles. Meanwhile, dairy consumption is expected to strengthen, supported by improving labour markets in the west, strong economic growth in import regions and strong buy-ing from China.

www.rabobank.com


CONSUMER MARKETS OF THE FUTURE ARE SHAPING

Euromonitor International has identified the five biggest global trends that are influencing consumer markets and business environments. Embracing these will enable companies to identify the target markets of the coming years.The most important trend is the shift in global power to the East. Asia Pacific will account for 43% of world GDP in 2020 in PPP terms and emerging Countries will play a larger role in world exports and

global production. However, world commodities and natural resources are under pressure and the trend of greener attitudes will prevail amongst consumers. Businesses can respond by embracing more efficient technologies and alternative energy sources.The expansion of the global middle class will continue to lead to rising prosperity, enabling greater discretionary spending. Consumer spending per capita in 2011-2020

is projected to increase by 32.4% in real terms in developing countries compared to 15.4% growth in advanced economies.Consumer market profiles will also be shaped by record ageing and urbanisation. 1-in-10 global consumers will be aged 65+ in 2020. By 2050, 70% of the world population will be urban according to the UN.Finally, the digital revolution is set to intensify. There will be 3.8 billion Internet users

in the world in 2020, while near universal mobile phone penetration will be achieved.Despite the opportunities that global trends present, they also create challenges. For example, per capita disposable incomes will remain significantly higher on average in developed economies compared to emerging markets. Consumer goods companies will need to strategise depending on the Country they are targeting. However, the long term investment potential presented by embracing global trends will far outweigh the challenges.

ALBA & Teknoservice s.r.l.Via delle Industrie, 16/B - 35010 VILLAFRANCA PAD. (PD) - ITALYTel. +39 049.9070380 - Fax +39 049.9074042www.albaequipment.it e-mail: [email protected]

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NUTRITION

TIME TO FIND THE RECIPEFOR HEALTHY AGEING IN EUROPE

Better living conditions, health-ier lifestyles and better educa-tion, as well as greater access to quality healthcare services have meant that Europeans can expect to reach 78 years of age (an increase of six years compared to the 1980s). The increased life expectancy, in combination with the low birth rates observed in Europe, re-sults in a dramatically grow-ing proportion of elderly in the population, predicted to reach 40% by 2030. Hence, improving health in our seniors will not only save them from the sufferance of age-related conditions, but it will also ease the burden on society

through reduced medical and social costs.Diet is one of many factors – both biological and envi-ronmental – that play a role in ageing. By carefully select-ing our diet we can affect the ageing process. However, the influence of diet on age-related conditions is a relatively unex-plored area of research and it is unclear as to what the opti-mal diet would be for healthy ageing.What we do know is that the food we eat can influence the development of inflammation, a natural part of the ageing proc-ess. The low-grade, chronic in-flammation seen in the elderly

has been shown to be one factor in the development of age-related diseases such as atherosclerosis (thickening and hardening of artery walls with a resultant increased risk for heart disease), type 2 diabetes, and neurodegeneration leading to cognitive decline.In this regard, the European Commission funded project NU-AGE aims to gain deeper knowledge about the role of diet in age-related inflammation over the next 5 years. It will al-low the NU-AGE researchers to identify dietary strategies to meet specific nutritional needs and prevent age-related dis-ease.

NU-AGE RESEARCH

One of the first tasks for NU-AGE is to design a food pyra-mid for those over 65 years old. This will be developed from food-based dietary guide-lines, illustrating the proportions of different foods that should be included in a balanced diet. The NU-AGE food pyramid will be designed to meet the nutritional needs of the elderly by emphasising the concept of nutrient density, and appropri-ate intakes of water, dietary fi-bre, vitamin D and vitamin B12.

To study the effects of the NU-AGE food pyramid on health and ageing factors, seniors across Europe will receive dietary advice, fortified foods and other support to adjust their diets to match the pyra-mid. Food intake data and biological samples, for exam-ple blood, will be collected and analysed, and the results compared to those of elderly people not taking part in the dietary intervention. Along-side the dietary intervention, socio-economic determinants for food choice will be inves-tigated and the best ways to communicate dietary recom-mendations to those over 65 will be explored.

RESEARCH BECOMES FOODS

Based on the knowledge gained about influences of diet on ageing and its poten-tial to help prevent age-related diseases, foods designed spe-cifically for elderly consumers will be developed. NU-AGE will also look into elderly consumers’ understanding and attitudes towards health and nutrition claims on food products in order to identify the best ways to communicate about them.


THE NU-AGE CONSORTIUM

The NU-AGE project is led by Prof. Franceschi at the Uni-versity of Bologna, Italy, who will coordinate the consortium. The consortium comprises 31 partners, that cover the wide range of expertise required in the project. A majority of the

partners are universities and other research institutions, but food and drink industry repre-sentatives, from small- and me-dium sized enterprises to big companies, as well as trade associations, also have an im-portant role to play, as well as EUFIC leading the communica-tion activities.

CONCLUSIONS

Through its work, NU-AGE will seek to fill the current lack of knowledge on how the whole diet can impact on and coun-teract age-related diseases and functional decline. This knowledge will be valuable to a wide range of profes-

sional stakeholders to industry and policy makers. Creating awareness and increasing the understanding of the role of nu-trition for healthy ageing will support them in their efforts to improve health and quality of life in our ageing population in Europe.

EUFIC

“HIDDEN VEGETABLES”:LESS ENERGY INTAKE ANDMORE VEGETABLE CONSUMPTION

Consumption of energy-dense food can be reduced if part of a meal is covertly substituted with puréed vegetables. As a posi-tive outcome, energy intake is decreased and vegetables con-sumed can be increased. This has been reported in the Ameri-can Journal of Clinical Nutrition.In a laboratory experiment, researchers from the Depart-ment of Nutritional Sciences at the Pennsylvania State Univer-sity (USA) provided test partici-pants with manipulated meals in order to test for changes in energy and vegetable con-sumption. In a 3-week crosso-ver study, 20 men and 21 women one day each week were given breakfast, lunch and dinner composed of an entrée varying in energy den-sity (standard: 100%, reduced: 85 or 75%) and a defined set of side dishes. Energy content of the entrée was reduced by means of covert incorporation of puréed vegetables. The re-

searchers monitored total food intake on the three test days and had participants rate hun-ger and fullness before and af-ter each meal. Food quantities were unrestricted.The Authors found that the “weight” of the foods consumed did not vary across the differ-ent conditions (100, 85, and 75%). Consistently, daily ener-gy intake could be reduced for those participants receiving the 85 or 75% version of the origi-nal dish by 202 (±60) kCal and 357 (±47) kCal, respec-tively. Simultaneously, due to a higher proportion of vegetables in the manipulated meals, over-all vegetable intake could be in-creased from an average 270 g in the 100% condition up to 487 g in the 75% condition, representing a maximum pos-sible increase of 80% in par-ticipant daily vegetable intake. Ratings of fullness and satiety after the meals were consistent over all conditions. Furthermore,

the dishes with added puréed vegetables were rated as simi-lar in palatability across condi-tions, showing this strategy can help individuals disliking the taste or texture of vegetables. For the vegetable-fortified carrot bread, the Authors were able to report a significant increase in taste and texture ratings, which means that some food products may be particularly suitable for such modification.The overall effect of this strat-egy needs to be investigated

over time to determine whether it can have persistent effects on energy intakes. The research-ers show that, when covertly incorporating puréed vegeta-bles into meals, energy density of the daily food intake can be decreased. Reduction of energy intake and increase of vegeta-ble consumption being among the top priorities in healthy eat-ing, findings such as these can provide ideas on changing one’s diet or that of one’s kids.

EUFIC


NEWS

2012 will see advertising mes-sages across the functional food market moving in a new direc-tion as the European Commis-sion begins to finalise its draft Article 13.1 “Union List” of per-mitted health claims.Stefanie Geiser, regulatory af-fairs manager at international food policy consultancy EAS, said that with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) publishing its final (6th) batch of Article 13.1 claims opinions last August, the Commission remains on track to present its draft Article 13.1 “Union list” in

December 2011 to the Stand-ing Committee.Whether the Standing Commit-tee will immediately adopt the text is as yet uncertain, as is the length of the Article 13.1 transi-tion period which is expected to expire at some stage in 2012 after the list’s adoption. Geiser said that once the Article 13.1 transition period expires, food companies will face the chal-lenge of having to develop alternative ways of marketing and advertising to communi-cate health and other benefits of products. While the Union List

of approved claims is not ex-pected to be small, with many claims for vitamins and minerals approved, Geiser said compa-nies will have to adapt strategies to benefit as much as possible from the approved claims, and explore new advertising meth-ods for products with ingredients for which claims have not been approved.“Regulation has a huge im-pact on marketing, and health claims play an important role in the marketing of health food and nutritional products,” said Geiser. “But they are not the only marketing drive. Additional ways of making products attractive to consumers can be explored, for example, fresh innovative packaging or product label de-signs, new tastes, and slogans that fall outside of the scope of the EU health claims regulation.” “Innovation and differentiation can still be achieved through the inclusion of special ingredi-ents, even without making health claims specifically for these,” she continued, “and claims can be made in different ways, for ex-ample, by combining ingredients with approved health claims with other ingredients.”To address how food businesses can benefit from what has al-ready been learnt in the claims

evaluation process, and to help companies offset possible chal-lenges, Geiser and other EAS experts will hold a workshop on 24 November 2011 in Brussels, to give concrete advice on how to tackle the claims regulation.Titled “Claims: Dealing with the present, planning for the future”, the workshop will give insight into the final expected Article 13.1 Union list, offer tips on how to continue market-ing products within the scope of the regulation, explain strategies to best benefit from transition pe-riods, give tips on how to submit successful claims applications to EFSA, clarify the European Com-mission’s plans relating to claims for botanicals and lay out the future playing field for claims in the European Union (EU).“Brand names and trademarks expressing health claims, for example, can under certain cir-cumstances continue to be used until 2022 without requiring EU authorisation,” Geiser said. “Certainly, with the majority of claims opinions for many key ingredient claims remaining un-favourable, if adopted, the cur-rent traditional marketing line for health claims will change and many companies will be explor-ing product reformulations and new marketing ideas.

NEW PRACTICES FOR MARKETINGFOOD PRODUCTS WITH HEALTH BENEFITS


FIRST EVERGLOBAL GMP GUIDE

In June, the International Alli-ance of Dietary/Food Supple-ment Associations (IADSA) has released its guide to Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) for food supplement manufac-turers across the globe.The Global Guide to Good Manufacturing Practice for Supplements gives guide-lines for the promotion of best practice in the produc-tion of supplements, including manufacturing, quality control, packaging, distribution, and storage.An important tool for both companies and governments worldwide, the guide covers quality management, premises and equipment, personnel and training, product and process development, manufacture, storage, transport and distri-bution. It also gives recom-mendations in areas critical

to the manufacture of high quality products, including the recovery or re-working of materials, documentation, self-inspections, sub-contracting operations, laboratory test-ing, complaints procedures, product recall and emergency procedures.IADSA’s GMP Working group and his coordinator Sam Jen-nings said that they have writ-ten the Guide in such a way that it provides advice on all aspects of GMP in a non-pre-scriptive framework format, which allows for flexibility in application within any region. The Guide is freely available for download from the IADSA website, as the intention is for the document to be utilised by as many supplement manu-facturers around the globe as possible.

www.iadsa.org

THE WAY TOWARDSSTANDARDISED MICRONUTRIENTRECOMMENDATIONS IN EUROPE

Micronutrients, such as vitamins and minerals, are essential for proper growth and develop-ment. In Europe, micronutrient recommendations often vary widely between Countries. Harmonised recommendations based on up-to-date science and improved means to reach them are thus needed.

BÜHLER COMMITSTO FOOD SAFETY

The Bühler Technology Group, a global leader in the field of process engineering, especial-ly production technologies for making foods and engineer-ing materials, is supporting the Global Initiative for Food Sys-tems Leadership (GIFSL) with-in the scope of multi-year sup-port to the University of Minne-sota, Usa.The global GIFSL initiative in-volves educational institutions in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa and is working together with gov-ernment agencies, private com-panies from the food sector and no-governmental organ-izations. It is fostering an in-ter-disciplinary and inter-cultur-al network, carrying out train-ing programs to support inter-national cooperation and en-couraging strategic partner-ships to promote food safety. Since 2008, more than 500 people from almost 50 Coun-tries have taken part in the GIF-SL programs.As a provider of production technologies for food manufac-

turing, food safety has always been a core theme for Bühler. The commitment of the global-ly active group can therefore be viewed as a wider initia-tive in ongoing efforts to of-fer optimum solutions for cus-tomers, which meet the grow-ing requirements of food safety.The support of the Universi-ty of Minnesota as an active member of GIFSL will extend over several years. The funds will be used on the one hand for professional further train-ing programs, and on the oth-er hand to promote coopera-tion between food manufactur-ers and providers of the proc-ess engineering technologies required for this. This will stim-ulate attention to hygiene as-pects in the planning, construc-tion and equipping of plants. The primary objective is to im-prove global systems for ensur-ing food safety.(Bühler AG - Gupfenstrasse 5 -CH - 9240 Uzwil - Switzer-land - Tel. +41 719551111 - Fax +41 719553379 - email: [email protected])

Funded by the European Com-mission, EURRECA is a Net-work of Excellence developing methodologies to standardise the process of setting micronu-trient recommendations. It is expected that the results will improve the health of Europe-an citizens. To make sure that EURRECA’s activities are root-

ed in sound science and that its outputs are as relevant as possible to those outside the network, EURRECA has estab-lished a “Scientific Advisory Group” and a “Users Advisory Group”, both comprising ac-knowledged experts.

www.eurreca.org


NEWS

CODEX ON KEY ISSUESFOR FOOD SUPPLEMENT SECTOR

IADSA, the leading interna-tional expert association re-garding the globalisation of food supplement markets and increasing regulatory chal-lenges, reports that the Co-dex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) has agreed on a way forward for key issues in the food supplement sector such as the steviol glycosides, nutri-ent reference values, Geneti-cally Modified Organisms and fish oils.The CAC, the highest deci-sion-making body in Codex, adopted firstly, the “General principles for establishing Nu-trient Reference Values (NRVs) of vitamins and minerals for the general population”. It also adopted a “Compilation of Codex texts relevant to the labelling of foods derived from modern biotechnology”, following a decision from its food labelling committee to discontinue work on defini-tions and labelling conditions

for Genetically Modified Or-ganisms (GMOs) following no agreement, and to develop the compilation of existing Codex texts instead. Thirdly, the CAC endorsed the deci-sion of its Codex Committee on Fats and Oils (CCFO) to develop a “Standard for fish oils”, which will cover oil from fish and shellfish, and on the additives front, it agreed a maximum level for the use of Steviol Glycosides (INS 960) as an additive in food supplements, at the level of 2,500 mg/kg as proposed by IADSA. This level and use applies only to chewable food supplements.The meeting, which was held in Geneva on July, has seen significant developments. “We are pleased that the CAC has accepted our scientific and technological justification for the retention of steviol glyco-sides, and in terms of nutrient reference values, the agreed

text includes changes con-sistent with IADSA position”, said IADSA’s regulatory affairs director David Pineda Ereño. “The decision to finalise the work on definitions and label-ling for GMOs too ends years

of discussion,” he continued, “with some Countries propos-ing process-based GMO la-belling and others proposing GMOs to be declared on the label only when they are pres-ent in the final product.”

TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION FOR THE BEVERAGE INDUSTRYIN MILAN

An overview of the latest solu-tions on the beverage produc-ing and packaging sector will be displayed at the next Simei, the international enological and bottling equipment exhibition, at its 24th edition from 22nd to 26th November 2011 in Rho (Milan). “Simei is an international show-case to exhibit all technical in-novations that are used in pro-duction, bottling and packaging of wine and other beverages”, comments Lucio Mastroberardi-no, president of Unione Italiana Vini.In March 2011, according to Istat (National Statistical Institute), the exports of machinery for the food and beverage industries (including components and ac-cessories) have shown a 29% upturn, reaching over 604 mil-lion euro, with a trade surplus of 531 million euro.The positive trend of the pro-duction chain and the consider-able attendance of companies expected for this year – a data which has been confirmed by the booking, already in June, of 90% of the dedicated spaces – allow the organizers and the ex-

hibitors to be optimistic, hoping there will be a growing number of visitors in view of the closing outcome of 2011, as well as for the opening of 2012. The market of the labelling compa-nies and those specialized in packaging and bottling, which will exhibit in halls 13 and 15 of Simei, recorded reassuring figures in the first months of the year. A slightly more cautious trend is that of the manufactur-ers of equipment for oil, wine and juice processing that will occupy halls 9 and 11.The number of Italian exhibi-tors is increasing in comparison with 2009 and for this edition a further rise is expected with re-gard to foreign companies and trademarks coming from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Portugal, United Kingdom, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, South Af-rica, Hungary, and the USA. During the past editions there has been a growing interest from managing directors, directors, business managers and buyers whose choices considerably in-

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AppointmentsTrade Shows


NEWS

fluence the trends of producers.The programme of the exhibi-tion includes a series of technical meetings and scientific confer-ences with international speak-ers. But the novelty of this edition is the awarding of the Viticultural and Enological Innovation Prize. The competing companies are more than 30 and some of them are presenting 2 or 3 innova-tions. The contest, organized in cooperation with Unione Italiana Vini, is an opportunity for enhancing and promoting the technological innovations, of which the vine-growing and wine production chain is ex-pression, and for spurring the companies to try to improve and reach more and more ad-vanced technological targets. The real novelty of the UIV Prize, which characterizes the spirit of competition, is the fact that it is thought and awarded by the wine enterprises. The technologi-cal innovations will undergo the assessment of a special commit-tee composed of technical spe-cialists from the most important Italian companies, members of Unione Italiana Vini, assisted for the scientific part by a renowned parterre of experts from the aca-demic research world.Moreover, on 24th of November a technical conference will be held on ”Energy saving and en-vironmental impact for the bever-age industry”, aganized by our Journal “INDUSTRIE DELLE BEV-ANDE”, dedicated to beverage producers who are engaged in facing sensitive issues like en-vironment, energy saving and production cost. Participation is free of charge.

www.simei.it

18 - 21 October 2011 - Parma: CibusTec, int. food equipment show. Fiere di Parma -Via Rizzi 67/A - 43031 Baganzola - PR - Italy - Tel. +39 0521 9961 - Fax +39 0521 996235 -email: [email protected]

25 - 26 October 2011 - Verona: Save, int. show on automation and instrumentation. E.I.O.M. Ente Italiano Organizzazione Mostre - Viale Premuda 2 - 20129 Milano -Tel. +39 02 55181842 - Fax +39 02 55184161 - email: [email protected]

22 - 26 November 2011 - Rho (MI): Simei, int. beverage and wine industry show. Simei -Via San Vittore al Teatro 3 - 20123 Milano - Italy - Tel. +39 02 7222281 - Fax +39 02 866226 - email: [email protected]

18 - 19 January 2012 - Bologna: MarcabyBolognaFiere, conference-show for private labels. BolognaFiere - Viale della Fiera 20 - 40127 Bologna - Italy - Tel. +39 051 282111 - Fax +39 051 6374004 - email: [email protected]

28 February - 3 March 2012 - Rho-Pero (MI): Ipack-Ima, int. packaging, food processing and pasta exhibition. Ipack-Ima - Corso Sempione 4 - 20154 Milano - Italy -Tel. +39 02 3191091 - Fax +39 02 33619826 - email: [email protected]

1 - 4 April 2012 - Verona: VinItaly+Enolitech, int. wine show. Veronafiere -Viale del Lavoro 8 - 37135 Verona - Tel. +39 045 8298111 - Fax +39 045 8298288 - email: [email protected]

1 - 4 April 2012 - Verona: SOL, international olive oil show. Veronafiere -Viale del Lavoro 8 - 37135 Verona - Tel. +39 045 8298111 - Fax +39 045 8298288 - email: [email protected]

7 - 10 May 2012 - Parma: Cibus, int. food show. Fiere di Parma - Via Rizzi 67/A -43031 Baganzola - PR - Italy - Tel. +39 0521 996206 - Fax +39 0521 996270 -email: [email protected]

24 - 27 May 2012 - Verona: Eurocarne, international exhibition for the meat industry. Ipack-Ima -Corso Sempione 4 - 20154 Milano - Italy - Tel. + 39 02 3191091 - Fax +39 02 33619826 -email: [email protected]

11 - 14 June 2013 - Rimini: Packology, International packaging industry show.Rimini Fiera - Via Emilia 155 - Rimini - Tel. +39 0541 744111 - Fax +39 0541 744255 - email: [email protected]

INTERNATIONAL EVENTS IN ITALY

CHIRIOTTI EDITORI

Viale Rimembranza, 60 - 10064 PINEROLO - ITALY

Fax +39 0121 794480 - e-mail: [email protected]

Name ..............................................................................................................

Company ........................................................................................................

Address ...........................................................................................................

City ...................................................................... State .................................

Country ..................................................... Postal Code .................................

e-mail ............................................................... Phone: .................................

food industry supplier

beverage industry supplier

services - research

food producer

beverage producer

wine producer

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AdvertiserAdvertiserindexindex3B Energia - Pinerolo ....................................................................................65

Alba & Teknoservice - Villafranca Padovana .............................................79

Bruno Wolhfarth - Sordio ............................................................................33

Chiriotti Editori - Pinerolo ..........................................................................77

Cibus Tec - Parma .........................................................................................73

CSF - Montecchio Emilia ...................................................................... cover 1

FBF Italia - Sala Baganza ................................................................................1

Foodexecutive.com ......................................................................................85

Fratelli Indelicato - Giarre ...........................................................................43

Graco - Maasmechelen (B) ...........................................................................39

GS Italia - Marnate .......................................................................................62

Ing. A. Rossi - Parma ............................................................................ cover 3

Italo Danioni - Milano .................................................................................45

Labs - Parma ..................................................................................................21

Me.Tra - Vago di Lavagno .............................................................................53

Mix - Cavezzo ................................................................................................57

Movinox - Acquaviva Picena ................................................................ cover 4

O.M.I.P. - Roccapiemonte .............................................................................27

Off. Mecc. Pellacini - Sala Baganza.............................................................31

Omac Pompe - Rubiera .................................................................................59

Pigo - Caldogno................................................................................................2

Sacchi - Vidigulfo ..........................................................................................47

SCA - Fiorenzuola D’Arda .............................................................................63

Speciale - Giarre ............................................................................................35

Technosilos - Capocolle di B. .......................................................................37

Tecnopool - San Giorgio in Bosco ....................................................gatefold 1

Tecnowerk - Arsié .................................................................................. cover 2

Trivi - Galliate ................................................................................................49

CompanyCompanyindexindex

Alimec ........................................................................................................43

Bühler .........................................................................................................83

Ceda ...........................................................................................................46

Ceia ............................................................................................................62

Eidos ...........................................................................................................63

Etipack .......................................................................................................59

Five ............................................................................................................48

Futura Robotica .........................................................................................57

Gami ...........................................................................................................47

Gea Levati Food Tech ................................................................................44

Gea Niro Soavi ...........................................................................................42

Italo Danioni..............................................................................................42

Italproject ...................................................................................................58

Masterpack ................................................................................................67

Minipan .....................................................................................................46

Moriondo ...................................................................................................44

Movinox .....................................................................................................54

Multivac .....................................................................................................58

Norvita .......................................................................................................56

Raytec Vision .............................................................................................64

Record ........................................................................................................55

Reepack ......................................................................................................54

Taghleef Industries .....................................................................................67

Tecnowerk ..................................................................................................66

TS ............................................................................................................56

Unitherm ...................................................................................................40

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