Journal of Ma terials Chemistry C - Royal Society of Chemistry
Gums and stabilisers for the food industry 9 P?A Williams and G?O Phillips Royal Society of...
Transcript of Gums and stabilisers for the food industry 9 P?A Williams and G?O Phillips Royal Society of...
Book reviews
Gums and stabilisers for the food industry 9PA Williams and GO PhillipsRoyal Society of Chemistry special publication 218Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, 1998pp 438, price £79.50ISBN 0-85404-708-5
This book is the latest in a series of biannual publica-
tions and describes the proceedings of the 9th Gums
and Stabilisers for the Food Industry meeting held at
Wrexham in July 1997. It consists of a collection of
papers based on the oral presentations given at the
meeting. I have a special affection for the Wrexham
meetings and the published proceedings. My interest
in food science began when I joined the Institute of
Food Research in 1979, and the Wrexham meeting in
1981 was my ®rst food science meeting. I have
contributed to all the subsequent meetings, and the
proceedings provide a record of the interest, devel-
opments and changes in this ®eld. The present
conference was divided into sessions dealing with
structural and functional properties of polysacchar-
ides, protein systems, functional interactions in mixed
biopolymer systems, processing developments, new
methodologies and nutritional aspects. Research on
food polysaccharides has always been a feature of
these meetings, and this area was well represented. A
highlight of the meeting was the Pilnik Lecture,
delivered by Dr H Schols, a disciple of Professor
Pilnik, on the structural features of native and
commercial pectins; an authoritative review of these
complex polysaccharides. Most of the papers in the
polysaccharide session dealt with the rheology of
dispersions and gels for a range of polysaccharides,
including microparticulate cellulose, curdlan, non-
starch cereal polysaccharides, carob, enzymatically
modi®ed tamarind xyloglucan and the Beijerinckiaspecies polysaccharide CC-70, plus studies on the
in¯uence of salts and saccharides on the gelatinisation
and retrogradation of rice starch. The two papers on
gum arabic deal with speci®cation and control and
possible replacements for the confectionery area. New
food additives were represented by a timely introduc-
tion to the potential of the bacterial derived Prima-
cel2. Proteins tend to have been neglected at many of
the meetings, but in this case the protein session
covered the entire spectrum of food proteins: milk,
plant, meat and egg proteins, plus an introduction to
proteins from marine algae (Spiorulina species). The
impressive confocal microscopy images of phase-
separated protein systems illustrate the potential for
this technique in food science. The academic and
commercial interest in mixed biopolymer systems has
grown steadily over the last 18 years. Topics covered
at this meeting include the phase behaviour of mixed
systems, applications of techniques such as small-
angle neutron scattering and confocal microscopy to
probe structure and function, through to studies on
speci®c phase-separated and synergistic mixed sys-
tems. The session on processing covers work on the
understanding of conventional processing methods
and new techniques and methods for probing and
manipulating structure and function. Contributions
which `catch the eye' include the technology for
producing sheared or ¯uid gels as fat emulsion
substitutes, the investigation of high-pressure treat-
ment of proteins on protein±polysaccharide interac-
tions and emulsion stability and texture, and the use
of X-ray microscopy in investigations of `tiger-
striping' in injected poultry. Other contributions
include a review of current and emerging process
technologies in the food industry, the effect of
stabilisers on the performance of frozen doughs,
investigation of high-sugar biopolymer systems, tech-
nology for producing low-tannin mesquite gums as
potential food materials, mechanistic studies of the
function of added starch in the production of
comminuted meat products, detailed studies on the
stability of carrageenens to food-processing regimes
and the description of the preparation and character-
isation of liquid core hydrocolloid±oil capsules. The
session on new methodologies included a description
of a new combined pulse±resonance rheometer,
methods for investigating the mechanical properties
of individual starch granules, plus two papers
describing applications of atomic force microscopy.
The meeting closed with a session dealing with
nutritional aspects. This included a discussion of the
present position and future potential for functional
foods, two papers dealing with the properties and
applications of inulins, and ®nally the use of acacia
gum as soluble dietary ®bre. The meetings at
Wrexham are well attended and the conference
proceedings provide a good snapshot of the current
state of research in the gums and stabilisers area. This
book is de®nitely worth adding to your bookshelf if
you have an interest in food hydrocolloids.
VJ Morris
State of the world 1998LR Brown, C Flavin, H French et al.Earthscan Publications, London, 1998pp 251, price £12.95ISBN 1-85383-532-3
This year State of the world shows that the world
economy is still failing to meet its most signi®cant
Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture J Sci Food Agric 79:1315±1318 (1999)
# 1999 Society of Chemical Industry. J Sci Food Agric 0022±5142/99/$17.50 1315