10 OCTOBER 2016 FEEDING YOUR FOOD BUSINESS For more than 100 years, Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) has transformed crops into products that serve the vital needs of a growing world. Today, it’s one of the world’s largest agricultural processors and vertically integrated food ingredient providers, with more than 33,000 employees serving customers in more than 160 countries. With a global value chain that includes 428 crop procurement locations, 280 ingredient manufacturing facilities, 40 innovation centres and the world’s premier transportation network, Archer Daniels Midland connects the harvest to the home, making products for the food and beverage industries. And with impressive organic growth and a recent strategic expansion including local resources to act as full-service partners to customers, the company can now offer the largest specialty ingredient portfolio in the industry. ADM is very excited about its ‘Flavour Creation and Customer innovation Centre’ nearing completion in North Ryde, Sydney. ADM’s unrivaled portfolio of ingredients and expertise makes it an ideal partner to help feed food business in New Zealand. With industry leaders such as WILD Flavours, Harvest Innovations and Specialty Commodities in its broader offering, the company’s deeper insights into the industry can give clients even more of a competitive edge. Those offerings include on-trend flavours, fruit and plant extracts, vegetarian proteins, nutritional oils, antioxidants, natural Vitamin E, sterols, isoflavones, soluble fibre, edible beans and pulses, sweeteners, emulsifiers, hydrocolloids and colours. ADM is a problem-solving partner that can feed your food business. Learn more about ADM at www.adm.com, or contact our New Zealand office on (09) 575 9765 TO EAT OR NOT TO EAT THAT’S THE CONUNDRUM It’s the big conundrum of the universe… when you drop that piece of buttery toast on the kitchen floor, is the ‘five-second rule’ most of us utilise in our brains actually a legitimate justification for rescuing it? Well, hang onto your stomach linings, because researchers across the world have tested the rate that bacteria transfers from various surfaces to foods…and their results might surprise you. After testing the so-called rule with labgrown cultures of Enterobacter aerogenes (a nonpathogenic bacteria similar to Salmonella) on stainless steel, ceramic tile, wood and carpet - disinfected beforehand to ensure only the desired microorganisms were present - scientists at Rutgers University found some flaws in the ‘five-second rule’. Onto each surface, the team – headed by Donald Schaffner - dropped four different food items: watermelon, gummy candy, buttered bread and unbuttered bread. Before being picked up, the foods were left there for different lengths of time – less than a second, five seconds, 30 seconds and 300 seconds – and then analysed for how much of the E.aerogenes had transferred to the food. So did the ‘five-second rule’ stack up? “In a way the answer is yes, since in general, the longer a food was in contact with a surface, the more bacteria it collected,” Schaffner says. “But that’s far from the only factor at play. The five-second rule is a significant oversimplification of what actually happens when bacteria transfer from a surface to food. Bacteria can contaminate instantaneously.” It’s probably wise to discard a dropped slice of watermelon as, across the board, it was the most easily contaminated food because of its watery makeup. “Transfer of bacteria from surfaces to food appears to be affected most by moisture,” Schaffner says. “Bacteria don’t have legs, they move with the moisture, and the wetter the food, the higher the risk of transfer.” The nature of the surface itself contributed to the rate of transfer as well, although surprisingly, carpet was found to be the ‘cleanest’, transferring the least bacteria probably because of its surface topography. Even the fluid that contained the bacteria affected the results. In the end, the scientists played it safe, concluding that “the risk of illness resulting from deciding to consume food that has fallen on the floor will depend on factors including prevalence, concentration and type of organism, the nature of the food (especially moisture), the nature of the surface topology, as well as the length of time the food is in contact with the surface.” So there you have it! M Y T H B U S T E R ?
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