Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Why mozzarella is the king of pizza cheese and other eating and drinking news of the day

  • Science Crowns Mozzarella The King Of Pizza Cheese - 'It's been known for a while that mozzarella melts and blisters better than most other cheeses. But [Bryony James, a professor of materials engineering at the University of Auckland in New Zealand] and some colleagues wanted to investigate further: Why do different cheeses look and taste different when they're baked? Their paper, titled "Quantification of Pizza Baking Properties of Different Cheeses, and Their Correlation with Cheese Functionality," appears in the August issue of the Journal of Food Science.
  • Secret menu: Tasty treats await 'in-the-know' customers - "Competition is driving many fast-food restaurants to fill special orders. As a result, hundreds of "secret menu" items circulate on social media to be snapped up by savvy eaters."
  • Austria's only snail farmer - "The 40-year-old is Austria's only full-time professional snail farmer, producing 300,000 per year for human consumption. With 1kg of snail meat selling for up to 80 euros ($105; £63) it is a lucrative business." 
  • Brain 'can be trained to prefer healthy food'
  • Real Vanilla Isn't Plain. It Depends On (Dare We Say It) Terroir - "You've likely heard of Madagascar Bourbon vanilla. It's the classic, deep, rich 'real' vanilla the world has come to know and love. It helps that Madagascar is the world's biggest producer of vanilla bean, harvesting 1,000 to 1,500 tons per year.But what about Tahitian vanilla, with its strong notes of cherry, or spicy, nutmeg-y Mexican vanilla? They're pretty amazing, too, thanks to their own rich soils, curing techniques and vanilla-friendly climates."
  • When Zero Doesn't Mean Zero: Trans Fats Linger In Food - "... the FDA has yet to issue a final rule requiring food companies to eliminate trans fats entirely. In the meantime, researchers decided to find out just how many products still contain them. Turns out it's more than you might think. While many food companies have found affordable alternatives to partially hydrogenated oil, 1 in 10 packaged foods still contain it, according to researchers at the New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene."
  • How Foster Farms Is Solving The Case Of The Mystery Salmonella - "Foster Farms, California's biggest chicken producer, has been accused of poisoning people with salmonella bacteria. After an outbreak last fall, the U.S. Department of Agriculturethreatened to shut down three of the company's plants.

Since then, though, the company has reduced its rates of salmonella contamination dramatically. Some food safety experts are now saying the whole poultry industry should follow this company's example.

The company is also taking the lead in figuring out a food safety mystery: How in the world do tests detect salmonella frequently on cut-up chicken parts but not on whole chicken carcasses?

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