Food Update

Monday, 6 June 2016

Creamy mashed potatoes

Recipe ,
Mashed potato has its own creamy texture. Just a little bit of milk and oil is enough to make it smooth. Try out your own flavours with different herbs and spices.

8 medium potatoes,
peeled and quartered 2 cloves of garlic,
quartered

1 tsp (5 ml) salt

2 tbsp (30 ml) sunflower oil

1 tbsp (15 ml) chopped fresh parsley or chives

¼ cup (60 ml) low-fat or fat-free milk

lemon juice and black pepper to taste

1. Place potatoes, garlic, ½ tsp of the salt and some water in a pot. Bring to the boil and reduce the heat.
2. Simmer for 30 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
3. Drain well and return potatoes and garlic to the pot.
4. Mash with a potato masher and stir in the remaining ingredients to form a smooth mixture.
5. Serve as a side dish with a meat dish of your choice.

TIPS
1. For a cheesy flavour stir in 2 tbsp buttermilk or plain smooth low-fat cottage cheese.
2. Make mash with different veggies. A combination of potatoes and sweet potatoes or butternut and even carrots work well.
3. Fresh or dried herbs can be added to mash, like origanum, parsley or thyme.

Food Processing & Technology

By Education at 04:59 No comments

Food processing is the transformation of raw ingredients into food, or of food into other forms. Food processing typically takes clean, harvested crops or butchered animal products and uses these to produce attractive, marketable and often long shelf-life food products.

The processed food industry is divided into the following broad segments:

• Primary processed food - which includes products such as fruits and vegetables, packed milk, unbranded edible oil, milled rice, flour, tea, coffee, pulses, spices, and salt, sold in packed or non-packed forms.
• Value-added processed food - which includes products such as processed fruits and vegetables, juices, jams, pickles, squashes, processed dairy products (ghee, paneer, cheese, and butter), processed poultry, and processed marine products, confectionary, chocolates, and alcoholic beverages.

Across the world, food-processing is considered to be a sunrise sector because of its large potential for growth and socio economic impact. It not only leads to income generation but also helps in reduction of wastage, value addition, and foreign exchange earnings and enhancing manufacturing competitiveness. In today’s global market, quality and food safety have become competitive edge for the enterprises producing foods and providing services. “With proper investment in food processing, technical innovation and infrastructure for agriculture sector, India could well become the food basket of the world” [1]. The existing level of processing and the extent of value addition are very low as compared to other developing countries. In India the food processing industry is ranked fifth in terms of production, consumption, export and expected growth [2]. A strong and dynamicfood processing sector plays a significant role in diversification of agricultural activities, improving value addition opportunities and creating surplus for export of agro-food products [3]. Food processing accounts for about 14% of manufacturing GDP, i.e. Rs. 2,80,000 crore, and employs about 13 million people directly and 35 million people indirectly. Its employment intensity can be seen by the fact that for every Rs. 1 million invested, 18 direct jobs and 64 indirect jobs are created in organized food processing industry only [4].

It is widely accepted that the food processing sector is the most appropriate sector for creating jobs for rural poor, and thus reduce the burden on agricultural sector for creation of their livelihood. This is due to their familiarity with the agricultural sector which would make it easier to train and place them in food processing enterprises. The multiplier effect of investment in food processing industry on employment generation is also higher than any other sector. Therefore, for the overall progress of economy it is important that the farmers and backward communities working in rural food-processing units are treated at the top of the growth process. Rapid and sustained poverty reduction requires economic growth which is inclusive and the one that allows people to contribute to and benefit from it.
For more read here.

A Call to Action Against Junk Food

By Education at 05:05 No comments

When you journey to the safety net hospitals and clinics that serve some of the neediest Americans, you will invariably find yourself in the heart of the urban core. Nearby you will see establishments such as liquor stores, convenience stores and fast food restaurants. But often you will not see grocery stores that offer healthy foods at affordable prices. This is certainly the case at the urban core campus of Truman Medical Centers in Kansas City, where I am the president and CEO. Truman is one of the most crucial safety net hospitals in the Kansas City area, providing services to more than 56,000 medical home patients with chronic diseases like diabetes, congestive heart failure, hypertension and obesity every year.

Yet while my office is about a minute away from a purveyor of cheeseburgers and fries, it is quite a distance from the closest fresh produce case. In other words, a classic example of an urban core “food desert” that fosters obesity and chronic health conditions. The lack of healthy grocery shopping alternatives in Kansas City’s urban core is illustrated by a Healthy Food Access Map published last June by the Mid-America Regional Council. The preponderance of fast food in the urban core, along with the dearth of healthy, affordable food, is a major cause of obesity and chronic health conditions. According to the Mid-America Coalition on Health Care, of which Truman is a member, approximately 9.1 percent of all health care costs in the United States are related to obesity and being overweight. That is a mind-boggling percentage when you consider that U.S. health care costs reached $2.5 trillion in 2009.

Additional estimated costs of obesity include $4.3 billion a year in worker absenteeism and lower productivity that amounts to $506 per worker per year, the coalition report said. In a 2011 report on obesity, the Kansas City Health Department stated that “the rise in obesity rates is a result in changes in the environment that have simultaneously lowered the cost of food production, lowered the time and monetary cost of food consumption and decreased the health consequences that result from obesity by bringing a host of new drugs and devices to the market to better manage the adverse effects that obesity promotes.” Some may argue that junk food is the most affordable alternative for urban core residents, but that is not true. In a Sept. 24 article in the New York Times, food journalist Mark Bittman wrote that a typical order for a family of four at a McDonald’s near his writing desk runs about $28. By comparison, Bittman wrote, for $14 you can serve a home-cooked meal of roast chicken that would feed four to six people.

Or for only $9 you can dish out a meal of rice and canned beans with bacon, green peppers and onions, Bittman added. Each of us has a role to play in the battle for healthier food. Individuals, schools and employers must step up and do their part. Hospitals must weigh in, with words and actions. At Truman, we are seeking to replace the fast food restaurant at our urban core campus with a vendor that will offer healthier food. I feel very strongly about this because I don’t think our message about healthy eating will resonate unless we set a good example. Truman also is working toward the establishment of a new grocery store near our campus that will provide our neighbors with healthy, affordable food — an oasis in our food desert. Each one us has a role to play, and each one of us must do his or her part in this fight. The health of our country depends on it. John W. Bluford is president and CEO of Truman Medical Centers. He lives in Lee’s Summit.