Meat + Poultry - January 2004 - 65

FSI INSIGHTS

'Milk
substitutes are
no substitute'
■ In response to the growing shelf space allotted to
soy, rice and lactose-free
milk products, a reporter
for MSN's Slate magazine
coordinated a blind taste
test to rate milk alternatives
and milk, and reported his
findings in the article "Got
Lactaid?" The group tasted
every variety on the shelves
at a Whole Foods in Los
Angeles: three soy brands,
one rice, two lactose-free
and as the control group,
one regular milk. To keep
the comparisons as applesto-apples as possible, they
tested only low-fat products, the article states. In
addition, three
of the five panel members
were lactose intolerant. On a
scale of 1 to 10,
1 being "awful" and 10 being "awe-inspiring," the
three soy varieties averaged 2.8, the rice received
a 4.0, the lactose-free milk
received a 7.4, the real milk
rated a 7.8 and lactose-free
Lactaid scored an 8.4. Overall, the conclusion was that
"the non-milk products
didn't taste like milk, and
they didn't taste good...In
the end, milk substitutes
are no substitute at all."

■

Commission adopts over
50 new food standards

FSI NUMBERS

■ The Codex Alimentarius Commission,the highest
international body on food standards, has adopted
many new food safety and quality standards, including new guidelines on genetically modified
and irradiated foods.
Provisions for genetically modified foods
include pre-market safety evaluations, product
tracing for recall purposes and post-market
monitoring.
A new irradiatedfoods standard accepting higher levels
of radiation on
food products was
announced, as were
new standards for improving meat safety. The
Commission, which is a subsidiary of the United
Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization and
the World Health Organization, has established
principles of meat hygiene, including a Code of
Practice on good animal feeding that calls for
stricter controls over contamination sources.

■ By feeding hens red-yeast rice, a Taiwanese research team has produced low-cholesterol eggs, according to the Journal of Agriculture and Food
Chemistry. The development was a result of a fouryear research project on the application of yeast
species contained in red-yeast rice, led by Pan TzuMing, a professor at the National Taiwan University's Institute of Microbiology and Biochemistry.
Reportedly, hens fed corn blended with redyeast rice produced eggs with up to 15 percent less
cholesterol than normal eggs. Estimates suggest
the eggs will cost two to three times as much as
regular eggs because of increased feed costs. Redyeast rice, a natural cholesterol-lowering ingredient, is a Chinese food coloring and herbal remedy.

Sharon Miller, PhD, director of nutrition research for the
National Cattlemen's Beef Association, speaking on obesity

JANUARY 2004

PERCENT
of fossil fuel energy
used in the world's
food system goes
into packaging,
transportation and
marketing.

IS THE YEAR

Hens laying
low-cholesterol eggs

I don't think we're the only food group in the
bull's-eye, but we're certainly part of the target.

PERCENT
of fossil fuel energy
in the world's
food system is
used in production.

America's first
supermarket opened:
King Kullen Grocery Co.
in New York.

DRUGS AND
PHARMACEUTICALS
on the market are
estimated to
come from hogs.

THOUSAND
POUNDS
of milk is the
record milk production
for a single cow in a year.

FOOD SYSTEMS

ınsıder

FSI

Meat + Poultry - January 2004

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