One of the calculators on the  Dairy Science and Food Technology website is a  lethal rate calculator for the determination of F values. This was validated using a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and following consultation with site users this is now available for download.

The spreadsheet converts temperature to lethal rate and plots lethal rate and temperature against time. The trapezoid rule is used to calculate the area under the curve and depending on the reference temperature chosen Fo or other F value can be calculated. A graph showing lethal rate and temperature against time is also plotted.

The download contains a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and a document in PDF form. The PDF file explains the basis of lethal rate calculation and also how to use Microsoft Excel to calculate the area under a curve using the trapezoid rule.

All the cell formulas are unlocked. The Terms and Conditions that apply to the Ice Cream Mix Spreadsheets also apply.

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Firstly apologies for not providing an update until now.

The site forum as many browsers will know  is currently being hosted at www.thesis-tutor.co.uk until it can be transferred to this server. The CGI or Perl based software will not run on this server.

The project has been complicated by the structure of the 'flat file database' system. That I am not a professional coder has not helped either.

I am currently finalising arrangements for a professional coder to complete the migration script and I intend to have the new forum with enhanced functionality available by the end of March.

To fund this project I have decided to make the Ice Cream mix calculator available on a subscription basis from Friday the 19th February and to enhance the functionality of the calculator by adding a facility to save and edit calculations. Users will be able to use the existing calculator for x times, x to be decided, and then they will be sent to the enhanced subscription only calculator.

I will provide an update on progress approximately every two weeks from now on.

Mike Mullan

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The objective in calculating ice cream mixes is to turn a formula e.g. 8% fat, 11.1% MSNF, 13% sweetener, 1% stabiliser / emulsifier into a recipe based on the selected ingredients and the mass or volume of mix required.  The recipe is then processed to obtain ice cream for distribution and sale.

The Dairy Science and Food technology website has a calculator that user linear programming to calculate the ingredients required for a particular recipe.

During the development of the calculator 11 Microsoft Excel spreadsheets that cover many of the ice-cream formulation challenges that commercial manufacturers face were developed. These are now available for downloading.

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Commercial cheese correctly manufactured with pasteurised milk and lactic starter cultures has a well deserved reputation as a nutritious and safe product. However, under certain circumstances cheese may support the growth of food poisoning bacteria or serve as a ‘vehicle’ for their transmission.

Listeria monocytogenes is particularly significant since it can grow / survive for long periods in cheese and cause serious illness leading to death; the death rate arising from listeriosis can exceed 30%. It can also induce abortion in humans and its ability to cross the placenta, and access the brain makes it a particularly dangerous pathogen.

An article providing an introduction to the binary and ordinal logistic regression models developed by Bolton and Frank (1999) for predicting the probability of L. monocytogenes growing in cheese after 42 days storage at 10°C was added to the Dairy Science and Food Technology website on the 20th December 2009. Access article.

 

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The Comite´ des Industries des Mayonnaises et Sauces Condimentaires de la Communaute´ Economique Europeenne (CIMSCEE) has provided guidance on a safety value, Σs, for a microbiologically safe product preserved using acetic acid. An article on the CIMSCEE model and a calculator was added to the Dairy Science and Food Technology site on the 5 December 2009. The article also provides an introduction to the acid-protective effects sodium chloride and / or sucrose can have on Escherichia coli. In addition to providing Σs values the calculator also compares the pH and total acetic concentration of the product against current recommendations for microbiologically safe products.


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"Talkin'about Food Forum", or TAFF, is an interesting project initiated by Giulio De Simoni and a group of fellow Italian food technologists. The overall purpose of the forum to publicise food science and technology and to work to solve problems in food manufacture.

The forum has sections on food chemistry, food engineering, food legislation, food marketing, food microbiology, food packaging, food safety and quality, food technology, information for students and information on ‘food’ events.

The forum owners are currently translating the site content into English and Chinese.

Discussions are currently taking place between TAFF and Dairy Science and Food Technology regarding how both websites can work together and provide an enhanced user experience. The TAFF owners have very significant expertise in meat science and technology and I would encourage all users of this website to visit TAFF and explore the articles and responses to queries. The Italian content can be ‘translated’ using free tools from Google and AltaVista- not quite the same translation you would get from a human but usually good enough to understand the main points.

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On the 24th September 2009 I had the opportunity to talk to the “Graduate Quality Course on Health, Hygiene and Technology on milk and milk-product chain production” at the Universita' Degli Studo Di Napoli, Federico 11 in Italy.

The opportunity to discuss issues in cheese science and technology with postgraduate students from a range of disciplines and companies in Italy was a very pleasant and interesting experience.

My thanks to Professor Nicoletta Murru for the invitation and to Dr. Giuseppe Aprea (Virology and Serology Unit, Animal Health Department, Experimental Zooprophilactic Institute of Southern Italy) who acted as interpreter.

One of the topics discussed was the use of HACCP in milk production at farm level. I look forward to helping to organise a study tour to Northern Ireland to look at HACCP use on farm and the food processing facilities at the Loughry campus of the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise.

Professor Nicoletta Murru and Dr Giuseppe Aprea with students from the “Graduate Quality Course on Health, Hygiene and Technology on milk and milk-product chain production” at the Universita' Degli Studo Di Napoli, Federico 11 Italy.

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