Food loss definition

The final word about risk-benefit is that the definitions of the risks and the benefits are not the same in all cases. The definition of benefit needs to be clear. For some countries, the benefit is reduced postharvest food losses. The value of this benefit can vary with the country involved. Different weights may be assigned if there is danger of severe food shortage versus simply an increase in the cost of the substance. Thus, the science and art of risk assessment are difficult because each step in the process is value laden. 

However, it must be recorded that some workers feel that in the human subject the period of anorexia which usually follows injury is responsible for the negative-nitrogen balance of the postinjury period (Al, Dll, D12). There are a number of unsatisfactory aspects about much of this work. We have already made mention of the considerable volume of work with well-nourished animals on a constant pre- and postinjury food intake, which show a definite and marked loss of nitrogen in the urine. 

That implies that a food needs to be preserved in order to be safe and maintain its nutritive and rheological characteristics tiU the moment of consumption. Food preservation relies on an array of techniques, and the use of chemical compounds represents one of the most frequently applied for many years. By definition, a preservative can be considered as a chemical substance useful to retard or arrest microbial growth in order to prevent food deterioration and/or safety loss (Surekha Reddy, 2000). 

For scientists studying the effects of process-induced changes in food proteins, assessment of denaturation has frequently been based on the one hand by a measured loss of solubility, i.e., the functional definition of denaturation, and on the other hand, by changes from the native structure using techniques requiring non-turbid solutions of proteins at low concentrations. Neither of these criteria is completely satisfactory for food systems in which proteins may be present at high concentrations, and in which solubility or loss thereof may not be directly related to other functional properties of interest. In fact, many foods are not solutions. 

Some common processes that involve redox reactions are the burning of coal, the function of batteries, metabolism of foods, and the corrosion of metals. Reduction is defined as the loss of oxygen, the gain of hydrogen, or the gain of electrons (the most fundamental definition). 

The above ranges assume that other growth factors are optimal but clearly they will narrow as combinations of stresses are introduced. However, there is a lack of information about such interactions between the various environmental factors and their effects on the growth limits of salmonellae, and this is a research area which merits further quantitative definition. It should then be feasible to design and formulate new food products, within organoleptic constraints, which would not intrinsically support the multiplication of salmonellae . Many conventional foods and raw materials, however, provide ideal substrate conditions for growth of salmonellae and it is not practical or economic to alter their composition without loss of marketable character. In such cases, control can best be achieved by manipulation of extrinsic environmental factors (with emphasis on... 

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