Natural Food Components

Lipids, triglycerides, and cholesterols Fatty acids and organic acids Proteins, peptides Amino acids Food additives 

Acidulants, sweeteners, flavors, Anitoxidants and preservatives Colors and dyes Vitamins Contaminants Mycotoxins (aflatoxins) 

RPC = reversed-phase chromatography, IEC = ion-exchange chromatography, NPC = normal-phase chromatography, SEC = size-exclusion chromatography, NARP = nonaqueous reversed-phase, PAD = pulsed amperometric detector, ELSD = evaporative light scattering detector. Pre-column or post-column derivatization required. 

International) or the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) for further details on specific applications. Recent regulations in food labeling have increased the level of food testing.6 

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Indirect food additives, which are the most frequent sources of poisoninglike diseases, are not natural food components. They enter food as... 

CLA isomers are functional food components when their search for mutagens in cooked meat instead identified CLA as an antimutagen (see Pariza, 1999). As a result of this discovery, research on CLA has increased exponentially over the last decade and a number of potential health benefits of CLA have been reported. The anticarcinogenic activity of CLA has been established clearly, but biomedical studies with animal models have identified an impressive range of additional positive health effects for CLA as summarized in Chapter 17. Particularly noteworthy is the fact that CLA is a potent anticarcinogen when supplied as a natural food component in the form of CLA-enriched butter as discussed later in this review. 

Encapsulant materials can be selected from a wide range of natural or synthetic materials depending on the properties desired in the final microcapsule (Table 24.2). The encapsulant materials in food are more restricted to natural food components (e.g. proteins, sugars, starches, gums, lipids, ceUulosic material) and other ingredients... 

Although immunoassays have been developed at the laboratory scale for a broad variety of possible food contaminants and of natural food components whose presence may affect the sensory or nutritional properties of a given food, we will discuss in what follows only those applications that have already gained acceptance in the analytical laboratory, and for which commercial kits are available, as reported in Table 3. 

Most of the elements discussed so far are natural food components. This means that they are present in a given food commodity in a characteristic amount, which is a consequence of a cycle of elements in nature and their natural distribution in different parts of the biosphere. 

Numerous functional derivatives of carboxyhc and substituted carboxyhc acids have been found to be natural food components. In particular, important compounds are esters, lactones, anhydrides, amides and nitriles. The most important functional derivatives of carboxyhc acids that act as odour-active substances are esters and lactones. 

Owing to their properties, tannins have been used for millennia to tan animal hides into leather. As natural food components. 

Enzyme inhibitors, also known as antienzymes, are various low molecular weight and high molecular weight natural food components and foreign substances that affect the activity of various enzymes. In nutrition terms, the most important antienzymes are inhibitors of digestive enzymes, particularly inhibitors of proteases also known as antiproteases. A less important group are inhibitors of saccharases. 

Inactivadon of chemicals by dietary components can occur via intake of either natural food components or therapeutic agents. 

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