Nutritional suitability

The nutritional suitability of a host was proposed by Flanders (1937) and Salt (1938) to be important to the survival of a parasitoid. House (1977) concluded 

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Nutritional suitability of individual carbohydrates and amino acids for adult Pieris brassicae. Physiological Entomology 27 148-156. 

Calcium Effects on Zinc Bioavailability for the Rat and the Human. It should be pointed out at this juncture that the nutrient requirement of calcium for the rat is much higher than for man. In fact, the molar ratio of calcium to zinc in excess of 660 1 is recommended for rat diets, while for man the ratio is between 80 1 and 160 1. To feed rats molar ratios of calcium and zinc similar to human requirements would necessitate either a very calcium deficient diet or one containing zinc at a level well in excess of the requirement. Neither choice is nutritionally suitable for demonstrating an effect of phytate on zinc availability. 

Questions about the nutritional suitability of rapeseed oil were first raised in 1956 when the Food and Drug Directorate ruled that based on reports of animal feeding trials in the literature, rapeseed oil would not be approved as an edible oil. The objections of the Food and Drug Directorate to the use of rapeseed oil as an edible oil were withdrawn after a further review of the nutritional properties of rapeseed oil revealed that in its current limited use there was nothing to indicate that it was a hazard to health. 

AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics). 1988. Clinical Testing of Infant Formulas with Respect to Nutritional Suitability for Term Infants. Report to the FDA. Committee on Nutrition. Elk Grove Village, IL AAP. 

We have seen that only certain micro-organisms that conform to nutritional and safety requirements are suitable for food or feed, and that food has more strict requirements than feed. In addition, for use as food, SCP should have a reduced nudeic add content and should be palatable. Most often this means that its use is limited to processed foods, in which food technologists can produce acceptable tastes, smells and textures. 

Some by-products from the food industry contain high proportions of plant cell walls which can be used in human nutrition to produce "dietary fibre" or "functional fibre", i.e. compounds which can be used for their water-holding/binding properties, oil-binding capacity,... or as a source of polysaccharides such as pectins which are suitable after extraction, as gelling or thickening agents. 

The main unique feature of osmotic dehydration, compared to other dehydration processes, is the penetration of solutes into the food material. Through a calculated incorporation of specific solutes into the food system, it is possible, to a certain extent, to change nutritional, functional, and sensory properties, making it more suitable to processing by... 

The total world production of natural oils and fats in 1997 amounted to 100 X 106 t, of which 80 X 106 t were of vegetable and 20 X 1061 of animal origin [28]. From these oils and fats, 80% are suitable for human nutrition and 14% end up in so-called oleochemical uses, among them... 

A particular feature of phytoremediation is its suitability for the removal of common gaseous pollutants, such as CO2, NO2, CO and O3, which is difficult to achieve by physical methods. Since CO2 is a nutritional requirement for plant growth, elevated levels are favourable. Up to 10% of assimilated nitrogen is provided by the uptake of NO2 in certain plant species (Morikawa at el. 1999). CO is metabolized mainly by microorganisms, but to some extent also by plants (Orcutt and Nilsen 2000). Finally, O3 is taken up and removed from the environment by certain plants which have a high capacity to scavenge hydroxyl radicals, and these are the species commonly recommended for cultivation in urban areas, where this pollutant is common. 

Tests for mutation in Aspergillus nidulans are performed in hquid suspension. Conidia are exposed to the test substance both with and without metabohc activation and plated on selective medium to determine changes in colonial morphology or nutritional requirements. At the end of a suitable incubation period, mutant colonies are counted and compared to the number of spontaneous mutants in an untreated control culture. Simultaneous determination of survival... 

Several microbial species (in particular fungi) produce phytases (EC 3.1.3.8). The incorporation of suitable, microbially derived phytases in the diet can confer the ability to digest phytic acid on the recipient animals. This would have a threefold beneficial effect the anti-nutritional properties of phytic acid would be destroyed a lesser requirement for feed supplementation with inorganic phosphorous wottld exist and reduced phosphate levels would be present in the faeces. Several trials have confirmed that the inclusion of phytase in animal feed promotes at least some of these effects. However, the enzyme is not yet used in many cormtries. This may be explained, in part, by the fact that most microbial species only produce low levels of phytase activity which, obviously, has an effect on the cost of the finished product. It seems likely that widespread utilization of phytase within the industry will only be made possible by the production of this enzyme from recombinant sottrces, and at least two major enzyme companies are marketing such an enzyme for a nttmber of years now. 

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