Compounds found in seaweed have shown anti-malarial properties, killing even drug-resistant malaria parasites.

Many drug molecules are natural products, including quinine, arguably the ‘original’ anti-malarial, which comes from the bark of the cinchona tree. This has driven scientists to search for new compounds in all corners of the natural world.

Now, Julia Kubanek at Georgia Institute of Technology, US, has shown that large macrocyles from Fijian red seaweed could lead to new drugs for the treatment of malaria. She presented her work at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Read more

A blend of oat, rye, and buckwheat flours with wheat flour ensures a bread with added value in terms of nutrition, palatability, shelf life and handling during processing, in comparison to bread from wholegrain flours, finds a Spanish study.

WASHINGTON – You may not want to eat genetically engineered foods. Chances are, you are eating them anyway.

Genetically modified plants grown from seeds engineered in labs now provide much of the food we eat. Most corn, soybean and cotton crops grown in the United States have been genetically modified to resist pesticides or insects, and corn and soy are common food ingredients.

The Agriculture Department has approved three more genetically engineered crops in the past month, and the Food and Drug Administration could approve fast-growing genetically modified salmon for human consumption this year.

Agribusiness and the seed companies say their products help boost crop production, lower prices at the grocery store and feed the world, particularly in developing countries. The FDA and USDA say the engineered foods they’ve approved are safe — so safe, they don’t even need to be labeled as such — and can’t be significantly distinguished from conventional varieties.

Read more

Frito Lay is trialling a quieter version of its biodegradable SunChips bag in a bid to silence those who complained theoriginal packaging was too loud.

The PepsiCo-owned company rolled out the eco-crisp bag in April 2009 but was inundated with protests that the polylactic acid (PLA) material was too noisy. In October 22010, the US-based snack-maker succumbed to consumer pressure and reverted to the original non-biodegradable material for five of its six SunChips brand bags.

Sales of the crisp brand reportedly declined during in the 18 months the environmentally-friendly bag was on sale, which was said to biodegrade in as little as 14 weeks.

“It was interesting we got a lot of extremely positive feedback …but on the same hand we heard one overwhelming complaint,” said Brad Rodgers, manager of sustainable packaging for PepsiCo advanced research told the Associated Press.

Read more

Sedentary lifestyle

Nowadays, people are concerned about health and well-being. Indeed, changing lifestyle has contributed to spurt of modern diseases causing healthcare crisis worldwide. Further, technological developments have made our lives easier and comfortable. We are no more worried about not getting enough food or of destructive epidemics. People are living in safety of their homes without the fear of intruders. People can travel thousands of kilometers without even moving their foot. The list goes on.

Moreover, all material comforts have made many to take a passive lifestyle. Interestingly, passive lifestyle combined with addictions such as smoking or alcoholism acts as deadly combination that brings plethora of diseases to humans.  It is essential that we must adopt to the changing times and devote time to keep a active lifestyle.  Of all the development that has happened, the most affected would be the younger generation.

Read more

NHS hospitals may have an annoying voice that chimes up to remind you to “clean your hands with the gel” whenever you walk past a cleansing station, but Finnish company Ekahau has come up with something ten steps further.

According to Ekahau, hand hygiene is a real concern in both hospitals and doctor’s surgeries. It cites figures from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, which claim that hospital acquired infections add more than $30 billion to healthcare costs and result in almost 100,000 deaths per year.

It has introduced a system that monitors how staff wash their hands before and after they have interacted with patients through technology over Wi-Fi networks. It hopes the new system will help prevent the spread of hospital acquired infections and earn it some dosh, too.

Read more

With most people unable to get enough vitamin D from sunlight or foods, scientists are suggesting that a new vitamin D-fortified food — bread made with high-vitamin D yeast — could fill that gap. Their study, confirming that the approach works in laboratory tests, appears in ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Connie Weaver and colleagues cite studies suggesting that up to 7 in 10 people in the United States may not get enough vitamin D, which enables the body to absorb calcium. Far from just contributing to healthy bones, however, vitamin D seems to have body-wide beneficial effects. Vitamin D insufficiency has been linked to an increased risk of heart disease, cancer, allergy in children, and other conditions. With few good natural sources of vitamin D, milk producers long have added it to milk. Weaver explains, however, that dairy products do not provide enough. The body makes its own vitamin D when the skin is exposed to sunlight. But people are not exposed to sun in winter and are avoiding the sun and using sun blocks in summer. Scientists thus have been looking for new ways to add vitamin D to the diet.

Read more

VARANASI: With the outbreak of diarrhoea in Naya Mahadeo locality the Jal Kal and health officials, finally, are making the best of their efforts to clean the area. However, an onslaught of complaints about water contamination pouring in from several other city areas has caught the officials unprepared.

As per reports of the department that is responsible for operation and maintenance of water supply in the city, an average of between eight to nine complaints per day are being received that are related to water contamination. Interestingly, out of these complaints, only 50 per cent are tackled, while others remain in the pending list.

The recent reports of the office suggest that a total of 248 complaints of water contamination have been already reported in the last 30 days (till February 22), while a total of around 1,500 complaints have been received in the last six months.

Read more

Moderate alcohol consumption may help prevent heart disease, Canadian researchers said after reviewing dozens ofstudies conducted over three decades, adding to the evidence that drinking can offer health benefits.

People who have one drink or fewer each day are 14 percent to 25 percent less likely to develop heart disease compared with those who don’t imbibe, according to an analysis of 84 studies conducted since the 1980s. Moderate amounts of alcohol consumed daily increase the levels of so-called good cholesterol in the body, a separate review of 63 studies found.

The results, published today on the British Medical Journal’s website, bolster those of previous trials. Two or three drinks a day may prevent people from having heart attacks or strokes after undergoing heart-bypass surgery, Italian researchers said Nov. 14. Men in Belfast who drank most of their alcohol on weekends had almost double the risk of heart disease compared with French drinkers who spread consumption over a week, according to a study published last year.

Read more

Coffee commodity prices are edging towards highs that were last seen in 1977 as carry over stock fromlast season runs low.

Srinagar, Feb 23: Even as a food laboratory is a major prerequisite to keep a check on the sale of adulterated food and to ensure safety and nutritional standards of edibles, Srinagar Municipal Corporation has no facility of its own. For the last more than 12 decades now, the SMC is dependent on the food laboratory of Drug department.
According to highly placed sources in the SMC, “Municipal Corporation came into existence in 1886 but till date it could not establish its own laboratory, owing to which it is not able to keep a check on the food products sold in the Valley. This is despite the fact that SMC gets huge money for developmental activities every year from both centre and state governments.”
Taking advantage of non-existence of such a laboratory with SMC, traders supply adulterated food items in the market, which certainly is a common knowledge here. “Ninety percent food products both in solid and liquid forms (be it species, oils, butter, milk et. al.) in the markets of Srinagar and elsewhere are sub-standard,” confirmed a senior official of Drug and Food Control Organization on condition of anonymity.
It is only when a case of adulterated food items comes to the notice, especially when reported in the section of press that raids are conducted by the SMC.
“Even then the food samples collected are usually dumped in the cupboards of the Food and Licensing Section (Block B) of SMC or sometimes send to the Public Analyst’s lab in Jammu for checking,” sources revealed.

Read more

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials along with experts are holding workshops, seminars and lectures at division and district level to train and make public and food players aware of a new Act which will promote food hygiene to a great extent.

In a bid to check food quality and hygiene standards in food units across Maharashtra, the state food authorities are planning to bring into force the Food Safety and Standard Act (FSSA), 2006 from April 2011.
The new Act, which focuses on checking food quality and hygiene at outlets, will replace Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) Act, 1954, which was confined to only checking of adulteration in food items.

However, small and medium scale industries which do not have technical expertise to track the regulatory changes may find it difficult to identify the procedural and compliance changes brought in by the Act. Thus, there is a need for conducting awareness/training programmes for industries. Therefore the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will be conducting statewide awareness amongst the public and manufacturers and traders.

Read more

Twenty years ago, people started to look at their coffee as more than a pick-me-up. It was explored, poked, deconstructed and built back up again amid an entirely new culture of cafes, baristas and buzzwords. Now it appears another revolution, this time with chocolate, is beginning.

The transformation is driven by a variety of factors, including the slowfood movement, which advocates taking time to enjoy more interesting taste experiences, an increased social awareness of organic and fair-trade products and a growing trend toward choosing foods produced close to home.

A collection of artisan chocolate manufacturers is filling a void in the chocolate industry, somewhere between the mass, international producers like Hershey and Mars, and the premium brands like Calgary-based Bernard Callebaut and Victoria’s Rogers’ Chocolates, the first artisan chocolatier in Canada.

Read more

In most cases, food poisoning is not the sufferer’s fault. When you eat something outside, you just can’t be sure that it will be digested well by your body or whether the food you are eating is in fact safe. For instance, some types of meat are carriers of bacteria such as salmonella, E.coli, staphylococcus, listeria, and clostridium botulinum. While the body’s defense mechanism is ready to fight these bacteria, in some cases they may have infested the food greatly thereby weakening your immune system and leading to food poisoning. Fortunately, you can figure if you are suffering from food poisoning by means of the many food poisoning signs and symptoms that you are likely to exhibit. Also, though in most cases food poisoning symptoms start reducing in 2 – 3 days, it is important that you visit a doctor to treat it, more so if they don’t reduce in this time period and in fact, become worse. The symptoms of food poisoning have been discussed here, but we will first take a brief look at the causes of food poisoning.

Food Poisoning Causes
Food poisoning is the direct result of consuming contaminated food. For instance, a product may be grown well, but contamination may occur due to its poor storage process. Taking the example of the meat mentioned above, more often than not, the bacteria present in meat is eradicated in the process of cooking. However, sometimes the meat is not cooked thoroughly that can leave behind traces of these food poisoning bacteria and then affect the body. Even raw vegetables that are available at restaurants and salad bars can get contaminated in the process of storage or preparation. That is why it has been said that one can never be too careful while eating food from outside. Food poisoning can also occur if hygienic methods of food preparation are not undertaken at home. So be careful while cooking and make sure you are working in clean and hygienic conditions. Not only bacteria, but parasites and viruses can also cause food poisoning.

Read more

Thiruvananthapuram: In a significant legislation against the corporate giant Coca Cola, Kerala’s CPI (M)-led LDF Government on Tuesday introduced a bill in the state Assembly seeking to set up a special tribunal to realise compensation from the softdrink for the losses its plant at Plachimada caused to the people in the area.

The bill was introduced brought in on the basis the recommendation of a High Power Committee which found that a huge loss to the tune of Rs 216.16 crore had been caused by the plant of the Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd at Plachimada village in Palakkad district.

The legislation, introduced by Water Resources Minister N K premachandran,stated that the functioning of the plant caused environmental and soil degradation, water contamination due to over-extraction of ground water leading to drinking water scarcity and decline in agriculture due to disposal of sledge which contained metals like cadmium, led and chromium.

Read more