Lecture 11 Flashcards
What is a TEU?
A Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (8x6x20ft)
40ft = 2TEU
What was the Haber process?
N2 + H2 –> NH3
became commercialized around 1910, produced ammonia for gunpowder and dynamite type stuff
What is water activity (aw)?
Free water in food that’s necessary for microbial growth
each microbial species has an optimum, maximum, and minimum aw for growth
in general, a higher aw facilitates microbial growth
What major crops are affected by fungal contaminants?
corn, peanuts, cotton, wheat, rice, and the processed foods from these crops
What is “St. Anthony’s Fire?”
Ergotism
Claviceps purpurea cotaminating wheat and other grains
causes burning sensation, hallucination, LSD-like symptoms
is believed to be associated with the salem witch trials
What was the poison squad?
“To enable the Secretary of Agriculture to investigate the character of food preservatives, coloring matters, and other substances added to foods, to determine their relation to digestion and to health, and to establish the principles which should guide their use”
A group of grad students fed different chemicals like borax and formaldehyde to see how much you could eat before you got sick.
Describe the Food and Drug Act of 1906.
Dr. Harvey Wiley, director of the USDA’s Bureau of Chemistry, spurred Congress to pass and President Theodore Roosevelt to sign this act. The 1906 Act prohibited the marketing of adulterated and misbranded food and drugs.
Describe the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938.
This Act compelled manufacturers to demonstrate to the FDA the safety of new drugs…; set tolerances for substances such as pesticides; extended regulation to color additives and cosmetics
Describe the Food Additive Amendment of 1958 and the Color Additive Amendments of 1960.
These amendments required pre-market approval by the FDA of food components and color additives not “generally recognized as safe” by the scientific community. The use of additives that are shown to be carcinogenic in animals or humans is prohibited.
Who were the Eleven Blue Men?
11 “blue men” arrived at an NYC hospital having eaten oatmeal at the Eclipse Cafeteria.
NY Department of Health and the Bureau of Food and Drugs found the Eclipse diner was in violation of many health/sanitary codes, none of the violations were responsible for the victims’ blue state.
The culprit was the saltshaker placed at the diner table where each of the victims had eaten. In the kitchen, investigators found a can of sodium nitrite which the cook had mistaken for table salt (sodium chloride).
