Chemicals in My Food

Jun 1

Throwback Soda

Why did PepsiCo launch a “throwback” soda with sucrose in place of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) with sucrose?

HFCS is widely seen by the general public as a harmful and profoundly unnatural additive. In contrast, the consensus amongst experts (although there is some disagreement) seems to be that HFCS is nutritionally no better or worse than sucrose. PepsiCo has plenty of expert nutritionists that could review the arguments about sugars in the diet, but I doubt their opinions were that important.

It’s possible the balance of subsidies and tariffs that affect the relative prices of sucrose and HFCS might have led to an economic decision to reformulate. Cheaper ingredients would mean more profit and would certainly motivate a change in sweetener – that’s probably why they reformulated with HFCS in the first place. However, only a few brand extensions have been launched with sucrose suggesting they are looking at a niche product rather than a real driver for across the board change.

More likely PepsiCo are motivated by what they think their consumers think about their product. If there is a subset of people who could be motivated to try a sucrose-soda because they think it’s healthier (or tastier or more fun or more ethical or whatever) then the new formulation makes sense for the company. The perceived values of the ingredient in the minds of the consumers are more important than any objective properties.

The food industry is often criticized by using advertising to sell us junk food we otherwise wouldn’t touch. I disagree; I think they are at least as engaged in trying to work out what they can tempt us to eat. They are sending information one way in the form of advertising and listening for information the other way from taste panels, focus groups and their best judgment of their market. Consumers and consumer groups have enormous power to shape the food on sale. The problem is that whatever most strongly motivates consumer opinion is most likely to motivate industry action. The more aesthetically unattractive parts of the food system change without consideration of the real costs, benefits or priorities.

A good example is the recent campaign against “pink slime” in ground beef. When consumers became aware of the product the fast food industry dropped it quickly. Pink slime was ugly but while there were a lot of opinions posted, there was little evidence that it was either nutritionally or microbiologically worse than conventional ground beef. Without any obvious benefit, we will now have to raise more animals to generate the same amount of meat. The food industry responded to consumer demand but I don’t think we got a better food system as a result.

[Image from Wikipedia]

May 27

dobt90 asked: Hi! I can understand how casein and other proteins in milk form gel in acid, however I cannot imagine in my mind exactly how it can. I need an illustration, can you help me a picture about gel formation? Thanks!

Hi - I guess you read my posting about gelation. Do you have a more specific question? I’m not sure exactly what you are looking for…

May 13

Student Debt at Colleges and Universities Across the Nation - Interactive Graphic - NYTimes.com

cplong:

That student debt number for #PennState is big: $31,135. We need to keep working to raise more scholarship money to reduce student debt coming out of college.

This infographic does not capture, however, the relationship between state appropriation and tuition for the public schools. #PennState has the highest tuition in the Big Ten, because it has the lowest state appropriation.

May 11

cplong:

Sue Paterno greets graduate Chrissy Keller (by LAUSatPSU)

A number of students like Chrissy broke out of the handshake line to tell Sue how much they admire her.

A slightly controlled experiment in caramelizing onions. The pan on the left has a little baking soda which raises the pH and allows the Maillard reaction to proceed faster and generate more color. The control gives some dark brown specks where the onion burnt but less of the general color change. It all tasted about the same. [Inspired by Cesar Vega].

Apr 21

Power Tools for Professors

Very early in my career, a professor of industrial engineering gave a seminar in our department and told a story about costs. He was consulting for a manufacturing firm and saw all the workers struggling with manual hand tools. When he pointed out they would be much more efficient with power tools, the management explained that they were worried that the workers would steal the expensive power tools and use them at home. The professor’s recommendation was to go ahead and give the workers power tools, and a set to take home and a set for them to give away and a spare set. The real cost was the workers’ time and any gains in efficiency would easily cover the costs of several sets of tools. The management was trapped in a false idea of efficiency by not recognizing their major sunk cost.

A similar situation exists in the management of universities. Faculty members are highly trained professionals and thus expensive resources. Parents and students want these faculty to be teaching everything, but the costs quickly become prohibitive and administrators must reinforce them with cheaper, fixed-term instructors and graduate students. A better model would be to ask what are the “power tools” a faculty member needs to increase their efficiency. Something as simple as a grader for a few hours a week would free up that much faculty member time and save the institution money.

This model already exists in other professional services. When I go to the dentist I am wafted through a series of receptionists, hygienists, nurses and billing specialists and see the actual dentist for only a couple of minutes. The system is put together so the most expensive resource (the dentist) spends as much of their time as possible doing the thing that only the most expensive resource can do.

Universities have consistently responded to budget squeezes by protecting faculty lines at the expense of support positions and resources. We would do better to determine the tasks that only the expensive, permanent, tenure-line faculty can do for the institution and save money by making sure they don’t do anything else.

(image uploaded under the Creative Commons license by flicker user whiteforge)

Apr 7

The Worst Class I Ever Taught

Early in my career I taught a lecture on taste chemistry in my undergraduate food chemistry class. Taste and flavor are hard topics to teach. You either get into the chemistry of the flavor molecules, which turns into a laundry list of structures or the physiology and psychology of taste which isn’t really about food anymore. It was late in the semester and I was looking for something a little more fun and from somewhere I remembered the “tongue map” of tastes. The ideas is the different tastes are most clearly detected in different parts of the tongue, sweet at the front, bitter at the back and so on. This looked good so I copied a picture of the tongue and brought some candies to serve as model stimulants. I quickly got the students with their tongues out prodding around and rediscovering what I had shown from the book. Everyone had fun and we learned a lot. Epic win.

Except it was all complete and utter nonsense. There is no such thing as a tongue map; you can taste pretty much anything pretty much anywhere in your mouth. I accepted what I read in a book and the students accepted what I told them. No one, not even me, believed our own senses over the authority of the expert. I’m still embarrassed by my mistake, but in some ways I learned more from it than anything else I did that semester.

Apr 4

Virtues of an Education for Democracy

cplong:

Here are some reflections about education and the future of the land grant university after my visit to the University of Chicago for the Academic Leadership program.

Apr 3

Advice for a potential graduate student in Food Science

Many bright undergraduate students consider developing their education with a graduate degree. I’ve advised many such students in Food Science and I’ve seen some common misconceptions about what getting a higher degree means. If you are thinking of graduate school in Food Science here are some of the things you should consider about first.

Think about what you are getting into; the demands and rewards of graduate school are very different from what you have seen as an undergraduate. Read PhD Comics and talk to current graduate students - are you sure you want to do this? Why?

A MS takes between 2-3 years and a PhD between 3-5. A MS requires you to develop some capacity as an independent researcher but a PhD takes this to a whole new level. It’s hard to really understand the distinction between the degrees until you have been around graduate students for a while, so unless you a have considerable research experience as an undergraduate, I would recommend getting an MS first.

In some fields getting an MS means the PhD didn’t work out for you in some way; not in Food Science. An MS is a highly respected terminal degree with a substantial independent research component. The MS is particularly valuable as a way for graduates in related fields (e.g., chemistry, microbiology) to develop some focus to their skills and prepare for a career in the food industry.

What do you want to do when you finally get your higher degree? If you have a BS in Food Science you can probably get a technical job on the food industry. If you get an MS you are more competitive, especially for the R&D. If you get a PhD you are probably looking for more highly specialized research positions in larger companies. Most of the people in senior-level research positions have PhDs. In some fields doctoral students are expected to look for faculty positions, but in Food Science the industry track is the norm. It is exceptionally unusual for graduates to fail find a well-paid job in the field.

While you want to go to a “good school”, it’s far more important to find an advisor you think you can work with. In your application you will probably be asked to describe your research interest but unless you are already working in a lab you don’t know. Try to narrow it down to a general topic area, “microbiology”, “chemistry”, then look apply widely. When you get interviews, look for advisors in those programs that might be a good fit. Different advisors work for different people but you will probably get your best information talking to their current students. Look for a place where the students seem busy and interested in their work. Find out how long the last few students took to get their degrees and what jobs they are doing now.

You shouldn’t have to pay either your stipend or tuition out of your own pocket. The offer letters from most programs should have some guarantee for at least your first year funding and an expectation that this will continue over the course of your degree. Often this is given in terms of a research assistantship or a teaching assistantship. On a research assistantship you have to help out your advisor for usually 20 hours a week. In practice a research assistant “helping their advisor” means just getting on with their thesis research while a teaching assistant is expected to help out in classes, usually labs. It’s harder to make progress on your research when you are teaching but teaching is rewarding in its own way and great experience for your future.

Most graduate programs have a series of taught course requirements and a thesis requirement. Take the taught courses seriously but remember that these are less important than the research you generate. If you pass your courses with the minimum possible grades and do some interesting research people will remember you as a good student. The reverse is not true.

Take pride in your research. You have the privilege of finding out something that no human being has ever known before while being paid to do it. It won’t feel glorious most of the time but try to remember how special your position is.

Mar 20

“

To look at Teaching, for instance. Universities are a notable, respectable product of the modern ages. Their existence too is modified, to the very basis of it, by the existence of Books. Universities arose while there were yet no Books procurable; while a man, for a single Book, had to give an estate of land. That, in those circumstances, when a man had some knowledge to communicate, he should do it by gathering the learners round him, face to face, was a necessity for him. If you wanted to know what Abelard knew, you must go and listen to Abelard. Thousands, as many as thirty thousand, went to hear Abelard and that metaphysical theology of his. And now for any other teacher who had also something of his own to teach, there was a great convenience opened: so many thousands eager to learn were already assembled yonder; of all places the best place for him was that. For any third teacher it was better still; and grew ever the better, the more teachers there came. It only needed now that the King took notice of this new phenomenon; combined or agglomerated the various schools into one school; gave it edifices, privileges, encouragements, and named it Universitas, or School of all Sciences: the University of Paris, in its essential characters, was there. The model of all subsequent Universities; which down even to these days, for six centuries now, have gone on to found themselves. Such, I conceive, was the origin of Universities.

It is clear, however, that with this simple circumstance, facility of getting Books, the whole conditions of the business from top to bottom were changed. Once invent Printing, you metamorphosed all Universities, or superseded them! The Teacher needed not now to gather men personally round him, that he might speak to them what he knew: print it in a Book, and all learners far and wide, for a trifle, had it each at his own fireside, much more effectually to learn it!—Doubtless there is still peculiar virtue in Speech; even writers of Books may still, in some circumstances, find it convenient to speak also, — witness our present meeting here! There is, one would say, and must ever remain while man has a tongue, a distinct province for Speech as well as for Writing and Printing. In regard to all things this must remain; to Universities among others. But the limits of the two have nowhere yet been pointed out, ascertained; much less put in practice: the University which would completely take in that great new fact, of the existence of Printed Books, and stand on a clear footing for the Nineteenth Century as the Paris one did for the Thirteenth, has not yet come into existence. If we think of it, all that a University, or final highest School can do for us, is still but what the first School began doing,—teach us to read. We learn read, in various languages, in various sciences; we learn the alphabet and letters of all manner of Books. But the place where we are to get knowledge, even theoretic knowledge, is the Books themselves! It depends on what we read, after all manner of Professors have done their best for us. The true University of these days is a Collection of Books.

” Thomas Carlyle “On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History” 1841.

The relevance of Carlisle’s speech to the 21^st century university and the internet are profound. [Thanks to Penn State Librarian Helen Smith for finding the source of this quotation for me.]