In addition to their assured consistent availability and quality, speciality starches can improve processing, produce high quality products and offer substantial savings. Fred Heinze and Himanshu Shah report.

Apoptotic cell death is mediated by a family of cysteine-aspartyl protease enzymes known as caspases. These enzymes are essential for early development and provide important control mechanisms for both normal physiological and pathological events.

In recent years, potato fibre has been much appreciated in many foodstuff applications, most of all its ability to bind water and fat. Other positive properties are simplified handling and improved structure of the foodstuff.

Depending on treatment the potato fibre can hold 10­25 times its own weight of liquid.

Pectins are water soluble hydrocolloids able to gel in a variety of food products, used extensively in the food processing and confectionery industries.

Traditionally when instant powdered or dry mix convenience food demanded cold preparation a pregelatinised starch was used.

Engevita, from DSM, is a nutritional ingredient in a wide variety of dietary supplements and vegetarian dishes, including vegetarian paté, energy bars and yeast tablets.

It is well known that distillation methods fail to obtain the flavour compounds from vanilla beans.

Developing control systems for the successful operation of a major whisky bottling plant is a pleasurable but none the less demanding task. Here Richard Sturt explains how a major whisky distillery in Scotland reaped the rewards of investing in the very latest control technology.

A new, centralised, hot water circulation system has been installed at the largest Mars confectionery plant for Western Europe. The operating speeds of system's pumps are controlled by pump-mounted, frequency control units, which have provided great benefits in the form of flexibility of use and significant energy savings. By Steve Minett and Keld Fenwick.

Frank J M van Esch looks at antibacterial protection for modular conveyor belts which help food manufacturers improve hygiene in the production environment by minimising the cross-infection risks from food poisoning bacteria.

Growing consumer interest in natural food ingredients and their tendency to label watch in an attempt to avoid synthetic products which they perceive as unsafe, has driven the use of more expensive natural food antioxidants.

The protein quantity in flour is very important. This is the reason that tests like Consistograph and Alveograph exist.

The feature that characterises major manufacturers of food equipment is the range of options available to bolt onto a basic platform. Driven by the increasing fickleness of today's customer, and increasingly competitive markets, most food products have to be continually refined to retain consumer loyalty. Eric Russell reports.

With Scandinavian bread recipes dating back to the age of the Vikings, perhaps to the dawn of Scandinavian history, Sweden's Polarbageriet ­ the Polar Bakery ­ has found a new approach to passing these traditions on to a new generation of consumers: using the very latest freezer technology.

Real-time process control for food manufacture has come a significant step closer, thanks to pioneering research work at University College Dublin into viscosity measurement techniques for characterising the flow and mixability of highly non-Newtonian fluids. At the heart of the researchers' experiments is the Torqsense transducer made by Sensor Technology, which monitors the constantly changing flow characteristics of materials as diverse as tomato ketchup, chocolate, pasta sauce and chicken tikka massala.

Flavour ingredients specialist, Treatt plc, has developed Treattazine, a new natural specialty rich in bell pepper character. This product offers flavourists fresh opportunities for creativity in many savoury applications.

Lock Inspection Systems' 3f triple frequency detector is the latest in several hi-tech features introduced by Lock to heighten the performance of the MET 30+ detector. A second feature, the touchscreen, allows diagnostic software data to be viewed from the detector, so the user can identify problem areas and adjust settings to enhance sensitivity at the touch of a button.

Seasoning manufacturer RAPS GmbH & Co KG has developed two new additives: Meat Improver and Optimal.

Dr Cameon Ivarsson outlines technical and scientific skills necessary to deal effectively with the problems of microbiological contamination of foods.

Sensor array instrumentation is well known using the term aelectronic noses' for a couple of years. The basic idea is simple: using a combination of sensors a gas mixture is analysed and classified. The special attractiveness of the technology is the ability to quickly classify a sample without having a time consuming and expensive lab procedure. Data analysis and classification (agood' or abad') takes place instantly.