Researchers Develop New Fat Substitute New Legislation Proposed to Enhance Food Safety            This is the html version of the file https://www.southwestmeat.org/sma/Dec0103.PDF.G o o g l e automatically generates html versions of documents as we crawl the web.To link to or bookmark this page, use the following url: https://www.google.com/search?q=cache:Pk1qc6gxehQJ:www.southwestmeat.org/sma/Dec0103.PDF+%22Z-Trim%22+Fiber&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 Google is not affiliated with the authors of this page nor responsible for its content.      These search terms have been highlighted:  z  trim  fiber   .goohl0 { COLOR: black; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff66 } .goohl1 { COLOR: black; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #a0ffff }     Page 1 December 1, 2003 Email: [email protected] Volume 16, Issue 9 Internet website: https://www.southwestmeat.org Edited by Phyllis Zimmerman S O U T H W E S T M E A T A S S O C I A T I O N 4103 SOUTH TEXAS AVENUE, SUITE 101  •  BRYAN, TX 77802  • (979) 846-9011  •  FAX (979) 846-8198 Researchers Develop New Fat Substitute New Legislation Proposed to Enhance Food Safety U.S. Representative Diana DeGette (D-CO) introduced two proposals to improve the safety of the nation’s food supply and strengthen the ability of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to recall tainted meat and food products. The Meat Traceability Act (HR 3547), sponsored by Representative DeGette and Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY), directs the Agriculture Secretary to develop a system to trace meat products, from their animal sources to the consumer, and to help consumers and retailers identify and remove recalled products from refrigerators and store shelves. The proposal directly addresses a major concern raised by the recent USDA Office of Inspector General (OIG) report into last year’s meat recall at the Greeley, Colorado ConAgra plant. That report was extremely critical of the Food Safety Inspection Service’s inability to trace ground beef from manufacturing to point of sale. The SAFER Food Act (HR 3546), sponsored by DeGette and Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), is just the latest attempt to grant USDA mandatory recall authority. The sponsors claim it would place public safety ahead of business interests by giving the USDA and FDA the ability to recall suspected tainted food products. It would also authorize USDA and FDA officials to gain access to distribution records and give both agencies the authority to impose civil penalties for the violation of food safety laws. “As the Inspector General’s report found, the ConAgra recall exposed some serious, but repairable, problems in our food safety and inspection system. We must take this opportunity to protect the American public by closing these gaps in the safety of our food supply before an even more serious incident occurs,” said DeGette. “These two proposals will significantly strengthen the ability of our food safety agencies to prevent tainted food from reaching the public and to make sure any tainted food that has gotten onto our shelves and freezers can be easily identified and removed.” A new no-calorie fat substitute is being tested in several food laboratories, and the product’s maker hopes it could eventually be used to slash calories in everything from cookies to burgers. Z-Trim, an insoluble fiber that goes through the body without being digested, was invented by George Inglett, a scientist at a USDA research center in Peoria, Illinois. It’s intended to replace some of the fat, including unhealthy trans fat, found in processed foods, such as cream cheese, salad dressings, cookies, crackers, mayonnaise and hamburgers. Several companies have gotten samples of Z-Trim and are experimenting with it in their products, according to Greg Halpern, head of Fiber Gel Technologies Inc., which is marketing the substance. Fiber Gel has plans to introduce a product that could be used for baking. The USDA receives royalties on Z-Trim because it owns the patent. Inglett said that the product can also add needed fiber to Americans’ diets and aid in digestion if it is eaten in normal quantities. Z-Trim is made by extracting insoluble fiber from corn bran, an agricultural byproduct, then washing away plant pigments and other impurities. It can be sold to food companies in gel or powder form. Inglett said that the difference between other fat replacements already on the market and Z-Trim is that the latter has no calories. “There are already many products out there that replace fat, including gums and modified starches that contain soluble fiber, but there is always room for something new,” said Lyn Nabors of the Calorie Control Council, an association representing the low-calorie and reduced-fat food and beverage industry. “With the obesity epidemic, companies are interested in reducing the calories,” Nabors says. The key will be figuring how out much fat can be removed before taste is affected. Nabors has tasted cookies made with Z-Trim and says they were “pretty good.” Ultimately, consumers will decide whether the substance will be a success, and that decision will be “based on the taste,” she said.  (Nanci Hellmich, USA Today)      Page 2 December 1, 2003/ InfoMeat 2 Consumer Groups Petition FDA to Ban Irradiated Ground Beef Rise in BSE Cases Alarms UK Scientists Consumer groups Public Citizen and the Center for Food Safety have petitioned the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban irradiated ground beef. Included in their petition were the results of recent lab tests conducted at their request that detected chemicals linked to cancer promotion and genetic damage in irradiated ground beef sold at a restaurant and three grocery stores. The test findings are contained in a report released last week entitled “What’s in the Beef?” This marks the first time since the FDA began regulating irradiated foods in 1958 that the agency has been petitioned to ban an irradiated food product. Legalized in 1997, irradiated ground beef is reportedly on sale at more than 5,000 grocery stores and restaurants in the United States. The federal government recently lifted its ban on serving irradiated hamburgers to schoolchildren. “If you’re going to permit irradiated meat on grocery store shelves and school lunch trays, you need to be certain that the product is safe - and no study has been able to adequately demonstrate that long-term health won’t be affected,” said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen’s critical mass energy and environment program. The two groups reportedly purchased and tested three types of irradiated ground beef. Samples of fresh ground beef and cooked ground beef were irradiated with an electron-beam irradiator by food technology firm SureBeam, while frozen ground beef patties were irradiated with a gamma-ray irradiator by Food Technology Service. According to the organizations, all three types of irradiated ground beef tested positive for 2-alkylcyclobutanones, or 2-ACBs, which are formed when commonly occurring fats are exposed to radiation. Both claim that these chemicals have never been detected in any non-irradiated foods. Recent experiments funded by the EU determined that 2-ACBs promoted the growth of colon tumors in rats and caused genetic damage in human cells. In addition to raw and cooked ground beef, 2-ACBs have been detected in other foods that the FDA has legalized for irradiation, including chicken, eggs and mangoes. “Consumption of an improper diet, together with food that contains 2-ACBs, which act as a tumor promoter, can increase the risk for the development of colon cancer,” said Professor William Au of the department of preventive medicine at the University of Texas. “Without a systematic investigation in the population, this serious concern has not been addressed yet.” However, this view is not shared by everyone. Advocates of irradiation claim that the process makes food safer by elminating harmful bacteria. “Dangerous substances do not appear in foods when irradiated as approved,” says a statement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Surebeam’s website. The Grocery Manufacturing Association’s director of scientific and nutrition policy, Lisa Katic, also believes that fears over irradiation are overplayed. “Acceptance of milk pasteurization was long delayed because of fear mongering and misinformation,” she said. “We should not let that happen with food irradiation.” According to a report in The Guardian, scientists in the United Kingdom are considering new checks on bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) after an unexpected rise in cases among animals supposedly free from infection. Strict rules banning the use of meat and bone meal in feed to ruminants were meant to eventually eradicate the disease, which has still unquantified consequences for human health. However, the growing number of cattle succumbing to the disease even though they were born after the August 1996 watershed for feed rules in Britain is troubling experts. It may delay any decision on whether to relax another 1996 ban on cattle meat from British animals over 30 months old being used in food. Although the youngest cattle with BSE are more than four years old it is feared there may be a hidden route of infection, meaning the disease may hang on in the national herd for years. Scientists suspect that contaminated imports brought into Britain before Europe-wide controls were introduced in January 2001 may be a factor. There is no evidence that very old feed stocks on British farms dating from the 80s or 90s have any role, but there is a growing belief that detailed investigation is needed into other possible causes, including unexplained transmission from cow to cow or long-term contamination in soil. The original cause of BSE has never been established and is unlikely to be, although the main favorites have been that sheep scrapie, a disease apparently less dangerous to humans, was transformed into a killer in cattle, or that BSE was a once rare sporadic condition in cattle that spread. Feed recycling was the principal cause for the speed at which the epidemic spiralled out of control until the early 1990s. There were 36,700 cases in 1992, compared with just over 500 so far this year. Feed rules were introduced in 1988, but the long incubation period of the disease, often four to five years or more, meant they took a long time to have an effect. In addition, the rules were not strictly enforced until months after the first cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) were recognized in early 1996. There have been 77 confirmed BSE cases in the UK where the animals were born after August 1996, 49 of them in the past 12 months, 8 in the past three weeks. Other European countries have more BSE cattle born after 1996, but their outbreaks have never come close to matching the scale of Britain’s, with well over 180,000 cases since 1986. They also conduct far more tests than Britain because there is no age limit on meat that can be used in food. A paper to be considered by the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC) indicates that feed contamination is the most “plausible” option, since trading of mammalian meat and bone meal was legal in continental Europe until the start of 2001, but because of incubation times, it could be another 3-4 years before any consequences are seen.      Page 3 December 1, 2003/ InfoMeat 3 U.S. Meat Industry Tour to IFFA Scheduled: Every three years, meat industry organizations co-sponsor an educational visit to the world’s largest meat trade fair, the IFFA, in Frankfurt, Germany. The IFFA expects approximately 900 exhibitors presenting a range of products that cover the entire meat processing chain. The IFFA fair is followed by professional tours to meat processing plants and meat equipment production facilities in Germany and Switzerland. The tour dates are May 13-23, 2004 and a deposit is required for reservations. If you would like more information, contact the SMA office for a brochure or visit the AAMP web site at www.aamp.com. Industry Groups Sponsor Animal Care, Handling Conference: The AMI Foundation’s 2004 Animal Care and Handling Conference for the Food Industry will be held February 18-19, 2004 at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center in Kansas City, Missouri. Ten groups will co-sponsor the event including the American Association of Swine Veterinarians, the Animal Agriculture Alliance, Food Marketing Institute, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, National Council of Chain Restaurants, National Grocers Association, National Milk Producers Federation, National Pork Board, National Pork Producers Council and United Egg Producers. For registration information, visit www.MeatAMI.com or contact Katie Brannan at 703-841-3621. TAMU Ranked Top by Meat & Poultry Magazine: For a third year in a row, Texas A&M University’s meat science and poultry science programs were ranked number one by Meat & Poultry Magazine. According to the article in the November issue, Texas A&M University was ranked first out of 40 schools evaluated, based on its balanced approach to research, teaching and extension in both meat and poultry science. Dr. Jeff Savell, professor and meat science section leader, attributed the programs’ success to the meat science faculty, technical outreach programs, outstanding facilities, and collaboration with the International HACCP Alliance. Dr. Alan Sams, head of the department of poultry science, said, “Our programs were already the largest of their kind, so having them recognized for their continued quality and impact makes us particularly proud.” Congress Delays Vote on COOL: Congress will not make a final decision until January about whether to delay a law that would make country-of-origin labels mandatory on meat sold in U.S. grocery stores. Country-of-origin labels will be required by law after September 30, 2004 for meat, seafood, fruits, vegetables and peanuts. There have been many objections to the rules, particularly regarding red meat labels, and Senior Republicans on the House and Senate Appropriations committees proposed a delay to the implementation of mandatory labels for meat for two years. The House is expected to vote early next month on a spending bill that would include the delay, but the Senate will not vote until January, according to Democratic Leader and COOL advocate Tom Daschle (D-SD). Briefly . . . D AN M AR C O . Innovators in Red Meat Product Safety and Distributors of: A CIDIFIED S ODIUM C HLORITE • P RESERVATIVES • I NDUSTRIAL S ANITATION P RODUCTS AND S YSTEMS • Technical, Regulatory, and Efficacy Support • Authorized distributor of near-pharmaceutical grade sodium chlorite in Texas & the U.S. • Success stories established in processing facilities as large as 4000 head per day to 50 head per day! Paul Edwards Proud Member of SMA, providing service to all 5 states Acidified Sodium Chlorite uses include: Pre- and Post-Evisceration Sprays Food Spoilage Bacteria Control Pre-Fabrication Spray D-2 Sanitizer Plant Wide Parts and Trim Spray P-1 Sanitizer Plant Wide Comminuted Parts Mist Odor Control in Kill Plants Approved Antimicrobial for RTE Meats Effective against E. coli, Salmonella, and Listeria Sales: 817- 822-5767 Fax: 817-385-0725 Web site: www.danmarco.net Email: [email protected]