Tag: <span>food processing</span>

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In the Kingdom of Ashanti, which comprised about half of modern Ghana, tradition records say that it was the queen mother who was responsible for introducing new technologies such as the iron hoe and the oil lamp. So when the newly-formed Technology Consultancy Centre (TCC) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, was in search of a logo in 1972, it chose a traditional design, printed on cloth by the Adinkra craftsmen of the village of Ntonso and called ‘ohemaa nkyinkyin’ or the queen mother doesn’t loiter about with nothing to do. The emblem does not only have a name but also a message: ‘esese me danedane me ho na meye neama pii, I must change myself and play many parts.’ Engineering, like some other professions, has traditionally been considered a male preserve, so it is pleasing to note that in Ghana, past and present, women have been accorded due credit for their involvement in technical innovation.

One activity that is traditionally associated with women is jam making, and one of Ghana’s earliest and most successful industrial entrepreneurs was a jam maker, Esther Ocloo, who had to acquire a good deal of technical knowledge in establishing her large modern food processing plant, Nkulenu Industries, at Madina near Accra. Esther Ocloo was elected the first president of the Ghana Manufacturers Association when it was founded in 1958 (as the Federation of Ghana Industries) and she was re-elected to serve a second term from 1978 to 1980. Her enormous contribution to grassroots industrialisation in Ghana was recognised by the TCC and she was awarded an honorary DSc by KNUST at its Silver Jubilee congregation for the conferment of degrees in 1976. It was to be one of the earliest of many national and international honours conferred upon her over the next quarter century.

Shortly after the death of Dr Ocloo in 2002, her niece, Dr Peggy Oti-Boateng, was appointed director of the TCC. Peggy had joined the TCC in 1982 to serve her year of National Service and she stayed on to promote women’s projects in food processing and beekeeping. After some years away, including studying for a PhD in Australia, Peggy returned to the TCC as a senior member, leading to her appointment as director in 2003. So the involvement of women, and the Nkulenu clan, in grassroots industrial development continued into the twenty first century.

Cecilia Apawu graduated from KNUST in 1989 with a degree in mining and mineral engineering. For her final year thesis, Cecilia chose to work with the TCC’s Suame Intermediate Technology Transfer Unit (ITTU) on a study of the technology of the aluminium pot casters of Suame Magazine, Ghana’s largest informal industrial areas. The work she accomplished was a good example of how the scientific method can be applied to understand and eventually upgrade an established grassroots industry. Later, after joining the GRATIS project at Tema, near Accra, Cecilia was able to repeat her study with the artisans in Ashiaman and establish a training programme at the Tema ITTU to help them improve the quality of their products.

In the early 1980s, at the Suame ITTU, no young women came forward for apprenticeships in any of the engineering workshops. This was probably because of the strong male tradition in the crafts of the Magazine. However, when the ITTU came to Tamale, and later to Tema, it found no such barriers to female recruitment and young women applied for apprenticeships in increasing numbers. The process was aided by the presence of female engineers and technicians who undoubtedly encouraged their sisters to follow them into engineering. By the turn of the century, several former female apprentices of the Tamale and Tema ITTUs were running their own small engineering workshops equipped with modern machine tools.

One of the most successful projects of the Tema ITTU was the introduction of the locally-manufactured metal-spinning lathe. This development was prompted by the availability of aluminium sheets produced in Tema by Aluworks Ltd. Using lathes made in Tema by Kofi Asiamah’s Redeemer workshop and others, entrepreneurs produced large quantities of domestic pots and pans that sold at competitive prices in local markets. In 5 years the industry grew to include more than a hundred producers employing an estimated 5000 workers. Many of the pioneering entrepreneurs were women who had formerly sold imported products of a similar nature. It may be centuries since the queen mother of Ashanti saw the advantages of the oil lamp but women in Ghana today are still quick to spot opportunities to benefit from new industrial developments.

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Source by John Powell

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The simple test sieve is the most basic and cost-effective type of particle-size analyzer on the market. For this reason, it is an important weapon in the battle to maintain rigorous Quality Control standards. Due to its simple, yet highly effective design, this type of particle-size analyzer plays an important role in many production facilities, including those found in the pharmaceutical, food processing, cosmetic, agricultural and chemical processing industries.

In general, a particle-size analyzer is used to determine the overall composition of dry, granular materials (e.g., cosmetic face powder or whole wheat flour). In addition, fluids containing solid particles held in suspension, such as chemical slurries and household paint, can also be evaluated in this manner. Regardless of the material being tested, a particle-size analyzer is used to determine the size, shape and distribution of particles present within any given sample of that material.

When compared to other particle-size testing options, sieve testing offers a number of distinct advantages. However, this method does present a few drawbacks, as well.

Advantages of Using Test Sieves for Particle Size Analysis

* Inexpensive. Thanks to their straightforward and uncomplicated design, test sieves are much less costly than more sophisticated, computerized models. This makes them the ideal solution for many manufacturers who need to keep an eye on quality, without needing to invest in a higher-end particle-size analyzer.

* Produce Consistent and Reliable Results. In spite of their simple design, test sieves are able to produce repeatable results regardless of when or where each test is performed. This is of great value to Quality Control managers who depend upon the accuracy of these tests to maintain the integrity of the production process.

* Readily Available. Thanks again to their simple design, test sieves are easy to obtain. This makes them very easy to replace when necessary, with no lost production time due to difficult-to-find parts.

Disadvantages Associated with Employing Test Sieves

* Dependent on Consistent Energy Input. In order to conduct a sieve test, the test sample must be “shaken” in order to separate out the smaller particles from the larger ones. As a result, the only way to produce consistent, repeatable results using this method is to apply the same degree of “shaking” (energy) across all testing scenarios. Mechanical sieve shakers are available to help alleviate this concern. However, there are currently no industry-wide standards governing the calibration of these units. Therefore, in-house calibration standards need to be developed and maintained by the facilities employing them.

* Static Electricity. Static electricity can cause fine particles to adhere to the wire mesh of the test sieve. This, in turn, can skew results and lead to incorrect analysis data. Fortunately, the addition of talc, activated charcoal, activated magnesium or burgess clay can greatly reduce the impact of static electricity on the final testing results.

Clearly, there are a number of pros and cons associated with using a simple test sieve for particle size analysis. However, many Quality Control professionals have come to rely upon them in order to maintain production standards in a wide range of environments.

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Source by Salli Berman

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As every business sector is affected by present global crisis and everybody is talking of slow down in business, still in India there are few sectors which will grow in this adverse situation. Lets have a look.

1. Food

No one can survive without basic food material like milk, vegetables and drinking water. Food processing companies will not be affected much and rather will earn profits by increasing the prices. These are the basic needs which we as a common man can not produce by our self.

According to MFPI, the food processing industry in India was seeing growth even as the world was facing economic recession. According to the minister, the industry is presently growing at 14 per cent against 6-7 per cent growth in 2003-04.The Indian food market is estimated at over US$ 182 billion, and accounts for about two thirds of the total Indian retail market. Further, the retail food sector in India is likely to grow from around US$ 70 billion in 2008 to US$ 150 billion by 2025

2. Railway

As the aviation sector has been affect much badly and resulting in sharp rise in the air ticket rates the frequent travelers will prefer railways to cut the cost of traveling and this will result in increased traffic in railways and long queues at railway booking counters. The freight traffic of Indian Railways has continued to grow in the last few months, albeit at slow pace, indicating only marginal impact of the global recession on the Indian economy.

The Railways registered 13.87% growth in revenue to Rs 57,863.90 crore in the first nine months ended December 31, 2008. While total earnings from freight increased by 14.53% at Rs 39,085.22 crore during the period, passenger revenue earnings were up 11.81% at Rs 16,242.44 crore. The Railways have enhanced freight revenue by increasing its axle loading, improving customer services and adopting an innovative pricing strategy.

3. PSU Banks

As seen in the private sector much of the job cuts due to global slowdown, its the PSU sector Banks which gained much confidence due to job safety and security. More and more people are likely to turn towards government institutions, particularly banks in the quest for safety and security.

A report “Opportunities in Indian Banking Sector”, by market research company, RNCOS, forecasts that the Indian banking sector will grow at a healthy compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 23.3 per cent till 2011.

4. Education

As Education is considered as the basic necessity and in India it is seen as a long term investment by parents and with respect to the demand still there is a huge supply gap. The craze to study in foreign university among the Indian youth still alive which will prompt foreign education institute to target India provided vast young population willing to join. We will see more and more foreign educational institutions to come up in India in recent coming years.

Huge government as well as private investment is likely to flow into the Indian educational system. D E Shaw, a US$ 36 billion, global private equity firm is planning to invest around US$ 200 million in the Indian education sector.

5. Telecom

People will not stop to communicate with each other due to global crises rather it has been seen that it will increase much particularly with mobile communication. With cheap cell phones available in the Indian market and cheaper call rates, the sector has become the necessity and primary need of everyday life.

Telecom sector, according to industry estimates, year 2008 started with a subscriber base of 228 million and will likely to end with a subscriber base of 332 million – a full century ! The Telecom industry expects to add at least another 90 million subscribers in 2009 despite of recession. The Indian telecommunications industry is one of the fastest growing in the world and India is projected to become the second largest telecom market globally by 2010.

6. IT

Recent news shown that Indian IT sector will grow 30-40% next year. And on the other side to survive in current slowdown, industries have to decrease the cost and for that they will resort to customized IT solutions which will further boost up the software solution demand.

India is fast becoming a hot destination for outsourced e-publishing work. As per a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) report, the industry is growing at an annual rate of 35 per cent and India’s outsourcing opportunities in the value-added and core services such as copy editing, project management, indexing, media services and content deployment will help make the publishing BPO industry worth US$ 1.46 billion by 2010.

7. Health care

India in case of health care facilities still lakes the adequate supply. In Health care sector also there is huge gape between demand and supply at all the levels of society. Still there are so many urban areas were you could hardly find any multi specialty hospital. And in case of metros the market sentiments itself created a need of psychological consultation.

Healthcare, which is a US$ 35 billion industry in India, is expected to reach over US$ 75 billion by 2012 and US$ 150 billion by 2017. The healthcare industry is interestingly poised as it strives to emerge as a global hub due to the distinct advantages it enjoys in clinical excellence and low costs.

8. Luxury products

The high and affluent class of society will not be affected much by this global crises even if their worth is reduced significantly. They will not change their life style and will not stop spending on luxurious goods. So luxurious product market will not be affected and in fact to maintain the lifestyle those affluent will spend more for it. Luxury car makers are pouring in to woo the nouveau riche (Audi, BMW are the most recent entrants).

According to recent research on luxury trends, the number of families with annual incomes of more than $230,000 will have more than doubled from 20,000 in 2002 to 53,000 by the end of 2005 and will grow to 140,000 by 2010.

9. M&A & Marketing Consultants

As in the current business slow down survival will be the main focus, the marketing and management consultants will be called for to reduce the costs and to show the ways to survive and stay in market. Others may join hands to fight with this situation together will call for the Marketing & M&A consultants. In a booming market there are growth strategies and M&A opportunities to advise on. When businesses are cutting back, consultancies will be right there to help clients decide where to wield the axe.

According to Ministry of Commerce and Industry’s estimation, the current size of consulting industry in India is about Rs.10000/- crores including exports and is expected to grow further at a CAGR of aprox. 25% in next few years

10. Media and Entertainment

In current bad times, where people are losing jobs and getting enough time to watch TV, they will seek entertainment at home and hence advertising revenues will increase for the commercial channels. Also businesses like production of religious texts and religious materials, religious channels will do well. The TRP of religious channels will increase compare to the other entertaining/commercial channels.

According to a report published by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the Indian M&E industry is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18 per cent to reach US$ 23.81 billion by 2012. According to the PWC report, the television industry was worth US$ 5. 48 billion in 2007, recording a growth of 18 per cent over 2006. It is further likely to grow by 22 per cent over the next five years and be worth US$ 12. 34 billion by 2012.

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Source by Azaz Motiwala

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Silicone hoses are used in a host of applications ranging from automotive, food processing, medical, industrial etc. The versatility of silicone rubber makes it suitable for use in numerous places. Hoses are commonly used in intake systems, air coolers, etc. They are available in a number of diameters from large to small and can be ordered in many cuts and bents.

An order of silicone hoses does not take too long to manufacture since the manufacturing process has been customized by their manufacturers. The manufacturing process requires the right skills, tools, materials and the proper time. Here is a detailed look at the manufacturing process of silicone hoses:

Stage 1: Making a Mandrel Tool

A mandrel tool is a shaping tool that is made of metal and is hollow. It is used to bend silicone rubber in the shape and diameter of the desired silicone hose. It is commonly used in many other applications like blowing glass.

The first stage is to make mandrel tool(s) in the shape of the silicone hose(s). This is done by manipulating steel in the desired shape of the hose. These tools are usually stored by manufacturers in thousands of shapes and sizes. The dimensions are available on their website or product catalogue.

Stage 2: Choosing the Raw Materials

The raw materials are chosen specifically for making silicone hoses. These include silicone rubber, color pigments and reinforcement fabrics. Hoses are multi-layered and reinforcement fabrics are used to give them strength.

Stage 3: Milling & Calendering

The silicone rubber compound and the color pigments are mixed together in a mill. This process is called ‘milling’. It takes around half an hour in the mill to produce a color pigmented silicone rubber compound.

The colored silicone rubber compound is placed into a calendaring machine. The machine presses the compound between rollers to make it into thin sheets. The calendaring machine then presses the flattened compound on to the reinforcement fabric. Now the material is ready to hand build the hoses.

Stage 4: Cutting & Rolling

The thin sheets are cut and piled to roll. The builders roll the thin sheets in tubes. It is necessary to maintain the correct thickness of the tubes. A finished tube needs to have the correct number of reinforcement plies. Now these tubes are ready to be used for building hoses.

The silicone tubes are carefully pushed on the mandrel tools to give the desired shape. Any air bubbles or joints are smoothed out. Silicone hoses that have extra joints or bends need extra care to push the tubes into shape.

Stage 5: Oven Curing, Cooling & Stripping

The silicone hoses are then cured in the oven and then cooled down. This gives them the desired shape. To remove them, they are stripped from the mold in one swift motion and put in the wash hose for cleaning. The hoses are then sent for trimming and inspection.

Stage 6: Trimming & Inspection

Before trimming the hose is marked where the edge has to be cut. The edges are then cut using a machine for fine edges. After trimming the silicone hoses are sent for quality inspection. Once they are approved they are ready for shipping to the client.

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Source by Martin Baron

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It is well known that in Ghana many of the most successful entrepreneurs and wealthiest people are women. They are famous for dominating certain sectors of the economy, owning hundreds of taxis, tipper trucks and fishing boats. On a smaller scale, women are widely involved in trading, food processing and some craft industries. From the time that the Technology Consultancy Centre (TCC) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, opened on 11 January 1972, many of the people calling for help to upgrade their enterprises were women. Yet in the vast informal industrial area, Suame Magazine, Kumasi, with its thousands of workshops and tens of thousands of master craftsmen and apprentices, there was not a single woman engaged in any engineering activity, and it was not until the 1990s that a serious effort was made to change the situation.

In the early days of the TCC some of the most successful businesses assisted by university consultants were owned and run by women. Mrs Clara Appiah successfully produced Afro-wigs from sisal hemp fibre from 1972 until her untimely death in 1974. Madam Offeh played a leading role in her husband’s animal feed business, established as they often remarked during the United Nations International Women’s Year (1975), and Vera Gambrah ran a thriving soap making business until the small scale industry was obliterated by IMF dictates in 1985. Encouraged by these early successes, many more women came forward with small industry projects to take advantage of new technologies becoming available through the TCC in textiles and food processing. After the introduction of modern beekeeping in the early 1980s many women became involved in establishing small apiaries. From its founding in 1975, this initiative to involve more women in small scale enterprise was greatly encouraged and supported by the National Council of Women and Development (NCWD), but throughout the 1970s and 1980s only one woman came forward to the TCC in Kumasi with an interest in starting an engineering enterprise, and she was not from Suame Magazine but from Tema.

Tema is about 300 kilometres from Kumasi on the south coast, east of Accra. Originally a small fishing village, Tema was developed by the government of Kwame Nkrumah (1957 – 1966) into a modern harbour handling most of Ghana’s imports. This development attracted many industries, large and small. In this more progressive environment, Georgina Degbor had trained as a centre lathe turner. She came to the TCC in Kumasi in 1986 with a request to be allocated one of the used Colchester Triumph centre lathes expected to arrive before the end of the year. Georgina’s skills were assessed at the Suame Intermediate Technology Transfer Unit (ITTU) and the decision was taken to help her start her own small engineering enterprise. However, as Georgina lived in Tema, the matter was passed to the Tema ITTU when the GRATIS Project started there in February 1987. She installed her machine in workshop space hired from the ITTU and became a role model demonstrating to other young women that engineering craft skills were no longer a male preserve. With another trained female technician, Elizabeth Asiamah, on the ITTU staff, it was not long before the Tema ITTU was attracting girls as well as boys onto its apprenticeship programme.

In 1987, the GRATIS Project took over the Tamale ITTU from the TCC. It surprised many seasoned engineering instructors that in this remote northern outpost, with its essentially rural setting, girls came forward to apply for technical apprenticeships on an equal scale to Tema. The first generation of apprentices in Tema and Tamale served their time, and most of them went on to establish their own workshops, either as sole proprietorships or with two or three artisans in partnership. The progress of women in engineering was steady but slow, so in the mid-1990s the TCC joined with Intermediate Technology Ghana (ITGhana), a Tema-based NGO, to mount a ‘Women in Engineering’ project supported by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Young women who had graduated from the ITTU apprenticeship programme were recruited to carry out a nationwide survey of engineering enterprises and technical schools to identify the women who were already qualified or under training in an engineering craft. At the same time workshop owners and master craftsmen were encouraged to recruit apprentices of both genders and generally to participate in the Women in Engineering project. The project culminated in a national forum, held in the British Council Hall in Accra, attended by government officials, technical instructors, workshop owners and most of the female technicians and apprentices identified by the survey. A central feature of the forum was the presentation of the life stories of some of the pioneering women workshop owners. The event was regarded as a major success; it was well reported in the media, alerted government to the challenge and the opportunity and changed the attitude of many male workshop owners. The engineering industry in Ghana may not have become an equal opportunity employer overnight but a significant step had been taken in that direction.

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Source by John Powell

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HUOSHIMACHINERY is Electromagnetic Heating Field Leader Since 1984. You can find high quality Automatic Cooking Machine, Commercial Kitchen Equipment, Meat Stewing Machine, Puffed Rice Roaster, Induction Roaster, Induction Puff Rice Machine here.

Huo’s machinery began in 1984 and is devoted to the development and manufacture of large-scale industrial heating equipment. Over the years, in the food and the central kitchen, nut wugu, the sauce production and manufacture, the pharmaceutical field, no boiler sterilization equipment, chemical/ore/metallurgy and other fields have achieved outstanding achievements.

The company covers an area of 40000 square meters, located in Beijing east fifth ring and the sixth ring, next to Beijing airport two high speed. After 30 years of technology accumulation, Mr Khodorkovsky machinery has rich reserves of science and technology, integration of the world’s most advanced electromagnetic heating technology, with domestic electromagnetic field of hot working many advanced technology patents.

Leading the new era of automatic numerical control heating

The technology of electromagnetism heating used by the hornwood machinery is 95% efficient (1.9 times coal burning and 1.67 times gas). Green energy saving 0 pollution emission, and the use process is safe, comfortable.

The electromagnetic numerical control heating equipment is the first in China, with the patented microcomputer precision temperature control, intelligent heating, technology embedding technology, and three technologies. Designed for high quality, standardized and continuous production requirements, it can improve production quality and greatly reduce operating costs.

Industrial-grade quality, durable and rock-solid

Huo’s machinery has always been adhering to the spirit of craftsmanship and exquisite craftsmanship. Focus on every detail of production, adhering to the rely on science and technology progress, promote the development of environmental protection concept, persistence, striving to build the concept of green automation production, continuous research and development, continuous innovation, for clients to achieve standardization of hot working, automated production lines, effectively reduce the energy loss and carbon dioxide emissions, and at the same time solve the two big problem in the production enterprise efficiency and emission reduction, and create a better social, economic and environmental benefits.

Integrating Germany, Japan, France and other frontier technologies, we have independently developed many kinds of equipment such as large stock – making machines, stir-frying machines and sauteing machines. In the food processing industry, the Chinese herbal medicine processing industry, the central kitchen intelligent area, chemical heating, grain oil processing and other industries obtained the customer’s unanimous praise.

Better quality, more protection, the wisdom of the top customers in many industries

The wisdom of many domestic and foreign industry top customers, and export more than 40 countries and regions. Our clients include: tongrentang, Kang Rentang, zhongjing group, Haitian flavor industry, sichuan wild food, its group, with medicine group, little sheep, old shipping magnate, old ghost bait, sands pharmaceutical industry in hunan, ningxia kai yuan medicine, shennong group, sanhe pharmaceutical, bozhou medica, kunming Chinese medicine, ma hua ramen, guangzhou to credit group, jinchuan group, golden tripod restaurant, golden monkey, a pharmaceutical industry, many well-known enterprises such as tongjitang (here list only part of the list).

Our services are all over China, and wherever you are, we can give you more advanced technical support (the industry is the first to propose the core components for 5 years super long warranty)!

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Source by Tony Huo

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There are a lot of good reasons for preserving foods through home canning. In fact, the list is rather long, but there are also a number of disadvantages to it as well. As many tend to focus on the benefits of canning food for use in the future, it is equally important to be aware of some of the downsides related to processing fruit and vegetables for home use.

Time Commitment

Probably the greatest disadvantage to canning at home is how long it takes. The amount of time one must invest in this can be far too great for beginners. For example, time must be spent in selecting what to process. If you have a garden, time will be needed to harvest the crop you intend to preserve. If you don’t have a garden, time will be spent shopping and collecting the produce from other sources. That’s before you begin the actual canning.

Then there’s time spent preparing the food for home canning plus the preparation of equipment required to process the food. This includes cleaning and sterilizing preserving equipment as well as cleaning, peeling and any other food preparation required prior to canning. There is also the time spent processing (canning) the food, allowing it to cool and seal and all clean up tasks. It is quite possible to spend full days in the kitchen during canning season.

Canning Equipment

When it comes to home canning, you can’t just soak jars in a sink of hot water to seal them. There is a long line of preserving supplies that have been created specifically for the processing of food. This includes everything from large canners (to boil water) and pressure canners to racks, tongs, measuring tools, pH test tools, temperature gauges and recipe books. Additional equipment required will range from jars and sealers to lids, caps, labels and more.

The foods you intend to process are also part of the supplies you will need for preserving. Depending on your recipe, this will also require pectin, sugar or pickling spices, herbs and salt. All of these items will also take up space so you will need to have an area large enough to store all the equipment you will use with easy access to those pieces you will use more frequently. The best part is that the majority of your large supplies can be used over and over with other supplies, such as jars, requiring replacement on a regular basis.

Financial Investment

It is only fitting to add to this list of disadvantages to home canning the cost of all the supplies you will need. The items listed above will take a fairly good chunk of change to pay for but, there is a silver lining buried in here. In the case of canners and many of the larger pieces of equipment, you will only have to buy them once. Other smaller items, such as pH test paper, jars, lids, caps, labels and rings will be replaced on a regular basis.

Some items in the home canning process can only be used once with others reusable a number of times before you will need to replace them. Food products you are processing, unless they come from your own garden, will also add to your cost of production. Overall, keep in mind the majority of your costs will come from your ‘start up’ phase purchasing equipment you don’t already own or have not either inherited or had given to you by a friend or family member.

Losses From Home Canning

Nutrients are defined as the components found in food that an organism requires in order to survive and grow. The canning process removes a lot of nutrients from the food being processed. This comes from the fact that in order to properly can fruit or vegetables, a cooking step is required. This cooking step brings a halt to the natural enzymatic action that is used to assist in the ripening of these food items. Left alone, the enzymes cause fruit and vegetables to over ripen and spoil.

When they are cooked, minerals, water soluble vitamins and other nutrients can be leeched out of the foods being prepared. They then end up being left behind in the boiling water that eventually gets poured down the drain. By comparison, fruits and vegetables that have been canned contain far less vitamins and minerals than they do fresh. On average, they lose up to 65-percent of these essential items when canned.

Potential Health Risk

Okay, so you’ve got the recipe(s) you like, all the home canning supplies and equipment you need, food to process and now we’re talking about health risks? Well, it is something you need to be aware of if you are preserving food for yourself, family, friends or going into the business of selling products canned at home. The risk to health comes from contamination. This can occur to any level of home canner and must be monitored.

The contamination results from the acid levels in the fruits and vegetables being canned. Remember seeing pH test strips listed earlier as canning equipment? The reason why we included that was to keep you aware of the fact that you will need to test frequently for proper pH levels. Various forms of bacteria do not survive the heating process of canning provided salt and acid levels are correct. To be sure, follow only proven recipes and study what pH levels are safe for the specific food items you are processing.

The Bottom Line

Regardless of the fact that home canning is a great way to extend or share a harvest with others, it does take a fair amount of work to complete. Add to this the cost of equipment and supplies and the potential loss of nutrients – as well as the risk of contamination – and preserving food may seem to be an intimidating venture for anyone. As stated above, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. It is only up to you whether or not you are prepared to become a home canning expert or not.

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Source by W George Elliott

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What is talc?

Talc is an unusually soft mineral which is produced by the mining of talc rocks. The rocks are then processed by crushing and milling. The bad news is that there are fibers attached to talc that are not removed by the milling and drying process. These fibers are described as “asbestos-like”. There is an on-going debate as to whether these fibers are in fact asbestos so that issue remains unsolved.

How is talc used?

Because talc is so soft and highly absorbent of moisture it has been used in thousands of applications. It is used in home and garden pesticides, body powders, medications, deodorants, chalk, crayons, textiles, soap, insulation, paints, asphalt filler, paper and in food processing. It was used as an anti-caking agent in rice and became part of controversial case in Puerto Rico a few years ago. Surprisingly, it is even found in some anti-acids!

Why is talc dangerous?

The Cancer Prevention Coalition describes talc as being “closely related to the potent carcinogen asbestos”. They go on to say that talc fibers have been shown to cause cancer in the ovaries and lungs. In fact, talc that has had all asbestos like fibers removed has been found to be carcinogenic. Talc was used as a dusting for the genital area in women for over 50 years. Consequently, the incidence of ovarian cancer in pre-menopausal women has increased and tumors regularly show evidence of talc fibers. Talc miners have shown higher rates of lung cancer and other respiratory ailments. Accidental inhalation of talc has caused the deaths of thousands of infants over the last few decades.

In 1997 Senator Edward Kennedy issued a statement to the Senate encouraging them to craft legislation asking the FDA to put cancer warning labels on all talc products. To this day, no ruling has ever been issued on this deadly mineral. It is a shame that there is so much indifference to a toxic substance when 20% of all pre-menopausal women in the U.S. still use the product as a hygienic dust and talc baby powder still sits on the shelves of drug and grocery stores. As has been shown over the last 30 years there is an unwillingness in our Federal agencies to go against the will of big business interests and fully ban talc and asbestos in thousands of products that we use every day. It is up to the consumer to protect their own health and the health of those they love.

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Source by B. Richardson

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If you are very overweight, you have a slow metabolism and a clogged colon. These two things are stopping you from being able to lose weight, and until they are fixed you will remain as you are, no matter how many weight loss pills you take, or how little food you eat.

Adding more fiber to your diet will relief constipation, reduce your appetite, improve digestion, give you more energy, remove toxins from your body. Your condition is the result of eating refined and processed food for many years.

Not all bran is the same

When I got serious about adding real fiber to my diet, I went out to buy bran because it’s one of the very best sources of dietary fiber. Knowing I had to eliminate refined sugar as well, I was very surprised to read every label of bran cereal at the supermarket and see they all contained sugar!

This is a problem because sugar will negate almost all the nutrients you’d otherwise be getting from your food. Finally I found a simple, plastic bag containing oat bran with no additives of any kind. No colors, no artificial flavors, no sugar, nothing. The price was well under $2 compared to the big food company cereals which were 2 to 3 times more.

Eating this fiber everyday has made a difference for me, and it will for you as well. This is the way nature works. Remember, science can’t improve on nature, if you want apple cinnamon oatmeal, buy plain oats with no additives and cut up some apple and sprinkle some real cinnamon on it. Get what I mean?

Years of eating processed food with tons of sugar and other harmful chemicals and additives have clogged your liver and colon so be patient when changing your dietary habits. Your metabolism and clogged colon will not get fixed after a couple of days eating oatmeal. This is a start.

Here’s a thought to chew on:

Before our modern food processing techniques using hydrogenated oils, chemicals, colorings pasteurization etc, our North American society didn’t have a disease called obesity. In fact in was rare to see really fat people.

Now 80% of Americans are overweight, we have had an increase in disease and cancer every year and it’s not going down, it’s still rising. Do you think there is a link between the food you eat and being fat?

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Source by J.M. Ferreira

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A recent British study purporting that as much as fifty percent of the world’s food goes to waste, is alarming and disconcerting to put it mildly. Why is there such a high percentage of food wastage in a world beset by famine, and what steps can we put into place to remedy this situation?

Underlying this alarming statistic is the clear disparity between the wealth of first world and third world countries. As consumers privileged to be residing in a first world country, what we so wantonly discard, would be considered a luxurious banquet for those struggling to survive in the third world nations, where they contend with disease and live on the edge of famine on a daily basis. We need to change our purchasing habits by being more selective in our food choices, to minimise waste, and be more pro-active in supporting the work of organisations that assist and contribute to famine relief.

Everyone’s attitudes towards food vary. Some people quietly meditate whilst eating, reflecting on its nutritional content and the overall health benefits it provides. On the other hand, many do not, and display an indifferent attitude towards food. We are accustomed to shopping trolleys brimming over with foodstuffs sourced from different parts of the world, much of it packaged and processed. The vast majority of these items bearing “use by” labels encouraging consumers to believe, that even heavily processed and preserved foods become unpalatable after a short time.

Citizens who have lived through previous wars and concentration camps would be aghast at such blatant food wastage. Just about everything now has a ‘use by date’ or ‘best before date’. Products which in previous times would have been acceptable well beyond their current ‘use by’ dates are now being discarded as a matter of course. We need to question whether this ‘use by date’ mentality, has in part been promoted in order to generate greater sales of products. Manufacturers realise that consumers confronted by a ‘use by’ date are more likely to discard food which is still palatable and safe to consume. We have put common sense aside and millions of years of evolution that developed in us all, the ability to recognise when food is spoilt, rotten or mouldy.

“Today, we produce about four billion metric tonnes of food per annum. Yet due to poor practices in harvesting, storage and transportation, as well as market and consumer wastage, it is estimated that 30-50% (or 1.2-2 billion tonnes) of all food produced never reaches a human stomach”.

http://www.imeche.org/knowledge/themes/environment/global-food?WT.mc_id=HP_130007

The prevailing system of food distribution and marketing controlled by very large international companies brings with it “unrealistic” competition in the market place. In the pursuit of the consumer dollar, supermarket chains will access product from around the world offering it to consumers, irrespective of seasonal availability. Such a system has an inbuilt wastage factor. Some foods are simply not fresh by the time they reach the supermarket shelf and are therefore likely to be rejected by customers. The vendor however, continues to run the line of produce even though it is less profitable, simply because its availability ensures that customers will return to their store for other lines. Less concentration in the food industry would see vendors being less prepared to carry uneconomic lines which would ensure that wastage in transportation and distribution would be minimised.

Education is the key to help reduce the massive food wastage occurring around the world. Multi nationals who relinquish non-perfect supermarket lines to the compactus should alter their mindset. Rejecting vegetables on the basis of their inability to conform to the stereotype required by supermarket chains and food processing companies is wasteful and unnecessary. Living in a first world country should not excuse us to dispose of edible food as freely so readily. People living in third world countries are grateful for all food, and do not take it for granted. We should pay greater heed to our burgeoning world population and the central role that equitable access to food plays. Population growth places increased pressure on us to use arable land and water as productively as possible, as well as exploiting natural resources sustainably to ensure their availability for future generations. Being less wasteful in our consumption of food is the other side of the same coin.

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Source by Pamela Smit