Cooking For Engineers

CookNewb · Guest

Has anyone eaten food treated with this process yet?

Link of process: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg15420774.300

ERdept · Joined: 24 Apr 2008 Posts: 39 Location: LA

No, not yet. Still eating foods processed traditionally, such as cooking.

Thor · Joined: 24 Jul 2006 Posts: 112 Location: Camp Hill, PA

I have not been aware of eating any unprepared food item that had been pressure treated for my good health. I have eaten numerous foodstuffs that had been treated by the aforementioned “cooking” process.

But the treatment raises the interesting topic of food safety in the mass marketplace for fresh produce, meats and the like. With the current tomato debacle, and the relatively recent spinach scare, I’d think we can expect to hear about more alternative treatment methods. For instance, the FDA is apparently already considering safety implications of treating stuff with short bursts of low level radiation. Check it out:

http://www.fda.gov/opacom/catalog/irradbro.html

Jono · Guest

Dilbert · Joined: 19 Oct 2007 Posts: 1307 Location: central PA

.....just splits some of the DNA etc.
.... damaged DNA, why is this not GM?

uhmmm okay. scanned the reference article.
the three letter combination of "DNA" is not present.

so to _what_ "DNA" do you refer?

.......why is this not GM?
GM = "genetically modified" ?

genetically damaged, ok
genetically destroyed, ok

generically modified implies not only changing the genetic code, but in a way that it survives.

if I reduce a cucumber to ash, would that not be, in fact, "genetically modified?"

and is ashed cucumber "dangerous?"

Jono · Guest

Dilbert · Joined: 19 Oct 2007 Posts: 1307 Location: central PA

oops. missed that!

I agree we probably don't know as much about how all that there 'gene stuff' works as we should, before we start playing around with it . . .

are these acids not also broken down by heat? i.e. cooking?

Thor · Joined: 24 Jul 2006 Posts: 112 Location: Camp Hill, PA

I'm used to seeing GM as genetically modified, such as crops that have been screwed around with to be drought or pest resistant, or to provide larger yields. Jono's GM seems to be more like genetic mutation, like the two headed cow living next to Three Mile Island, or the Toxic Avenger.

Still the concern is a valid one. By achieving the obvious advantage of treating foods for bad juju, is there a byproduct produced that poses an unseen, more serious health risk? Not all meats and produce end up over a heat source. Currently, evil is being spread by tomatos, a fruit that is acceptable raw in some circles. It hasn't been that long since spinach was also gastronomically offensive. I happen to scrub my tomatos, but am totally unwilling to wipe down a few hundred spinach leaves for a salad. So I can see the potential of these sorts of treatments for fresh foods. The question I can't answer is whether it's worth it.

CookNewb · Guest

Just to update people on the subject: I saw a show a while back that featured guacamole being "pasteurized" using a process identical to the one in the article. The process was called "Freshrization" (or something equally tacky).