|
Seal integrity 
Seal integrity is vital to ensuring that packaged food is safe. Understanding how manufacturing affects seal integrity and how this integrity can be measured are an essential part of end-product safety and quality assurance. Both seal formation and integrity measurement are being explored at CCFRA. Heat sealed products examined include trays, bags and pouches, and flow-wrapped packs, whilst both latex and latex-free cold seals have been investigated using confectionery bars. With trays, for example, it has been shown that flat, curved and reduced seals are equally effective with retortable polypropylene trays, whereas for CPET trays a flat seal was most effective. Cold seals were found not to be particularly effective with regard to permeability and ideally should not be used for products which are sensitive to moisture or oxygen, though latex based seals were more effective than latex-free cold seals. For measuring seal integrity we compared vacuum and dye based tests. We also evaluated equipment from three different suppliers. The performance of the detection method was pack-dependent, emphasising that understanding what aspect of integrity was being measured and how, is essential if meaningful results are to be obtained. The work is part of our growing portfolio of projects and services in the area of packaging and food-packaging interactions. Contact: Alan Campbell Appetite and satiety A seminar on appetite and satiety will take place at CCFRA on Thursday 1 March. Aimed at food science professionals, it will provide a briefing on the main concepts and help identify opportunities to exploit them in product development. Contact: Training Department International conference - Food Chemistry Sponsorship packages are available for companies wishing to promote themselves through the International Conference and Exhibition on Food Chemistry, to take place at CCFRA on 7 and 8 June 2007. Topics to be covered range from salt, fats, anti-oxidants and glycaemic index to contaminants, mycotoxins and allergens. Contact: Daphne Llewellyn Davies Discount - rapra publications and events CCFRA members can claim a discount of 20% on rapra publications and 10% on rapra conferences and events. Collectively these cover wide ranging information on rubber and plastics, including materials used for food packaging. A list can be found at rapra.net. To claim a discount please state you are a CCFRA member, when you place the order. Nutrition and health claims - briefings 
There are now harmonised criteria for all nutrition and health claims made on food labels and in the generic advertising and promotion of food, through the long awaited EC Regulation on Nutrition and Health Claims. This new legislation puts in place a series of general principles applicable to all claims of this type and also establishes specific conditions on the use of nutrition and/or health claims. Many companies wishing to make such claims have benefited from tailored briefings on this significant development in labelling law, from our Food Law Advisors to their product development, technical and marketing personnel. In addition to providing a confidential forum in which a company can discuss its own product-specific or commercially sensitive issues, the briefings have proved to be a particularly cost effective and flexible way of group training and have been extremely well received. Please contact us for an informal without-commitment discussion on how your company might benefit from this service. Contact: Selina Clayton FRENZ in New Zealand - www.foodfrenz.com CCFRA is the co-ordinator of a major new collaborative project between the food research communities in Europe and New Zealand. FOOD-FRENZ - Food Research in Europe and New Zealand - will develop dynamic partnerships between the research base in the two areas, strengthen the link between consumer needs and scientific and technical development, enhance the exploitation of research by industry, and facilitate transfer of knowledge and best practice across sectors and geographical boundaries. Activities will include workshops, twenty fellowships supporting study visits, a major conference and extensive information exchange to share best practice. Supporting Mongolia A new European project supporting Mongolia's agricultural sector in the sustainable development of products with geographical indications is being led by CCFRA. Covering products from vodka and meat to camel wool, the project will help establish an infrastructure for organisation, production, best practice and marketing of authentic Mongolian products along their supply chain. It is in conjunction with OriGIn (Spain), the Sustainable Development Association (UK) and Mongolia National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, under the EC Asia-Invest II Programme. Contact: Martin Hall Bakery product development 
Product innovation is essential in the highly competitive bakery sector - and an area where CCFRA's expertise is widely appreciated. From bread, biscuits, cakes and other flour confectionery to pancakes, cereal bars and extruded products, we work closely with clients to provide a tailored service to meet their specific needs, as Stella Cook of our Bakery and Cereals Processing Department explains: “Our confidential services provide support at all parts of the product development chain – from brainstorming product concepts and converting ideas to prototypes, to refining trial products and producing samples for market testing. We also advise on pilot production and scale-up for manufacturing. We have adapted chef recipes for full production, found new and profitable applications for existing plant, and reformulated products to allow new claims, improve eating quality or extend shelf-life. Often working to short deadlines and fast turnaround with considerable flexibility, our project teams of bakers and industrial technologists can work in our own bakeries or at your site. We can also call on the skills of specialists such as sensory scientists to define quality, legislation specialists to guide on labelling, food chemists to assess nutritional composition, and microbiologists to consider microbiological shelf life.” Contact: Stella Cook Feeding the armed forces CCFRA is delighted to have been awarded a new contract by the Defence Food Services Integrated Project Team (DFS IPT) on behalf of the Ministry of Defence, to provide technical services in support of their quality assurance management of food for the United Kingdom Armed Forces (UKAFF). Providing specialist advice on food, packaging and legal issues for specifications used to guide companies tendering for contracts to supply products to the Ministry, is a vital part of this work. Products are then subjected to sensory profiling, microbiological and nutritional analysis, and rigorous integrity testing of packaging. We also monitor shelf life of a diversity of bespoke ambient shelf stable foods stored in readiness for distribution across the world. This ensures that the food supplied is safe and that quality is not compromised. CCFRA is also a founder member of the Expert Panel on Armed Forces Feeding, which addresses UKAFF operational feeding methods of the future, performance related nutrition, the use of food supplements and fortification. The new contract will enable us to build on the positive working relationship we have established with MOD since 2000, when we secured our first contract. Contact: Susan Rogers Sensory workshop accredited Delegates attending CCFRA's four day Sensory Workshop have added confidence in the quality and standard of the event as it has been accredited by the Professional Food Sensory Group of the Institute of Food Science and Technology. The accreditation scheme was developed to underpin formal qualifications for sensory professionals, and CCFRA is the first organisation to gain accreditation for foundation and intermediate level courses. Contact: Lucy Brown Recent R&D reports 
CCFRA research projects are described in detail through R&D Reports that are available to members free of charge (up to three copies of each per company). The following, which are available only to members, have recently been published:
A full list of reports from 2006 and earlier years can be accessed in the Research Section of the CCFRA website at. Contact: Carol Newman Documents to your in-box Selected documents are now available to you by automated e-mail response. Simply send an e-mail to auto@campden.co.uk with the appropriate instruction in the subject line, and the document will automatically be e-mailed to you by return. For example, to obtain a list of local accommodation send an e-mail with the subject line: send hotels For a list of what is currently available via the system, use the subject line: send index Contact: Leighton Jones Membership growth More and more companies are recognising the value and benefits of membership and the ability of CCFRA to deliver award-winning services designed to meet their current and future needs cost-effectively. As a reflection of the ever growing world-wide reputation of CCFRA, over 140 new members joined the Association in 2006. They represent all sectors of the agri-food chain, ranging from small individual operations to large international companies - strengthening CCFRA's key interface role in the food chain and its position as the largest organisation of its kind in the world. CCFRA now serves 2,500 member sites. A quarter of these member companies are based outside the UK in 60 countries world-wide. Welcome to New members CCFRA is delighted to welcome the following new members who joined in December 2006:
Contact: Bertrand Emond Please notify the Membership Department of any name or address changes with respect to our mailing list. |