WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Many customers know the meals security dangers of dairy merchandise, eggs and uncooked meat. However they’re much less more likely to perceive the dangers related to dry items, together with tree nuts comparable to almonds, cashews, walnuts and pistachios, mentioned Yaohua “Betty” Feng, affiliate professor of food science at Purdue College.
“We dry meals merchandise to increase shelf life, supposing the drying course of may restrict the expansion of micro organism and mould,” Feng mentioned. “Nevertheless, the extent to which micro organism are eradicated throughout drying is determined by varied elements such because the drying methodology, temperature and length. That’s the reason dried uncooked tree nuts, like different uncooked meals, might harbor micro organism, as drying alone would not remove all micro organism.”
Within the final 10 years, authorities have linked three meals poisoning outbreaks in North America to cashew cheese-analog merchandise alone. Plant-based meals merchandise, in the meantime, are surging in reputation. Gross sales of the merchandise topped $7 billion in 2020, a rise of 27%, according to the Plant Based Foods Association.
“Extra meals entrepreneurs are offering stylish new meals merchandise to the market, and there may be elevated curiosity in plant-based dairy analogs,” Feng famous. “When you go to the grocery store now you’ll find plant-based yogurt, and other people make their very own plant-based yogurt at residence. It’s an evolving meals tradition.”
Since final September, Feng and her collaborators have revealed three research exploring points associated to tree nut security. The latest, “Food Safety Implications of Online Recipes for Preparing Soaked Nuts and Nut-Based Dairy Analogs,” made the quilt of the January-February concern of Meals Safety Tendencies. That examine was primarily based on a content material evaluation of greater than 500 recipes posted on on-line blogs and YouTube movies.
The opposite two papers have been primarily based on almost 1,000 responses to greater than 100 survey questions posed to U.S. customers who had ready nut-based dairy analogs twice throughout the earlier 12 months.
The primary, “U.S. Consumer Practices of Homemade Nut-based Dairy Analogs and Soaked Nuts,” was revealed within the September 2023 concern of the Journal of Meals Safety. This paper introduced survey knowledge about how customers dealt with tree nuts of their properties and the way they ready nut-based dairy analogs.
The second, “U.S. Consumers’ Tree Nut Food Safety Knowledge, Perceptions, and Handing Practices across Demographic Groups,” was revealed Nov. 28, 2023, in Meals. This paper introduced survey knowledge concerning the information, dangers, advantages and influences on customers’ tree nut dealing with practices.
Feng started this line of analysis as a postdoctoral scientist within the laboratory of Linda Harris, professor of cooperative extension in microbial meals security on the College of California, Davis. They’ve continued to collaborate since Feng joined the Purdue college in 2018.
“The concept for this work stemmed from a visit I took to Australia in 2015. I had seen some commercially ready almonds that had been soaked and dried,” mentioned Harris, who co-authored the primary and third papers linked above. That led her to marvel concerning the dangers of soaking the nuts. Does soaking take away the issue that stops microbial development — the dearth of water?
Feng, Harris and two colleagues first examined the meals security implications of the favored business and at-home apply of soaking and drying almonds earlier than consumption. Their evaluation of on-line blogs and recipes, published by the Journal of Food Protection in 2020, discovered a lack of expertise on secure food-handling practices together with dangerous room-temperature soaking procedures.
The brand new examine, expanded to incorporate cashew, walnut and pistachio recipes, turned up comparable points.
“Shoppers these days obtain info all types of various methods,” together with TikTok, YouTube and different social media, Feng mentioned. “What you study from these platforms might not be science-based.” She really useful that buyers search info from sources such because the Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Purdue Extension.
An outbreak related to cashew cheese in 2021 shifted their focus past simply soaking and drying nuts to ask what else individuals have been doing with the soaked nuts moreover simply consuming, or drying them after which consuming.
Pathogens, if current, can multiply as tree nuts soak throughout later preparation of a fermented cashew cheese analog, Harris mentioned. Her recent work with a UC Davis graduate pupil confirmed that including a starter tradition diminished however failed to forestall salmonella development throughout cashew fermentation.
“Some fairly easy steps considerably scale back the chance of creating these merchandise,” Harris suggested. These embrace soaking beneath refrigeration, hand-washing and dealing in a clear atmosphere with clear utensils.
It helps to know if the uncooked nuts have been handled to cut back salmonella. Some nuts labeled “uncooked” have been handled, whereas others with the identical label haven’t.
“Not all people promoting tree nuts chooses to point if the product has been handled and there’s no mandate for them to take action,” Harris mentioned.
Scientists typically search concrete, sure or no solutions. “However relating to meals, there may be tradition, historical past and desire behind food-handling decisions. It is laborious to say black and white,” Feng mentioned.
Meals scientists do know, nevertheless, that micro organism can develop with out essentially making meals style unhealthy or odor unhealthy. “Utilizing the sniff textual content or the style doesn’t work,” she mentioned.
Maeve Swinehart, who obtained her grasp’s diploma in meals science at Purdue in 2023, was the lead creator of all three publications. Hanna Louvau, a graduate pupil in meals science at UC Davis, was a co-author of the Meals Safety Tendencies paper. Nathan Anderson, a analysis agricultural engineer on the Meals and Drug Administration, was a co-author of the Journal of Meals Safety paper. All three research have been partially supported by the U.S. Division of Agriculture’s Nationwide Institute of Meals and Agriculture.
About Purdue College
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Author: Steve Koppes
Media contact: Maureen Manier, mmanier@purdue.edu
Supply: Betty Feng, yhfeng@purdue.edu; Linda Harris, ljharris@ucdavis.edu.
Agricultural Communications: 765-494-8415;
Maureen Manier, Division Head, mmanier@purdue.edu
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