Food Co-ops Toolkit

More and more communities are setting up food co-ops so they can get good food atan affordable price and have more control over where their food comes from. Co-operation is all about two or more people joining forces and working together to achieve something they probably couldn't do on their own. In the case of food co-ops a group of people join forces in order to be able to buy foodsthey may otherwise find it hard to get hold of at aprice they can afford.By volunteering their time and pooling their buying power they cangetproducedirect from local farmers or wholesalers. This toolkit was produced as part of the Big Lottery fundedMaking Local Food Work programmeto help morecommunitiesset up their own food co-ops and buying groups.The Food Co-ops project has now ended but the toolkit and other resources will all remain on-line.To find moreabout food co-opsyou can visit our main website www.foodcoops.org

Stop, Look and Cook: recipe book for schools in Northern Ireland

Nutrition is central to health and children's diets can be an important influence now and in the future. Stop, Look and Cook is a new recipe book for use by catering staff in all grant-aided nursery, primary and post-primary schools in Northern Ireland.�Recipes have been collected from school caterers across the region. These recipes have been checked to ensure that they are compliant with nutritional standards for school lunches and have been tested in schools for taste and suitability. In addition all the recipes have been analysed by the PHA using a nutritional software package, with a particular focus on fat, salt and sugar.�This recipe book provides approximately 280 recipes, giving schools more choice for menus. It also contains useful advice for dealing with food allergies and supplying alternative meals for pupils from other cultures.For more information on Stop, Look and Cook please contact the school meals catering manager at your local Education and Library Board.�

Preventing food poisoning in hospital and at home

Information for patients and visitors on preventing food poisoning.

School food: top marks - A summary report on food in schools research in Northern Ireland

This�report highlights�the barriers that schools in Northern Ireland have experienced in implementingnutritional standards. In particular, it identifies the potential adverse impact that external sourcesof food may have on pupils��' healthy eating practices within the school setting. It also illustrateshow the accessibility of food and drinks contradicting the standards, within the school, may limitthe success of the standards. This report further emphasises how practical constraints within the

Nutritional standards for other food and drinks in schools: a guide for implementation

This publication details the nutritional standards for other food and drinks in schools that are adhered to by all grant-aided schools. It explains why the nutritional standards have been introduced�and offers practical advice on how to implement them.Nutritional standards for other food and drinks in schools: a guide for implementation is also available in Irish, on request.

Guidance on food for religious faiths

This poster provides guidance for schools on foods for religious faiths.

School food: the essential guide (and Irish translation)

School food: the essential guide contains a series of eight practical guidance booklets designed to help schools improve pupils' nutrition and implement healthier eating and drinking practices. The booklets provide advice and support for the key areas in which food, drinks and nutrition issues affects schools. Mini case studies support the advice given and, where appropriate, the booklets provide details of recommended further resources.Individual booklets in the series are available as PDF files below:

Eat well plate

This poster shows graphically how much of each of the following food groups we should eat for a healthy, balanced diet: fruit and vegetables; bread, rice, potatoes, pasta and other starchy foods; milk and dairy foods; meat, fish, eggs, beans and other non-dairy sources of protein; and foods and drinks high in fat and/or sugar.��

Unusual astrocyte reactivity caused by the food mycotoxin ochratoxin A in aggregating rat brain cell cultures.

Ochratoxin A (OTA), a mycotoxin and widespread food contaminant, is known for its patent nephrotoxicity and potential neurotoxicity. Previous observations in vitro showed that in the CNS, glial cells were particularly sensitive to OTA. In the search for the molecular mechanisms underlying OTA neurotoxicity, we investigated the relationship between OTA toxicity and glial reactivity, in serum-free aggregating brain cell cultures. Using quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction to analyze changes in gene expression, we found that in astrocytes, non cytotoxic concentrations of OTA down-regulated glial fibrillary acidic protein, while it up-regulated vimentin and the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma expression. OTA also up-regulated the inducible nitric oxide synthase and the heme oxygenase-1. These OTA-induced alterations in gene expression were more pronounced in cultures at an advanced stage of maturation. The natural peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma ligand, 15-deoxy-delta(12,14) prostaglandin J2, and the cyclic AMP analog, bromo cyclic AMP, significantly attenuated the strong induction of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma and inducible nitric oxide synthase, while they partially reversed the inhibitory effect of OTA on glial fibrillary acidic protein. The present results show that OTA affects the cytoskeletal integrity of astrocytes as well as the expression of genes pertaining to the brain inflammatory response system, and suggest that a relationship exists between the inflammatory events and the cytoskeletal changes induced by OTA. Furthermore, these results suggest that, by inducing an atypical glial reactivity, OTA may severely affect the neuroprotective capacity of glial cells.

Building Capacity in Developing Countries : OER for Food Safety

The Food Safety Knowledge Network (FSKN) was developed through the collaboration of Michigan State University and a professional network of international food industry retailers and manufacturers. The key objective of the FSKN project is to provide technical resources, in a cost effective way, in order to promote food safety in developing countries and for small and less developed companies. FSKN uses a competency based model including a framework, OERs, and assessments. These tools are being used to support face-to-face training, fully online training, and to gauge the learning outcomes of a series of pilot groups which were held in India, Egypt, and China.

Parental occupational exposure to organic solvents and anencephaly in Mexico

Objective: To assess the relationship between parental occupational exposure to organic solvents, and the risk of anencephaly in Mexico. Methods: A case-control study was conducted based on the registers of the Epidemiological Surveillance System for Neural Tube Defects in Mexico; 151 cases of anencephaly of ≥20 weeks’ gestation were included. A control, born alive and without any apparent congenital malformations at birth, was selected for each case in the same maternity service in which the case was born. Information on occupational exposures, lifestyle habits, reproductive history, use of medicines, supplementation with multivitamins and folic acid, was obtained by a general questionnaire; a food frequency questionnaire was also applied to obtain information of daily intake of folate and other B vitamins. Occupational exposure to organic solvents was based on job title as a proxy for exposure and analysed considering two critical periods around conception. Results: In logistic regression analysis, the odds of having a child with anencephaly was higher if the mother or the father was occupationally exposed to organic solvents during the periconceptional period, or when both parents or at least one of them were occupationally exposed during this period with an adjusted odds ratio of 2.97 (95% CI 1.36 to 6.52). Conclusions: The results support the hypothesis that both maternal and paternal occupational exposure to organic solvents can increase the probability of having a child with anencephaly.

Bulky DNA adducts, 4-aminobiphenyl-haemoglobin adducts and diet in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) prospective study

In contrast to some extensively examined food mutagens, for example, aflatoxins, N-nitrosamines and heterocyclic amines, some other food contaminants, in particular polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and other aromatic compounds, have received less attention. Therefore, exploring the relationships between dietary habits and the levels of biomarkers related to exposure to aromatic compounds is highly relevant. We have investigated in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort the association between dietary items (food groups and nutrients) and aromatic DNA adducts and 4-aminobiphenyl-Hb adducts. Both types of adducts are biomarkers of carcinogen exposure and possibly of cancer risk, and were measured, respectively, in leucocytes and erythrocytes of 1086 (DNA adducts) and 190 (Hb adducts) non-smokers. An inverse, statistically significant, association has been found between DNA adduct levels and dietary fibre intake (P = 0·02), vitamin E (P = 0·04) and alcohol (P = 0·03) but not with other nutrients or food groups. Also, an inverse association between fibre and fruit intake, and BMI and 4-aminobiphenyl-Hb adducts (P = 0·03, 0·04, and 0·03 respectively) was observed. After multivariate regression analysis these inverse correlations remained statistically significant, except for the correlation adducts v. fruit intake. The present study suggests that fibre intake in the usual range can modify the level of DNA or Hb aromatic adducts, but such role seems to be quantitatively modest. Fibres could reduce the formation of DNA adducts in different manners, by diluting potential food mutagens and carcinogens in the gastrointestinal tract, by speeding their transit through the colon and by binding carcinogenic substances.

Validation and reproducibility of a semi-quantitative Food Frequency Questionnaire for use in elderly Swiss women.

OBJECTIVE: The principal aim of this study was to develop a Swiss Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) for the elderly population for use in a study to investigate the influence of nutritional factors on bone health. The secondary aim was to assess its validity and both short-term and long-term reproducibility. DESIGN: A 4-day weighed record (4 d WR) was applied to 51 randomly selected women of a mean age of 80.3 years. Subsequently, a detailed FFQ was developed, cross-validated against a further 44 4-d WR, and the short- (1 month, n = 15) and long-term (12 months, n = 14) reproducibility examined. SETTING: French speaking part of Switzerland. SUBJECTS: The subjects were randomly selected women recruited from the Swiss Evaluation of the Methods of Measurement of Osteoporotic Fracture cohort study. RESULTS: Mean energy intakes by 4-d WR and FFQ showed no significant difference [1564.9 kcal (SD 351.1); 1641.3 kcal (SD 523.2) respectively]. Mean crude nutrient intakes were also similar (with nonsignifcant P-values examining the differences in intake) and ranged from 0.13 (potassium) to 0.48 (magnesium). Similar results were found in the reproducibility studies. CONCLUSION: These findings provide evidence that this FFQ adequately estimates nutrient intakes and can be used to rank individuals within distributions of intake in specific populations.

The involvement of thaumatin-like proteins in plant food cross-reactivity: a multicenter study using a specific protein microarray

Cross-reactivity of plant foods is an important phenomenon in allergy, with geographical variations with respect to the number and prevalence of the allergens involved in this process, whose complexity requires detailed studies. We have addressed the role of thaumatin-like proteins (TLPs) in cross-reactivity between fruit and pollen allergies. A representative panel of 16 purified TLPs was printed onto an allergen microarray. The proteins selected belonged to the sources most frequently associated with peach allergy in representative regions of Spain. Sera from two groups of well characterized patients, one with allergy to Rosaceae fruit (FAG) and another against pollens but tolerant to food-plant allergens (PAG), were obtained from seven geographical areas with different environmental pollen profiles. Cross-reactivity between members of this family was demonstrated by inhibition assays. Only 6 out of 16 purified TLPs showed noticeable allergenic activity in the studied populations. Pru p 2.0201, the peach TLP (41%), chestnut TLP (24%) and plane pollen TLP (22%) proved to be allergens of probable relevance to fruit allergy, being mainly associated with pollen sensitization, and strongly linked to specific geographical areas such as Barcelona, Bilbao, the Canary Islands and Madrid. The patients exhibited >50% positive response to Pru p 2.0201 and to chestnut TLP in these specific areas. Therefore, their recognition patterns were associated with the geographical area, suggesting a role for pollen in the sensitization of these allergens. Finally, the co-sensitizations of patients considering pairs of TLP allergens were analyzed by using the co-sensitization graph associated with an allergen microarray immunoassay. Our data indicate that TLPs are significant allergens in plant food allergy and should be considered when diagnosing and treating pollen-food allergy.

Natural abundance of stable isotopes (15N and 13C) and isotopic fractionation of sea bream muscle as markers of food and culture conditions and its relationship with metabolic and proteomic analyses

Els isòtops estables com a traçadors de la cadena alimentària, s'han utilitzat per caracteritzar la relació entre els consumidors i els seus aliments, ja que el fraccionament isotòpic implica una discriminació en contra de certs isòtops. Però les anàlisis d'isòtops estables (SIA), també es poden dur a terme en peixos cultivats amb dietes artificials, com la orada (Sparus aurata), la especie más cultivada en el Mediterráneo. Canvis en l'abundància natural d'isòtops estables (13C i 15N) en els teixits i les seves reserves poden reflectir els canvis en l'ús i reciclatge dels nutrients ja que els enzims catabòlics implicats en els processos de descarboxilació i desaminació mostren una preferència pels isòtops més lleugers. Per tant, aquestes anàlisis ens poden proporcionar informació útil sobre l'estat nutricional i metabòlic dels peixos. L'objectiu d'aquest projecte va ser determinar la capacitat dels isòtops estables per ser utilitzats com a marcadors potencials de la capacitat de creixement i condicions de cria de l'orada. En aquest sentit, les anàlisis d'isòtops estables s'han combinat amb altres metabòlics (activitats citocrom-c-oxidasa, COX, i citrat sintasa, CS) i els paràmetres de creixement (ARN/ADN). El conjunt de resultats obtinguts en els diferents estudis realitzats en aquest projecte demostra que el SIA, en combinació amb altres paràmetres metabòlics, pot servir com una eina eficaç per discriminar els peixos amb millor potencial de creixement, així com a marcador sensible de l'estat nutricional i d'engreix. D'altra banda, la combinació de l'anàlisi d'isòtops estables amb les eines emergents, com ara tècniques de proteòmica (2D-PAGE), ens proporciona nous coneixements sobre els canvis metabòlics que ocorren en els músculs dels peixos durant l‟increment del creixement muscular induït per l'exercici.