Book reviews

Gums and stabilisers for the food industry 9PA Williams and GO PhillipsRoyal Society of Chemistry special publication 218Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, 1998pp 438, price £79.50ISBN 0-85404-708-5

This book is the latest in a series of biannual publica-

tions and describes the proceedings of the 9th Gums

and Stabilisers for the Food Industry meeting held at

Wrexham in July 1997. It consists of a collection of

papers based on the oral presentations given at the

meeting. I have a special affection for the Wrexham

meetings and the published proceedings. My interest

in food science began when I joined the Institute of

Food Research in 1979, and the Wrexham meeting in

1981 was my ®rst food science meeting. I have

contributed to all the subsequent meetings, and the

proceedings provide a record of the interest, devel-

opments and changes in this ®eld. The present

conference was divided into sessions dealing with

structural and functional properties of polysacchar-

ides, protein systems, functional interactions in mixed

biopolymer systems, processing developments, new

methodologies and nutritional aspects. Research on

food polysaccharides has always been a feature of

these meetings, and this area was well represented. A

highlight of the meeting was the Pilnik Lecture,

delivered by Dr H Schols, a disciple of Professor

Pilnik, on the structural features of native and

commercial pectins; an authoritative review of these

complex polysaccharides. Most of the papers in the

polysaccharide session dealt with the rheology of

dispersions and gels for a range of polysaccharides,

including microparticulate cellulose, curdlan, non-

starch cereal polysaccharides, carob, enzymatically

modi®ed tamarind xyloglucan and the Beijerinckiaspecies polysaccharide CC-70, plus studies on the

in¯uence of salts and saccharides on the gelatinisation

and retrogradation of rice starch. The two papers on

gum arabic deal with speci®cation and control and

possible replacements for the confectionery area. New

food additives were represented by a timely introduc-

tion to the potential of the bacterial derived Prima-

cel2. Proteins tend to have been neglected at many of

the meetings, but in this case the protein session

covered the entire spectrum of food proteins: milk,

plant, meat and egg proteins, plus an introduction to

proteins from marine algae (Spiorulina species). The

impressive confocal microscopy images of phase-

separated protein systems illustrate the potential for

this technique in food science. The academic and

commercial interest in mixed biopolymer systems has

grown steadily over the last 18 years. Topics covered

at this meeting include the phase behaviour of mixed

systems, applications of techniques such as small-

angle neutron scattering and confocal microscopy to

probe structure and function, through to studies on

speci®c phase-separated and synergistic mixed sys-

tems. The session on processing covers work on the

understanding of conventional processing methods

and new techniques and methods for probing and

manipulating structure and function. Contributions

which `catch the eye' include the technology for

producing sheared or ¯uid gels as fat emulsion

substitutes, the investigation of high-pressure treat-

ment of proteins on protein±polysaccharide interac-

tions and emulsion stability and texture, and the use

of X-ray microscopy in investigations of `tiger-

striping' in injected poultry. Other contributions

include a review of current and emerging process

technologies in the food industry, the effect of

stabilisers on the performance of frozen doughs,

investigation of high-sugar biopolymer systems, tech-

nology for producing low-tannin mesquite gums as

potential food materials, mechanistic studies of the

function of added starch in the production of

comminuted meat products, detailed studies on the

stability of carrageenens to food-processing regimes

and the description of the preparation and character-

isation of liquid core hydrocolloid±oil capsules. The

session on new methodologies included a description

of a new combined pulse±resonance rheometer,

methods for investigating the mechanical properties

of individual starch granules, plus two papers

describing applications of atomic force microscopy.

The meeting closed with a session dealing with

nutritional aspects. This included a discussion of the

present position and future potential for functional

foods, two papers dealing with the properties and

applications of inulins, and ®nally the use of acacia

gum as soluble dietary ®bre. The meetings at

Wrexham are well attended and the conference

proceedings provide a good snapshot of the current

state of research in the gums and stabilisers area. This

book is de®nitely worth adding to your bookshelf if

you have an interest in food hydrocolloids.

VJ Morris

State of the world 1998LR Brown, C Flavin, H French et al.Earthscan Publications, London, 1998pp 251, price £12.95ISBN 1-85383-532-3

This year State of the world shows that the world

economy is still failing to meet its most signi®cant

Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture J Sci Food Agric 79:1315±1318 (1999)

# 1999 Society of Chemical Industry. J Sci Food Agric 0022±5142/99/$17.50 1315