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Background: The storage life of frozen salmonids is often limited primarily by oxidation and flesh discolouration due to carotenoid degradation. The objective of this research was to determine the carotenoid changes and therefore the muscle colour modifications during 6 months of frozen storage (-18 °C) of whole rainbow trout fed astaxanthin (100 ppm) or canthaxanthin (80 ppm), kept under two different packagings: plastic film and cardboard box., Results: After 6 months of frozen storage, the carotenoid type effect was seen for dry matter while there was no packaging material effect on carotenoid, total lipids, and TBARS contents of trout fillets. The time under frozen storage had an effect on carotenoid and TBARS fillet concentration. The carotenoid-type effect was noted for the four colour parameters (lightness difference, chroma difference, hue angle difference, and total colour difference) of rainbow trout fillet, while the packaging material effect was observed only for chroma. Frozen storage time had an effect on the four colour parameters of rainbow trout fillet., Conclusion: Carotenoid and packaging material effects were more marked for colour parameters than for biochemical parameters. In this study, as fish were frozen and stored as whole fish, fish skin provided good protection against oxidation., (Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry.)

In the European Union (EU), many assumptions are employed to calculate the intake of migrating chemicals from food packaging. However, very little is known about the actual intake of packaged food, the type of this food and the type of packaging used for this food. The objective of the current study was to examine intakes of packaged food in children aged 5-12 years to provide information on the types of food that are packaged and the type of packaging used. To do this, a food-consumption database, which also recorded information on packaging, was merged with a packaging database, which provided information on the contact layers of packaging. Foods were classified into EU Food categories according to European Council Directive EC 85/575/EEC (European Council 1985), which determined their food type (i.e. aqueous, acidic, alcoholic and fatty). The mean daily intake of all packaged food was 1195 g day-1 with an upper intake of 1959 g day-1 (97.5th percentile); the intake of food packaged in plastic was 993 g day-1 with an upper percentile of 1692 g day-1 (97.5th percentile). The mean daily intake of fat from all packaged food was 62 g day-1, with an upper intake of 100 g day-1 (97.5th percentile). When this was investigated further, it was found that the mean fat intake from packaged 'fatty' foods only was 32 g day-1, with an upper intake of 61 g day-1 (97.5th percentile). The food that contributed most to fat intake was milk. As many food chemical intake assessments are moving towards probabilistic methods, probabilities of a food being packaged and the probability of the type of packaging used were determined. The probability of food being packaged was 0.88. Some foods not 100% packaged included fruit, vegetables, liquid beverages non-alcoholic (includes water) and bread. Probabilities were also derived for the packaging types used for food. It can be concluded that not all the individual assumptions used in the EU exposure assessment are conservative, but in combination they are conservative.

This article reviews the literature on the use of paper diaries for self-monitoring food intake, identifies the strengths and limitations of paper-and-pencil diaries and their new counterpart, the electronic diary or personal digital assistant (PDA), and reports how participants were trained to use a PDA with dietary software in two pilot studies--one with hemodialysis patients and the other with participants in a weight loss study. The report of the pilot studies focuses on the practical issues encountered in training participants in the use of a PDA and addresses the pros and cons of different dietary software programs. Six hemodialysis patients were trained in the first study and seven participants attempting to lose or maintain their weight were trained in the second pilot study. The training focused on how to use a PDA and how to navigate the dietary software to self-monitor food intake. The goals of using the PDA were to improve adherence to the therapeutic diets and to self-monitoring. Lessons learned from the pilot studies are shared.

Food supply and contaminants were investigated as possible causes of low bald eagle productivity near a bleached kraft pulp and paper mill at Crofton on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Over a seven year period, 1992-1998, average productivity of five eagle territories situated south of the pulp mill at Crofton was significantly lower (0.43 young/occupied territory) than six territories north of the mill (1.04 young/occupied territory). A reference population of 32 territories located in Barkley Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island demonstrated intermediary mean productivity (0.75 young/occupied territory). Measures of prey biomass delivered to nests were lowest south of the mill, and correlated significantly with nesting success. On average, measures of energy delivered to nests and a parameter determined to be related to prey availability, adult nest attendance time, accounted for about 70% of variability in nest success. Contaminant concentrations, including pulp mill derived polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs), as well as dichlorodiphenyldichloroethane (DDE), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and calculated tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin toxic equivalents (TEQs) were significantly greater in plasma samples of nestlings from south of the mill compared to the other two sites, but did not correlate significantly with individual nest success data. Nests south of the mill concentrate around Maple Bay, which appears to be a deposition area for contaminants transported by tides and currents from sources such as the pulp mill. Concentrations of DDE and PCBs in plasma of nestling eagles from south of the mill were less than the critical values estimated to affect production of young. For TEQs, there are no published critical values for plasma by which to compare our results. We conclude that less than adequate energy provisioning to nests, presumably related to low prey availability, was likely the main cause of poor nest success south of the mill site at Crofton. However, higher concentrations of both DDE and PCDD/F derived TEQs may have acted in concert with food stress to further reduce bald eagle productivity.