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NUTRA INGREDIENTS USA - Daily intake of garlic may reduce cholesterol and triglyceride levels, says a meta-analysis of 26 studies that provides some clarity to the inconsistent clinical trials data. Researchers from Shandong University report that, compared with placebo groups, garlic consumption is associated with a 5.4% reduction in cholesterol levels and a 6.5% reduction in triglyceride levels

MARSHALL INDEPENDENT - A hot new Italian restaurant is opening tonight in Marshall, appropriately enough called Trattoria Caldo, which literally means 'hot restaurant'. The restaurant is a project of the Southwest Minnesota State University CULINOLOGY department and every aspect is managed by students, under the supervision of Associate Professor of Culinology Kurt Struwe. Reasonable prices and a first-rate curriculum in CULINOLOGY and hospitality management is what draws students to SMSU

FOOD NAVIGATOR USA - Flavor giant Givaudan is working with scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to come up with a 'flavor algorithm' that could one day replace human taste testers. The project puts together algorithms intended to emulate the functions of the human nose. Working with MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), Givaudan flavor scientists will look to analyze taste-test results more accurately, in the hope they may reveal more reliable indicators of consumer preferences

NUTRA INGREDIENTS - Extracts from the tropical vegetable bitter gourd may help to alleviate the effects and incidence of metabolic syndrome, according to preliminary research. The study – published in Nutrition Journal – reports that wild bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.), a common tropical vegetable grown in parts of Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, has potentially beneficial effects on the incidence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) in humans. Wild bitter gourd is a common tropical vegetable that been used in traditional and folk medicine due to its supposed anti-diabetic, anti-bacterial, antiviral and anticancer activities

QSR MAGAZINE - The Kraft Culinary Centre boasts seven pedigreed culinarians with decades of collective foodservice experience. Their trend predictions are bolstered by yearlong analysis of internal food casts and menu insights. Patty Mitchell, C.M.B., senior executive chef, calls out two baking & pastry trends: ethnic desserts and vintage desserts. On vintage: "I see county-fair favorites and carnival fare coming on strong this year," she says. "Think funnel cakes and caramel-apple flavored ice cream, malts and milk shakes, cotton candy, and marshmallows." Freeman Moser III, senior executive chef, forecasts customization as an overarching trend this year. "Independent operators are poised to make the biggest impression here-from letting diners customize their whole experience through small-bites menus to choosing cooking techniques for their proteins," he says

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL - Makers of meat substitutes, such as vegetarian turkey and fake sausages, are working to more closely mimic the taste and texture of the real thing. They're also tinkering with mouth feel, the sensation a food creates when chewed. Their goal is to win over more of the group marketers call "flexitarians" - health-conscious adults, mostly in their 20s and 30s, who share many characteristics of vegetarians, with one big exception: They eat meat sometimes. A new fake hot dog from Turtle Island Foods Inc., the maker of Tofurky products, has "more bite," says company president Seth Tibbott. The "all-American flame grilled" veggie burger from Boca Foods, part of Kraft Foods Inc., has a new formulation meant to provide more of a "natural hamburger flavor," says Tricia White, vice president of research, development and quality for the brand. Lightlife Foods, a unit of ConAgra Foods Inc. that has long sold tempeh, a form of fermented soy, for vegetarians, next month plans to introduce jazzier-sounding soy-based frozen entrees such as Amaz'n Asian Sesame Chik'n and Olé Santa Fe Chik'n. "These names put a friendly face on these items so they don't seem scary to meat eaters," says Phil DeWester, brand director

HOUSTON CHRONICLE - Epicurious.com says fin-to-tail eating - perhaps an inevitable evolution of the nose-to-tail movement - is the next big thing; TheDailyMeal.com predicts that arancini - Italian rice balls - will dominate the continuing meatball madness. Fried goat cheese balls, spherical falafel, bacalao croquettes and crispy oxtail risotto balls are becoming hot, sharable bar food; Honey will likely pop up in more foods; Fried chicken, biscuits, grits, fried pies, corn bread, barbecue and bread pudding are hot; Blood is appearing on menus more and more. Look for blood pancakes and sauces thickened with blood; With its influences of Incan, Spanish, African, Chinese, Japanese and Italian, Peruvian food is considered one of the most varied and richest cuisines in the world. FoodChannel.com listed Peru-mania as one of its 10 top food trends for 2012; Cheese experts and artisan cheese makers are the hot new culinary professions

BUSINESS WIRE - When it comes to food, people around the world are more alike than different, according to a milestone report released today by McCormick & Company, Incorporated. The McCormick® Flavor Forecast® 2012 pinpoints common trends and flavors driving culinary innovation around the world. For some, enjoyment might mean the simple goodness of real ingredients without the clutter of flashy techniques, as reflected by the Simplicity Shines trend. For others, it could mean celebrating the essence of a culture's heritage with modern tastes, expressed through the Honoring Roots trend. Inspired by the world's widening flavor horizons, The Flavor Forecast 2012 highlights six culinary trends brought to life through 12 regional flavor combinations and taste experiences. "Honoring Roots is all about taking heritage flavors and applying a fresh perspective that mindfully balances modern tastes and cultural authenticity," said Chef Steve Love for McCormick Europe, Middle-East and Africa. "The flavor combination of Korean pepper paste with sesame, Asian pear and garlic honors Korean BBQ and inspires new interpretations. While these flavors are gaining attention on restaurant menus in some regions, they are still emerging in others. We predict this unique combination of sweet, sour, spicy and savory will soon dazzle taste buds all around the globe"

THE DENVER POST - In Colorado, some of the newer models for success at the high end look a lot like ABC Kitchen - restaurants that, while not exclusively vegetarian or organic, de-emphasize animal protein, offer a strong health and nutrition component, and openly cater to a diversity of dietary choices. Chefs are innovating with vegetables more often. One reason: The rising price of meat. Restaurant consultant John Imbergamo predicts: "As proteins continue to increase in price - and beef price projections are dismal for 2012 - the only alternative is to shrink the protein size or change products. We will see more 'meat as a condiment' entrees as opposed to meat as 'center of the plate'"

THE PACKER - To attract more chefs and consumers searching for recipes to the state's winter strawberries, the Florida Strawberry Growers Association is focusing on increasing business to restaurants. The association is helping educate chefs through its chefs advisory board, attempting to generate more consumer interest in strawberries through revamping its website, expanding the outreach of its mascot, running radio and television commercials and telling Florida visitors about the state's strawberries through interstate billboards. The board plans to develop recipes that other executive chefs can use in their menus. The association is scheduling a January 12 media tour involving one of the directors of the Atlanta-based RESEARCH CHEFS ASSOCIATION, which plans to bring up to 40 influential culinary arts professionals to central Florida to visit farming operations and hear presentations from the association, said Sue Harrell, the association's director of marketing

THE NEW YORK TIMES - Sorghum is the sweetener of the moment among chefs who are digging deep into the Southern pantry and coming up with new ways to cook the food they grew up with. Unlike molasses, a byproduct of sugar production, and cane syrup, which is boiled down from sugar cane juice, sorghum syrup comes from squeezing the green juice from the tall stalks of a cereal grain and boiling it in open pans until it's thick and golden. Sorghum is sweet but complex. Sometimes vegetal, sometimes smoky and always bright, sorghum fits in anywhere

SCIENCE DAILY / NEWSWISE - North Americans and Western Europeans love a good mix of alpha-terpineol, 4-methylpentanoic acid and ethyl propionate for dinner, flavor compounds shared in popular ingredients like tomatoes, parmesan cheese and white wine. Authentic East Asian recipes, on the other hand, tend to avoid mixing ingredients with many shared flavor compounds, according to new complex networks research from Indiana, Harvard, Cambridge and Northeastern universities

HARVARD PRESS RELEASE / EUREKALERT - By studying the behavior of tiny particles at an interface between oil and water, researchers at Harvard have discovered that stabilized emulsions may take longer to reach equilibrium than previously thought. Much longer, in fact. The findings, published in Nature Materials (online) on December 4, have important implications for the manufacturing processes used in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and foods, among other chemical industries. To give products like mayonnaise and sunscreen a reasonable shelf life, manufacturers typically add stabilizing particles to create Pickering emulsions. Ice cream, for example, is stabilized by tiny ice crystals that cling to the interfaces between the fat and water droplets, creating a rigid physical barrier between the two. In traditional mayonnaise, proteins from the egg yolk perform the same role. When the oil and water in these types of emulsions are completely mixed and stable, the particles are said to be at equilibrium. "There are certain rules for making different types of emulsions," explains principal investigator Vinothan Manoharan. "For example, do you get oil droplets in water, or water droplets in oil? The conventional rules are based on the properties of the materials, but our results suggest that it also has to do with time and the energy you put into the system"

KMJ NOW NEWS TALK RADIO - Fresno State CULINOLOGY students have been busy putting their skills to work to help a struggling, locally owned restaurant, bring in new customers. Denise Reyes says the idea came from their professor Dr. Klaus Tenbergen following a visit to Amir's Shish Kebab, which served good food but was not doing well because of the economy. The location of the Mediterranean eatery, tucked away in the corner of the Pavillion West Shopping Center at Bullard and West avenues, also made it hard to attract customers. The students helped Amir redesign his menu to make it more eye-catching. They also gave Amir fresh ideas on how to plate his meals for a more aesthetic presentation, as well as reworking the pricing and redecorating the inside and outside dining areas

BBC NEWS - Over 90% of cases of a common form of food poisoning seen this year were due to people eating undercooked chicken liver pate, often at weddings, infection experts have said. The Health Protection Agency (HPA) analysed 18 outbreaks of Campylobacter in 2011 across England. In all, 443 people became unwell and one had to be hospitalised. Poultry livers carry a particularly high risk of Campylobacter as the bacteria can be present throughout the liver, not just the surface as is the case for other poultry meat, and may remain a source of infection if they are not cooked sufficiently

MARSHALL INDEPENDENT - A record number of students presented their original work at the 6th annual Undergraduate Research Conference Wednesday at Southwest Minnesota State University. A summer internship at General Mills helped senior Ashley Moore with her undergraduate presentation called 'Reducing Sodium in Wanchai Ferry Beef and Broccoli.' "It's pretty cool to be able to take all that stuff that you've learned and apply it and explain it in terms that someone else can understand." According to SMSU CULINOLOGY director Michael Cheng, six students have graduated already from the fairly-new CULINOLOGY program. Along with Moore, four others will graduate this winter and two more in the spring. "SMSU students are going to flood the industry," Cheng said. Another CULINOLOGY student presenter, Subash Yadav, developed a soup - Tikka Masala - for Progresso

FOOD NAVIGATOR USA - The RESEARCH CHEFS ASSOCIATION (RCA) has challenged chefs to come up with innovative gold standard tapas dishes, with the winners to be presented at the RCA conference and expo in San Antonio, Texas in March. The competition is open to teams of one RCA member and one American Culinary Federation (ACF) member who will compete for a $5,000 first prize. Chefs must develop formulations for three tapas, one of which must contain beans, for a casual dining restaurant chain, and include gold standard kitchen recipes and commercial production formulations. Up to six finalists will create the fresh product version of their concept at the RCA conference on March 23, 2012 and be judged in part on how well the commercialized concept measures up

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL - Premium grocery stores have an alternative to olive oil - pumpkin seed oil, one of several slick new specialty oils meant for dipping, dabbing or, as the professionals say, "topping off" a dish. A dash of high-quality oil provides an intense burst of unusual flavor to a portion of vegetables, an ordinary salad dressing or even a piece of bread, chefs say. Reddish-green and nutty-tasting, pumpkin seed oil is among the fastest growing in popularity. Like pumpkin itself, it is suitable for both sweet and savory dishes. Avocado oil imparts a light fruitiness to salad dressings; macadamia-nut oil works on salads, too, and is ideal for baking. Amber-red argan oil, an expensive Moroccan import, has a deep, almost meaty flavor suitable for hearty dishes

FOOD NAVIGATOR - Newly developed soy proteins for meat, fish and poultry applications can improve mouth-feel and overall product quality through their low viscosity and strong gelling properties, claims developer Solbar. Following feedback from the meat industry, the Israel-headquartered soy producer said its new Solbar Q93 for hams, chicken and turkey is an upgrade of an existing isolated soy protein line, with which allows smoother injection machine entry. Its new Solcon S-210, a 70% functional soy protein concentrate, can be used with emulsified and cured meats, poultry and premium fish products, said Solbar. The two proteins, which were about a year in development, offer the sector an improved fibrous and meat-like texture and ensures a firm bite in the finished product due to the strength of the gel, said Moti Shmueli, sales director, at Solbar for Western Europe

FOOD NAVIGATOR - The addition of unripe banana flour to simple food and bakery formulations, such as in cookie preparations, could be a good way to formulate products with high levels of indigestible carbohydrates, according to new research. The study, published in LWT - Food Science and Technology , investigated the formulation of cookies prepared with high amounts of low GI indigestible starch – in the form of unripe banana flour (UBF) – which could help to provide healthier products with that help to provide better blood sugar balance and lower calories. "Several studies have suggested that consumption of unripe bananas provides a beneficial effect on human health, associated with indigestible components such as resistant starch," noted the team of Mexican authors. "Cookies prepared with UBF presented important starch digestion characteristics and, therefore, could be a nutritional alternative for people with health problems such as diabetes and obesity," they added