Food: The Chemistry of its Components (RSC Paperbacks)

As a source of detailed information on the chemistry of food, this book is without equal. It investigates components which are present in large amounts (carbohydrates, fats, proteins, minerals and water) and also those that occur in smaller quantities (pigments, flavours, vitamins and preservatives). The fifth edition has been extensively rewritten to bring it right up to date and a number of new topics have been introduced.

New features include: (1) Topics of particular interest to specialist readers or more advanced students have been moved to a Special Topics section at the end of each chapter; (2) An exhaustive index and the structural formulae of more than 600 food components are given; (3) Features a comprehensive listing of recent, relevant review articles as well as books for further reading; (4) The nutritional significance of food components is indicated at every stage without attempting to usurp the role of explicitly nutrition texts; (5) Total updating in all chapters including legislative changes with many new diagrams and almost all others completely redrawn; (6) Frequent references, where appropriate, to wider issues, e.g. the evolutionary significance of lactose intolerance, fava bean consumption and malaria, rain forest destruction and supplies of soya palm oil.

New, greatly enlarged or totally revised topics include: (1) Acrylamide; (2) Resistant starch; (3) Pectins; (4) Gellan gum; (5) Glycaemic Index (GI); (6) The elimination of trans fatty acids; (7) Fractionation of fats and oils; (8) Cocoa butter and chocolate (9) The casein micelle; (10) Tea, flavonoids and health; (11) Antioxidant vitamins; (12) Soya phytoestrogens; (13) Legume toxins; (14) Pesticide residues; (15) Radionucleides; (16) Cow’s milk and peanut allergies.

Dr Tom Coultate was Principal Lecturer in Food Biochemistry at the School of Applied Science at South Bank University, London, until his retirement in 2000. He first joined the School of Applied Science at South Bank University in 1972, after obtaining his PhD for studies on the biochemistry and physiology of a thermophilic bacterium from Leicester University. Since leaving school he had been first a lab. technician and then research assistant at Unilever's research laboratories in Bedfordshire (Colworth House) at the same time studying part-time to acquire an ONC, HNC and MIBiol. Having obtained his PhD, Tom embarked on a long and successful professional career fuelled by his fascination for food and the satisfactions of teaching! His particular interest was, and still is, the relationship between the essentially chemical nature of all foods and their distinctive, unique journey from field to plate and beyond. Tom is frequently invited to address local audiences and branch meetings of learned societies such as the RSC and SCI on food topics, and been an occasional television and radio interviewee. Previous editions of this book have been translated into Chinese, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish have been used by universities, food scientists and chemists worldwide. Although Tom retired from full-time teaching in 2000 he still maintains his links with professional colleagues including new friends at the nearby Open University campus at Milton Keynes. He continues to contribute articles for technical and trade magazines on food topics.