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Food Chemistry
by W. Grosch, H. -D Belitz
Book Description
Logically organized according to food constituents and commodities and extensively illustrated with more than 450 tables and 340 figures this completely revised and updated edition provides students and researcher in food science or agricultural chemistry with an outstanding textbook. The extensive use of tables for easy reference, the wealth of information given, and the comprehensive subject index will help this volume serve as a reference text for advanced students in food technology and as a valuable on-the-job reference for chemists, engineers, biochemists, nutritionists, and analytical chemists in food industry and in research as well as in food control and other service labs
Review
Amazingly Comprehensive.
This text deserves much better accolades than what I have seen. First of all, it is a book about FOOD. It covers every food I know of, and many more I didn’t know. Second, it is a CHEMISTRY book, so you WILL have trouble understanding it if you don’t know what "CHO" means, or have no chemistry background!
It is extremely organized with chapters on proteins, enzymes, lipids, carbohydrates (CHO), vitamins, minerals, and even aroma substances and food additives (want to know what MSG really is?). There is a section on food contaminants that would interest anyone who prefers certified organic foods, or wonders why they should. The whole food sections are divided into dairy, eggs, meat seafood, cereals, legumes, fruits, vegetables, and sugars. There are even chapters on alcoholic beverages (any home beer or wine makers?), coffees and teas, spices, and water!
Of course, you can see this from looking at the table of contents, but what you don’t see is the organization and attention to detail that he painstakingly provides. Do you want to know how toffee is made?, What happens to beef after the cow is executed? What were the first ancient grains grown? (enkorn and emmer are now being sold by many raw-food enthusiasts. How are "soy-meats" made? What fruit has the most lignans or sugar content? What is a crayfish? What happens when fruit ripens or which fruits have brain neurotransmitters like serotonin? Why do you need to take aspirin when many fruits have salicylates already in them? How much vitamin B-6 is destroyed during meat cooking? (45%), or vegetable cooking? (20-30%) What is red dye #2? How much mercury, lead, and cadmium are in the foods you eat?...and much more!
This book is certainly intended for the student of food technology with all the attention to chemical processes and aroma compounds, but the wealth of information on food in general could easily interest any nutritionist, vegetarian, raw-fooder or maybe even a creative chef! As a physician interested in healthy nutrition, my copy will have well worn pages. This author deserves tremendous praise for the immense amount of time he must have spent compiling so much knowledge of food, and in such an organized fashion, that I feel obligated to take the time to give him my personal ovation.
Reviewer: Kevin D. Marler, M.D. from Huntington Beach, Ca
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