Breakthrough in Food Protection

The article I chose came from news target.com and was written by Mike Adams. The article is called “Breakthrough Food Technology Process Protects Food With Thin Film Made From Natural Ingredients; Replaces Film Wrapper”. The article speaks about a new food technology what has been engineered to virtually replace plastic wrap. As we know, to maintain food fresh and edible we must prevent it from harmful bacteria and pathogens and so we utilize plastic wrap to achieve this. The downside of utilizing plastic wrap is the fact that plastic wrap is manufactured from petroleum products, a harmful byproduct. So a new technology has been developed by the Food Science and Technology department at Oregon State University. This revolutionary technology is an edible thin film. This food protective fiber or film, which looks a lot like plastic wrap, combines two key ingredients -- chitosan, a fiber derived from shellfish, and lysozyme, which is essentially egg white protein. By combining these two key ingredients in a process that is now being patented, researchers were able to make a thin film food wrap that can be used to cover sandwiches, fruits, veggies or even coat foods by dipping the foods in a liquid film. With this new technology you can literally you could take fresh blueberries and dip them in a liquid soup made from chitosan and lysozyme, and the blueberries would be coated with a thin plastic wrap, protecting it against microbial infection as well as preserving more of its nutrient content. When the consumer is ready to eat the blueberry, they can just pop both the blueberry and the thin film in their mouth and safely eat it because the thin film is perfectly edible. The only side effect would be that the film would add to the consumers diet a little fiber and protein. Both of these ingredients are natural anti-microbial compounds, meaning they resist infection from microbes, molds, and fungi. That would potentially enhance the shelf life of foods, which could either serve to deliver more nutritious foods to consumers, or reduce the cost of such foods thanks to reduced spoilage. This thin-film coating can be enhanced with additional vitamins and mineralssuch as calcium or vitamin E to boost the nutritional value of the food being protected. This is a fiber that has been provided by “Mother Nature” and works perfectly to provide unparallel protection for nearly any food product.

Reflection:
I think that Oregon State University is ahead of the game. Their ingenuity is outstanding. I mean how many times have you packaged fruit or vegetables in plastic wrap and been disappointed with the fruit or vegetable you have packaged has been tarnished by bacteria and microbes. I am certain that most all of us have been there. Our plastic wrapping has failed to protect your food and there goes more or your hard earned money goes down the drain. Thanks to this new technology we can safely package our fruits and vegetables and not have to worry about their potentially harmful make ups. This thin film is so revolutionary that you can literally take out your fruit from the refrigerator and pop the fruit right in your mouth film and all. I am certain that this technology will continue to thrive and provide with more safe ways for us to package and protect not only our food products but also our lives.

USBN System

Summary:
The article I chose was from the "Hospitlity Technology" magazine. The article spoke about a system known as USBN. The USBN system can accurately monitor every ounce of draft beer poured and immediately reconcile this against sales from POS system. Such system was tested by a sports-theme casual dining chain named "Tully's Good Times". The restaurant tested the solution without mentioning the plan to the staff. For the very first time, Tully's possessed the ability to immediately monitor both draft beer flow and variances in real-time. The data was immediately reconciled with sales from the POS system thus removing the labor and guesswork out of calculating pour cost and waste. Tully's continued to audit data for over a week and discovered the reconciliation to be completly and uttery accurate. The brewery's variance was just around 15 percent which was way below average. They have visibibly moved forward and not backwards with this new venture. After a few weeks of montoring and testing this plan Tully's made a decision to tell the entire staff. Tully's began monitoring their draft beer variance on a day to day basis, implemented some fresh and new policies, new procedures, and started holding bartenders accountable for accurate pours. Due to this very easy-to-use Web interface, training others to use the system was deadly accurate and straight forward. The staff at "Tully's Good Time" sport-theme and casual dining bar is greatful for the advances this new system has provided them. USBN brought accuracy and efficiency to a once challenged chain. What is amazing is that their average variance dropped below three percent. In addition to the cost savings from reduced waste, Tully's draft beer revenues increased by approximately a woping 6 percent, thus increasing draft beer profits by 4.25 percent! Wow! Because the company was so successful with this new system they have pushed it out to seven of their nine chains.

Reflection:

Wow!!! I was so amazed to learn that our industry actually posesses this technology. USBN systems will greatly increase the efficency of any restaurant, bar, cruse line.....and the list goes on. I absolutely and positively agree with this innovative system. The name of the game is efficiency and accuracy in the hospitality field. "Tully's Good Times" is ahead of the competition. The only problem that I recognize is the fact that this USBN system can be easily copied. A smart suggestion would be to patent this technology because it is a goldmine if the company executes it properly. Another fact of the article that impressed me was quickly this new system helped facilitate this operations goal. We must follow companies and learn from companies that are always evolving and searching for the fastest and more efficient ways to keep this industry rising. As far as I can tell this industry has no end in sight. Restaurant chains such as this one owned by John Paul Giamartino are today's leaders in the hospitality industry. I aspire to companies such as this one that rose from nothing into the shining gem that it is today!