food

Sep 23, 2014

Fast Facts About Cutting Boards and Food Safety in Your Kitchen

Anything that touches your food can be a source of contamination and foodborne illness – including cutting boards. Learn what you can do to limit the risk of foodborne illness. 

Jun 6, 2014

What’s the Best Way to Wash Microbes off Your Produce?

Note: This post is part of an ongoing series in which we try to answer questions about the science behind food – from farm to fork. If you have a food-related question, please let me know at matt_shipman@ncsu.edu. Short version: You can use water to wash off your fruits and veggies – but it may… 

May 21, 2014

The Difference Between Baking Soda and Baking Powder

Baking soda has only one ingredient: sodium bicarbonate. Sodium bicarbonate is a base that reacts when it comes into contact with acids, like buttermilk, yogurt or vinegar. This reaction produces carbon dioxide (CO2) in the form of bubbles (think of the grade school experiments involving fake volcanoes, vinegar and baking soda). When making baked goods,… 

May 16, 2014

How Can I Wash All the Pesticides off My Food?

Note: This post is part of an ongoing series in which we try to answer questions about the science behind food – from farm to fork. If you have a food-related question, please let me know at matt_shipman@ncsu.edu. What is the best way to wash all the pesticides off your food? The bad news: you… 

May 2, 2014

Why Parents Are Told to Give Babies Unseasoned Food – One Type of Food at a Time

Note: This post is part of an ongoing series in which we try to answer questions about the science behind food – from farm to fork. If you have a food-related question, please let me know at matt_shipman@ncsu.edu. Why is the conventional wisdom in the West to start babies out on bland, unseasoned, single foods,… 

Apr 30, 2014

What We Know (and Don’t Know) About Vitamins, Diet and Health

Here’s the short version: your kid probably doesn’t need a daily vitamin, and there is no magic ingredient in food that will keep you healthy. When I told folks that I was going to start writing a series of posts that addressed scientific questions about food, I was inundated with questions people wanted me to… 

Apr 2, 2014

Do People and Pigs Share Salmonella Strains?

If antimicrobial-resistant Salmonella is showing up in pigs, then are bacon-loving people also at risk?  In his latest research, NC State population health and pathobiology professor Sid Thakur looks at serotypes, or groups, of antibiotic-resistant Salmonella in people and pigs, to try to determine whether these strains are being passed from pork to people. Sid Thakur… 

Oct 9, 2013

Blueberry Power: Eat Your Way to a Better Workout

Editor’s Note: This guest post was written by Justin Moore, an extension communications specialist who works at NC State’s Plants for Human Health Institute in Kannapolis, N.C. Drop and give me 20. But don’t forget to eat your blueberries before and after you complete those push-ups. It turns out that that the fruit, already renowned for… 

Aug 29, 2013

Hungry? Print a Pizza

You’re just dying for a pizza: gooey cheese, sweet tomato sauce, blistered crust. One problem: You’re millions of miles away from a pizza place, flying in some sort of spaceship toward Mars. Domino’s definitely doesn’t deliver up here, pal, so how do you satisfy your pizza craving? Print one out. Working with researchers from the… 

Jul 18, 2013

New Technique for Assessing Calorie Absorption Sheds Light on Genetic Driver of Obesity

Researchers from Harvard, NC State and five other universities have found a specific genetic on-off switch associated with obesity in both mice and humans, raising the long-term possibility of developing new treatments for obesity. As part of the study, NC State researchers had to develop a new technique for assessing calorie absorption in small laboratory animals, which… 

Jun 19, 2013

How Do Bees Make Honey? (It’s Not Just Bee Barf)

Last weekend, my daughter asked me how bees made honey, and I realized that I didn’t know the answer. How do bees make honey? I did some homework, and can now explain it to her – and to you. Different honey bees have different jobs. Some of these bees are “forager” bees, which collect nectar… 

Jun 6, 2013

How to Keep Fresh Fruits and Veggies From Going AWOL

Keeping fruits and vegetables fresh while shipping them halfway around the planet presents logistical challenges that even the U.S. military can’t solve. Now NC State is working with the Army to infuse protein powders and flours with healthy chemicals extracted from fruits and vegetables to provide nutritious – and tasty – meals for soldiers thousands of… 

Nov 15, 2012

Thanksgiving: Simple Tips Can Keep Foodborne Illness at Bay

Thanksgiving is the only U.S. holiday that revolves entirely around food. We spend all day in the kitchen or dining room with loved ones, so it makes sense to pay special attention to food safety this time of year. Why should you care? The CDC estimates that 128,000 people were hospitalized in 2011 due to… 

Sep 20, 2012

Experts: Food Safety Audits Need an Overhaul

Much of the food industry relies on third-party audits of practices, processes and facilities to ensure the food that ultimately reaches consumers is safe. But a new paper from food safety researchers at NC State and Kansas State University argues that these audits need to be overhauled in order to protect public health. Food product buyers… 

Aug 14, 2012

Green Is Good

Editor’s note: The following guest post was written by Leah Chester-Davis, coordinator of communications and outreach for the Plants for Human Health Institute in Kannapolis, N.C. Bad news, Bluto: Mustard greens and cabbage could rival Popeye’s spinach when it comes to building muscles and increasing physical performance. Recent studies show that brassinosteroids present in mustard…