We had a nutrition company hire a third party lab to test the so called antioxidant rich juices on the market. The results are astounding.

A new company every month it seems like is trying to break through the market place, onto the scene to take their piece of the multi-billion dollar industry. Most of these juices claim to have the most powerful antioxidants on the planet and of course they all say they have the highest ORAC score.

We added grape juice into the mix to spice up the results and see what would happen. Not to mention many of these companies use grape juice as their main ingredient. You may laugh or cry when you find out the results. Here are some of the statements of some of the juices:

MonaVie claims that the acai berry used in their juice is one of the worlds top super foods and is rich in antioxidants. The levels of antioxidants in the acai berry from Brazil versus what is in Mona Vies juice are quite different.

Kyani refers to their juice as having an unmatched antioxidant superpower. Xango claims its juice product contains powerful antioxidants. Tahitian Noni claims its juice is one of the worlds great super-antioxidants. FreeLife claims you can protect yourself from the constant attack of Free Radicals by drinking GoChi juice.

In the FRAP analysis, grape juice had more antioxidants per serving than all but two of the magic juices.

Here are the results from the ORAC and FRAP tests: The first score is the ORAC score followed by the FRAP. Welchs Grape Juice scored 2734 and 245, while Mona Vie came in at 2220 and 1572. Pharmanexs G3 product reported 1658 and 2648 and Xango scored one of the lowest at 947 and 761. FreeLifes Gochi 888 and 641 with Kyani Sunrise scored a 769 in ORAC and a 1271. Exfuze, who claims they use extracts of a wide group of individual juice companys ingredients, had one of the lowest scores at 400 and 174.

What does all of this mean? The dollar that you are spending would be better invested with buying grape juice at $.50 for 8 ounces compared to $4.60 of Mona Vie. Both the ORAC and FRAP tests show that the grape juice provides more protection against free radicals then Mana Vies acai juice.

A real business opportunity is really only as good as the product and the value that the product gives consumers. Are these exotic juices really a good source to get antioxidants?

The best source to get the potent nutrients is eating them fresh from the source. Now obviously if you do not live in these areas then it is virtually impossible to do so. Yoli, a new company with a new technology has solved the problem once and for all. They have blast cap technology which has the nutrients sealed until they are ready for use. The best part is you can place them on top of a bottle of water or juice and blast them in when you are ready to drink.

What do these blast caps cost? Ten times less then these magic juices on the market and are shown to have far more active ingredients as they are not pasteurized and sitting in water where the nutrients parish.

Food processing is the set of methods and techniques used to transform raw ingredients into food or to transform food into other forms for consumption by humans or animals either in the home or by the food processing industry. Food processing typically takes clean, harvested crops or slaughtered and butchered animal products and uses these to produce attractive, marketable and often long-life food products. Similar process are used to produce animal feed.

Extreme examples of food processing include the delicate preparation of deadly fugu fish or preparing space food for consumption under zero gravity.

History

Food processing dates back to the prehistoric ages when crude processing incorporated slaughtering, fermenting, sun drying, preserving with salt, and various types of cooking (such as roasting, smoking, steaming, and oven baking). Salt-preservation was especially common for foods that constituted warrior and sailors’ diets, up until the introduction of canning methods. Evidence for the existence of these methods exists in the writings of the ancient Greek , Chaldean, Egyptian and Roman civilisations as well as archaeological evidence from Europe, North and South America and Asia. These tried and tested processing techniques remained essentially the same until the advent of the industrial revolution. Examples of ready-meals also exist from pre industrial revolution times such as the Cornish pasty and the Haggis

Modern food processing technology in the 19th and 20th century was largely developed to serve military needs. In 1809 Nicolas Appert invented a vacuum bottling technique that would supply food for French troops, and this contributed to the development of tinning and then canning by Peter Durand in 1810. Although initially expensive and somewhat hazardous due to the lead used in cans, canned goods would later become a staple around the world. Pasteurization, discovered by Louis Pasteur in 1862, was a significant advance in ensuring the micro-biological safety of food.

In the 20th century, World War II, the space race and the rising consumer society in developed countries (including the United States) contributed to the growth of food processing with such advances as spray drying, juice concentrates, freeze drying and the introduction of artificial sweeteners, colouring agents, and preservatives such as sodium benzoate. In the late 20th century products such as dried instant soups, reconstituted fruits and juices, and self cooking meals such as MRE food ration were developed.

In western Europe and North America, the second half of the 20th century witnessed a rise in the pursuit of convenience, food processors especially marketed their products to middle-class working wives and mothers. Frozen foods (often credited to Clarence Birdseye) found their success in sales of juice concentrates and “TV dinners”. [1] Processors utilised the perceived value of time to appeal to the postwar population, and this same appeal contributes to the success of convenience foods today.

Benefits

Mass production of food is much cheaper overall than individual production of meals from raw ingredients. Therefore, a large profit potential exists for the manufacturers and suppliers of precessed food products. Individuals may see a benefit in convenience, but rarely see any direct financial cost benefit in using processed food as compared to home preparation. Poor quality ingredients and sometimes questionable processing and preservation methods detract greatly from the overall benefit gained by individual consumers.

More and more people live in the cities far away from where food is grown and produced. In many families the adults are working away from home and therefore there is little time for the preparation of food based on fresh ingredients. The food industry offers products that fulfil many different needs: From peeled potatoes that only have to be boiled at home to fully prepared ready meals that can be heated up in the microwave oven within a few minutes.

Benefits of food processing include toxin removal, preservation, easing marketing and distribution tasks, and increasing food consistency. In addition, it increases seasonal availability of many foods, enables transportation of delicate perishable foods across long distances, and makes many kinds of foods safe to eat by de-activating spoilage and pathogenic micro-organisms. Modern supermarkets would not be feasible without modern food processing techniques, long voyages would not be possible, and military campaigns would be significantly more difficult and costly to execute.

Modern food processing also improves the quality of life for allergists, diabetics, and other people who cannot consume some common food elements. Food processing can also add extra nutrients such as vitamins.

Processed foods are often less susceptible to early spoilage than fresh foods, and are better suited for long distance transportation from the source to the consumer. Fresh materials, such as fresh produce and raw meats, are more likely to harbour pathogenic micro-organisms (e.g. Salmonella) capable of causing serious illnesses.

Drawbacks

In general, fresh food that has not been processed other than by washing and simple kitchen preparation, may be expected to contain a higher proportion of naturally-occurring vitamins, fiber and minerals than an equivalent product processed by the food industry. Vitamin C, for example, is destroyed by heat and therefore canned fruits have a lower content of vitamin C than fresh ones.

Food processing can lower the nutritional value of foods, and introduce hazards not encountered with naturally-occurring products. Processed foods often include food additives, such as flavourings and texture-enhancing agents, which may have little or no nutritive value, or be unhealthy. Preservatives added or created during processing to extend the ‘shelf-life’ of commercially-available products, such as nitrites or sulphites, may cause adverse health effects. Use of low-cost ingredients that mimic the properties of natural ingredients (e.g. cheap chemically-hardened vegetable oils in place of more-expensive natural saturated fats or cold-pressed oils) have been shown to cause severe health problems, but are still in widespread use because of cost concerns and lack of consumer knowledge about the effects of substitute ingredients.

Processed foods often have a higher ratio of calories to other essential nutrients than unprocessed foods, a phenomenon referred to as “empty calories”. So-called junk food, produced to satisfy consumer demand for convenience and low cost, are most often mass-produced processed food products.

Because processed food ingredients are often produced in high quantities and distributed widely amongst added-value food manufacturers, failures in hygiene standards in ‘low-level’ manufacturing facilities that produce a widely-distributed basic ingredient can have serious consequences for many final products. Consequently, adequate government regulation of ingredient manufacturers is an essentially important factor in securing the production of generally-safe processed foods. Blame for failures in the process of food safety regulation therefore often fall on the governmental department entrusted with this task.

[edit] Performance parameters for food processing

When designing processes for the food industry the following performance parameters may be taken into account:

* Hygiene, e.g. measured by number of micro-organisms per ml of finished product * Energy consumption, measured e.g. by “ton of steam per ton of sugar produced” * Minimization of waste, measured e.g. by “percentage of peeling loss during the peeling of potatoes’ * Labour used, measured e.g. by “number of working hours per ton of finished product” * Minimization of cleaning stops measured e.g. by “number of hours between cleaning stops

A fortune cookie is a great little dessert to have; they really finish off a Chinese meal in exactly the right way it should be finished. However have you ever thought of using personalized fortune cookies for party favors if you are hosting a special celebration? If not perhaps you should keep in reading this article.

Contrary to popular belief, although this may be contested, fortune cookies are not one of the many Chinese inventions. In fact they were invented in San Fransisco, California, by a Japanese man. According to the history of the fortune cookie, this record can be disputed, however it appears to have become the generally accepted explanation, and after the cookie was adapted to suit American tastes, Chinese restaurant owners adopted it for their own use.

Although there are several conflicting theories regarding the invention of fortune cookies, they are good to eat as well as great fun and this is the primary reason for them. We therefore acknowledge that the modern fortune cookie did originate in the USA with the creator of the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, Makoto Hagiwara. Apparently he based the recipe on a Japanese treat known as Tsujiura Sembei, and finished them off with thank you notes inserted into them. Chinese restaurant owners copied this and inserted fortunes into the cookies instead.

Over the years and in keeping with contemporary trends the fortunes in these cookies appear to have lost much of their wisdom and no also include supposedly lucky numbers. The fact that these lucky numbers emulate the lottery numbers is not coincidence.

In fact, personalized fortune cookies have become the latest craze in party favors. They can be decorated to look in keeping with the theme of a function and you get to decide what fortunes appear in them. Just thinking up these should keep you amused for hours.

It does not matter what kind of celebration you have planed these supposedly Chinese treat will go down very well. They can be served at birthdays, weddings, corporate functions or basically any event you have planned. It is your decision as to whether you should serve them with dessert or give them to departing guests. Whichever way you go about it, they will be appreciated.

The fortune cookies can be frosted or dipped in chocolate in any color. They can be covered in tiny sprinkles or decorated with all kinds of super goodies. The cookies each arrive packaged in their own cellophane packaging or can even be presented in a tiny transparent Chinese take-out container to make them more fun.

Is still upset some wine to drink the rest of how to deal with? Unfortunately, the bathwater, store it easily? Then let you move the kitchen wine.

Let’s Chinese kitchen, and ultimately, the total liquor, rice wine, mirin wine accessories, such as icing on the cake for the food. However, it seems that we never thought put kitchen Add wine, becoming the Cook sauce. On the one hand, the hearts of our deep-rooted belief that wine is a luxury, not willing to be used into the food. On the other hand, really do not know the wine is also good on seasonings.

In fact, wine is not only a well on alcoholic drinks, or the production of Western dishes at the time of one commonly used seasonings. Western-style food in a lot of dishes can be used to transfer wine aroma of incense and. Wine flavor principle is very simple, cooking, wine alcohol will increase as the temperature and evaporation, scent does not. Therefore, the cooking time add the wine, will bring a different flavor dishes. Moreover, wine wild personality, it has not only become a better partner in western dishes, but also to adapt fully to Chinese-style food.

With the principles are also very easy, just like drinking wine when the basic principles of “red wine with red meat, white wine with white meat”, like into the dish, they simply follow the “red meat means red wine, white wine into the white meat” principle can. In other words, the light-colored meat, such as chicken and fish, use light-colored wine suitable cooking, such as white wine; dark meat such as beef, are suitable for dark red wine ingredients.

Give the following introduction of several dishes in the U.S. wine sauce.

Seasoning of wine – fried onion

When fried onions add some white wine, onions zoom can prevent, and maintain its good sell.

Practices:

1, put eggs in a large bowl tap, add some salt and pepper to fight absorbed; put onion, peeled, washed, cut into wire; 2, speculation锅里放a small amount of oil, fry onion fried after a while, shovel out;晾凉after fluid poured into the egg, mix. 3, put the mixture poured into the pot, add some white wine, stir and salt.

Seasoning of wine – mixed salad

Fruit salad approach is simple, crisp and refreshing nutrition, now more and more frequently appear in our table above.

Practices:

1, apples, bananas peeled and cut, put a microwave oven available in large bowl, 30 seconds into the microwave oven in the fire out. 2, boiled, cleaned raisins or microwave about 30 seconds to disinfect transit. 3, the block and raisins add fruit yogurt (or lemon juice), a small amount of white wine, can mix.

However, in order to remind everyone that usually is not the salad with red wine, but if one of the add vinegar, mouth feel will be passivated, so that the wine will lose its vitality. Lemonade is the wine good partner, because one of the citric acid and wine can coherent character.

Even the best gifted party organizer can feel a bit out of their comfort zone by all of the organization needed for an important party. There are many aspects that a person must consider to bring about a memorable gathering. One of the most important is what the guests are going to want. This would be the reason for calling in a catering company. A catering business can be made use of at just about any planned gathering to help with feeding the those there. Top notch service will have other materials that will be offered, such as chairs and decorations.

Being the planner of a party is not an/a simple job. Food, along with other things, must be thought about. Because of this need, catering service is an increasingly big business. The service shown by caterers has improved thanks to the business turning more competitive.

Before contacting a food professional, be sure to do some prior planning for the needs of your attendees. When you meet with the catering business, make sure they get it, and are going to consider with your ideas.

One more important part in meeting with the catering business is checking on the background itself. Any kind of needed paperwork or permits needs to already be ready to go. A sparkling reputation must also be a point in picking who to sign with. Maintaining a big menu with lots of various choices will assure that any person will get what they like. This can be very useful with important meet and greets.

When thinking about an event, various directions should be looked at with the service so that you can find the best one for the persons invited. Keep in mind that not all people will prefer the same entre. If the needs of the people are here and back, you want to seek out a place in between to meet the guests with. Once the easiest plan of action is set, the party will be one to remember.

Why not have tea parties at your coffee shop? You already have the elements that will make it work. Chances are your coffee shop serves tea to accommodate those guests that don’t like coffee. You will have tables, chairs, and plenty of cups to serve the drinks in. What you may not have are customers that are coming in during the afternoons and this type of arrangement can take care of some of that lag time.

You can schedule such tea parties one weekday afternoon and many people will make reservations to come. In fact you will likely see some regulars that come in every week. If that is too much for you though you can choose to feature them on Saturday or Sunday afternoon each month. Some parents may approach you to schedule a tea party for their child’s birthday as well.

You can choose to host elaborate tea parties with nice table clothes and napkins. These will be pricey for customers and they will likely dress up to attend. You can also offer those that are more moderate and people can come as they like to dress to enjoy the atmosphere and the company they are with. You will charge less for this type of event.

Think about what your guests to tea parties would be interested in having. You can offer several great flavors of tea for them to try out. You can also choose to offer tea sandwiches and delicate desserts. These sandwiches and desserts should be sample sized portions. Adding these items is likely to get you more business for your tea parties as they will get the entire package for one price.

Plan your tea parties well in advance so you have time to advertise. The first few you will likely need to really work on spreading the word. After that though you will probably have plenty of people eagerly waiting for them to roll around again. Keep a good log for reservations and don’t book more people than you easily have room to accommodate.

Another element you may want to add is some live entertainment. It can be someone to play an instrument, a short play, the reading of poetry, and anything else you may want to add. You can be sure tea party guests will also recommend other forms of entertainment they would like to see. Should you offer entertainment only do so for a portion of the tea party. This way your guests will have plenty of time to visit with each other as well.

Make sure you have enough time to properly train your staff on how to handle these tea parties. The quality of the service is going to be very important to the impression your guests will have of the experience. Keep in mind though you may need more staff to cover such events than you normally have scheduled for that time of day any other time.

If you haven’t considered using your coffee shop for hosting tea parties you may want to give it a try. It isn’t going to be difficult to get into motion and they should get a very nice crowd drawn in. Many of these adults may not have come to your coffee shop before. There is a very good chance they will start coming in on a regular basis as well as for future tea parties.

Many customers will ask if a restaurant serves alcohol or not. It seems to be a very common item that people are looking for. Not every business of this nature feels like it is appropriate though to offer it. For example you don’t see fast food locations offering mixed drinks or various beers for people to order. If you feel that your guests will want it though you are going to have to decide if it works for you or not.

There are some pros and cons to serving alcohol at your restaurant that you need to be aware of. For example some families enjoy restaurants where the adults can get wine or beer with their dinner. It will encourage them to bring in the entire family and that means more money in your pocket. Others though avoid such establishments with their children so you could be driving some people away.

If you want to do so, you will need to find out how to go about getting a liquor license. This can take some time to complete do make sure you work on it early. You don’t want to end up not having it when you open as it can be embarrassing. It can also give the impression that you aren’t taking your restaurant business seriously.

You will need to follow the law in order to go about getting a liquor license. You need to do this early as the process can take some time to complete. You also need to be prepared for the financial aspects of offering alcohol. Just building the bar, buying the alcohol, hiring a bartender, and paying for permits adds up very quickly to a sizable amount of money.

By the same token though, you can sale the alcohol for much more than you pay for it. We all know ordering a beer in a restaurant will cost us twice as much as buying one at the liquor store. So that is quite a bit of profit you can end up making on the drinks alone. That can be a very enticing reason to go ahead and offer it.

You can have wait staff that is old enough to work taking care of your guests. However, if they are under the drinking age they can’t serve the alcohol. This is something that you will need to work out the details of. Other wait staff may not appreciate having to cover their orders. They also may not have the time. Yet you don’t want to avoid hiring younger people who would be excellent employees either.

You also have to make sure every single one of the people you serve alcohol to is old enough for it. If they don’t have ID on them then they don’t get a drink – no exceptions. If you don’t believe the ID real then they shouldn’t get any alcohol offered to them either. Pay attention to how they are doing with it as well.

Guidelines need to be in place too for those who have obviously had enough to drink in your establishment. You do have the right to refuse to serve them alcohol. You don’t want to let them get behind the wheel of a vehicle either. If they don’t have someone to drive for them then call a cab to pick them up.