The Malaysian Insider :: Food
The Malaysian Insider :: Food |
| Eataly opens gastronomic megastore in Milan Posted: 18 Mar 2014 08:26 PM PDT Eataly, which began with the idea that there should be a place to buy, eat and study high-quality Italian food and wine, has 25 food emporiums in the United States, Turkey, Japan and Dubai. The company, which plans to float shares in 2017, is taking advantage of investor appetite for Italian companies that make artisanal or luxury products. Milan's main stock market has seen four share sales in the past three years and all have been high-end consumer goods firms. The 5,000 square-metre space, one of the chain's largest, is important for the company as Milan is Italy's "most metropolitan" city, where it previously had only one 250-square-metre store, founder Oscar Farinetti said at the event. "From here we will branch out around the world, to Moscow, Sao Paolo, London, Paris, Los Angeles," Farinetti said. Shoppers queued outside the four-storey converted theatre, where jars of pesto and pureed tomato lined the shelves and open-plan restaurants offered cuts of raw meat and fish. Farinetti said the company sourced local goods from the Lombardy region surrounding Milan, in line with its stated aim to educate people about what they consume. "We have celebrated the beauty of agriculture and food in Lombardy, which hardly anyone knows is Italy's most important region for agriculture," Farinetti said. Farinetti expects the shop, which resounded with the music of a piano played on a balcony under a glass ceiling, to reach a turnover of 40 million euros (RM131.02 million) a year. "This is a flagship for the country," said 60 year-old retiree Rosella Assandri, eyeing the fish counter. "Tourists can come here and try new things and appreciate the best of Italy." Products from tinned tuna to jars of pasta sauce made from hare meat had placards explaining the origins of their brands, highlighting the diverse nature of Italy's food industry. "Behind this big operation is the work of thousands and thousands of small artisans, that face challenges like bureaucracy but still keep the image of Italy alive," said Carlo Petrini, founder of non-profit organisation Slow Food, which promotes the idea of sourcing ingredients locally without harming the environment and treating small producers fairly. Other institutions in Italy, struggling to emerge from its longest recession in seventy years, could learn from Eataly's example in promoting part of the national identity, art critic and former junior culture minister Vittorio Sgarbi told Reuters. "How can we make the most of our cultural heritage? Look around you," Sgarbi said, gesturing towards a kitchen area where aproned chefs rolled dough into pasta shapes. "We could bring our artistic heritage to life in this way too." – Reuters, March 19, 2014. |
| Children’s preferences for sweet and salty tastes linked, shows study Posted: 18 Mar 2014 06:09 PM PDT The study, which was published in the journal PLOS ONE, suggests that biology contributes to our enjoyment of sweet and salty foods, which are high in calories and sodium, respectively. Lead author Julie Mennella, PhD, a biopsychologist at Monell and her colleagues tested 108 children between 5 and 10 years old, as well as their mothers, for salty and sweet preferences. The same testing method was used for both, who sampled "broth and crackers that varied in salt content, and sugar water and jellies that varied in sugar content". Mennella's method is designed to scientifically determine taste preferences, even in young children. This is accomplished by having them compare and pick their favourites concerning two different levels of a particular taste, then comparing that favourite with another taste over and over "until the most favourite is identified". The research team also asked mothers and children to list foods and beverages they consumed in the past 24 hours in order to gauge daily sodium, calorie, and added sugar intake. Subjects provided a saliva sample genotyped for a sweet receptor gene, and a urine sample that measured levels of Ntx, a marker for bone growth. Weight, height and body fat percentage were measured in each subject as well. Two-thirds of the children taking part in the study were overweight or obese, and consumed twice the recommended levels of sodium. Their added sugar intake was about 20 teaspoons, or 300 calories, daily. After analysing data from the experiment, researchers found sweet and salty preferences were linked in children, and were generally higher than adult preferences. They also found children's taste preferences "related to measures of growth and development", as children who were tall for their age favoured sweeter solutions, while children with higher amounts of body fat went for saltier soups. An indication that higher sweet preferences relates to bone growth spurts was also found, however this confirmation requires further study with a larger group of children. "Our research shows that the liking of salty and sweet tastes reflects in part the biology of the child," noted Mennella. "Growing children's heightened preferences for sweet and salty tastes make them more vulnerable to the modern diet, which differs from the diet of our past, when salt and sugars were once rare and expensive commodities." A link between sweet and salty preference was found in adults as well. Unlike with the children, the adults' sweet receptor genotype correlated to the most-favoured sweetness level. "There are inborn genetic differences that affect the liking for sweet by adults," says collaborator Danielle Reed, PhD, "but for children, other factors – perhaps the current state of growth – are stronger influences than genetics." With US children currently consuming much higher amounts of salt and sugar than recommended and The World Health Organization, American Heart Association, US Department of Agriculture and Institute of Medicine all recommending significant decreases in sugar and salt intake for children, understanding the basic biology that drives the desire for sweet and salty tastes in children can play a role in "developing more insightful and informed strategies for promoting healthy eating that meet the particular needs of growing children", Mennella remarked, regarding the implications of her research. – AFP/Relaxnews, March 19, 2014. |
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