Food Waste and Food Safety
- An update on Herbal-Active® – a natural preservative
This email is an update on Herbal-Active®, a new natural preservative beginning to replace benzoates and sorbates in a wide range of foodstuffs and cosmetics. Natural preservatives pose a host of challenges in developing their application potential. As with chemical preservatives, the presence or absence of organic matter, liquid phases (oil and/or water), pH, microbial loads […] - Herbal-Active® and extending shelf life of cut flowers
This is a recent press release on the use of Herbal-Active® solution as a means of extending the shelf life of cut flowers: MEDIA RELEASE Secret herbs control rot in Roses A chance application of a product formulated by Cherikoff Bioactives may have revealed a way to control grey mould (Botrytis cinerea) in cut roses (and a wide range […] - Herbal-Active® now approved for organics
You might observe that I don’t use the word preservatives or even natural preservative when talking about Herbal-Active® because it generally refers to synthetic chemical agents for shelf life extension. While Herbal-Active® achieves the same result, considering it as a natural antimicrobial also provides insights into the main method of application ie as an ingredient […] - Hummus, hommus or hommous, stability is key
My new powdered formulation (on Acacia gum or potato starch) is now showing extremely good results used in hummus. One manufacturer in the USA is happy with the 14 weeks (and still counting) chilled shelf life which Chef Wayne Philen, a colleague of mine working in association with the Food Innovation Center in Portland, Oregon […] - Additives of food cause hyperactivity reactions
A recent article about a new, carefully controlled study on sodium benzoate (a common food preservative) and food colourings in foods showed that some artificial additives increase hyperactivity and decrease attention span in a wide range of children, not just those for whom over-activity has been diagnosed as a learning problem. See the New York Times report […] - Australian food – a natural preservative, I mean flavour
I came up with a very useful technique in preserving food this week using my natural preservative, Herbal-Active®. The essential oils and leaf extracts from the culinary herbs I use in my new food flavouring (read natural food preservative) have challenged me over retarding the growth of molds. But before I get into this, let me give you […] - Functional food as a Natural Preservative
I have spent years scouring the literature, supervising and advising post-graduate projects in research and conducting benchtop trials on natural preservatives and the anti-microbial properties of extracts of a range of indigenous Australian herbs. Finally, I have formulated a food flavouring I call Herbal-Active® which just happens to be strongly anti-microbial at the tiny addition rate of 0.05%. […]
