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How Water Activity Relates to Microbial Growth
Ever wondered why you can’t store a peach at room temperature for several days, but why a peach flavored candy or peach jam will stay good for years? Or why fresh chilis may turn moldy in the fridge, whereas dried…
Herb Science – Where Does the Flavour of Basil Come From?
The other day we bought a beautiful fresh bunch of basil. Whereas you can use the dried version of a lot of herbs in a lot of recipes, I find that basil is almost always best when you use it…
How Yogurt Is Made – In a Factory and At Home
Just like a sourdough starter, yogurt is a self supplying food. Once you’ve got yogurt, all you need is extra milk and some patience. With those you continue making new yogurt from your yogurt! Just as with a sourdough starter,…
The Science of Lactic Acid Fermentation in Food
Yogurt, sauerkraut, pickles, none of these products would exist without lactic acid fermentation. This is a series of chemical reactions that transforms your ingredients into something pretty different (and delicious) thanks to lactic acid bacteria. In this post we’ll explore…
The Science of Preserving Cherries (+ How to Use Candied Cherries)
You can find these bright red, slightly translucent fruits on top of cocktails, or topping off your refreshing sundae. The British also like to put them on top of their cakes. I’m talking about glacé or candied cherries. They have…
The Science of Making Jam (Fruit Jelly)
If you have fruit trees in your garden you’re probably also swamped with fruit during certain times of the year. All of a sudden, you’ve got 5kg of figs and 20kg of apples. And not enough time to eat them…
Food spoilage – Rancidity and food chemistry
Ever found back an old bag of peanuts that just didn’t taste or smell good anymore? A little sour maybe but otherwise just not as good as a fresh peanut? Or have you had a similar experience, but with butter? It’s…
How to Determine The Shelf Life of Your Product
How long do muffins remain fresh? When does sausage start to spoil? How long can you store that cheese for? As a consumer, you’d use the dates on the product, and your common sense to determine whether something is still…
How Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) Keeps Vegetables Fresh
Ever tried to squeeze all the air out of a pack of pre-cut vegetables? Noticed that instead of collapsing, it would just let out all air and return to its original size once you stopped pressing? Ever had a closer…
An Introduction to Good & Bad Microorganisms in Food
Food Science is at the heart of this blog, however, in most cases we’ll be applying food science, assuming you’ve got a basic understanding of the food science concepts. Realizing that not everyone knows these basics, we’ve got a series…
How to Choose and Store Fresh Strawberries
Summer’s there! Warm temperatures, sun and long long light days. Living in the Netherlands, summer is no guarantee for nice weather, rain and cold(er) days are no exception. Summer for me is a synonym for berries, more specifically strawberries. It’s…
Making sauerkraut – start of my experiment
This month I try to focus all of my posts on the science of fruits and vegetables (I call it fruit & vegetable science month!). Then, this morning, I was browsing through the internet and ran into a (Dutch) post…