Malaysia Veterinary Forum (Archive)

Dr. TanDY · Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 8:32 pm Post subject: [News]Taste of the future

Amid food scares, companies are targeting the health-conscious with niche products.

Source: NST

Date: 2 May 2006

WITH bird flu and mad cow disease fuelling food scares across the region, companies are plugging “safe” alternatives such as liquid eggs and ostrich meat to tempt health-conscious consumers.

The products appear alongside other niche foods, including halal dim sum, at Asia’s top international food and hospitality trade fair in Singapore recently, that offers a taste of the future.

The US Poultry and Egg Export Council’s pavilion at the Food and Hotel Asia event showcases liquid and powdered eggs in the hope of gaining a bigger market share in the region.

The threat of bird flu, which has killed more than 100 people worldwide since late 2003, mostly in Asia, has sparked a health scare that prompted some countries to ban imports of birds and poultry products from affected areas.

Almost all human cases have occurred in people who have had close contact with, or eaten, sick birds. Although there is no evidence that humans have caught the deadly virus from consuming eggs, the US export council is eyeing an opportunity.

“People now are very conscious about safety,” said the council’s regional director Margaret Say.

“With our product, people can still eat eggs safely. And you don’t have to worry about supply shortages,” she said, adding that liquid eggs do not have the shell on which bacteria can cling to.

Apart from being food on the table, liquid and powdered eggs can also be used as ingredients for cakes and a range of local cuisines.

“We are trying to market this in the Asean region,” Say said, referring to Southeast Asia.

With fears of mad cow disease still lingering across the region as sporadic cases emerge among cattle in beef-exporting countries, ostrich farmers are looking to sell the meat of the flightless bird as an alternative.

A brochure by South African food firm Mosstrich Ltd describes ostrich meat as “the choice of kings, queens, gourmet chefs, sport and health fanatics” because of its flavour and nutritional benefits.

The ostriches, raised in the Southern Cape region, produce meat which is extremely low in calories and cholesterol, has very little fat and is high in protein.

Jimmy Wright, marketing manager at Mosstrich, said it was just as versatile, with cuts such as fillet steak and loin available and deboned meat for use in everything from sausages to carpaccio.

Reflecting the growing trend to cater to the needs of the Muslim community in the host city and elsewhere, Singaporean company KG Food is promoting halal “dim sum” — Chinese dumplings — and “paus” or steamed buns.

Mona Sim, KG’s senior marketing manager, said the decision to produce halal dim sum emerged from a desire to introduce the Chinese delicacies to Singapore’s Malay Muslim community.

Singapore is an ethnically diverse city-state, with the Chinese making up majority of the population but with substantial Malay Muslim and Indian minorities.

“We get to eat Malay food, but our Muslim friends cannot. So we thought of making a range of Chinese food halal, including dim sum and paus,” she said.

While the company has exported small amounts to Indonesia and Dubai, it aims to eventually expand outside the tiny Singapore market, especially into the Middle East, Sim said.

More than 2,300 exhibiting companies are participating in the trade event, 81 per cent of them from abroad. — AFP

Dr csh · Joined: 21 Jan 2006 Posts: 425

What a load of baloney,

Lets dissect the article,

Quote: WITH bird flu and mad cow disease fuelling food scares across the region, companies are plugging “safe” alternatives such as liquid eggs and ostrich meat to tempt health-conscious consumers.

How liquid egg or ostrich meat reduce the risk of bird flu or mad cow disease? firstly mad cow disease is a disease in CATTLE not humans. It is said to be linked with the human disease nv-CJD but no cases has ever been reported outside europe.

Quote: Almost all human cases have occurred in people who have had close contact with, or eaten, sick birds. Although there is no evidence that humans have caught the deadly virus from consuming eggs, the US export council is eyeing an opportunity.

You see, NO CASE from eating eggs so why the heck are we worried about eggs???? Then you read the last part, an opportunity to increase export... Ahhhh.... to trick uninformed people into thinking they are reducing the risk of birdflu from zero to 0. In case you haven't noticed, it is the SAME non risk factor.

Quote: “With our product, people can still eat eggs safely. And you don’t have to worry about supply shortages,” she said, adding that liquid eggs do not have the shell on which bacteria can cling to.

Bacteria??? Geez, bird flu is caused by a VIRUS. You would think they'd do some reading before making a comment like that. It is just silly that a person who doesn't know that bird flu is caused by an Orthomyxovirus is talking to us about how to reduce risk. Then there is the factor of the virus itself. The flu virus is an enveloped virus which means it needs an intact phospholipid envelop to be able to infect. These phospholipid envelopes are easily destroyed in the environment and should not linger outside the host for long. I think it was 2 weeks or something like that. Then again, we generally cook the eggs which destroys the virus and finally NOBODY HAS DEVELOPED THE DISEASE WITHOUT DIRECT CONTACT OF LIVE OR RECENTLY KILLED BIRDS. So why are we even worried about it?

It is sad that NST did not screen the stories through a scientific panel... You would think they could hire somebody to read through their stories to avoid embarrasment like that. This is a bad article for a couple more reasons. The title says "Amid food scares, companies are targeting the health-conscious with niche products." but at the end they talk about a completely different thing. What does halal dim sum have to do with the topic and what trade event were they talking about in the end???? Geez.