ARS Food and Nutrition Research Briefs Issued

By Kim Kaplan
April 25, 2012

Almonds can be treated with infrared heat and then hot-air roasting so they remain safe from Salmonella. Information on this process, called "SIRHA" (sequential infrared and hot air), is among the new nutrition and health findings noted in the newest issue of the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Food and Nutrition Research Briefs and its Spanish-language edition (Informe de investigaciones de alimentos y nutrición).

View the English edition here.

The popular online newsletter reports discoveries from researchers at ARS laboratories nationwide.

Other findings in the new issue:

• ARS researchers are providing data on dietary supplement intakes from information in the "What We Eat in America" survey.
  
  
• Even the smallest quantity of Salmonella may, in the future, be easily detected with a technology known as SERS, short for "surface-enhanced Raman scattering."
  
  
• ARS and the Department of Health and Human Services have teamed up to monitor levels of sodium in foods, particularly processed foods and ingredients.

ARS Food and Nutrition Research Briefs is offered with color photos and illustrations on the Web. And by clicking the "subscribe" link on the newsletter's home page, readers can sign up for two e-mail options: They can receive the full text of the newsletter by e-mail, or simply an advisory that a new issue has been posted to the Web.

ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief intramural scientific research agency.