Food and Wine
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Wikipedia-Article "Food"
Food is any substance that can be consumed, including liquid drinks. Food is the main source of energy and of nutrition for animals, and is usually of animal or plant origin.
The study of food is called food science. In English, the term food is often used metaphorically or figuratively, as in food for thought.
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Legal definition
Western food law defines four categories of object as food:
- any substance or product, whether processed, partially processed or unprocessed, intended to be, or reasonably expected to be ingested by humans whether of nutritional value or not;
- water and other drinks;
- chewing gum;
- articles and substances used as an ingredient or component in the preparation of food.
Links to official legal definitions of food:
Human eating habits
Historical development
Humans are commonly believed to be omnivorous animals that can consume both plant and animal products. Evidence suggests that early Homo Sapiens employed Hunter-gatherer as their primary means of food collection. This involves combining stationary plant and fungal food sources (such as fruits, grains, roots, and mushrooms) with mobile animals which must be hunted and killed in order to be consumed. Additionally, it is believed that humans have used fire to prepare food prior to eating since their divergence from Homo erectus, possibly even earlier.
At least ten thousand years ago, humans developed agriculture, which has altered the kind of food people eat. This has led to a variety of important historical consequences, such as increased population, the development of cities, and the wider spread of infectious diseases. The types of food consumed, and the way in which they are prepared has varied widely by time, location, and culture.
Meals
A portion of food or the act of eating a portion of food is considered a meal.
Often named and patterned, meals play a role in an important social occasion, such as the celebration of many key cultural and religious festivals.
A meal can be used as means for feeding a single individual or shared and eaten simultaneously by two or more people.
The number of meals consumed by individuals in a day, their size, composition, when and how they are prepared and eaten varies greatly around the world. This diversity can be attributed to a number of local factors, including climate, ecology, economy, cultural traditions and industrialisation.
In societies where the availability of food has risen above subsistence levels and beyond staple foods, meals are also sold pre-prepared for immediate consumption in restaurants and other similar retail premises.
Food eaten in smaller quantities between the culturally normative meals is regarded as snack food.
- See also: Appetite, Buddhist cuisine, Eucharist, Fast food, Fasting, Gault Millau restaurant guide, Halaal, I-tal, Kashrut, Michelin restaurant guide, Muslim dietary laws, Potluck, Totemism.
Food production or acquisition
Food is traditionally obtained through farming, ranching, and fishing, with hunting, foraging and other methods of subsistence locally important for some populations, but minor for others.
In the modern era in developed nations, food supply is increasingly dependent upon agriculture, industrial farming, aquaculture and fish farming techniques. These techniques aim to maximize the amount of food produced while minimizing the cost. The techniques include a reliance on mechanized tools, from the threshing machine and seed drill, to the tractor and combine. Developed tools have been combined with the use of pesticides to promote high crop yields and to combat insects or mammals which reduce yield.
More recently, there has been a growing trend towards more Sustainable agricultural practices. This approach - which is partly fuelled by consumer demand - encourages biodiversity, local self-reliance and Organic farming methods.
Major influences on food production are international policy, e.g. the World Trade Organization and Common Agricultural Policy, national government policy or law and war.
Food for livestock is fodder and traditionally comprises hay or grain.
- See also: mariculture, horticulture, agribusiness, gardening.
From plants
- Seeds
- Vegetables (see also list of vegetables)
- Root vegetables, including potatoes, cassava, and turnips
- Leaf vegetables, including amaranth, spinach, and kale
- Sea vegetables, including dulse, kombu, and dabberlocks
- Stem vegetables, including bamboo shoots, nopales, and asparagus
- inflorescence vegetables, including globe artichokes, broccoli, and daylilies
- Fruit vegetables, including pumpkin, okra, and eggplant
- Fruits (see also list of fruits)
- Herbs and spices (see also list of herbs and spices)
From animals
- Dairy products, including milk
- Eggs, including roe and caviar
- Insects, including honey
- Meat, including beef, frogs' legs, goat, horse, kangaroo, lamb, mutton, pork, veal, rodents, human (i.e. cannibalism)
- Offal, including blood
- Poultry, including chicken, turkey, duck, goose, pigeon or dove, ostrich, emu, guinea fowl, pheasant, quail
- Seafood, including finfish such as salmon and tilapia, and shellfish such as mollusks and crustaceans
- Snails
- Game, this includes all animals hunted for food.
From neither animals or plants
- Salt
- Mushrooms, which are a type of fungi
- Seaweed, which is a protist
- Water, including mineral water and spring (water)
Food preparation
- Main article: Cooking
While some food can be eaten without preparation, many foods undergo some form of preparation for reasons of safety, palatability, or flavor. At the simplest level this may involve washing, cutting, trimming or adding other foods or ingredients, such as spices. It may also involve mixing, heating or cooling, pressure cooking, fermentation, or combination with other food. Most food preparation takes place in a kitchen.
The preparation of animal-based food will usually involve slaughter, evisceration, hanging, portioning and rendering.
- See also: Barbecue, Eating utensils, Frankfurt kitchen, Hangi, Oven, Microwave oven, Refrigeration, Food preparation utensils.
Food manufacture
Early food processing techniques were limited by the available food preservation, packaging and transportation. Early food processing mainly involved salting, curing, curdling, drying, pickling and smoking. An early processed food product was cheese.
During the industrialisation era in the 19th century, food manufacturing arose. This development took advantage of new mass markets and emerging new technology, such as milling, preservation, packaging and labelling and transportation. It brought the advantages of pre-prepared time saving food to the bulk of ordinary people who did not employ domestic servants.
At the start of the 21st century, a two-tier structure has arisen, with a few international food processing giants controlling a wide range of well known food brands; with a populous number of small local or national food processing companies.
- See also: Best before, Canning, Coloring, Food quality, Snap freezing, Additives, Flavoring, Enzymes, Genetically modified food, Pasteurization, Shelf-life, Ultra-high temperature processing.
Types of manufactured food
- Drinks: beer, juice, soft drink, squash, wine.
- Bread is a staple food for many nations, being made of risen dough of wheat or other cereals.
- Cakes and cookies
- Cheese is a curdled milk product, of which many varieties exist.
- Dessert is a course, usually sweet, and generally served after the main course, e.g. Ice cream.
- French fries, Chips
- Functional food
- Jam and Jelly
- Pasta
- Pie
- Pizza
- Processed meats
- Sandwiches
- Salad
- Sauce
- Sausage
Food trade
Food is now traded on a global basis. The variety and availability of food is no longer restricted by the diversity of locally grown food or the limitations of the local growing season. Between 1961 and 1999 there has been a 400% increase in worldwide food exports. Some countries are now economically dependent on food exports, which in some cases account for over 80% of all exports.
In 1994 trade liberalisation began when over 100 countries became signatories to the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade which included an agreement to reduce subsidies paid to farmers. This is underpinned by the WTO enforcement of agricultural subsidy, tariffs, import quotas and settlement of trade disputes that cannot be bilaterally resolved. Where trade barriers are raised on the disputed grounds of public health and safety, the WTO refer the dispute to the Codex Alimentarius Commission, which was founded in 1962 by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization.
Food retailing
The sale of surplus food traditionally took place once a week when farmers took their wares on market day, into the local village market place. Here food was sold to grocers for sale in their local shops for purchase by local people.
With the onset of industrialisation, and the development of the food processing industry, a wider range of food could be sold and distributed in distant locations. Typically early grocery shops would be counter-based shops, in which purchasers told the shop-keeper what they wanted, so that the shop-keeper could get it for them.
In the 20th century supermarkets were born. Supermarkets brought with them a self-service approach to shopping using shopping carts (or Trollies in Commonwealth English) and were able to offer quality food at lower cost, through economies of scale and reduced staffing costs. This was sometimes known as 'pile it high' In the latter part of the 20th century, this has been further revolutionised by the development of vast warehouse sized out-of-town supermarkets, selling an extraordinarily wide range of food from around the world.
Unlike food processors, food retailing is a two-tier market in which a small number of very large companies control a large proportion of supermarkets. The supermarket giants wield great purchasing power over farmers and processors, and strong influence over consumers. Nevertheless, in 2000 only 19% of all US consumer expenditure spent on food went to farmers.
Recent technological innovations such as point of sale technology - barcodes. This allows ordering of goods and food to be driven by actual sales.
Food sufficiency
Food deprivation leads to malnutrition and ultimately starvation. This is often connected with famine, which involves the absence of food in entire communities. This can have a devastating and widespread effect on human health and mortality. In 2003 it was estimated that each year, 40 million people die of hunger worldwide. Rationing is sometimes used to distribute food in times of shortage, most notably during times of war.
Food deprivation is regarded as a deficit need in Maslow's hierarchy of needs and is measured using famine scales.
Food aid
Food aid can benefit people suffering from a shortage of food. Conversely, badly managed food aid can cause problems by disrupting local markets, depressing crop prices and discouraging food production. Its provision, or threatened withdrawal, is sometimes used as a political tool to influence the politics of the destination country. International efforts to distribute food to the neediest countries are co-ordinated by the World Food Programme.
- See also: Fair trade, food security.
Food safety
Foodborne illness, commonly called "food poisoning," is caused by bacteria, toxins, viruses and prions. Food poisoning has been recognised as a disease of man since as early as Hippocrates. Murder by food poisoning was used during the Roman Empire. In the Middle Ages all Royal Courts had food tasters.
The sale of rancid, contaminated or adulterated food was commonplace until introduction of hygiene, refrigeration, and vermin controls in the 19th century. Discovery of techniques for killing bacteria using heat and other microbiological studies by scientists such as Louis Pasteur contributed to the modern sanitation standards that we enjoy today. This was further underpinned by the work of Justus von Liebig whose work led to the development of modern food storage and food preservation methods.
The two most common factors leading to cases of bacterial foodborne illness are cross-contamination of ready-to-eat food from other uncooked foods and improper temperature control.
Less commonly, acute adverse reactions can also occur if chemical contamination of food occurs, for example from improper storage, or use of non-food grade soaps and disinfectants. Food can also be adulterated by a very wide range of articles (known as 'foreign bodies') during farming, manufacture, cooking, packaging, distribution or sale. For example, pests (or their feces), hairs, cigarette butts, wood chips, metal shards, plasters etc. It is possible for certain types of food to become contaminated if stored or presented in an unsafe container, such as a ceramic pot with lead-based glaze.
Understanding of the causes of food-borne-illnesses and more systematic techniques for their elimination has led to the development of commercial systems such as HACCP which can, if properly implemented, identify and eliminate many, but not all, possible risks. HACCP is well suited to identifying and controlling these potential food safety risks.
Food allergies
Some people have food allergies or sensitivities to foods which are otherwise wholesome to the majority of people.
The amount of the food substance required to provoke a reaction in a susceptible individual can be minute. For instance, tiny amounts of food in the air, too minute to be smelled, have been known to provoke lethal reactions in sufficiently sensitive individuals. In theory, any food may provoke a reaction, however, this most commonly involves gluten, corn, shellfish (mollusks), peanuts, and soy.
Most patients present with diarrhea after ingesting certain foodstuffs, skin symptoms (rashes), bloating, vomiting and regurgitation. The digestive complaints usually develop within half an hour of ingesting the allergen.
Rarely, food allergy can lead to anaphylactic shock: hypotension (low blood pressure) and loss of consciousness. This is a medical emergency. An allergen associated with this type of reaction is peanut, although latex products can induce similar reactions. Initial treatment is with epinephrine (adrenaline), often carried by known patients in the form of an Epi-pen.
Food allergy is thought to develop easier in patients with the atopic syndrome, a very common combination of diseases: allergic rhinitis and conjunctivitis, eczema and asthma. The syndrome has a strong inherited component; a family history of these diseases can be indicative of the atopic syndrome.
Dietary habits
Dietary habits play a significant role in the health and mortality of all humans. For example:
- Eating disorders are a group of mental disorders that interfere with normal food consumption. They often affect people with a negative body image;
- 13% of the world's population suffer from Iodine deficiency;
- In 2003 it was estimated that vitamin A deficiency causes blindness in up to 500,000 children each year;
- Vitamin C deficiency results in scurvy;
- Calcium, Vitamin D and Phosphorus are inter-related. The consumption of each may affect the absorption of the others.
- Kwashiorkor and marasmus are childhood disorders caused by lack of dietary protein.
- Obesity, a serious problem in the western world, leads to higher chances of developing heart disease, diabetes, and many other diseases.
Concerns about foodborne illness have long influenced diet. Traditionally humans have learned to avoid foods that induce acute illness. Some believe that this is the underlying rationale behind some traditional religious dietary requirements. Additionally, many people choose to forgo food from animal sources to varying degrees; see vegetarianism, veganism, fruitarianism, living foods diet, and raw foodism.
The nutrient content of diets in industrialised countries contain more animal fat, sugar, energy, alcohol and less dietary fiber, carbohydrates and antioxidants. Contemporary changes to work, family and exercise patterns, together with concerns about the effect of nutrition and overeating on human health and mortality are all having an effect on traditional eating habits. Physicians and alternative medicine practitioners may recommend changes to diet as part of their recommendations for treatment.
More recently, dietary habits have been influenced by the concerns that some people have about the chronic impact on health that arise through the consumption of genetically modified food. Further concerns about the impact of industrial farming on animal welfare, human health and the environment are also having an effect on contemporary human dietary habits. This has led to the emergence of a counterculture with a preference for organic and local food.
- See also: Food faddism, Health claims on food labels, list of diets, Slow Food.
Nutrients in food
- Calcium
- Carbohydrate
- Essential amino acids
- Fat
- Iron
- Minerals
- Phytochemicals, including anti-oxidants, enzymes, bio-flavinoids
- Potassium
- Protein
- Sodium
- Starch
- Vitamins
- Water
See also
Wikipedia-Article "Wine"
- This article is about the beverage. See WINE (software) for an article about the software of the same name.
Wine is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting grapes or grape juice. Wine-like beverages can also be made from other fruits or from flowers, grains, and even honey; in such cases, however, a qualifier is often legally required (e.g., "elderberry wine" ). The English word wine and its equivalents in other languages are protected by law in many jurisdictions.
This article is about grape wine. For non-grape wines, see country wine for fruit and flower wine, barley wine (which is similar to beer), sake for rice wine, baijiu for the Chinese spirits sometimes transliterated as "wine," and mead for honey wine.
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History
The word wine comes from the the Old English win, which derives from the Proto-Germanic *winam which was an early borrowing from the Latin vinum (related to Greek οἶνος), which can mean either the "wine" or the "vine".
The earliest known evidence of a fermented wine-like drink is from the Chinese village of Jiahu dated from 6000 to 7000 BC [1]. The wine, found in 16 buried jars, contained millet, rice, beeswax (from honey) and either hawthorn fruit or wild grape. A 3,000 year old bronze jar has also been unearthed, still containing a similar liquid wine.
Ancient pottery jars discovered at Hajji Firuz Tepe in the Zagros Mountains of present-day Iran, near the city of Urmia [2], indicate that grape wine was produced as far back as 5,500 BC. It is believed that the name of the Shiraz grape originates from the Persian town of the same name. This discovery is particularly significant, as Hajji Firuz Tepe was not a grape-growing area, the main crops being grains and the preferred drink of the time was beer. As ancient Babylon was located on the Silk Road from China to the Mediterranean, all indications suggest that wine was probably used as a commodity for trade.
In ancient Egypt, wine played an important part in ceremonial life. Although wild grapes were never grown there, a thriving royal winemaking industry had been established in the Nile Delta. The industry was most likely the result of trade between Egypt and Canaan during the Early Bronze Age, commencing from at least the Third Dynasty (2650 – 2575 BC), the beginning of the Old Kingdom period (2650 – 2152 BC). Winemaking scenes on tomb walls, and the offering lists that accompanied them, included wine that was definitely produced at the deltaic vineyards. By the end of the Old Kingdom, five wines, all probably produced in the Delta, constitute a canonical set of provisions, or fixed "menu," for the afterlife. Christianity included wine in its rites where it takes the place of the blood of Jesus in the liturgies of Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran and Anglican Christians. The advent of wine in Europe was the work of the Greeks who spread the art of grape-growing and winemaking in Ancient Greece and Roman times.
Wine-producing regions
Wine grapes grow almost exclusively between thirty and fifty north and between thirty and forty five degrees south of the Equator. The world's most southerly vineyards are in the South Island of New Zealand near the 45th parallel.
The 13 largest export nations(2005 dates) – Italy, France, Spain, Australia, Chile, the United States of America, Germany, South Africa, Portugal, Moldova, Hungary, Croatia and Argentina. In the United States, California accounts for the largest share of wine producers, including Napa Valley, Sonoma Valley, Paso Robles, Santa Ynez and Temecula wineries. The vineyards of Algeria used to produce many fine wines, especially during and immediately after the era of French colonization, but the resurgence of Islam among the populace since the 1970s has greatly reduced this industry.
The leaders in export volume by market share in 2003 were:
- France, 22%
- Italy, 20%
- Spain, 16%
- Australia, 8%
- Chile, 6%
- United States, 5%
- Portugal 4%
- Germany 4%..
See also: List of wine-producing regions
Wine grape varieties
Wine is usually made from one or more varieties of the European species, Vitis vinifera. When one of these varieties, such as Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, or Zinfandel, for example, is used as the predominant grape (usually defined by law as a minimum of 75 or 85%) the result is a varietal, as opposed to a blended wine. Blended wines are in no way inferior to varietal wines; indeed, some of the world's most valued and expensive wines from the Bordeaux, Rioja or Tuscany regions, are a blend of several grape varieties of the same vintage.
Wine can also be made from Vitis labrusca, from other species or from the hybrid of two species. Vitis labrusca, Vitis aestivalis, Vitis rupestris, Vitis rotundifolia and Vitis riparia are native North American grapes, usually used for eating in fruit form or made into grape juice, but sometimes used for wine, eg. Concord wine. Although only rarely used and generally prohibited by law in traditional wine regions, hybrids are planted in substantial numbers in cool-climate viticultural areas.
Hybrids are not to be confused with the practice of grafting a North American vine's root to the stock of a vinifera varietal. This is common practice because North American grape species are immune to phylloxera. Grafting is done in every wine-producing country of the World except for Chile, which has yet to be exposed to the bug.
The variety of the land, the local yeast cultures and the climate and conditions under which grapes are grown, (called "terroir") combined to offer a great variety among wine products, which are further increased by the fermentation process itself and by improvements attained with proper aging, sometimes for several decades or more. However, variety is not in itself a sought-after quality for large producers of table wine or more affordable wines, where consistency is more important for large and modern factory wines, and mass-market wine brands. Their producers will try to hide any hint of often-unremarkable "terroirs", or climatically under-performing harvest years, by:
- blending harvests of various years and vineyards;
- pasteurizing the grape juice in order to kill indigenous yeasts (to be replaced with "choice" cultivated yeasts); and
- using flavor additives.
See also: List of grape varieties
Classification of wine
By vinification methods
Wines may be classified by vinification methods. These include classifications such as sparkling, still, fortified, rosé, and blush. The colour of wine is not determined by the juice of the grape, which is almost always clear, but rather by the presence or absence of the grape skin during fermentation. Grapes with colored juice are known as teinturiers. Red wine is made from red (or black) grapes, but its red colour is bestowed by the skin being left in contact with the juice during fermentation. White wine can be made from any colour of grape as the skin is separated from the juice during fermentation. A white wine made from a very dark grape may appear pink or 'blush'. Rosé wines are a compromise between reds and whites: the skin of red grapes is left in for a short time during fermentation, or a small amount of red wine is blended with a white wine.
Sparkling wines, such as champagne, are those with carbon dioxide, either from fermentation or added later. They vary from just a slight bubbliness to the classic Champagne. To have this effect, the wine is fermented twice, once in an open container to allow the carbon dioxide to escape into the air, and a second time in a sealed container, where the gas is caught and remains in the wine. In France, wines that gain their carbonation from the traditional method of bottle fermentation are called Méthode Traditionnelle. Other international denominations of sparkling wine include Sekt or Schaumwein (Germany), Cava (Spain), Spumante or Prosecco (Italy). In most countries except the United States, champagne is legally defined as sparkling wine originating from a region in France.
Fortified wines are often sweeter, always more alcoholic wines that have had their fermentation process stopped by the addition of a spirit, such as brandy. They include:
Brandy is a distilled wine. Grappa is a dry colorless brandy, distilled from fermented grape pomace, the pulpy residue of grapes, stems and seeds that were pressed for the winemaking process.
By taste
Wines may be also classified by their primary impression on the drinker's palate. They are made up of chemical compounds which are similar to those in fruits, vegetables, and spices. Different grape varieties are associated with the aromas and tastes of different compounds. Wines may be described as 'dry' (meaning they are without sugar), off-dry, fruity, or sweet, for example. The sweetness of wines can be measured in brix, at harvest, but is in actuality determined by the amount of residual sugar in the wine after fermentation. Dry wine, for example, has only a tiny amount of residual sugar. Specific flavors may also be sensed, at least by an experienced taster, due to the highly complex mix of organic molecules, such as esters, that a fully vinted wine contains.
White grapes
- Sauvignon Blanc: Gooseberry, asparagus.
- Sémillon: Honey, orange, lime.
- Chardonnay: Butter, melon, apple, pineapple, vanilla (if oaked, i.e. vinified in new oak aging barrels)
- Chenin Blanc: Wet wood, beeswax, honey, apple, almond.
- Riesling: Citrus fruits, petrol, honey.
- Gewürztraminer: Rose petals, lychee, spice.
- Viognier: Peach, pear, nutmeg, apricot.
- Marsanne: Almond, honeysuckle, marzipan.
- Meursault: Full-bodied, dry, oak.
Red grapes
- Gamay: Banana, bubble-gum, red fruits.
- Pinot Noir: Raspberry, cherry, violets, "farmyard" (with age).
- Zinfandel: Black cherry, mixed spices, mint.
- Shiraz (Syrah):