Edible Matter Research Articles

Microbial Theatricality: <i>Selfmade</i>, Celebrity, and Scales of Hunger

In 2013, Christina Agapakis, a UCLA postdoctoral fellow in molecular biology, swabbed celebrities' armpits, belly buttons, and feet for microbial samples to make cheese. The “human-made” cheese resulted in the art exhibition Selfmade, a sensory installation inviting audience members to confront intimate and smelly relationships between humans and microbes, all through fermented edible matter. Artist Olafur Eliasson, food journalist Michael Pollan, and baker and writer Ruby Tandoh all offered their bodies as cultivators for cheese production. The prominent figures, and their companion bacteria, validate and complicate the relations that Selfmade claims to produce. At first glance, the installation invites a sensory entanglement with nonhuman matter. There is, of course, more than meets the eye. Hunger, eating, and even cooking are not exclusive to humans but perhaps intrinsic to planetary life. Human, celebrity, and microbial actors blur across the many mediums materialized in the food performance. As much as Selfmade is a nonhuman performance, it is also because of its very humanness, celebrity, and theatricality that we find an essential entanglement in food and performance studies: a nearly imperceptible (or non-sensible) proximity of human and nonhuman, at the microscopic scale.

“Of spicerie of leef, and bark, and roote”: Recombinative Materiality in the Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale

ABSTRACT Geoffrey Chaucer’s Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale offers a rich case study of the dynamic materiality of food and its relation to literary practice. A particularly complex version of what Jane Bennett describes as “edible matter,” spices challenge our assumptions about material passivity, both because of their well-documented allure and because of their charismatic but finally insubstantial quality as a foodstuff. Typically ground, sieved, and combined with other ingredients in such a way that their tangible material substance virtually disappeared, their presence was known only by the traces of flavor, aroma, and color that they imparted. Spices thus model a recombinative materiality that was attractive to Chaucer precisely because spice can do what rhetorical and literary language can do: it can color, it can add flavor, it can obscure, it can augment, it can make one thing appear to be another thing.

Effect of the Quail Phenotype and Breeding Age on Egg Laying and Characteristics

In order to evaluate the effect of phenotype and quail age on laying rate and egg characteristics, a study has been carried out in Ngaoundere from February to August 2019. 216 quails were divided into 36 batches of 6 animals each (5 females and 1 male) according to age and phenotype. The experimental animals were white, spotted white, grey and brown phenotypes and were one, six and ten months old. Eggs were collected for three weeks between 8 pm - 4 pm and 4 pm - 8 pm, counted, weighed and measured. 15 eggs per phenotype were randomly selected, broken individually, which allowed the internal parameters to be evaluated. The main results show that the quails laid more eggs between 4 pm - 8 pm, the highest laying rate was obtained in quails at one moth of laying and the spotted white phenotype had a high laying rate (74.03%) compared to other phenotypes. At one month of breeding age, quails with the spotted white phenotype showed a higher laying rate (93.34%), brown (78.75%) and grey (74%) at six months and finally white (71%) at ten months. Weight, height, diameter and egg shape index did not vary with the quail phenotype. The highest egg volume (12.60 ml) was found in white quails. The shells of white spotted quails were thicker than those of other phenotypes. Grey quails laid eggs with the highest Haugh’s index and proportion of edible matter. Brown quail eggs were found to have a higher proportion of dry yolk matter. Dry matter and moisture content of albumen did not vary with the quail phenotype. Considering the results obtained, it has been concluded that spotted white phenotype quails are more suitable for reproduction as they presented the best egg-laying proportions of edible matter.

Review] Paula Acari. Making Sense of ‘Food’ Animals: A Critical Exploration of the Persistence of Meat. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. 356 pp.

[Review] Paula Acari. Making Sense of ‘Food’ Animals: A Critical Exploration of the Persistence of Meat. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. 356 pp. There are many audiences for Paula Acari’s new book on the persistence of meat as edible matter, Making Sense of Food Animals, and not all of them academic. One of the striking facets of this well-researched, clearly argued and empirical analysis, drawing on 41 interviews with Australian meat eaters and meat producers, is the lessons for animal advocacy organisations for rethinking their messaging strategies. Central to the book’s argument is Acari’s challenge to narratives of transparency and visibility, often employed by such groups, made famous by activist Linda McCartney’s claim that ‘if slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian’ (often wrongly attributed to her husband, Paul). Acari demonstrates, drawing on interview data and a robust interpretation of Foucauldian theory, that both looking and knowing are easily absorbed into the ‘already encoded eye’ of a human gaze that comes pre-trained by the ‘normalised entitlement’ of animal exploitation (263); as such, without a ‘de- or re-coding’ of that human gaze, calls for more transparency of slaughtering merely reinforce rather than disrupt the sense of animals’ edibility. As the cognitive linguist George Lakoff advises those advocating for change, it is unwise to utilise the stories of those whose power you wish to disrupt. Recirculating such stories strengthens the existing cognitive models and the beliefs which rest upon them. To challenge such cognitive codification, which, in relation to the edibility of animals, has ‘been socially, culturally and economically normalised over centuries’ (274), requires a more radical approach that highlights existing mechanisms of power, and has ‘rigorous, comprehensive strategies ready to challenge and refute them, not simply piecemeal responses as part of an apparently balanced discussion or debate’ (291). Acari’s book is a useful tool in helping animal advocacy groups rethink their campaigns to construct (and test) new messages that might ‘land’ with meat eaters, whose cognitive models continue to ‘make sense’ of animals as edible. What Acari hopes is that we reach a ‘heterotopia’ where it makes ‘no sense’ that animals are edible. As she readily admits, this is a ‘big nut to crack’. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try, nor try to be more effective in our efforts.

تأثير الحرارة على نشاط مضادات الأكسدة والنمو الميكروبي في بهارات الكومبا وأم غليلة

الخلفية والأهداف: بهار أم غليله وبهار الكومبا عبارة عن شجيرات استوائية تنمو عشوائياً بأفريقيا. تستخدم تقليدياً كخافض للحمى ومانعة للنزيف ومسهل وكدواء لداء الاستسقاء. صممت هذه الدراسة لتقييم النشاط المضاد للأكسدة وللنمو الميكروبي وكذلك السمية لتلك البهارات المحلية أم غليله(أ) والكومبا (ب)، وقياس تأثير أثر المعاملة الحرارية 80مₒ على خصائص النشاط المضاد للأكسدة و للنمو الميكروبي والسمية. الطرق والوسائل: تم شراء العينات من أسواق جبل أولياء والكلالة اللفة - السودان وتجهيزها للتحليل، حيث تم استخلاص جميع العينات بواسطة الايثانول 80% (أ) و(ب) والمستخلص المعامل بالحرارة 80مₒ (ج) و(د) كما تم تحديد نشاط المضاد للأكسدة بواسطة كاشف ((DPPH. النتائج: قد تبين من خلال النتائج أن المستخلصات المعاملة بالحرارة والغير معاملة (ا, ب, ج, ود) تتدرج في نشاطها من الأعلى إلى الأقل على التوالي. تم تقييم النشاط المضاد للنمو الميكروبي لهذه المستخلصات ضد الميكروبات. Bacillssubtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonasaeruginosa, and Candida albicans.. أما بالنسبة لسمية مستخلصات أم غليله والكومبا فتم تقييمها باستعمال طريقة (MTT)assay, ولم يستدل على أي سمية في كل منهما. الخلاصة: أظهرت البهارات الإفريقية أم غليلة والكومبا نشاطا مضادا للأكسدة وكمضادات للميكروبات متميزا بالإضافة إلى خلوها من أي سمية حتى في منتجات الغذاء المطبوخة.

Economic viability and environmental impact investigation for the biofuel supply chain using co-fermentation technology

Co-fermentation of cellulosic biomass and grain to produce bioethanol has been proposed to integrate first- and second-generation biofuel production technologies. This method can relieve the food versus fuel competition due to the use of edible matter of crop in first-generation biofuel production. It can also boost the low ethanol concentration and thus reduce the unit production cost when using cellulosic biomass as well as green the energy footprints when preprocessing cellulosic biomass in second-generation biofuel production. In this paper, we examine the economic performance and environmental footprint of the biofuel supply chain using co-fermentation production technology. The cost and greenhouse gas emissions per unit bioethanol produced are quantified and compared to the performances of first- and second-generation biofuel production technologies. The mathematical models for the biofuel supply chain using three different biomass types are proposed. A numerical case study based on the State of Missouri in the United States is implemented. The results of the case study show that a co-fermentation based supply chain can effectively address the concern of food versus fuel competition of corn sourced supply chain and the issues of low sugar yield, high energy footprints, and high unit cost of corn stover sourced supply chain.

Moving second generation biofuel manufacturing forward: Investigating economic viability and environmental sustainability considering two strategies for supply chain restructuring

Multiple generations of biofuel manufacturing technologies have been proposed and developed, among which first generation technology is the most mature. It typically utilizes corn grain as feedstock in bio-refineries in many countries such as the United States. However, the use of edible matter of crops like corn may lead to a food-versus-fuel competition. To address such an issue, second generation biofuel manufacturing technology using the non-edible matter of crops has been developed. In this paper, the economic viability and environmental sustainability are analyzed and quantified, when restructuring the biofuel supply chain from employing first generation manufacturing technology to the one utilizing second generation technology considering the existing supply chain infrastructure. Two supply chain restructuring strategies, i.e., distributed and centralized preprocessing deployment, are modeled for implementing biomass preprocessing for second generation biofuel manufacturing. Bi-objective optimization formulations for the corn stover-sourced biofuel (a typical second generation biofuel) supply chain considering both economic and environmental aspects are proposed under both strategies. Different decision variables such as the locations selected for constructing preprocessing centers and the corresponding corn stover handling capacities of such centers, as well as the material flows between farms, preprocessing centers, and bio-refinery plants are identified. A case study based on the state of Missouri in the United States is implemented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed model and analyze the performance of different strategies. The results of the case study show that when corn stover is used as feedstock in bio-refineries, the unit cost of bioethanol production can be reduced, while the unit emission is increased compared to the corn-sourced supply chain under both supply chain restructuring strategies. Specifically, in Missouri where the daily stover handling amount per bio-refinery plant is relatively low and the stover collection radius is relatively small, the centralized strategy outperforms the distributed one with a higher cost reduction and a smaller increase in emissions. It reduces the unit cost by 27.39%, while increasing the unit emission by 24.42%, compared to the corn-sourced supply chain.

Piezo2 Underlies Slowly-Inactivating Mechano-Current in Sensory Neurons from Tactile Specialist Birds

Mechano-gated ion channels are essential for the detection of touch by peripheral sensory neurons, but many aspects of touch physiology and mechanotransducer function remain obscure. Tactile specialist birds of the family Anatidae possess unique mechanosensory abilities with which they efficiently select edible matter in muddy water without visual or olfactory cues. Mechanical stimuli are transmitted by trigeminal mechanoreceptors innervating the bill, a highly specialized tactile organ. We show mechanosensory specialization in tactile, but not visually foraging birds involves the formation of functional rapidly-adapting mechanoreceptors that produce robust mechano-current via the Piezo2 channel with novel properties. Cloning and electrophysiological characterization of duck Piezo2 in a heterologous expression system shows that duck Piezo2 is functionally similar to the mouse orthologue, but with prolonged inactivation kinetics. We show that Piezo2 inactivation can be increased by co-expression with Tmem150C, a transmembrane protein that co-exists with Piezo2 in somatosensory neurons, suggesting a potential mechanism. Our results uncover possible evolutionary adaptations contributing to potentiation of mechanoreception in an organ-specific manner, and reveal the Piezo2 channel as a neuronal mechanotransducer with prolonged inactivation kinetics.

Destabiliserande mjölkflöden

This essay focuses on processes wherein human bodyfluids are materialized as foody and potentially edible. Influenced by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, I follow a milky rhizome (2015). This brings me to, among other things, breastmilk rings in China, breastmilk ice cream and to cows whose genes have been manipulated to produce breast milk. Scholars within critical animal studies pinpoint that animals are made absent when their bodies are transformed into edible matter. Carol J. Adams terms this the structure of the absent referent (2004, 2013). In this article however, I show that, in a similar way, the foodiness of human bodies is continuously made absent. Situations when humans appear as foody tend to generate feelings of disgust and repulsion. At the same time, I also argue that processes such as these can be interpreted in widely different ways depending on the (body and) context, and that the milky flows are considered most threatening when they are connected with – or emanate from – the bodies of Others.

Molecular basis of tactile specialization in the duck bill

Tactile-foraging ducks are specialist birds known for their touch-dependent feeding behavior. They use dabbling, straining, and filtering to find edible matter in murky water, relying on the sense of touch in their bill. Here, we present the molecular characterization of embryonic duck bill, which we show contains a high density of mechanosensory corpuscles innervated by functional rapidly adapting trigeminal afferents. In contrast to chicken, a visually foraging bird, the majority of duck trigeminal neurons are mechanoreceptors that express the Piezo2 ion channel and produce slowly inactivating mechano-current before hatching. Furthermore, duck neurons have a significantly reduced mechano-activation threshold and elevated mechano-current amplitude. Cloning and electrophysiological characterization of duck Piezo2 in a heterologous expression system shows that duck Piezo2 is functionally similar to the mouse ortholog but with prolonged inactivation kinetics, particularly at positive potentials. Knockdown of Piezo2 in duck trigeminal neurons attenuates mechano current with intermediate and slow inactivation kinetics. This suggests that Piezo2 is capable of contributing to a larger range of mechano-activated currents in duck trigeminal ganglia than in mouse trigeminal ganglia. Our results provide insights into the molecular basis of mechanotransduction in a tactile-specialist vertebrate.

Tasting the Ethical: Vegetarianism as Modern Re-Enchantment

There is, as Andrew Rowan dubs it, a "constant paradox" in the way we treat, relate to, and consume animals in our everyday lives (Arluke and Sanders 4). This paper examines this paradox in relation to the rise of vegetarianism as a new taste and consumer culture in the West. The first part of the paper, drawing upon Bourdieu, argues that vegetarian "taste" is fundamentally a social practice linked to class and gender. It then offers a preliminary theoretical sketch of the sociological drivers and consequences of vegetarianism in latemodernity, drawing on social theory. Having established the theoretical framework, the second part of the paper turns to an empirical analysis of the moral motivations and experiences of a selection of Australian bloggers. The key argument is that the bloggers narrate vegetarianism as a taste practice that entangles self-care with a larger assemblage of non-human responsibility that works to re-enchant a demoralised consumer modernity.

The Power of Fake Food: Plastic Food Models as Tastemakers in South Korea

The Power of Fake Food: Plastic Food Models as Tastemakers in South Korea

The yellow-legged gull as a predator of lizards in Balearic Islands

Lizards and gulls cohabit in several Mediterranean islands. The yellow-legged gull, Larus michahellis, was found to prey several vertebrate species. However, precise information about the interaction between gulls and other vertebrates, particularly with lizards is still scarce. The Balearic lizard, Podarcis lilfordi, shares several coastal islets with the yellow-legged gull. Using two different sources of information, we studied the interaction of both species in Colom Island (Menorca, Balearic Islands, Spain). We studied the diet of the yellow-legged gull and learnt that the Balearic lizard is not a common prey of the yellow-legged gull. On the other hand, we studied the potential predation pressure of gulls on lizards, using plasticine models of lizards. We did two different experiments from which we can conclude that yellow-legged gulls rarely attack lizards and, consequently, cannot be considered a major threat for this endemic lizard species, at least in the population under study. Finally, we obtained evidence that plasticine models can only be employed with caution to assess predation pressure of opportunistic scavengers, much as gulls are. The majority of marks on models were not the consequence of true attacks by gulls, but the result of ground exploratory behaviour of gulls in search of any edible matter. Therefore, contrary to popular belief, in the case of the yellow-legged gull, the proportion of marked models would be an indication of ground-based wandering activity, rather than a result of its predation pressure on lizards.

Cornucopia: The Concept of Digital Gastronomy

The authors present a new concept of digital gastronomy—Cornucopia, a futuristic cooking methodology based on digital technologies. They discuss how they have merged kitchen tools with science fiction and actual technologies to create this new design space for gastronomy. The Virtuoso Mixer, the Digital Fabricator and the Robotic Chef were conceptualized to enable more flexibility and control over each of the most important elements of cooking: mixing ingredients, modeling food shapes and transforming edible matter from one state to another. The authors discuss related work and ideas, present their designs and propose their vision for the emerging design space of digital gastronomy.

Hunting and predation in a fiddler crab

Fiddler crabs are known primarily to be deposit feeders. They eat detritus, bacteria, and other small particles of organic material found in the sandy or muddy substrate on which they live. They have highly specialized mouthparts used to separate edible matter from nondigestable material. Here we provide evidence of cannibalism and predation in a fiddler crab, Uca annulipes. We additionally provide the first evidence of a fiddler crab hunting shrimp and insects. This study is an exemplary reminder that, even though an animal may have evolved highly specialized feeding traits, this need not preclude it from opportunistically acting as a generalist feeder.

О еде, или +/− е(с)м(ь) в творчестве Хармса

In this paper the connectedness of (non-)eating and (non-)being is explored by an analysis of the occurrence of food in Kharms's works. Attention is paid to the symbolism of various kinds of food and edible matter, along with a discussion of liquids, especially water, a highly significant theme in Kharms's works.

The physiology of taste and smell: how and why we sense flavors

Taste and smell work together to identify the chemical composition of what we intend to ingest. In recent years, our understanding of the mammalian physiology of taste and smell has greatly increased. In addition to its intrinsic value, this increased understanding of the molecular and cellular basis of flavor recognition provides also a new view on our behavioral response to edible matter.

A functional morphospace for the skull of labrid fishes: patterns of diversity in a complex biomechanical system

The Labridae (including wrasses, the Odacidae and the Scaridae) is a species-rich group of perciform fishes whose members are prominent inhabitants of warm-temperate and tropical reefs worldwide. We analyse functionally relevant morphometrics for the feeding apparatus of 130 labrid species found on the Great Barrier Reef and use these data to explore the morphological and mechanical basis of trophic diversity found in this assemblage. Morphological measurements were made that characterize the functional and mechanical properties of the oral jaws that are used in prey capture and handling, the hyoid apparatus that is used in expanding the buccal cavity during suction feeding, and the pharyngeal jaw apparatus that is used in breaking through the defences of shelled prey, winnowing edible matter from sand and other debris, and pulverizing the algae, detritus and rock mixture eaten by scarids (parrotfishes). A Principal Components Analysis on the correlation matrix of a reduced set of ten variables revealed complete separation of scarids from wrasses on the basis of the former having a small mouth with limited jaw protrusion, high mechanical advantage in jaw closing, and a small sternohyoideus muscle and high kinematic transmission in the hyoid four-bar linkage. Some scarids also exhibit a novel four-bar linkage conformation in the oral jaw apparatus. Within wrasses a striking lack of strong associations was found among the mechanical elements of the feeding apparatus. These weak associations resulted in a highly diverse system in which functional properties occur in many different combinations and reflect variation in feeding ecology. Among putatively monophyletic groups of labrids, the cheilines showed the highest functional diversity and scarids were moderately diverse, in spite of their reputation for being trophically monomorphic and specialized. We hypothesize that the functional and ecological diversity of labrids is due in part to a history of decoupled evolution of major components of the feeding system (i.e. oral jaws, hyoid and pharyngeal jaw apparatus) as well as among the muscular and skeletal elements of each component.

Vegetable Fiber Fermentation by Human Fecal Bacteria: Cell Wall Polysaccharide Disappearance and Short-Chain Fatty Acid Production during In Vitro Fermentation and Water-Holding Capacity of Unfermented Residues ,

Dietary fiber from eight vegetables (broccoli, carrot, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, lettuce, onion and radish) was analyzed for chemical composition and potential in vitro fermentation by human fecal bacteria. Total dietary fiber concentration of substrates ranged from 34.9 (broccoli) to 5.8 (cucumber) g/kg edible matter. Substrate fiber fractions were composed primarily of pectic substances and cellulose with smaller concentrations of hemicelluloses and lignin. Total dietary fiber residues isolated from substrates were fermented in vitro for 24 h with fecal bacteria obtained from each of three human volunteers. Substrate dry matter disappearance during fermentation was highest for carrot (63.7%) and lowest for cucumber (49.4%). Averaged across all substrates, disappearances of arabinose, galactose, glucose, mannose, xylose and uronic acids during fermentation were 96, 90, 54, 68, 51 and 97%, respectively. Short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production during substrate fermentation averaged 10.5 mmol SCFA/g dry matter fermented. Averaged across all substrates, production of the major SCFA, acetate, propionate and butyrate, occurred in the molar ratio 76:14:10. Potential water-holding capacity of substrates was not influenced by fiber source and averaged 2.04 g H2O/g original substrate dry matter. Extent of substrate fermentation, SCFA production and substrate potential water-holding capacity were significantly different among inoculum donors, indicating that considerable inter-individual variation exists in the potential in vivo fermentation of vegetable fiber.

Burrowing, feeding, and spatial distribution of the school prawn Metapenaeus macleayi (Haswell) in the Hunter river region, Australia

The influence of the food content and the particle size of the substratum on the distribution and relative abundance of Metapenaeus macleayi (Haswell) has been investigated by periodic trawl sampling for prawns and laboratory studies of their food, feeding, and burrowing behaviour. M. macleayi are opportunistic omnivores; they pick up material from the bottom with their chelipeds and convey it to the mouthparts where edible matter is sorted and ingested. They burrow into the sediment with their pereopods and pleopods, and are usually totally buried beneath the surface. A respiratory water current enters a tube formed by the antennal scales and the antennules, flows over the gills and then out of the carapace; this current is regularly reversed with increased strength, presumably to carry away de-oxygenated water. The results of experiments on substratum preference with adequately nourished juveniles suggest that the particle size of the sediment is more important than the food in the substratum in determining the distribution; the apparent preference of juveniles for a fine sandy substratum both in the laboratory and in the natural habitat may be attributed to the minimum threshold velocity of the sand particles. Adults are most abundant in turbid coastal waters arising from estuarine discharge and here the size of the sediment particles appears to be less important than the food content of the substratum in determining the distribution. The mangrove and reed swamps in the Hunter region play an important rôle in the food requirements of juvenile and adult prawns.