Reusable ‘jelly ice’ keeps things cold — without meltwater

Applications include cooling of seafood without contamination

20-Aug-2025 - No matter whether it’s crushed or cubed, ice eventually melts into a puddle — but an alternative called jelly ice doesn’t. Researchers Jiahan Zou and Gang Sun developed a one-step process to create the reusable, compostable material from gelatin, the same ingredient in jiggly desserts. Because ...

Are your strawberries bland? Pesticides could be to blame

How fungicides can ruin the sweetness and nutritional value of strawberries

01-Mar-2023 - Have you ever bitten into a plump, red strawberry, only to find it bland and watery? Certain pesticides might be responsible. A team reporting in ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry has found that two common strawberry fungicides can impact cellular mechanisms, creating berries with ...

Biofuels from the brewery?

Separating beer waste into proteins for foods, and fiber for biofuels

07-Apr-2021 - Home brewing enthusiasts and major manufacturers alike experience the same result of the beer-making process: mounds of leftover grain. Once all the flavor has been extracted from barley and other grains, what's left is a protein- and fiber-rich powder that is typically used in cattle feed or put ...

Knowing whether food has spoiled without even opening the container

19-Mar-2014 - A color-coded smart tag could tell consumers whether a carton of milk has turned sour or a can of green beans has spoiled without opening the containers, according to researchers. The tag, which would appear on the packaging, also could be used to determine if medications and other perishable ...

Better-tasting reduced-fat desserts: Coming soon?

18-Mar-2014 - Adjusting the calcium level and acidity could be the key to developing new better-tasting, more eye-appealing and creamier reduced-fat sauces, desserts and salad dressings that could be on the market soon, researchers reported. To date, a major problem with removing fat from these accompaniments ...

Making a common cosmetic and sunblock ingredient safer

27-Sep-2013 - Using a particular type of titanium dioxide — a common ingredient in cosmetics, food products, toothpaste and sunscreen — could reduce the potential health risks associated with the widely used compound. The report on the substance, produced by the millions of tons every year for the global ...

Flame retardant ban reduces exposures in pregnant women

27-Sep-2013 - Phasing out the use of potentially harmful flame retardants in furniture foam, electronics and plastics has lowered pregnant women's exposure to the substances, which are associated with health problems in both pregnant women and their newborns. The new study, which was published in the ACS ...

'Seeing' the flavor of foods

15-Apr-2013 - The eyes sometimes have it, beating out the tongue, nose and brain in the emotional and biochemical balloting that determines the taste and allure of food, a scientist said. He described how people sometimes "see" flavors in foods and beverages before actually tasting them. "There have been ...

More economical process for making ethanol from nonfood sources

29-Mar-2010 - Scientists in Wisconsin are reporting discovery of a way to lower the cost of converting wood, corn stalks and leaves, switch grass, and other non-food biomass materials into ethanol fuel. They describe their process, which reduces amounts of costly enzymes needed to break down tough fibrous ...

50 Millionth Unique Chemical Substance Recorded in CAS REGISTRY

Novel analgesic marks major milestone in scientific discovery

09-Sep-2009 - Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), a division of the American Chemical Society, announced that on September 7i t recorded the 50 millionth substance in CAS REGISTRY. The recently registered substance is a novel arylmethylidene heterocycle with analgesic properties. Reaching the 50 million mark so ...