Business Solutions for the Food Industry

Business Solutions for the Food Industry
Parity Food Enterprise, the Parity flagship business solution, is an advanced ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solution designed by food manufacturing professionals for food companies. Parity Food Enterprise is food industry software that solves the real problems our companies face, with an emphasis on the business processes and requirements unique to the industry.

Parity solutions incorporate best-of-breed products that integrate with the Parity Food Enterprise, including warehouse management and shop floor data collection, production scheduling, EDI (Electronic Data Interchange), Microsoft Dynamics™ GP, Microsoft Office and a growing ecosystem of innovative technologies that contribute to our client’s growth and value. In other words, software specialized for the food industry

Food Industries News

The Agency is concerned with the whole food industry – from farming, food production and distribution, to retail and catering. It addresses food safety issues at every stage of the chain, providing information and guidance on best practice and legal requirements.

Easy And Delicious Noodles With Tuna Recipe

Noodles with tuna has been one of my favorite foods to eat and prepare since college. I can't remember how many tuna cans I have opened and consumed and if I can pile all the cans together, I'm sure that I can build a fairly huge totem pole. I was in the school's swimming varsity team and did martial arts after class so probably you can imagine how hungry I was when I reached home. Often I find myself rushing to raid the refrigerator and being disappointed for finding nothing that is ready to eat. Because of swimming and martial arts, I always have to watch my weight. I always had to watch the calories and the amount of food that I intake. I did try watching the calories but it was really hard for me to control the huge amount of food that I wanted to eat because I felt that I was always hungry back then.
Knowing that fish have lower calories compared to beef, pork and chicken our coach always encourages us to eat more seafoods, vegetables, pastas and noodles than eating meat. I am not much fond of eating seafoods but ironically I love eating canned sardines and canned tuna.
I often buy boxes of canned tuna and canned sardines and keep them in stock. I also keep in stock a good amount of pasta, rice and noodles. Whenever I can't find anything ready to eat in the refrigerator, I combine these stuffs and make myself a healthy meal. I find that sardines goes well with rice and tuna goes well with noodles. Compared to sardines, I find tuna and noodles to be more versatile in many ways because I can eat it as-is or can put it in a sandwich or can add it to vegetables and make a good vegetable tuna noodle salad. Tuna noodles also goes well with rice, boiled or baked potato, and goes well even with bread. Tuna noodles is like my "Army Kitchen Swiss Knife", mix it with anything and it will still taste good.
Here is one of the tuna and noodles recipe that I loved since college, enjoy!

from - http://ezinearticles.com/?Easy-And-Delicious-Noodles-With-Tuna-Recipe&id=5530409

Mercury Levels in Tuna and Other Fish

Mercury Levels in Tuna and Other Fish
You should be concerned about contaminants in certain fish, including some kinds of tuna. The non-profit Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) recommends minimizing consumption of albacore (white) tuna, a large fish that accumulates moderate amounts of mercury in its fatty tissue. But other kinds of (smaller) tuna, such as skipjack (usually canned as “light”), which accumulates a third the amount of mercury as albacore, are OK to eat in moderation, though consumption by those under age seven should be limited.
To further complicate the issue, some canned light tuna may contain yellowfin tuna, which has mercury levels similar to those of albacore; these products are sometimes but not always labeled as “gourmet” or “tonno”—and their consumption should be limited, even by adults.
Mercury, a known “neurotoxin” (a poison that affects the nervous system), is particularly insidious because it is widespread in our oceans, primarily due to emissions from coal-burning power plants. These smokestacks deposit mercury into waterways, which carry it to the ocean where bacteria convert it into methylmercury. Fish then ingest it with their food and from water passing over their gills.
Generally speaking, bigger, older and large predatory fish (such as sharks, swordfish, tilefish, king mackerel and some tuna) near the top of marine food chains are more likely to have high levels of mercury than fish lower in the marine food chain. People exposed to high levels or frequent doses of mercury can suffer nervous system disorders, impaired mental development and other health problems.

An April 2003 study, published in Environmental Health Perspectives, found that 89 percent of study subjects, chosen because they ate a significant amount of fish, had blood mercury levels above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) safety threshold of five micrograms per liter. Even though there are health benefits to eating fish (including the intake of healthy omega-3 fatty acids), the EPA advises that young children, pregnant women, nursing mothers and women of childbearing age limit their intake of high-mercury fish to one serving per week at most, while limiting their overall intake of any fish or shellfish to no more than two to three servings, or 12 ounces total, per week.
Mercury isn’t the only harsh pollutant lurking in the ocean. Industrial chemicals like PCBs and pesticides like DDT are awash in marine food chains around the world. According to EDF, it can take five years or more for women of childbearing age to rid their bodies of PCBs, and 12-18 months to appreciably reduce their mercury levels. EDF adds that moms who eat toxic fish before becoming pregnant may have children who are slower to develop and learn because fetuses are exposed to stored toxins through the placenta.
To learn more, visit the EPA’s Fish Advisories website. It includes links to individual state advisories, which have details on what fish should or shouldn’t be eaten from nearby lakes or coastal areas. Catfish, Pollock, salmon, shrimp and canned light tuna are currently on the EPA’s safe list, as they feed toward the bottom of the food chain and thus have less opportunity to accumulate mercury and other contaminants

from - http://business-ethics.com/2010/07/05/3906-caution-mercury-levels-in-tuna-and-other-fish/

White Tuna: Delicious, But At What Cost?

Our favorite local Asian grocery store, Am-Ko, carries a small selection of flash-frozen sashimi-grade fish. Every so often, we pick up a pound or so of tuna. It is far less expensive than going out for sushi, it defrosts overnight in the fridge, and it is delicious. We usually devour it raw in a ravenous frenzy, but on occasion we'll make up some sushi rice and such and pretend to be civilized.

Last week, we were in Am-Ko and, checking out their sashimi collection, we saw that they had white tuna. OMG.
For those of you who haven't had white tuna, get thee to a sushi bar immediately. The stuff is like heaven in raw fish form.
The sushi places around us don't carry it consistently, which is fair enough - we live in the middle of Illinois. We'd definitely never seen it at Am-Ko before. I began hatching plans.
The plans came to fruition near-flawlessly. I made white tuna four ways.

• White tuna ceviche - I took some tuna and marinated it for about an hour in lime juice and and a bit of triple-sec and vinegar (+kosher salt). Ceviche usually marinates longer than that, but this was fish that I'd happily eat raw. It turned out amazingly well - the lime juice had just started to cook the outside, which led to a nice textural and flavor differential across the piece of fish.
• White tuna sushi - the classic, made with wasabi and vinegared rice. Unfortunately, the rice we had in the house didn't want to stick to itself (it mostly wanted to stick to my fingers). Really tasty though
• Seared maple-sesame white tuna - I mixed up a bit of maple syrup and sesame oil, dipped both sides of the tuna in it, and seared each side for about 20 seconds in a cast iron pan. Still close to raw on the inside, this was great: sweet and smoky and rich. I should have made more of it.
• Strawberry-balsamic white tuna sushi - This was my experiment. Playing on the idea of vinegared rice, I blended a strawberry with some aged balsamic and mixed that in with the rice. It worked. White tuna is incredibly rich, and when complemented with the sweetness of the strawberry and the bite of the balsamic, everything just fell into place. When I added a bit of soy sauce, it was even better.
• Can we have too much of a good thing?
  It turns out, yes. We can.
  Food blogs don't often talk about the less than salutory effects that food can have upon your body, but I'm going to do so here. If you're squeamish, stop reading now.
  OK?
  
  Apparently, not everything that is sold as white tuna is, in fact, white tuna... or even tuna. It turns out that what we bought was  escolar. Escolar is delicious. It is incredibly tasty and rich. Much of this is due to the high oil content (about 20%) of its meat. The problem is that people don't really metabolize this oil... and it largely passes right through them in a... not-so-controlled... manner. This doesn't really happen when you eat a small quantity of the fish (like a piece of sushi or two), but if you gorge yourself on it... Well, let's just say you'll be remarkably well lubricated the next day.
  So... local people... I don't want to warn you off of Am-Ko's frozen sashimi. It is good stuff. I'd just suggest that maybe you get the red tuna instead of the white

from - http://kitchenhacker.net/content/white-tuna-delicious-what-cost

Sushi Tuna delicious Types Of Sushi & Sashimi

Types Of Sushi & Sashimi
from - http://www.thenibble.com/reviews/main/fish/seafood/sushi-glossary.asp

Types Of Sushi & Sashimi

And A Glossary Of Sushi & Sashimi Terms

 

Sushi has gone from being an exotic food to one that is found almost everywhere in America. Learn the types of fish and much more in our comprehensive guide to sushi and sashimi.

Jump to the glossary below

The Difference Between Sushi And Sashimi

Sushi is a dish made of vinegared rice combined with seafood, vegetables, egg and, in the world of nouvelle cuisine, other items from beef to barbecue chicken. Sushi does not mean “raw fish,” but “vinegar[ed] rice.” While much of the fish used to make sushi is raw, some of the items are blanched, boiled, broiled, marinated or sautéed.

Sushi was originally developed as a snack food—as the story goes, to serve at gambling parlors so the gamblers could take quick bites without stopping the action. There are different styles of sushi:

• Nigiri-sushi, slices of fish or other foods on pads of rice
• Maki-sushi, rolled sushi (including handrolls, temaki)
• Chirashi-sushi, fish and other items served on top of a bowl of vinegared sushi rice
• Oshi-sushi, squares or rectangles of pressed rice topped with vinegared or cooked fish, made in a wooden mold

• Stuffed sushi, including chakin-zushi or fukusa-sushi, ingredients wrapped in a thin egg crêpe; and inari-sushi, with ingredients stuffed into a small pouch of fried bean curd (tofu)
• Sashimi is sliced fish that is served with a bowl of regular boiled rice on the side

While this is not meant to be a glossary of Japanese food in general, we’ve included definitions of other items that often accompany a sushi meal. We have not included definitions for every type of fish, but only those that are generally available in the U.S. We’ve also included some phrases to say to the sushi chef. If you’d like to suggest additional words, or think we should consider other definitions than those we have provided, let us know. You may also enjoy one of our 60-plus other food glossaries, including the Seafood Glossary.

Sushi Tuna delicious Can you eat raw tuna

Sushi actually refers to the rice, but both sushi and sashimi usually contain some type of raw fish. Tuna is just one of many. Polynesian cultures also have a raw tuna dish called poke.


ETA: I have never seem tuna wrapped in eel skin in any sushi bar that I have eaten in. Perhaps the person has confused eel skin with seaweed.
No it should not be frozen and no a good quality fish that has been handled correctly will not have worms. Worms are actually insect larva. If the fish is handled correctly it will not be exposed to insects that could lay eggs on it.
No tuna does not need to be cured or marinated before eating it raw but curing and marinating are options. Dishes such as poke are marinated. Dishes such as sashimi are usually made with raw tuna that has not been altered in any way.

I suggest that you go to a local Japanese restaurant to try the vast variety of sashimi and sushi. Although those who have never tasted it will tell you that it tastes "fishy" it actually tastes more like rare roast beef (at least tuna does). Sit at the bar and ask the sushi chef for suggestions for a beginner and go from there