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Running a Home Based Food Business: A Few Helpful Hints

In starting a home based business, the owner needs to prepare his or her home for a few changes. While this isn’t being stated as a deterrent, it is nonetheless a reality. You will be running a company from inside your living space. How can things not need a few adjustments? Your office and kitchen will be in constant use when running a food business, and this must be taken into account. However, allow us to offer some friendly advice to make this transition a bit easier.

Working out of home can sometimes maintain the casual atmosphere of an environment. However, when it comes to your family and friends, you may have to make a clear distinction between work time and home time. By setting these boundaries, it can keep problems from arising.

Set aside a section of your home for business purposes only. This can do two things. When you are in this location, it will feel like work and help keep you focused. And second, it will also let family members understand that when you are in that section, you are at work as well.

Meetings with other will need to happen from time to time. Internet video conferencing is one possibility. They usually can be free. However, for better quality, you may want to consider paying a service. Getting a separate phone line in the house for business can be helpful as well and can avoid interruptions from other house members. And if meetings need to be held in person, temporary meeting rooms are available for a modest fee.

The goal in many ways is to make a clear distinction between home and work. This is a problem that many home businesses run into, either by self discipline or distractions from others. Be prepared!

 

This information has been graciously provided by Food Trade Consultants, the company that know what a new food business needs. Visit foodtradeconsultants.com to see what they have in store for you. 

The Cruciality Food Expiration Unification

A recent study conducted between the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Harvard Law School’s Food Law and Policy Clinic showed that food waste in America is exacerbated by the problematic expiration date system.  The current expiration date system is incredibly confusing and misleading for consumers and grocery store workers alike.

The study showed that up to 90% of Americans are throwing away food due to misinterpreting food labels.  Every package has expiration date labels on it, but the various messages can be difficult to understand.  Every package has a sticker with a label that either says “use by,” “sell by,” and “best before.”  The problem is that the average person is puzzled by what these all mean.

The most misleading sticker is the “sell by” date.  It’s often misinterpreted to mean that the food is expiring and needs to be thrown in the trash.   This sticker is actually meant for grocery store workers so that they know when to remove items from the shelf.  The report showed that Americans are wasting an incredible amount of food due to these labels.  It’s estimated that over 40% of America’s food supply is thrown in the trash can every year.

The dates that consumers should pay attention to are the ones labeled “use by” and “best before.”  Due to the widespread confusion in the expiration date system, it’s critical for the system to receive a complete overhaul.  Once the system is unified and clearer to consumers, the country’s waste will reduce significantly.

Guest post is provided by Food Trade Consultants, a leading food business consulting company that helps people succeed in the food industry.  Check out the foodtradeconsultants website for more information.

Uses Of Synthetic Oligonucleotides

In molecular biology experiments, it is important to fabricate Oligonucleotides which is a result of DNA and RNA synthesis. These tiny bits of nucleic acids such as Poly(dA) can be produced in a laboratory through a solid phase chemical synthesis. Oligonucleotides are one of the key ingredients for DNA sequencing, artificial gene synthesis, gene library construction, polymerase chain reaction and as a molecular beacon probe.

Synthetic Oligonucleotide is commonly used to screen viral diseases. It is also used on many molecular biology experiments, most especially on identifying genes or DNA sequencing. In the process of a DNA sequencing, Oligonucleotides are used as primers for the DNA enzymes, it will serve as a pattern for the DNA enzymes to follow. Once synthesized, the DNA enzymes and Oligonucleotides will form a double strand DNA. Another great thing about Oligonucleotides is that it has been a great use for microarrays. These are used to screen genetic diseases such as breast cancer. In recent developments, Oligonucleotide microarrays such as the ViroChip can be used to detect illnesses through a person’s phlegm and other body secretions. This is extremely useful as it has become easier to determine viral infections as symptoms are often the same.

Article submitted by The Midland Certified Reagent Company. The Midland Certified Reagent Company specializes in RNA, LNA, Oligonucleotides, Polynucleotides and DNA synthesis. The company has been a leader in this field for more than 20 years and pioneered in using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry to ensure that quality is maintained optimum.

How To Lose A Pound Of Fat In One Day

I’ll be the first to admit that I like quick fixes. There, I said it. While it’s definitely more important to have long term goals and a healthy maintained lifestyle when it comes to fitness and, well, life in general, we live in a world of instant gratification and want things now. To say otherwise would mean you’re either kidding yourself or you’re extremely Zen-like and you need to teach me the ways!

For the mortals out there who are with me, you can Google “fat loss” or a similar search and most of the so-called “experts” will all tell you the same thing – that 2 pounds of fat loss a week is the absolute maximum you can/should be shooting for. Well if you have a lot of fat to lose, or need to drop body fat quickly for an event, vacation, the beach etc., then that might not be a quick enough approach. I’m going to show you how to make your life hell for a day but lose a pound of body fat as your reward. Whether or not you’re a fan of this type of extreme approach, I believe that at times it can be useful – and want to empower you with the knowledge of how to accomplish this, should the need ever arise.

By no means a fun day, but you can lose this much fat in a single day

Losing a Pound of Fat in One Day

Anyone and their grandma can lose a pound in a day, but there’s a huge difference between weight loss and fat loss. With water weight, obviously a person can lose over a pound just by using the bathroom, no big deal. To lose a pound of body fat, you have to create a calorie deficit of 3500 calories to be exact. To figure out what you need to do to accomplish this, it comes down to basic math.

Billy Joe Is Going To Lose a Pound of Blubber Today!

Let’s take our subject here, and let’s call him Billy Joe, because that name makes me giggle. Billy Joe is a fairly active dude and has a Basal Metabolic Rate of 2200 calories. He’s also moderately active throughout his day and that puts him up around 2600 calories to maintain his body composition. If Billy Joe (*giggle) were to implement an Eat Stop Eat day in there, well he would be at a net caloric deficit of 2600 calories for the day. He’s got to hit 3500 to achieve that pound of fat being burned off, so aside from his regular activities that put him at a 2600 calorie maintenance, he’s got to burn an additional 900 calories through activity, ie. gym, cardio, hiking, whatever.

So if Billy Joe (*giggle giggle) hops on the treadmill for an hour and maybe throws in a depletion style workout he may well burn off that extra 900 calories. It makes for a not-so-pleasant day of course, no food and probably a 2+ hour workout, but it will be a loss of a pound of body fat, and likely 3-5 pounds of scale weight. Low-carb diets naturally drop water weight fast, and since no carbs (or food) was ingested by Billy Joe (*giggle) he likely will lose quite a bit of water weight along with the fat.

He could have also eaten a light meal of maybe 400 calories at some point throughout the day, but that’s another 400 calories that would need to be burned off by working out or other form of activity to hit the 1 pound mark. Other factors will come into play, especially when doing a hardcore type diet for even a few days in a row. BMR will decrease slightly, EPOC will kick in, etc. That’s for another day, but a pretty hardcore diet CAN be a useful tactic from time to time if needed. Lean active individuals need to be more careful with extreme calorie reduced diets like this, because if your body fat is already low, lean mass can be compromised if done for too long.

Not quite as extreme, but still extreme

For a short span, especially after a period of high calorie eating, extreme diets can be even more advantageous. After you go through a period of high calorie eating, your leptin levels increase, and your body will be burning off incoming food at a higher than normal pace. This is the basis behind Lyle McDonald’s Rapid Fat Loss Handbook. He recommends for lean individuals, a maximum of 11-14 days before implementing a high carb refeed for 2 days (which is awesome). Calories will vary based on gender, height, weight, etc. But basically a lean protein source and fibrous veggies is all you get for that span of time. It’s not a fun diet at all, but it’s effective as hell.

If you don’t mind living off steamed chicken and plain broccoli for 10 days or so, you can actually expedite fat loss to a crazy degree. You’ll actually look terrible at the end of the 10 day span because although you lost a lot of body fat, your muscles will have deflated like crazy! But a few days after you resume normal eating habits and your muscle fill back up with glycogen, you might look so ripped you won’t even recognize yourself.

Article Submitted by Paleo Forever. Visit the site for more Paleo related information like Paleo Diet Snacks. They also answer questions like is dark chocolate paleo?.

Service Company Helping Cooks Get Their Recipes To Market

Article written by Health and fitness centre

There is a growing market out there for cooks who are trying to get their recipes to consumers.  Service companies are beginning to really help move along this process.  Nothing will be more pleasing as a cook than seeing your food and recipes enjoyed by all.

Starting up your own business as a chef can be something that can be quite stressful.  One of the best things that you can do for yourself though is to get set up with a service provider that is going to be able to help you through the whole process and get you on the road to success.  There are service providers out there that are going to help you with a variety of things.  This will include but not be limited to something such as putting together a nutritional label that is FDA compliant.  On top of that, you also want to have nutritional fact statements that will help push your product forward, and have a recipe that can be tracked and followed so that your food can be consistently produced.  The whole idea here is to work with a service provider that is going to help educate you so that you can turn your kitten recipe into something that can be a massive success on the market.

Article submitted by Food Trade Consultants.  With this great company by your side, foodtradeconsultants can help make your recipes and your name a brand in its own right.

What is Important with the Paleo Diet?

The Paleo diet isn’t a hard diet to follow. There are special techniques and rules about it just like any other diet. The food is what you normally would eat, minus the sugar.

Meat

Lean meats are the most important role in the Paleo Diet. Whether it is chicken, beef, fish, etc. as long as lean meat is being consumed, the diet will work. All meat should have a very low content of fat. Fish that is from the sea is suggested: swordfish, shark, tuna, bass, perch, walleye, snapper, crappie, flounder, sardines, etc. This type of diet isn’t just good for losing weight, the food consumed on this diet will help control blood sugar and increase metabolism.

Fruits and vegetables

When consuming fruits and vegetables, organic is better when on the Paleo diet. These can include: honeydew melon, any berries, avocados, coconuts, bananas, watermelon, nectarines, coconuts, mustard greens, celery, mushrooms, etc. Any Paleo diet follower knows that if a food grew from the ground, it’s okay to be consumed on this diet.

Oils and nuts

Gatherers had access to the energy dense trees. They were acceptable for the Paleo dieter in the modern days. Cashews, almonds, hazelnuts, pecans, macadamias, etc. are all a great part of this diet.

These foods should be in everyone’s diet regardless making this diet easy to follow. This diet is powerful and does wonders for physical and mental health. These foods are the most important part of the Paleo diet. Anything that grows from the ground is what brings this diet together.

Article provided by Paleo Forever. Covering everything Paleo from guides to recipes like Paleo Zucchini Chips to answering questions like is tapioca flour paleo.

How UPC Codes Work

Guest post is provided by Food Trade Consultants, a consultation service offering seminars and packing of small orders to entrepreneurs in the food industry. Visit www.foodtradeconsultants.com for more information.

If you plan to start your own food business, especially if you plan to sell your product in grocery or wholesale stores, food trade consultants will recommend that you get a UPC code. In fact, they even feel it is a necessary requirement for a successful business in the food industry. UPC codes allow your wholesale customers to quickly scan your products to track them for their own records, as well as send you payments.

If you look around your own kitchen you will notice that there are UPC codes everywhere. Anything that is packaged has a UPC code, and even produce usually has a sticker. UPC stands for “Universal Product Code” and was created by a company called the Uniform Code Council (UCC) manufacturers can only use the UPC process if they apply for permission to use it from the UCC. This successful method of coding has revolutionized retailers and manufacturers alike, making selling and tracking incredibly efficient. Processing sales would take significantly longer and require more resources than simply scanning a UPC.

Food consultants advise you to register for two to three different UPCs, one for an individual sale of a product, one for multiple quantities of your product sold together, and one for palate sales of your product. It would be a good goal to get some accounts that want to buy a palate’s worth of product from you. Those are huge accounts indicative of your success. Without a UPC, a customer of yours may feel that your product will be too hard to track, or even violate their policies for selling it, causing them to pass you by. Avoid this by getting a UPC code for your product.

Facts About the Gluten-Free Diet

Gluten-free means it is a protein that will need to be avoided.  Gluten is found primarily in wheat, rye and barley.  The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has not regulated the term and use of “gluten-free”.  They require manufacturers to declare if there is wheat used in the product.  However, the regulations don’t require companies to disclose those ingredients that were made with rye or barley.  There are food additives that are artificial or natural that may contain gluten.  Keep in mind there are some companies that say they are gluten-free or the product has been contaminated as it was manufactured on a shared production line that used wheat or gluten.  There are no guarantees with a product that is labeled gluten-free.  It is important to read the labels very carefully and make sure the ingredients are indeed gluten-free.

A short list of some safe gluten-free foods and ingredients:

  • Agave
  • Amaranth
  • Arrowroot
  • Beans (chickpeas, soybeans)
  • Beta Carotene
  • Corn
  • Corn and rice cereals
  • Dates
  • Eggs
  • Egg Yolks
  • Flax
  • Meats (beef, chicken, fish)
  • Seeds
  • Fruits and vegetables
  • Milk
  • Masa flour
  • Almond Nuts
  • Peanuts
  • Pea flour
  • Polenta
  • Popcorn
  • Potato flour
  • Quinoa
  • Rice (enriched)
  • Rice flour
  • Tapioca
  • Tarrow Root
  • Tea
  • White Vinegar
  • Sweet and chewy treats such as marshmallows, plain hard candies and gumdrops)
  • Turmeric
  • Yam flour
  • Yogurt (plain, unflavored)
  • Whey protein (concentrate)
  • Wine and liquors

Consulting with a physician before going on this diet will help determine if it is the best route for the patient’s health.

Article provided by Paleo Forever

The Proper Way in Preparing Food for Transport

Article Submitted by Foodtradeconsultants

 

Off-site catering locations require for you to carefully transport your food from your commercial kitchen. Consider preparing the food that you will bring beforehand so that it will be easier for you to serve the food once you get to the venue. You should already cut your ingredients in your kitchen where you have access to available kitchen utensils and equipment.

Cold Food

Cook cold dishes in your commercial kitchen so that you have time to chill them before you place them in your van. Fresh ingredients such as vegetables and fresh fruits should be placed in a pan. You can refrigerate them a few hours before the trip. If you frequently have off-site catering locations, you can also invest in a refrigerated vehicle or purchase a food carrier that allows refrigeration of dishes which are already placed inside catering trays. You can also rent out a van if space if you only have a small vehicle for traveling.

Hot Food

Hot dishes should also be prepared in advance. Once you arrive at the location, you can re-heat the dishes since food warmers might not do the job adequately. You can also consider preparing casserole dishes a day prior to the event since they actually taste better when reheated. However, this strategy will not work with pasta or meat since they tend to get dry when reheated. Prepare such dishes a few hours before the trip or even see to it that they are cooked as soon as you are ready to leave. Transfer these dishes in their respective food pans after cooking so you can easily transport them in the food van.

Learn to Cook Exquisite Meals for Your Family with Evening Cooking Classes

Article Submitted by Foodtradeconsultants

Perhaps you have noticed lately that your husband and children have not been very enthusiastic about meals at home. You are probably a good cook but your specialties are rather limited. And you know that however good dishes are when people have been eating them for a long time, they tend to lose their taste.

“A family that eats together stays together”, is a truism that should encourage you to upgrade your culinary arsenal; add more varieties to your meals. You can be sure that when the husband and children notice new and delectable dishes appearing more frequently in the family dining table, they would be more enthusiastic and happier.

When will I find the time for that, with all work and children to take care of? You ask yourself. No problem, you can enroll in one of the many evening cooking classes that are offered in almost all localities. All you have to do is search the internet and you will an evening class that offers courses that will enable you to come up with meals entire the family will appreciate.

And they have courses for different food types, too. So if you are into healthy foods and a vegan, no worries there because there are classes that offer vegan cooking classes. The point of course for enrolling is to add variety to your table and you will get a lot of help from these evening classes. Naturally, you would also want to learn about desserts, children just love desserts.

The best part of these evening classes wont is they ruin your budget even if you bring your husband along. Surely, he’d like to whip up something palatable when you are tired or busy. The kitchen could offer a good place for bonding.

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