The demand for organic food products is steadily increasing partly due to the expected health benefits of organic food consumption. Polyphenols, such as flavonoids and phenolic acids, are a group of secondary plant metabolites with presumably beneficial health effects, and contents in plants are affected by, for example, plant nutrient availability, climate, pathogen infection, and pest attack. In the current study, onions, carrots, and potatoes were cultivated in two-year field trials in three different geographical locations, comprising one conventional and two organic agricultural systems. The contents of flavonoids and phenolic acids in plants were analyzed by pressurized liquid extraction and high-performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet quantification. In onions and carrots, no statistically significant differences between growth systems were found for any of the analyzed polyphenols. On the basis of the present study carried out under well-controlled conditions, it cannot be concluded that organically grown onions, carrots, and potatoes generally have higher contents of health-promoting secondary metabolites in comparison with the conventionally cultivated ones.

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The expected higher content of presumed health-promoting carotenoids in organic food products was not documented in this study.

A rapid and sensitive analytical method for quantification of polyacetylenes in carrot roots was developed. The traditional extraction method (stirring) was compared to a new ultrasonic liquid processor (ULP)-based methodology using high-performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet (HPLC-UV) and mass spectrometry (MS) for identification and quantification of three polyacetylenes. ULP was superior because a significant reduction in extraction time and improved extraction efficiencies were obtained. After optimization, the ULP method showed good selectivity, precision [relative standard deviations (RSDs) of 2.3-3.6%], and recovery (93% of falcarindiol) of the polyacetylenes. The applicability of the method was documented by comparative analyses of carrots grown organically or conventionally in a 2 year field trial study. The average concentrations of falcarindiol, falcarindiol-3-acetate, and falcarinol in year 1 were 222, 30, and 94 mug of falcarindiol equiv/g of dry weight, respectively, and 3-15% lower in year 2. The concentrations were not significantly influenced by the growth system, but a significant year-year variation was observed for falcarindiol-3-acetate.

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A profile form for reporting in descriptive terms the sensory qualities of a beer sample is presented, and the importance of adopting a common vocabu lary of terms related to tasting is stressed.Preconditions for subjecting taste reports to statistical analysis and computation are reviewed. The use of formalized taste reports, in connection with a standardized forcing procedure, in the assessment of flavour stability and flavour consistency is illustrated by an example.

The designing of plants for brewery waste water treatment is seriously hampered by the fact that published figures for the biochemical oxygen demand (B.O.D.) of brewery waste are so discordant that no generally applicable averages can be extracted from them. Even in an operating brewery it is a costly and time‐consuming affair to procure representative figures by direct measurements, owing to the intricacy of the sampling problems and the inaccuracy of the analytical methods. In an effort to meet this need it is suggested that an objective and sufficiently exact basis for planning treatment plants and for costing treatment is obtainable by estimating the volume and B.O.D. of brewery waste by calculation. It is demonstrated by reference to a practical example how such calculations may be made by keeping account of all materials going into or leaving the brewery.