Food commodities are traded to international markets across continents and distributed to reach remote places also. The food commodities are ranked based on availability productivity, and demands of the increasing population. Non-processed food items such as whole grains, pulses, spices, cashews, frozen foods, fruits, vegetables, milk, eggs and many more are food commodities that are traded to native or internal markets and international markets. Processed food commodities include edible oils, butter, cheese, cedars, fruit juices, sauces and all types of flours. The food industry is a multi-billion dollar business and the world’s largest industry.

Handling food commodities includes many important factors that cannot be ignored such as storage, shelf life and temperature conditions. Storage space requirements should be given careful attention, as the amount of space necessary in a warehouse depends upon the total volume of food stored and on the number of different commodities. Separate stacks require more usable volume than one large stack; hence, each commodity should be stacked separately. Shelf life refers to the average amount of time a product may be stored without nutritional deterioration. A food commodity can deteriorate for several reasons such as aging, microbiological decay, chemical and physical degradation and texture changes. Deterioration of food commodities can be reduced or slowed by careful processing, packaging, handling and storing. Universal guidelines for controlling temperature and humidity conditions to suit the various food commodities are impossible, because these conditions and the operating environment vary from place to place. However, some basic instructions can be followed such as keeping all food commodities in dry conditions, storing wet and dry foods separately, cross-ventilation in the warehouse, sunroofs and covering food commodities during transportation.

Besides food commodities being a profitable trading business, large quantities of food items are donated through food distribution programs as relief measures. The commodities required food programs use inexpensive food staples to provide basic nourishment to populations in extreme food security emergencies, as well as for development activities designed to address food security goals.

By: Richard Romando

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The meaning of Christmas to those that celebrate this day can be as different as the many Christmas Gift Ideas that you can find in magazines, from mouth to mouth or on the Internet if not already in your mind. Most people associate candy canes with Christmas gifts, but there are many other sweet gifts for this season including chocolate candy and the popular candy bar.

Christmas Gifts do not have to be expensive, in fact, this is the best time to use your own talents cooking and baking ahead on time from the typical shaped-ginger cookies to chocolate candy in as many ways as your imagination dictates. Candy bar presents are even easier to prepare with anticipation, either alone or as part of other seasonal recipes.

Crafting a feast for the eyes is also easy if you design your own Christmas gifts wrappers, decorating them with candy canes to make your job easier, some websites offer free pre-made Christmas wrapper templates for popular candy bars including Hershey’s, Oh Henry!, M&Ms, Baby Ruth, 3 Musketeers, Milky Way, Butterfinger, Kit Kat, Snickers and even Junior Mints.

Christmas Gift Ideas based on chocolate candy may include Christmas Gift Baskets, which are typically available in varied styles and range. These baskets can be filled with a candy bar, cookies, boxed chocolates, a candy cane and other goodies to make your Christmas gifts a real delight for the eyes and of course, the taste.

From a simple candy cane, you can get countless Christmas Gifts, including ornaments, twists, and more. An easy to make gift is made by putting a candy cane in a bag and crush it with a rolling pin. Melt 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and deep spoons into chocolate to fill. Sprinkle with crushed candy and place on waxed paper covered cookie sheet to cool.

Spoons are a great present accompanied with a cup of hot cocoa and a candy bar with the attractive wrapper that you designed. Doing a little research on the web will show you many other Christmas Gift Ideas. Chocolate candy that you get from the supermarket during the season, generally include useful tips to transform this and other sweets into incredible presents.

Have you ever wondered where the candy cane comes from? Christmas Gifts rarely include the origins of legends so make an original present including a short written history or legend around a candy bar, chocolate candy or the candy cane itself. It is said that candy canes symbolize Jesus because their shape representing the letter “J” and their colors represent the purity and blood of Christ.

Although candy canes were created as treats to eat and decorate with them, there are a number of legends associated to them, including the supposedly relationship with the North Pole and Santa Claus, and a form of identification among Christians during a time of persecution. This way Christmas Gifts can be as tasty as entertaining and even educational.

By: Natalie Aranda

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It is great news that research has found a food that lowers blood pressure and is healthy for the heart and maybe more. The problem is that the chocolate Americans consume most is not the kind that was studied. The more popular kinds of chocolate have little or no positive effect on your health. Only certain chocolate may be healthy.

Dark chocolate is the chocolate that was found to have positive effects on blood pressure. Participants, either given dark, milk, or white chocolate every day were evaluated in different studies. It turns out that dark chocolate contains important antioxidants called phenols. These natural compounds from the cocoa bean are known to increase nitric oxide, reduce platelet aggregation, and inhibit oxidation of LDL cholesterol. Cocoa can decrease blood pressure, reduce cholesterol, and increase your insulin sensitivity. Milk and white chocolate are low in these antioxidants and do not have the same effect.

The problem is how chocolate is processed in this country. White chocolate, regardless of where you get it, actually contains no cocoa at all and is made only from cocoa butter; just the fat from the cocoa beans. It also contains no phenols. Most of the other chocolate we eat is made with “dutched” cocoa. The cocoa beans are treated with an alkaline solution to make them dark in color and reduce the natural bitterness from the plant. But it also reduces almost 90% of the phenols and most of its healthy benefits. The other problem is that when made into milk chocolate, the milk seems to prevent the phenols from being absorbed and, thus, negating any possible benefit from the chocolate.

The best chocolate for your health appears to be dark chocolate. In the European studies done, participants ate 100gm of chocolate a day (100 grams equals approx. 3.5 ounces). This is the equivalent to 2 1/2 regular size Hershey’s bars. It also added about 550 calories to their diet. They were instructed to substitute this amount of calories from other foods they normally ate each day. You would have to do the same or forego its healthy benefits by increasing your waistline. European chocolate in general is healthier than that found in America due to the fact that it is less processed than ours and contains more of the heart healthy antioxidants. Dark chocolate is an acquired taste for most Americans since it is much more bitter than its milky counterpart.

So why is this research being touted as the ‘best medical news in ages’? It appears to be one more way we look to justify the unhealthy diets we follow. When people hear that chocolate is now healthy, they don’t hear any of the other restrictions involved, and don’t want to. In fact, most people wouldn’t want to change to a more bitter tasting chocolate and also cut out over 500 calories from their diets as they did in the studies. Our diets already have enough sweets and this type of news only fuels the diabetic and obesity epidemics. This kind of medical news will only make most people add extra calories to their diets and increase their health problems.

These studies do look promising but there still is no information on how long these benefits last, how many phenols need to be eaten or how often. Stick with the darkest chocolate, if you must, and balance out your calories. Until we have more information, chocolate should remain a treat and not a treatment.

By: Gerald Meyer

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Note: This dish is simply amazing and out of this world. If you have any pasta on hand, this fancy meal takes very little time to prepare and is quite yummy. Whip up a zesty green salad and dinner is done. Plus, this meal easily serves up to 6 people.

Carbs per serving 11.7 grams of carb. NUMBER OF SERVINGS: 6.

Ingredients:
4 cups pasta