Big Data is changing the way we look at food

Researchers looked at whether Indian food differed from the scientific consensus on most other global cuisines which rely on "positive food pairing".

Can Big Data change the way we understand food? A recent study used data analytics techniques to establish an unusual feature of Indian cuisine.

Ganesh Bagler, assistant professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Jodhpur, with two students — Anupam Jain, a systems science M. Tech student and Rakhi N.K., a PhD scholar in biomedical text mining — used Big Data analytics techniques to better understand the basic nature of Indian cuisine.

Using the website of the popular late chef Tarla Dalal to aggregate over 2,500 recipes across eight strands of Indian cuisine, the researchers looked at whether Indian food differed from the scientific consensus on most other global cuisines which rely on “positive food pairing.” This means that recipes in most other cultures involve the pairing of similarly flavoured ingredients.

Sorting 194 ingredients into 15 categories, Dr. Bagler and his students found that Indian cuisine on the contrary relies on negative food pairings, where dissimilarly flavoured ingredients are combined in a recipe. Moreover, Indian recipes are anchored around spices; the researchers shuffled around ingredients in a recipe to observe its effect on negative food pairing, and found that it was the spice that drove the negative pairing. They also found that of the top 10 ingredients whose presence biased the flavour-sharing pattern of Indian cuisine towards negative pairing, nine were spices: cayenne, green bell pepper, coriander, garam masala, tamarind, ginger-garlic paste, ginger, clove and cinnamon.

These are findings that could be expected to emerge from laboratory experimentation, but Dr. Bagler, who stumbled across the idea while teaching a course on Complex Networks, said he came at the question from an “empirical data modeller” perspective, using data mining and computational techniques to look at food. For Dr. Bagler, the research opens up a world of interdisciplinary possibilities; for example, algorithms that can create recipes, especially healthy recipes, and the role of ‘food as medicine.’

These findings ring true for chefs. “Indian cuisine is extremely complex — I use 20 ingredients for an Indian dish while I could do a Western one with five — and we use very bold flavours,” says Padmaja Divakarn, chef, ITC Grand Chola, Chennai. These characteristics lend themselves well to combining dissimilar flavours, and the spice gives types of cuisine their distinctive flavour, she says.

Food historian Pushpesh Pant agrees that Indian food uses such dissimilar flavours — giving the example of tamarind and jaggery in sambar — but cautions against generalising, given the complexity of Indian cuisine across region and social group. Moreover, the late Ms. Dalal’s recipes are limited to certain types of Indian food, and are predominantly vegetarian, Mr. Pant points out

The gift that keeps on giving

The mid-day meal scheme pioneered by Akshaya Patra Foundation will, by 2020, feed 5 million school kids in India clean and nutritious food, and could eliminate student hunger by 2030

If I had to identify an Infosys among Non Governmental Organisations in the coun try, my choice would be spontaneous. Aksh aya Patra, the hugely successful mid-day meal provider in India.

Akshaya Patra was launched in June 2000 with the objective to provide mid-day meals to 1,500 students in and around Bangalore. The service has extended to more than 1.4 million students every single day across 10,661 schools and 22 locations today, making it the largest (not-forprofit) mid-day meal programme in the world.

In a world where NGOs generally grow in nominal single-digits and are perpetually low on resource mobilisation, Akshaya Patra has demonstrated two convention breakers: That is possible to grow at a `corporate' pace and that it is possible to mobilise the kind of resources that even most listed corporations do not report in their bottomlines across years of existence.

The big question that most NGOs across the country are asking is: How?

Whereas most NGOs focus on education proper, Akshaya Patra selected to focus on a relatively under-explored aspect (nutrition) that concurrently addresses education, poverty, nutrition and social progress.

Whereas most mid-day meal providers would have confined themselves to food, the bunch of mavericks managing Akshaya Patra recognised that the issue was not just about providing a meal; it was about creating student pull that would translate into academic and physiological improvements. The result is that over the years, the Akshaya Patra effect has translated into increased attendance from 73.3 per cent in 2005 (girl students) to 87 per cent, emerging as possibly the most potent attendance-driver (and hence, of national progress) across the country.

Most NGOs working around a similar idea would have been content to showcase a successful model and wait for the world to make a sheepish journey to its door. Instead, Akshaya Patra went to various state governments with the request of an opportunity to make a difference. The result is that Akshaya Patra is now present in 10 states leveraging a public-private partnership model.

Most NGOs would have worked out various makeshift arrangements with existing kitchens in the regions of their presence. Akshaya Patra invested in state-of-the-art stainless steel (304 food grade) kitchens and Six Sigma discipline that promises hygiene (non-touch), speed and scale.The result: An Akshaya Patra kitchen is geared to roll out 7,200 meals in just 20 minutes.

Most small NGOs would have focused on getting their operational dynamics right. Akshaya Patra focused on credibility, credibility and credibility, engaging confidence-enhancing auditors, attracting prominent citizens of integrity to its governing board and treating governance with the same discipline as a publicly-listed organisation. Result: Akshaya Patra recently attracted Rs 200 crore in funding from the philanthropic arms of Infosys and the Tata Group, possibly the largest ever corporate allocation made to a third party NGO in India.

Most NGOs would have either become too engaged with the nitty-gritty or growth implications to invest seriously in processes. Akshaya Patra invested in a quality control process that ensures raw materials are accepted only after comprehensive quality inspection at all locations aligned with the demanding requirements of the Food Safety Standards Act 2006, proactive investment in cold storage, compliance with First In First Out and First Expiry First Out discipline, standardised processes irrespective of locations, employment of trained cooks and production supervisors, ongoing process monitoring comprising critical control points like cooking temperature, logistic charting for route optimisation and investment in Global Positioning System equipment to track delivery vehicles.

One might assume that Akshaya Patra started and ended with food. Appraise the overall impact: Scholastic performance improved; there was a decline in the incidence of under-weight students by 200 basis points on an enlarging base.

Akshaya Patra intends to widen its coverage across the national landscape and feed 5 million students by 2020. This effectively means that what the NGO has achieved in 15 years is likely to be trebled in a third of the time.

With a number of corporations now funding this programme, it would be reasonable to assume that Akshaya Patra is an NGO assured of financial robustness for perpetuity. Here comes a surprise: The founders indicate that the combination of government support and Akshaya Patra's direct intervention is expected to eliminate the incidence of student hunger by 2030. If this combined action does not succeed in eliminating the problem in the coming decade-and-a-half, then it would be better to vacate its space and cease operations.

This is how the impact is panning out. Varshitha (9) of Inole village (off Hyderabad) attends school hungry since her mother (domestic help) leaves early for work and has no father. If there is anything that sustains Varshitha it is Akshaya Patra's mid-day meal, a part of which is packed to be taken home for dinner.

And to think that this grand idea was sparked off by a single incident: That of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of International Society for Krishna Consciousness, seeing a group of children fighting with street dogs over scraps of food at Mayapur near Kolkata one morning, inspiring a vision that no child within 10 km would ever go hungry.

Danger of contamination hovers loose over food products

Food is key vehicle in transmission of communicable diseases, which is why it should be safe in nature, in processing, in storage, in packaging as well as in retail premises where it is sold. It should be free from toxins and contaminants which may prove to be potential health hazards. It may be observed that in retail premises, often, food articles like sugar, pulses, rice, wheat, and maize are kept open and is handled by unskilled laborers unaware about the type of contaminants that can cause health hazards for consumers. 

The sources of contaminants, how they contaminate and what are their impacts are detailed below for the benefit of the common consumers: 

Food handling in retail premises

Food comes in contact with human hands during, transportation, storage and selling. It is very important that people handling food items are free from any communicable diseases like cold, respiratory ailments, and cuts and boils, which could be transferred to open food items, thereby spreading the infection to persons or consumers consuming the food article. Human hair, nasal discharge, and skin can also be source of microorganisms. A number of gastrointestinal disorders, such as diarrhoea, cholera and communicable diseases such as typhoid, septic sore throat, diphtheria, and dysentery are communicated by use of contaminated food articles.

Shopkeeper and food handler

It is the responsibility of the shopkeeper and the engaged labourers in outbreak of food poisoning due to contaminants emanating from various external agents as also food handlers themselves. Due to paucity of space, most of the food articles are transferred to storage and kept without proper coverage where proper hygienic system is not followed. As a result, there is every possibility of transmission of diseases like amoebic dysentery, bacillary dysentery, typhoid and paratyphoid fevers, viral hepatitis, staphylococcal and streptococcal infections, salmonellosis3 and so on. 

Contamination by rodents

Rodents are a pest group which can contaminate open food items and are a serious threat to humans for spreading diseases. Rodents include mice, rats and bandicoots. The accumulation of faeces from mice and rats spread bacteria, contaminate open food articles and trigger allergic reactions in humans. Once the faecal matter becomes dry, it can be hazardous to those who breathe it in. Moreover, people are infected through inhalation of infected rodent urine, droppings or saliva in food articles kept open. Hantavirus 4 is a potentially life threatening disease transmitted by rodents.

Contamination by insects

(i) House Fly: One of the most common insects is the housefly. These have minute hair on their legs and thus carry various types of bacteria, viruses, and germs. Normally, in markets these flies are found everywhere and sit on open food articles like sugar and other food articles made of sugar which cannot be cleaned. It has also been observed that flies of both sexes feed on all kinds of human food, garbage and excreta, including sweat and animal dung. The fly picks up disease causing organisms while moving and feeding and transmits it when it makes contact with people and their food. The diseases that flies can transmit are dysentery, diarrhoea, typhoid, cholera, jaundice, poliomyelitis and also certain helminth infections and poliomyelitis. They contaminate open food by carrying/spreading the germs, parasite and bacterium of all the above diseases that are infectious to humans. It is also possible that they may carry faecal matter or from other such sources of pathogenic bacteria and deposit it on the open food articles which contaminate food articles and cause serious damage to human beings. According to study report by a scientist of Kansas State University, fly can contaminate food by E. faecalis, a bacterium that is resistant to antibiotics and causes the majority of intestinal infections. 

II) Cockroaches: According to a University of Nebraska Lincoln (UNL) publication, cockroaches have been found to be the cause of Salmonella food contamination or food poisoning that can be life threatening noting that other pathogenic bacterium, includes staphylococcus, streptococcus and coliforms, have been found in cockroaches. Cockroaches can contaminate food products by spreading 33 different kinds of bacteria 7 as reported by NPMA vice-president of public affairs. According to a report by World Health Organisation (WHO), cockroach can play a role as carriers of intestinal diseases such as diarrhoea, dysentery, typhoid and cholera and are very fond of sugar and starchy sugary material. Normally, in retail shops the sugars as also materials made of sugar are not properly covered and kept closed inside the shop after the market hours. Cockroaches can contaminate open food articles like sugar and starchy sugary materials as they are carriers of the organisms causing diarrhoea, dysentery, cholera, leprosy, plague, typhoid fever, and viral diseases such as poliomyelitis. In addition, they carry the eggs of parasitic worms and may cause allergic reactions, including dermatitis, itching, swelling of the eyelids and more seriously respiratory conditions.

Possible contaminants in jute sacks

Normally sugars, pulses, rice, and wheat are packed in jute sacks. The contaminant in jute sacks is jute batching oil (JBO) used in the jute industry to make the jute fibre. There are two varieties of JBO generally used in jute industries in India; the first one is called JBO having lower viscosity and lower boiling point and the second one called JBO (P), with comparatively higher viscosity and higher boiling point ( Mahapatra-1977). So far there have been a very limited number of experimental studies on the toxic effect of JBO. Roe et al. 1967 have described the carcinogenic effect of mineral oil used in the processing of jute fibres on mouse skin and showed the presence of benzo (a) pyrene (BaP) in the tested oil in traces. A study conducted by Mehrotra and Saxena 1979 has indicated the carcinogenic effect of JBO (C) on albino mice.

It is an established fact that unhygienic food processing and improper packaging can create hazards like salmonella, microbes, endotoxins, migration of toxins from packing material, adhesive & inks and so on and can render the food unfit for human consumption. Other contaminants due to packaging could be physical and chemical changes, migration of chemicals, off flavours, colour and texture change, moisture and oxygen transfer and the effects of light and temperature changes on account of lack of proper barrier properties of packing materials. 

All these contaminants found in loose food products are there due to unhygienic food handling. Rodents also cause contamination of food and food products by droppings as also accumulating faeces and faecal matters and making urine in food and food products. House flies contaminate loose food products by spreading germs, parasites and bacterium. Cockroaches can contaminate food by spreading 33 types of bacteria in food and food products. Jute batching oil is another contaminant used in jute processing which has carcinogenic effect as reported by Mehrotra and Saxena. 

Given the above argument it is extremely important that we purchase food items that are well packaged and sealed to ensure they are free of toxins and contamination.