Category Archives: Food Contact Surfaces

Toxic Alcohols 101: Ethanol, Methanol, Isopropanol

Methanol-Ethanol-Isopropanol (1)

Understanding Critical Differences in Use It is hard to dispute that we are indeed finding ourselves living in ‘interesting times.’ With the financial markets fluctuating wildly, states revising their plans to re-open seemingly on an hourly basis as daily COVID-19 statistics look increasingly more grim, the unemployment rate skyrocketing, and racial tensions almost at boiling [Read More…]

What is a Cosmeceutical? Can Chocolate Really Prevent Skin Aging?

Chocolate pieces

Sometimes it is tempting to think that the science of the cleanroom is all about lunar landings and semi-conductors. But the reality is that the spectrum of research conducted in contamination-controlled environments is much broader and cannot be confined to the traditional silos of heavy engineering or silicon-wafer technology. Take, for example, the innovations around [Read More…]

‘Scientific Implausibility’ – Is the Monarchy Meddling in Manufacturing?

United Kingdom flag waving in the blue sky

Homeopathic Medicine Students of British history will no doubt recall the highs and lows of the Royal Family, that patrilineal dynasty that has ruled the island and the later ‘Empire’ seemingly forever. The institution of the Monarchy has long been the subject of debate and discussion with royalists clashing…well, royally…with abolitionists, who increasingly view the [Read More…]

Update: Kicking Back with Kratom – and Salmonella?

Leaf with pills

When Berkshire wrote Kicking Back with Kratom and Salmonella our main focus was clearly salmonella poisoning. “As of March 18, 2018, more than fifty cases of salmonella have been identified  by the CDC across 27 states with patients ranging in age from 67 down to just 6 years old. Sixty percent of the affected were male [Read More…]

Kicking Back with Kratom – and Salmonella?

Mitragyna speciosa leaf on white background

In his frequently hilarious and always engaging 2006 travelogue, Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu, memoirist J. Maarten Troost describes his multi-year sojourn in a culture that kicks back after a long day’s spear fishing in the Pacific island sun with a rather unique herbal beverage. Think of [Read More…]

Cleanroom Beer – How High-Tech is Ensuring the Safety of the World’s Oldest Tipple

Four glasses with different beers.

As a species, we sure like to make simple things complicated. We live at warp speed and chase inherited dreams, and then we wonder why the stress we’ve created have us reaching for pharmaceuticals, therapists, gurus, and other self-comforting tools and vices to carry us from day to day. In our fast-paced, multi-tasking, always-on 21st [Read More…]

Cleanroom News: Top 10 Articles of 2017

top 10

Last year, we dipped our corporate toes into the pool of industry analysis, tentatively creating articles that we thought might be of interest to our customers, partners, and the broader contamination control community. We expected that only a handful of readers would return week after week to see what scientific curiosity had caught the eye [Read More…]

Clean Meat : Can a Flesh-Based Product Ever Be Considered Contamination-Free?

Food contamination. Food insecurity. GMOs. Frankenfoods. Synthetic products. What’s next to find its way onto our dinner plates? Could it be ‘cultured meat,’ a product that’s disrupting the conventional paradigm of animal agriculture? From Maastricht to Silicon Valley, ‘clean meat’ is the next Big Idea, but what is it and why do we need it? [Read More…]

Is The World’s Most Expensive Cup of Coffee Worth It?

Luwak (civet cat) eating coffee bean

Civets and coffee cherries, pachyderms and poop – can the artificial fermentation of coffee beans mimic the digestive effects that produce the world’s most expensive – and arguably most unusual – cup of joe? To learn more about kopi luwac, the morning caffeine hit that’ll set you back $60 per cup click over to Food-Contact-Surfaces.com 

How is Black Soldier Fly Changing How We Process Trash?

Soldier fly close up

A United Nations study on global food insecurity estimated that the world’s population will reach 9 billion people by 2050. Already over 1 billion individuals live with chronic hunger so how are we going to feed the increasing population? Given that the insect to human ratio is around 200 million to one, perhaps it is [Read More…]