SciITech
The Battalion
Page 4 • Tuesday, November 113
The whole enchilada
A&M professor adds 3 methods to tortilla production
to lengthen the bread’s shelf life and improve its quality
Embryonic cell use
unethical, panel sa
By Foster King
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
By Kyle Ross
THE BATTALION
A tortilla is a tortilla is a tortilla, right? Not
if you are Ralph Waniska, professor of soil and
crop sciences at Texas A&M, who has spent
the past few years cooking up new ways to
bring an improved tortilla to a hungry
market. With three technologies
already disclosed and a fourth
one in the oven, Waniska's
vision for tortilla devel
opment is staggering.
"There is always
room for improve
ment," said
Waniska, hinting
at the unfulfilled
expectations of
current tortilla consumers.
The number of tortilla consumers in
the United States is reaching record
heights, according to the Tortilla
Industry Association's 2002 mar
ket survey. Among Americans,
tortillas trail white bread by
only 2 percent as the most
popular bread. In 2002,
U.S. tortilla sales totaled
$5.2 billion, with $6 billion
in estimated sales for 2004.
So it is no small feat
that Waniska and fellow
researchers at the Texas
A&M University System
have designed new ways
of processing tortillas that
offer improvements in
every aspect. Color, size,
sistency, nutrition and shelf-
life have all been enhanced in
hope that consumers will sit up
and take notice.
"Do we want to have high-
fiber tortillas? Do we want
low-carbohydrate tortillas? Do
we want no trans-fat tortillas?"
Waniska said. "I know we
always want tortillas with a
longer shelf-life."
And in the age of the low-carb diet, these can
all be important concerns to consumers. Junior
marketing major Kristi Saggard said she tries to
stay away from carbohydrates.
"If the tortilla's taste was comparable to that
of a regular one, I would buy the one with lower
carbs — the healthier one," Saggard said.
These and other specific interests
can be satisfied, Waniska said,
while maintaining the
fundamental charac
teristics of the tor
tilla such as sta
bility, diameter,
opacity and
flavor.
Gracie Arenas • THE BATTALION
"We think we
can offer a product that
manufacturers will like
and consumers will like,”
Waniska said. “It's the best of
both worlds."
His first disclosed innova
tion introduced a dough con
ditioner that improved reten
tion of air bubbles during pro
cessing. Particular levels of
acids and bases were com
bined to create a stronger.
more pliable tortilla with a larger diameter.
"The more acid used in the recipe gave us
more days before molding would occur, but
the more acid used also lowered the opacity,"
Waniska said. "Getting a balance is the trick.
All I've done is found that balance."
Recently, Waniska disclosed a second tech
nology that presents a method of using certain
wheat flour proteins to improve the overall
quality of the tortilla. Combining the wheat
flour proteins and oxidizing agents allows
once unsuitable flours to be used in tortilla
production.
"The second technology had a positive eco
nomic impact on the tortillas we were mak
ing,” Waniska said. "But it also did what the
first one did, and that was improve shelf-life
by 50 percent without sacrificing quality."
Shelf-life, defined by Waniska as the reten
tion of fresh characteristics over a period of
storage time, was once again improved dra
matically with a third disclosed technology.
He determined that by lowering the amount of
sodium bicarbonate, the tortilla would exhibit
longer shelf life. His third technology pre
sented a method that did just that.
Each of the three technologies work inde
pendently, contributing their own method of
improvement. A&M researchers are currently
designing ways to combine all three methods.
Waniska tries to downplay his tortilla
accomplishments, but the potential he has
uncovered promises to change the tortilla mar
ket altogether.
"It's really pretty simple. I just kind of
found the right formulas at the right times," he
said. "But 1 think consumers will really enjoy
what we've done."
One consumer, John Dearinger, a junior
electrical engineering major, is already excited
about the possibility of better tortillas.
"My family and I love tortillas. We eat them
quite a bit, especially my two little girls,"
Dearinger said. "It would be great if they
would last longer and be healthier for you all
at the same time. Even if they cost a little bit
more, 1 would probably buy them."
BALTIMORE A medical ethics panels;
Monday it would be unethical and risky to treat pet
pie with the embryonic stem cells approved l
President George W. Bush for federally funde;
research.
The approved cell lines, created lor possible ftiii
disease treatments, were initially grown on mot
cells. That could expose humans to an animal vin;
their immune systems couldn't fight, the panel
Flie experts said that safer stem cell lines now era
but those would not be eligible for federal funding
The ethics panel announcement was the latest sic
of the friction between stem cell scientists and But
who two years ago set limits on the controvert,
research which destroys human embryos.
1 arlier this year, the director of the Natior.
Institutes of Health called on the president to liflt
restrictions. And a number of scientists note if
research into stem cells is progressing overseas.
A spokesman with Bush's Health and Hum.
Services Department said no one was available:
comment on the ethics panel finding.
The medical ethics panel, which included set
lists, philosophers, ethicists and lawyers from fe
L nited States and Europe, was fanned by Joto
Hopkins 1 niversity to study the ethical questions^
ing as stem cells move from research to human triali
and. possibly, to human therapy.
Embryonic stem cells have the ability togrowii
all kinds of cells, and they are sought as potential treat
merits for victims of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson'sdiv
ease, diabetes and spinal cord injuries.
But because embryos discarded from fertility din
ics are a major source of stem cells, the issue has
sparked an ethical debate.
On Aug. 9. 2001, the president announced that fell
eral money would lie granted for research usingonl)
stem cell lines created by that date. That way,It
hoped to stop the destruction of future humaii
embryos.
Anti-abortion groups say stem cell research is it
(amount to murder because it starts with the destrac-
tion of a human embryo to recover the cells.
And Pope John Paul II on Monday denounced:'
“morally contradictory” any medical treatment bid
on stem cells taken from embryo tissue. Vaticantefi-
ing holds that life begins at conception.
Bush has also called for a ban on huma
including the cloning of embryos solely to
cells for research.
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