Food and Beverages

This article describes the continuous brewing of beer, much less common than the traditional batch process. It covers the continuous fermentation process and the yeast biochemistry, and discusses the relative advantages and disadvantages of this process. READ MORE...

This article details the chemical composition of grapes and describes the steps in the wine manufacturing process, harvesting, crushing and destemming, pressing the berries to release juice, fermentation and purification. READ MORE...

This article discusses the composition of wheat and the structure of flour, and describes the chemistry involved in bread making. It finishes with an experiment suitable for schools. READ MORE...

This article considers the chemistry of the common ingredients used in baking, and looks at the effects of the physical processes of mixing and baking. READ MORE...

This article gives the structure of sucrose and describes the four steps in refining it from the raw product: Affination, carbonation, char filtration and crystallisation. READ MORE...

This article explains how starch is extracted from maize, liquefied by treatment with water and Α-amylase to give oligosaccharides which are broken further to a glucose-maltose mixture by further enzymatic treatment (saccharification), and then how this product is refined. READ MORE...

This article describes the extraction of the oils and fats from plant seeds and animal products, how these are refined and modified to make them edible, and the range of products produced. The chemistry involved and the analyses required are explained. READ MORE...