National Quemoy University’s Department of Food Science over the weekend unveiled an unusual innovation sure to challenge even the most adventurous palate — a yogurt beverage made of black garlic and milk.
The beverage contains a much higher antioxidant content that promotes the prevention of cardiovascular diseases, according to the university.
Assistant professors Lai Ying-Jang (賴盈璋) and Lin Chih-fan (林志芳) said that the revolutionary product is the result of an initiative by the National Science Council, which has since become the Ministry of Science and Technology.
The council’s scientists looked into developing new products after examining a wide variety of garlic strains, including those grown locally and those imported.
As a result, the initiative found ways of vastly improving the yield rate of black garlic production.
Lai and Lin said that products such as the yogurt beverage could raise the profitability of local garlic production. It can sell for up to 10 times the retail price of the unprocessed ingredient, they said.
The school explained that the technique employed in making black garlic originated in Japan and South Korea.
It involves a biotransformation process, where garlic is left to ferment in a climate-controlled environment. After fermentation, the pungent flavor of the garlic is eliminated entirely and replaced by a sweet, fruity taste.
Made from a concoction of yogurt culture, black garlic and milk, the beverage’s antioxidant content is on par with that of black garlic, the professors said, citing findings from laboratory tests.
Quemoy University students who have tried the beverage responded favorably, saying its taste closely resembles conventional store-bought yogurt drinks.
The professors on Friday urged the government to take heed of the potential reward of developing innovative value-added products, calling for more funding to help transform the nation’s agricultural sector.
Oversupply last year sent garlic prices tumbling to below NT$20 per 600 grams in the nation’s major production centers of Kinmen and Yunlin.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,