inherent problems involved in establish- ing analytical quality-control tests for the analysis of lipids are covered bettel here than in most books, the topic could have been dealt with more thoroughly, with more practical advice on how to

establish such quality-control tests. In summary, this book is a good, up-

to-date and critical review of recent research on the role of fats in human nutrition, and I would recommend it to students, researchers and teachers in

medicine, biology and the nutritional sciences.

Kristian S. Bierve Department of Clinical Chemistry, Trondheim

Regional Hospital, N-7006 Trondheirn, Norway.

This book is a companion volume to Guide to Food Transport: Fruit and Vegetables, which was prepared and published by the same group in 1989 and to which reference is frequently made.

The text is divided into five chapters, the first three of which are substantial and take up the majority of the work. The coverage is wider than might be assumed from the title of either the book or the individual chapters. For example, the first chapter ('General information about foods') contains sections on psychrometrics, packaging materials and methods, the K factors of transport containers, and temperature- monitoring procedures. References to aspects of fruit and vegetable tech- nology - respiration and blanching, for example - that are not relevant to the transport of fish, meat and dairy products occur throughout the book. Chapter 3 includes sections devoted to frozen fruits, concentrated fruit juices, frozen vegetables and baked goods. Perhaps, if a second edition is pub- lished, this and the previous volume should be combined to eliminate such overlap.

The second chapter is a substantial discussion of the construction and oper- ation of refrigerated transport contain- ers. Chapter 3 first discusses the causes of quality loss in stored foods, intro-

Guide to Food Transport: Fish, Meat and Dairy Products

edited by Leif B~gh Sorensen, Mercantila Publishers, 1990. Dan. Kr. 400.00 (157 pages) ISBN 87 89010 97 3

ducing the use of time-temperature- tolerance curves and product-process- packaging factors as determinants of the quality of a stored product, and then deals with the processing and storage of particular classes of products.

The final two brief chapters are the weakest part of the book. Chapter 4 covers insurance and related aspects, drawing specifically on Danish practice. While this may illustrate in a general way principles that are substantially uniform across Europe, references to specific aspects of Danish legislation are not very useful to readers from other countries. The last chapter is a glossary of temps, many of which are defined in the text. It would probably have been more helpful to the reader to define all technical terms and abbreviations in the text when first used, and then to cite them in the index.

Superficially, the book presents a bright, colourful appearance. Colour is used to identify the different chapters, and diagrams and tables are printed in

the colour corresponding to the chapter - sometimes at the expense of legibility. Colour photographs head the sections on commodity data, but serve to dec- orate the text rather than to inform the reader.

The English throughout is good - only occasionally is the reader con- scious of an infelicity. However, there are a few spelling mistakes and some lines of print start with a comma, which should not have escaped the proof- reader. In addition, the reader gets the impression that the publishers are not used to dealing with scientific texts. For example, the specification of units is eccentric: on one page, 'rn3' instead of 'm 3' is used to indicate cubic metres; similarly, 'W/m 2 °C', 'W/m2x°C ' and 'W/m2xC ' variously appear where one would expect ' W m -2 K -1' - and what is one to make of 'ml/m2/day x bar'~

N.D. Cowell Department of Food Science and Technology,

University of Reading, Whiteknights, PO Box 226, Readin 8 RG6 2AP, UK.

Vegetable Processin 8 is an up-to-date account of how different techniques have developed in recent years to pro- vide consumers with safe, nutritious vegetables presented in a variety of forms and styles. The book examines vegetable processing in its entirety, pay- ing particular attention to quality con- siderations.

The introduction presents a general overview of vegetable processing. This is followed by 'Crop production, har- vesting and storage', which discusses the effects on quality of the choice of cultivar, the maturity of the crop at har- vest, the harvesting process itself, and storage conditions, topics that are sometimes not even mentioned by the

Vegetable Processing edited by David Arthey and Colin Dennis, Blackie & Son, 1990. £59.00 (294 pages) ISBN 0 216 92907 5

authors of other books on vegetable processing. Chapter 3 discusses the next step of processing: the preparation of the raw materials. The blanching process is presented in an original way, and the concerns about the effects of blanching on organoleptic qualities and the loss of nutrients are considered. Thermal processing and freezing, the two most important preservation tech- niques used in vegetable processing, are presented in Chapters 4 and 5. The main steps of the processes are clearly

explained; particular focus is given to practical considerations. A brief descrip- tion is given of specific aspects of the freezing of various 'characteristic' veg- etables of industrial importance.

Special mention should be made of the chapter on 'Chilling', because of the increasing use c,f chillir, g to better preserve the nt~ritional qualities of veg- etables. Safety, sanitary and nutritional aspects of chilling are all covered well.

Dehydration, drying, salting and brining, pickling, syruping and other

Trends in Food Science & Technology June 1991 157