The History of Food Chemistry

Filled tomatoes
Photo by Dnor

Food chemistry's history dates back as far as the late 18th century when many famous chemists were involved in discovering chemicals important in foods, including Carl Wilhelm Scheele (isolated malic acid from apples in 1785), and Sir Humphry Davy published the first ever book on agricultural and food chemistry in 1813 titled Elements of Agricultural Chemistry, in a Course of Lectures for the Board of Agriculture in theUnited Kingdom which would serve as a foundation for the profession worldwide, going into a fifth edition.

In 1874 the Society of Public Analysts was formed, with the aim of applying analytical methods to the benefit of the public^[1]. Its early experiments were based on bread, milk and wine.

It was also out of concern for the quality of the food supply, mainly food adulteration and contamination issues that would first stem from intentional contamination to later with chemical food additives by the 1950s. The development of colleges and universities worldwide, most notably in the United States, would expand food chemistry as well with research of the dietary substances, most notably the Single-grain experiment during 1907-11. Additional research byHarvey W. Wiley at the United States Department of Agriculture during the late 19th century would play a key factor in the creation of the United States Food and Drug Administration in 1906. The American Chemical Society would establish their Agricultural and Food Chemistry Division in 1908 while the Institute of Food Technologists would establish their Food Chemistry Division in 1995.

Worldwide diamond glut:

Some large and famous diamonds

According to the Times of London the economic downturn has created a worldwide glut of diamonds that is caused the closing of several diamond mines.  It is also caused a precipitous drop in their price.  If you already own a high-priced diamond like all diamonds its value has tanked.  The best buys for diamonds can be found right now in your local hock shop.  This is because right now so many people have pawned their diamonds to raise cash in uncertain times that there are now too many diamonds on the market.

This is simple economics where the supply of diamonds exceeds the demand for diamonds.  The law of supply and demand whenever dictates when this happens it drives the prices down, consequently the price of diamonds is apt to remain depressed for the next several years.

This is not only true of diamonds but probably also applies to the other gemstones particularly the precious ones like rubies, sapphire's and emeralds.  Just like diamonds the demand for these stones has also fallen.  The law of supply and demand applies to these stones too.

It may be true that diamonds are forever, but right now they're not a girl’s best friend and the buyers are more than fickle.  This crashing of the diamond market has already caused many jewelers to go out of business and shutter their doors.  Even Tiffany's in New York one of the greatest jewelers in the world is even struggling to sell their supply of diamonds.

By the end of 2008 diamond sales in the United States declined by 20%, and the United States accounts for 50% of the worldwide diamond sales.  Another factor that has caused this decline in prices is the fact that Debeers who for many years had a stranglehold on diamond sales no longer controls a large portion of the world's diamond supply as it has done in prior years.  For many years DeBeers was able to maintain the high-priced diamonds by choking off the supply end of the business.

Because the economic downturn has spread to China and India it has chocked off the demand there also.  It had been hoped by the diamond miners that the increasing wealth in these countries would of taken off the slack in the diamond market.  This worldwide economic glut has caused the price of diamonds to fall by as much as 30% from its peak in August of 2008.

As recently as September of 2008 Debeers reported that they were unable to get diamonds out of the ground fast enough to meet the demand.  This all came to an end with the stock market crash in October, 2008 and the continuing decline of the stock market since.  DeBeers has stated that is going to decrease diamond production by 50% through April 2009.

Although troubles loomed ahead for several previous years the diamond producers took a short-term view and proceeded to mine more diamonds that there was a demand for.  The natural consequence of this action was that they had many more diamonds stockpiled them they needed.

The quest for diamonds is still ongoing throughout the world including in our neighbor Canada that is now the sixth-largest producer of diamonds in the world.  Alrosa the Russian diamond mining company has already announced that it is not going to cut back production for the foreseeable future.

References:

Istock, A Glut of Diamonds, http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/3059914

RT Business, Alrosa to continue producing sparkle despite diamond glut, http://www.russiatoday.com/Business/2009-02-06/Alrosa_to_continue_producing_sparkle_despite_diamond_glut.html