What Is Food Science? -- Processed Foods: Good or Bad? -- Vintage Wines and Chocolates -- Preserving Strawberries, and Other Foods -- Science Projects in Your Refrigerator -- Freeze Drying – High-Quality Food Preservation -- Does Your Food Glow in the Dark? -- Is Your Food Safe? -- Food Safety and Mobile Food Carts -- At Work in a Vale of Tears -- Are All Microorganisms in Food Bad? -- Probiotics – The Growth of Cultured Foods -- How to Keep Guacamole from Turning Brown -- Churning the Butter -- What Side Is Your Bread Buttered On? -- Butter or Margarine? -- Chocolate Flavor -- Rice in Your Salt Shaker? -- Frost on Your Berries -- Lucky Charms – A Lesson in Creativity and Marketing -- Developing New Ice cream Flavors -- Oreos Spawn Host of New Products -- Sparkler Spice! for Your Veggies? -- It Is All in the Packaging -- Shelf Life Dating – Good or Bad? -- Intelligent Packages -- Juice Boxes for Your Convenience -- Beware of Low-Carb Diets -- May Contain Peanuts! – What Is a Food Allergy? -- Uses for Chocolate Pudding -- The Magic of Gelatin -- Pretzels -- Peanut Butter -- Cheddarwurst -- Ice – From Nature to Frozen Desserts -- It Is Popsicle Time -- Neapolitan Ice cream -- Sprinkles or Jimmies? -- California or Wisconsin Raisins? -- Eat Your Tomatoes Raw or Cooked – Just Eat Them -- Fruit Leather -- Preserving Apples for Next Spring -- Fruitcake: A Scorned Food -- Mom Versus Betty Crocker: Is Cake Made from Scratch Better Than Cake Made from a Box? -- Holiday Cookies – Butter, Margarine or Shortening? -- Animal Crackers or Cookies? -- Skunky Beer for Oktoberfest? -- This Oktoberfest, Drink the Beer, Not the Water -- Fresh Orange Juice -- Apple Cider -- Egg Nog – A Safe Holiday Tradition -- Kool-Aid or Tang? -- Milk Shakes and Brain Freeze -- Circus Peanuts -- Marshmallow Peeps -- Salt Water Taffy -- Caramel -- Life Is Like a Box of Chocolates -- Hollow Chocolate Bunnies -- Chocolate Gone Bad.

Food Bites is an easy-to-read, often humorous book on the scientific basis of the foods we eat, and answers those pesky, niggling questions such as: Is the quality of beer really affected by the type of water used? and Processed foods: good or bad? Readers will be captivated by this superbly written book, especially so as their guides are Professor Richard Hartel, professor of Food Engineering at UW-Madison, along with his daughter, AnnaKate Hartel. Professor Hartel has for the last four years penned a witty and illuminating column on all aspects of food science for the Capital Times of Madison, and his weekly wisdom has now been collected into a single publication. With a huge and growing interest in the science of food, this treasure trove of knowledge and practical information, in 60 bite-sized chunks, is sure to be a bestseller.