The food industry for many years reacted to consumer demand for more appealing and convenient food products by using additives. More recently the demands of consumers have grown to include still higher performance products but with less additives. The industry has responded accordingly. There are often significant scientific and technical obstacles to be overcome to make a product with less additives. It is these technical challenges that this book is intended to address. The approach taken in this book is to examine specific aspects of the industry where important contributions are being made to avoid or reduce additive use or to create new, natural and more acceptable additives which can replace the old ones. There is a tremendous amount of work underway in this field and to cover it comprehensively would fill many volumes. This volume addresses the areas where there has been a considerable amount of recent activity and published results. Chapter 1 covers starter cultures in dairy products, meat products and bread. The author is Professor Gunnar Mogensen, the Director of Research and Development for Chr. Hansen's Laboratorium, the fore­ most suppliers of starter cultures in the world. He examines developments in starter culture technology and illustrates ways in which starter cultures are replacing traditional additives in foods.