OBJECTIVES To assess supply and nutritional composition of the salads offered as an entrée main course in the food courts of the shopping centers in Lima, Peru. MATERIALS AND METHODS The menus of all food franchises present in the food courts of the eleven shopping centers of Lima were reviewed. The nutritional composition of salads offered as an entrée were calculated for calories, protein c...

Of 40 ready-to-eat salads, 3 (7.5%) were positive for Clostridium difficile by PCR. Two isolates were PCR ribotype 017 (toxin A-, B+), and 1 was PCR ribotype 001. Isolates were susceptible to vancomycin and metronidazole but variably resistant to other antimicrobial drugs. Ready-to-eat salads may be potential sources for virulent C. difficile.

Synergistic activity of Salvia officinalis and Cichorium intybus extracts and commonly used antibiotics, amoxicillin and chloramphenicol, were evaluated. Interactions between plant extracts and antibiotics were tested by checkerboard method and interpreted as FIC index. Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853 and clinical isolates Staphyl...

This work examines the potential for computational creativity in the culinary arts. In particular, we present the outcome of our efforts to create an artificial chef that produces novel salad recipes with limited human assistance. Our system was designed in two steps: first, we constructed a statistical model to rank recipes. Then, we experimented with various search algorithms to explore the s...