Benders'dictionary of nutrition and food technology

328neuritis Inflammatory disease of peripheral nerves.See also neuropathy.neuropathy Any disease of peripheral nerves, usually causingweakness and numbness.See also neuritis.neuropeptide Y A peptide neurotransmitter involved in thecontrol of appetite and feeding behaviour, especially in responseto leptin.neutron activation analysis The nuclei of a number of elementswill capture a neutron on exposure to a neutron beam, leadingto the formation of unstable (radioactive) isotopes which canthen be measured by the radiation emitted as they decay.Used for determination of whole body calcium, chlorine andnitrogen.new cocoyam See tannia.New Zealand process Drying process for meat. It is immersed inhot oil under vacuum when it dries to 3% moisture in about 4 h.NFE See nitrogen-free extract.NFLEA US National Food Labelling and Education Act, 1993,the basis of nutrition labelling of foods and health claims thatmay be made.nham South-east Asian; semi-dry uncooked pork or beef sausageleft to undergo lactic acid bacterial fermentation for 4–5days.niacin (see p. 329) A vitamin; one of the B complex without anumerical designation. Sometimes (incorrectly) referred to asvitamin B 3 , and formerly vitamin PP (pellagra preventative).Deficiency leads to pellagra, photosensitive dermatitis resemblingsevere sunburn, a depressive psychosis and intestinal disorders;fatal if untreated.Niacin is the generic descriptor for two compounds in foodsthat have the biological activity of the vitamin: nicotinic acid(pyridine carboxylic acid) and nicotinamide (the amide of nicotinicacid). In the USA niacin is sometimes used specifically tomean nicotinic acid, and niacinamide for nicotinamide.The metabolic function of niacin is in the coenzymes NAD(nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) and NADP (nicotinamideadenine dinucleotide phosphate), which act as intermediatehydrogen carriers in a wide variety of oxidation and reductionreactions. In cereals niacin is largely present as niacytin, whichis not biologically available (see availability); therefore the preformedniacin content of cereals is generally ignored when calculatingintakes.See also niacin equivalents.