Benders'dictionary of nutrition and food technology

378pizza Originally Italian; savoury tart on a base of yeast dough, traditionallycooked in a wood-burning oven. The topping varieswith region and may contain tomatoes, cheese, salami or seafood.placebo Inactive substance used as a control in trials of drugs, etc.,in order to ensure that any response observed is due to the compoundunder test and not simply the result of an intervention.plaice flatfish, Pleuronectus platessa.plankton Microscopic organisms, both plants (phytoplankton)and animals (zooplankton), drifting in the sea, which are thebasis of the marine food chain.plansifter A nest of sieves mounted together so that materialbeing sieved is divided into a number of fractions of differentsize. Widely used in flour milling.plantago See psyllium.plantain Or Adam’s fig; variety of banana (Musa spp.) withhigher starch and lower sugar content than dessert bananas,picked when flesh is too hard to be eaten raw and thereforecooked. Some varieties become sweet if left to ripen, othersnever develop a high sugar content.Composition/100 g: (edible portion 65%) water 65 g, 511 kJ(122 kcal), protein 1.3 g, fat 0.4 g, carbohydrate 31.9 g (15 gsugars), fibre 2.3g, ash 1.2g, Ca 3mg, Fe 0.6mg, Mg 37mg, P34mg, K 499mg, Na 4mg, Zn 0.1mg, Cu 0.1mg, Se 1.5µg, vitaminA 56µg RE (925µg carotenoids), E 0.1 mg, K 0.7 mg, B 1 0.05 mg,B 2 0.05 mg, niacin 0.7 mg, B 6 0.3 mg, folate 22 µg, pantothenate0.3 mg, C 18 mg. A 200 g serving is a source of Cu, vitamin A, agood source of Mg, folate, a rich source of vitamin B 6 ,C.plaque (1) Dental plaque is a layer of bacteria in an organicmatrix on the surface of teeth, especially around the neck of eachtooth. May lead to development of gingivitis, periodontaldisease and caries.(2) Atherosclerotic plaque (see atherosclerosis) is the developmentof fatty streaks in the intima of blood vessels.plasma, blood See blood plasma.plasmid Small circular region of extrachromosomal bacterialdna, which has an origin of replication and is therefore maintainedin a cell line. Especially amenable to the introduction offoreign genes, and widely used in genetic engineering. Between5 and 90 kb in size.plasminogen Inactive precursor of plasmin in the bloodstream;activation to plasmin is important in the lysis of blood clots.plastic fluids Those that do not flow until a critical shear stressis achieved, when the shear rate is either linear (Bingham-type)or non-linear (Casson-type).