Paperback. Yellow cover with black title.

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For conditions, please view photographs. A nice clean copy from the library gathered by the famous Cambridge Don, computer scientist, food and wine connoisseur, Jack Arnold LANG.

Review: This is a review of the fourth edition (1982) of this superb book. The first edition of this long-standing work written by Brian A Fox and Allan G Cameron appeared in hardback (only, I believe) in 1961 as “A Chemical Approach to Food and Nutrition” – reprinted 1963, 1966, and 1968. With the publication of the second edition in 1970, the authors renamed the book “Food Science: a chemical approach – reprinted 1972, 1973, 1975 (with minor amendments), and 1976. The third edition came out in 1977: reprinted 1978 (with additions), 1980, and 1981. The fourth edition, ISBN 0 340 27863 3, was published in 1982 for four pounds and ninety-five pence for the paperback edition. I obtained my copy the same year. The publishers of the 4th were Hodder and Stoughton of London, Sydney, Auckland and Toronto. The book was typeset by Macmillan India Ltd, Bangalore and printed in Great Britain for Hodder and Stoughton Educational, a division of Hodder and Stoughton Ltd, by Richard Clay (The Chaucer Press) Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk. Why do I go to such lengths to spell out such minutiae? Because the 4th edition of this work is probably one of the best typeset and printed non-fiction books in this price range I have ever seen. The typeface is simply perfect – neither too large nor too small. The diagrams are excellent. This alone makes the 4th edition a joy to read.

Units were now expressed in metric (SI) and values for nutrient requirements reflected recent appraisals by the WHO and FAO and the revised sets of `recommended daily amounts’ of nutrients introduced into the UK by the DHSS (1979) [from the preface to the fourth edition]. At the beginning of this book, the introduction to organic chemistry which the novice chemist needs for a good, basic understanding of food science is the best I have ever read. The description, for instance, of the sugars is clear, logically set out and quite comprehensive for an introductory text of this sort. Sadly, as more material was inserted in later editions, so the introductory science was cut back, the type face was shrunk and, by the 6th edition, the beautiful look and solid feel of the 4th edition had been a little diminished. The 4th (1982) edition of this remarkable book is still by the far best introduction to food science I have ever read. Along with my copies of the British National Formulary and the SOED, it is one of a dozen or so reference books that I cherish most out of the several thousand in my library. For sheer value for money, I cannot recommend any other edition of any other book more highly than this.