The product, called Z-trim, can be dried to a white powder and used as a flour in baked goods.

"Z-trim fits in with consumer preferences for mouth feel -- texture qualities such as appropriate moistness, density, and smoothness -- in foods ranging from reduced-calorie cheese products and hamburger to baked goods,'' according to a statement from Z-trim inventor, George E. Inglett, a chemist at the USDA's Agricultural Research Service.

Z-trim consists of purified plant cell wall fragments derived from agricultural byproducts, such as seed hulls or bran from corn or wheat. When water is added to the insoluble fibre, it swells up to 24 times its weight, and has a smooth mouth-feel texture that mimics fat.

The product works best in a low-fat product, rather than a fat-free product.

"Materials like Z-trim can make a small amount of fat seem like a full-fat product, whereas if you have a completely fat-free product, the quality is noticeably inferior,'' Inglett said in a statement released by the American Chemical Society. A completely fat-free food with Z-trim might be drier than people would expect, he said.

And Inglett says that Z-trim does not have the gastrointestinal side effects that can occur with fat substitute Olestra.

*** Food allergies usually show up as a rash or stomach upset. But some babies are intensely allergic to certain foods, and can go into dangerous shock when exposed to them. Breastmilk can still carry traces of these foods, and cause allergy-induced shock in babies, according to a new study.

Researchers at the Hospital Saint Vincent de Paul in Paris studied an infant boy who repeatedly became pale, floppy-limbed and unconscious during his first eight months. Skin prick tests found the culprit to be intense allergies to eggs, cow's milk, wheat, and peanuts.

But during the first four months of life, the boy was breastfed only.

Researchers deduced that traces of egg eaten by his mother found their way into her breastmilk. Once weaned, he still had periods of shock because of the switch to baby foods containing cow's milk and wheat.

While anaphylaxis -- shock caused by severe allergic reaction -- is most commonly due to bee stings or drugs such as penicillin, the study authors stress that food allergies "must be suspected in the presence of repeated episodes of shock''.

When an `elimination diet' was introduced, cutting out offending foods, the baby's episodes stopped. "The elimination diet is not burdensome at this age and could be lifesaving'', according to the study published in this week's Lancet.

*** Drinking milk has little to do with whether infants who are genetically prone to juvenile diabetes actually develop the disease, a study has found.

"What an infant is fed is immensely important, but it's not as simple as removing cow's milk from their diet,'' said Jill Norris, an assistant professor of preventive medicine and biometrics at the University of Colorado Health Science Centre in Denver.

The study's findings are in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Previous studies suggested infants below three months who are genetically at risk for diabetes may increase that risk by drinking cow's milk.

The theory is that a baby's developing immune system builds up an immunity to a certain milk bacteria protein that looks like a protein found in insulin-making cells in the pancreas.

In a process known as mimicry, the immune system attacks and destroys the look-alike pancreatic cells, hampering the body's ability to make insulin, the hormone that enables the body to convert sugar to energy.