The Foodborne Disease handbook, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded, could not be appearing at a more auspicious time. Never before has the campaign for food safety been pursued so intensely on so many fronts in virtually every country around the world. This new edition reflects at least one of the many aspects of that intense and multifaceted campaign: namely, that research on food safety has been very productive in the years since the first edition appeared. The Handbook is now presented in four volumes instead of the three of the 1994 edition. Volume 3 of this series of books on food gums and hydrocolloids continues with a pragmatic coverage of three important categories of gum, i.e., the cellulose gums, the plant seed gums, and the pectins. The chemical, physical and functional properties of each of the important food gums in these categories are reviewed and discussed in relation with their utility in food product applications. The four volumes are composed of 86 chapters, a 22% increase over the 67 chapters of the first edition. Much of the information in the first edition has been carried forward to this new edition because that information is still as reliable and pertinent as it was in 1994. This integration of the older data with the latest research findings gives the reader a secure scientific foundation on which to base important decisions affecting the public's health.