Talc Powder Reading Answers: IELTS Reading Practice Test

 Talc Powder Reading Passage 

Paragraph A 

At a height of around 1700 m above sea level in the French Pyrenees, there is a vast deposit of hydrated magnesium silicate which is trimouns, in simple words it is talc. Talc which is extracted from trimouns and other 10 luzenac mines around the world is used to produce a huge variety of our daily products which are paper, paint, plaster, cosmetics, plastics, car tires, and, talc powder, which is used on the bottom part of newborn babies. Nevertheless, the true diversity of this amazing mineral is perfectly demonstrated as an excellent use in certain niche markets within the food and agriculture industry. 

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Take, for instance, the bubble gum business; each year  Talc de Luzenac France, which has owned and operates the Trimouns mine, a member of the international Luzenac Group (part of Rio Tinto minerals) supplies about 5443108 kilograms of talc to chewing gum manufacture in European countries. Laurent Fournier, a manager in Luzenac’s Specialties business unit in Toulouse, claimed that they had been selling to these industries since the 1960s. From the total yearly sales of talc, the percentage of products we sell to bubble gum companies is very small, yet we consider it as a niche clientele; one where clients are put into a group if they are willing to pay extra for enhanced quality of the product. Due to this, years of loyalty to a reliable supplier.  Fournier perceives that change in sources—such as choosing to purchase, say, paper clips from Supplier A as opposed to from Supplier B—is not an easy alternative for chewing gum manufacturers.Clients are naturally hesitant to convert from a talcum quality that performs, even though it is pricey because reconstructing the procedure is costly.

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It is a question of how talc is utilised to make chewing gum? According to Patrick Delord, an engineer with a background in agronomics (he has worked in Luzenac for over 2 decades ) Bubble gums are formed of 4 primary ingredients. He debates that the foundation of gum is the most crucial of all. The base of gum gives a chewy texture while the procedure of formation of a product gives a smooth and velvety finish. The makers later add sweeteners, flavourings, and softeners to this. The talc is utilized to fill the gum’s base. The percentage ranges from ten percent to thirty-five per cent. For instance, calcium carbonate, which is usually utilised as fillers; can be mixed with fruit-flavored bubble gum, which is slightly acidic. Being chemically inert, talc is an excellent filler. Delord claims that talc is a gum-based pellet that prevents chewing gum from sticking during the lamination and packaging process.

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The use of talc in the food factory is, nevertheless, not limited to chewing gum companies. Spanish olive oil producers have been enhancing the quantity of oil they recover from smashed olives for the past 20 years and now by harvesting the benefits of talc's special properties. According to Delord terms hard olives can be treated with talc. The olives are carried to the processing facility after being picked, ideally first thing every morning because picking them in the coolness of the day improves their flavor. Olives are crushed and then blended for about half an hour. Beforehand, the resultant puree is passed olive press but now, it is common to add water and whirl the mixture to separate both water and oil from the solids. The seed oil coating can be detached and bottled after the water and oil have settled. Difficult olives which were termed by Delord are those that are less inclined than usual to completely release their oil. As their moisture content is usually way too much or mildly at the beginning and end of the season, this might be caused by a specific type of olives, including the water content and the time of the year the olive is picked. Olives can be identified very easily as they produce a lot of extra foam when they are churned due to an excessive fine material that acts as a natural emulsifier. The oil in the mixture is lost along with the water when it is thrown. not just that, but if the sewage is thrown directly into neighboring fields, as is usually the case in so many small processing businesses, the churned oil can take some time to biodegrade and may therefore be harmful to nature.

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Delord believes that absorbing the natural surfactant peasant in olives and adding between 0.5 to two percent of talcum bypass during the production phase improves the amount of oil that can be recovered. Talc has a flattened, platy appearance, this contributes to higher yield by increasing the number of oil droplets released after mixing. However, since talc is inactive, it does not affect the finished products; the color, texture, composition, density, or flavor remains unchanged.

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Even though talcs are being utilized in the production of gum and olive oil is majorly known, Luzenac is always exploring new applications for the component in the food and farming companies. But one starting a brand new section is fruit crop security, which is being researched in the United states of America. Similar to how people can get sunburns, fruits can also have it.  Actually, around half of the typical crop can suffer from sunburn in areas with a huge amount of sunlight. On the contrary, in this scenario of fruits, it is the sun rays that harm the crops with UV radiation.

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To address the above-mentioned problems, the farmers frequently spray a constant fine mist directly on the crops. The trouble over here is created due to the huge amount of water, which in summers is costly. Moreover, the ground might easily become absorbed. In order to protect the fruits from the sun, Greg Hunter, a sales representative with Luzenac for about a decade, claims that our concept was to coat the fruits with talc. On the flip side, there are a few technical problems that need to be corrected first. Talc releases water as it is a water-repellent. Thus, in order to produce an item that could be sold, we required a lyophilic, which would not create any difficulty to wash off if the fruits are collected and this would release waxy and impermeable covering. Not a single person would love their fruits with talc powder sprinkled on them. 

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During the product’s early inspection in the state of Washington in 2003, it was discovered that when it was sprinkled over with granny smith’s apples, it significantly reduced their rate of heating and the risk of sunburn by more than half of the amount. The new product, Envelope Maximum SPF, is now in its second ad year on the US market. Hunter has a belief that grape growers is another section that has a long-term potential to grow, but the apple producers are the primary focus. He plans to grow his company in other regions, such as southern Europe, South America, and Australia

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