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The most commonly used vesicular systems in the food industry include liposomes, niosomes, phytosomes, or transfersomes. This review focuses on showing how nano-vesicular carriers (NVCs) amend the properties of bioactive compounds (bioactives), making them suitable for food applications, especially functional foods. In this research, we elaborate on the question of whether bioactive-loaded NVCs affect various food aspects such as their antioxidant capacity, or sensory properties. This review also shows how NVCs improve the long-term release profile of bioactives during storage and at different pH values. Besides, the refinement of digestibility and bioaccessibility of diverse bioactives through NVCs in the gastrointestinal tract is elucidated. NVCs allow for stable vesicle formation (e.g. from anthocyanins) which reduces their cytotoxicity and proliferation of cancer cells, prolongs the release bioactives (e.g. d-limonene) with no critical burst, reduces the biofilm formation capacity of both Gram-positive/negative strains and their biofilm gene expression is down-regulated (in the case of tannic acid), low oxidation (e.g. iron) is endured when exposed to simulated gastric fluid, and unpleasant smell and taste are masked (in case of omega-3 fatty acids). After the incorporation of bioactive-loaded NVCs into food products, their antioxidant capacity is enhanced, maintaining high encapsulation efficiency and enduring pasteurization conditions, and they are not distinguished from control samples in sensory evaluation despite the reverse situation about free bioactives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extensive use of α-pinene in cosmetics, and medicine, especially for its antioxidant/antibacterial, and anti-cancer properties, and also as a flavoring agent, has made it a versatile product. α-Pinene (one of the two pinene isomers) is the most abundant terpene in nature. When extracting α-pinene from plants and, to a lesser extent, fruits, given that its purity is essential, purification methods should also be used as described in this study. Also, an attempt has been made to describe the extraction techniques of α-pinene, carried out by conventional and novel methods. Some disadvantages of conventional methods (such as hydrodistillation or solvent extraction) are being time consuming, low capacity per batch and being labor intensive and the requirement of trained operators. Most novel methods, such as supercritical fluid extraction and microwave-assisted extraction, can reduce the extraction time, cost, and energy compared to conventional methods, and, in fact, the extraction and preservation efficiency of α-pinene in these methods is higher than conventional methods. Although the above-mentioned extraction methods are effective, they still require rather long extraction times. In fact, advanced methods such as green and solvent-free ultrasonic-microwave-assisted extraction are much more efficient than microwave-assisted extraction and ultrasound-assisted extraction because the extraction efficiency and separation of α-pinene in these methods are higher; furthermore, no solvent consumption and maximum extraction efficiency are some crucial advantages of these techniques. However, the application of some novel methods, such as ultrasound-assisted extraction, in industry scale is still problematic because of their intricate design data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soft cheeses are coagulated milk products obtained through acidification or applying a combination of acids and heat. In this research, in order to improve technological characteristics, the effects of different coagulants (salt and acids) and process parameters (temperature and homogenization pressure) on the organoleptic, textural, and functional characteristics of soft (unripened) cheese were investigated. The results revealed significant differences between cheeses coagulated with acid and mineral salt regarding protein recovery, fat content, and moisture content (p <.05). Acidic coagulants (74%–94%) resulted in higher cheese yield compared to mineral salt (66%–88%). Texture analysis indicated that the cheese produced with acetic acid had a firmer texture, while samples treated with citric acid exhibited better cohesiveness. Cheeses produced with minerals displayed more acceptable organoleptic characteristics regarding flavor, odor, and texture. This study offers valuable technological insights into cheese production with the highest yield and maximum acceptability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Iron (Fe) is an important element for our body since it takes part in a huge variety of metabolic processes. However, the direct incorporation of Fe into food fortification causes a number of problems along with undesirable organoleptic properties. Thus, encapsulation has been suggested to alleviate this problem. This study first sheds more light on the Fe encapsulation strategies and comprehensively explains the results of Fe encapsulation studies in the last decade. Then, the latest attempts to use Fe (in free or encapsulated forms) to fortify foods such as bakery products, dairy products, rice, lipid-containing foods, salt, fruit/vegetable-based products, and infant formula are presented. Double emulsions are highly effective at keeping their Fe content and display encapsulation efficiency (EE) > 88% although it decreases upon storage. The encapsulation by gel beads possesses several advantages including high EE, as well as reduced and great Fe release in gastric and duodenal conditions, respectively. Cereals, particularly bread and wheat, are common staple foods globally; they are very suitable for food fortification by Fe derivatives. Nevertheless, the majority of Fe in flour is available as salts of phytic acid (IP6) and phytates, reducing Fe bioavailability in the human body. The sourdough process degrades IP6 completely while Chorleywood Bread Making Process and conventional processes decrease it by 75% in comparison with whole meal flour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pomegranate juice powder could be applied as a valuable ingredient in other food and pharmaceutical products and be accessible throughout the year. In this research, pomegranate juice was spray dried at three maltodextrin levels (25, 35 and 45% w/w) and two inlet air temperatures (124 and 143 °C) and physicochemical and nutritional characteristics of the powder in terms of moisture content, pH value, ash content, color values, total phenolic compounds, along with microstructural properties of the pomegranate juice powders were analyzed. Inlet air temperature just could affect ash content of the powder while maltodextrin level could influence all properties of the final powder. SEM analysis revealed that lower maltodextrin levels and higher inlet air temperatures resulted in smaller but smoother particles. In conclusion, pomegranate juice powders produced at 25% maltodextrin level and 143 °C, with a low moisture content of 3.19%, high ash content of 0.58%, safe pH value of 3.4 and considerable total phenolic compounds of around 903 mg gallic acid/g db, are suitable and nutritionally-rich choices for industrial production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meat spoils very rapidly and its microbial load exceeds the permitted limit very soon even if it is kept in a refrigerator. The main goal of this study was to dry meat by a Refractance Window drier successfully, for the first time, and to evaluate its compositional, physical, rheological behavior, microbiological, and organoleptic properties. Meat powder produced by RW drying had good physical properties including maximum absolute density of 0.81 g cm−3, porosity of 0.67, rehydration ratio of 2.8, L* value of 64, and minimum a*/b* value of 0.57. Herschel-Bulkley and Bingham models could predict rheological indices of meat powder solutions with high R2 rates of 0.955-0.995. Sensory evaluation indicated that although meat powder obtained from 3 mm slices was more favorable for panelists, the consistency of 2 mm meat powders was more agreeable, which could be attributed to better functional properties of more dried samples. 100°C and 2 mm treatment could decrease aerobic bacterial count from 6.1 to 3.7 log CFU/g and Enterobacteriaceae population from 3.1 log CFU/g to nil successfully. In summary, our comparison indicated that meat powder produced by Refractance Window drying technique can lead to better dried products than dried meats having been prepared with other novel techniques recently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: One of the most commonly used types of heat exchangers is the shell and tube heat exchanger. It has been well established that applications of nanofluids in shell and tube heat exchangers are a competitive alternative for common industrial fluids such as hot water. However, conventional applications of nanofluids are restricted to nonfood industries. So, for the first time, this study aimed to design a shell and tube heat exchanger through Kern method for food applications and involving different equations and calculations in detail, to deploy intelligent thermal equipment and PLC section for controlling the performance of shell and tube heat exchanger, and finally, to apply that heat exchanger for two food products, that is, watermelon and tomato juice, in order to survey the extent to which this equipment, by using nanofluids rather than common hot water systems, can improve temperature–time profile of food systems and diminish their energy consumption. Kern method could accurately estimate the number of tubes, tube pitch, baffle spacing, tubes per pass, as well as shell‐side, tube‐side, and overall heat transfer coefficients while maintaining pressure drops in acceptable ranges. Application of 2 and 4% alumina nanofluids, instead of hot water, decreased thermal processing time of watermelon juice by 24.14 and 51.72%; similarly, these reduction rates were 22.3 and 48.76% for tomato juice processing. Consequently, energy consumption rates of watermelon juice processing dwindled to 24.64 and 48.34% and of tomato juice to 22.3 and 48.76% through deployment of 2 and 4% Al2O3, compared to hot water, respectively. Practical applications: Fluids with suspended particles of nanometals or oxidized metals benefit from better heat transfer properties. There is limited research dealing with effects of adding nanoparticles to conventional thermal fluids for fruit juices processing. So, the goal of this research was to introduce nanofluid technology for thermal processing of food products, increasing heat transfer efficiency in shell and tube exchangers by nanofluids and frugality in energy consumption for pasteurization, reducing thermal processing duration and better quality retention of food products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Our aim was to incorporate olive leaf extract in both microencapsulated (ME) and nonencapsulated (NE) forms into tomato paste to get benefit from antimicrobial properties of the extract. Response variables were diametrical growth of Aspergillus flavus, total soluble solids (TSS), pH, and color indices of inoculated tomato paste. NE was more successful than ME to restrict growth of the fungus at both temperatures of 25 and 30 °C. Although the rate of TSS decreasing over the storage time was higher for ME samples than NE ones, but it remained constant for ME samples at the end of storage; TSS index of ME samples at 25 °C was kept unchanged for four final days of storage. Also, ME olive leaf extract could stabilize pH index equal to 4.75 (at 10th day of storage at 30 °C) for the rest of storage. ME samples enjoyed higher a* values than NE samples during storage at 30 °C. Considering fitting indices, Feed‐Forward‐Back‐Propagation network, Levenberg–Marquardt training algorithm, hyperbolic tangent sigmoid transfer function with 3‐5‐6 and 3‐6‐6 topologies represented the best artificial neural network models to predict both physicochemical and microbial properties of ME and NE samples when inoculated by A. flavus, respectively. Practical applications: Antimicrobial properties of herbs and spices have been recognized for several years. Natural herbs or spices tend to lose their efficiency and fail to release their beneficial effects evenly over a longtime period. Simultaneously, it has been proved that microencapsulation is able to build a barrier between components of particles and their environment. Thus, it might be applied for olive leaf extract to keep favorable properties of tomato paste. Our aim was to incorporate microencapsulated (ME) olive leaf extract into tomato paste to get benefit from antimicrobial properties of the extract (against Aspergillus flavus) over short and longtime storage. Also, our another objective was to model the physicochemical and fungal changes within tomato paste containing nonencapsulated and ME olive leaf extract for the first time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND The shelf life of tomato paste with microencapsulated olive leaf extract was compared with that of samples containing a commercial preservative by accelerated shelf life testing. Based on previous studies showing that olive leaf extract as a rich source of phenolic compounds can have antimicrobial properties, application of its encapsulated form to improve the storage stability of tomato paste is proposed here. RESULTS Regarding total soluble solids, the control and the sample containing 1000 µg g−1 sodium benzoate had the lowest ( Q10 = 1.63) and highest ( Q10 = 1.88) sensitivity to temperature changes respectively; also, the microencapsulated sample containing 1000 µg g−1 encapsulated olive leaf extract ( Q10 = 1.83) followed the sample containing 1000 µg g−1 sodium benzoate in terms of the highest kinetic rates. In the case of consistency, the lowest and highest activation energies ( Ea) corresponded to samples containing 1000 µg g−1 non-encapsulated olive leaf extract and 1000 µg g−1 microencapsulated olive leaf extract respectively. CONCLUSION Interestingly, samples containing microencapsulated olive leaf extract could maintain the original quality of the tomato paste very well, while those with non-encapsulated olive leaf extract rated the worst performance (among all specimens) in terms of maintaining their quality indices for a long time period. Overall, the shelf life equation was able to predict the consistency index of all tomato paste samples during long-time storage with high precision. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing energy consumption and constraints on fossil fuels make it necessary to optimize heat transfer processes. Due to exceptional thermal properties of nanofluids, compared with conventional heating fluids, their usage in heat exchangers has been increased recently. In this research, application of alumina-water nanofluid for thermal processing of watermelon juice was investigated. Different temperatures of 75, 80, or 85 °C (for durations of 15, 30, or 45 s) and nanoparticles concentrations (0, 2, and 4%) were applied, and changes in thermophysical properties, including density, thermal capacity, viscosity, thermal conductivity and overall heat transfer coefficient, energy consumption rate, and process duration were studied. Our results revealed that, at a constant temperature, density of the nanofluid remained stable until 2% nanoparticle addition, after which it escalated up to 11.47%. Also, heat capacity dwindled by 17.94% as the nanoparticle concentration augmented to 4%. Viscosity of 0 and 4% nanofluids were 0.798 and 3 mPa.s, respectively but it still remained Newtonian due to the low volume concentration of nanoparticles. While increasing the temperature to 77 °C descended viscosity of 2 and 4% nanofluids by 56.07 and 59.35%, compared with the base fluid, respectively, this increased thermal conductivity of nanofluids up to 14.6% (belonging to 4% nanoparticles). The effectiveness of working fluid in heat exchanger was raised by 58.65% after addition of 4% nanoparticle to the base fluid. Duration of watermelon juice processing diminished by 24.88 and 51.63% for 2 and 4% concentrations of nanoparticles, compared with water, respectively, and its energy consumption by 22.74 and 47.48%. Practical applications Thermal conductivity of conventional fluids is much lower than metals and oxidized metals. Accordingly, fluids with suspended particles of metals or oxidized metals benefit from better heat transfer properties. There is no research dealing with effects of adding nanoparticles to conventional thermal fluids for fruit juices processing. So, the goal of this research was to introduce nanofluid technology for thermal processing of food products for the first time, increasing heat transfer efficiency in shell and tube exchangers by nanofluids and frugality in energy consumption for pasteurization, reducing thermal processing duration and better quality retention of food products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this research, effect of Refractance Window (RW) drying on the quality properties of the kiwifruit samples was investigated. Drying temperatures of 80-100 °C, slice thickness of 0.8-2.4 mm and Mylar thickness of 100-300 µm were the independent variables and different qualitative attributes including drying duration, textural hardness, colour, rehydration ratio and organoleptic properties were responses monitored in each situation. Drying temperature was the most important factor contributed to quality features of RW dried kiwifruits with significant effects on all properties. Similarly, slice thickness influenced nearly all quality traits except textural hardness and some colour indices. However, Mylar membrane thickness failed to affect about every qualitative property of kiwifruit samples significantly. The majority of organoleptic properties of RW dried kiwifruits, including flavour, colour, texture, shrinkage and overall acceptance, were judged to be in the range of medium to good quality (scores of 3-4) by panellists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mathematical models and artificial neural networks were applied to best describe water loss and solids gain during osmotic dehydration of eggplant in salt concentrations of 5, 10 and 15%, sample to osmotic solutions ratios of 1:10, 1:15 and 1:20 and temperatures of 30, 45 and 60C, supplemented by oven drying at 70C. Water loss and solids gain were calculated after 15, 30, 60, 90, 150, 210 and 270 min. Temperature and salt concentrations had a direct relationship with effective water and salt diffusivities, which were in the range of 1.931 × 10−9 −3.762 × 10−10 m2/s and 1.371 × 10−9 −7.061 × 10−10 m2/s at different temperatures and salt concentrations, respectively. Generally, concentration of osmotic solution had a reverse relationship with activation energies of water loss and solids gain reactions. Predicting percentages of water loss and solids gain by artificial neural networks was maximized in topologies of 4-25-2 and 4-16-2 with R2 coefficients of 0.9825 and 0.9761, respectively. Practical Applications Osmotic dehydration (OD) of fruits and vegetables is usually carried out simply by their immersion in various types of hypertonic solutions. Nevertheless, determining details of mass transfer kinetics in those products is very crucial to achieve the optimal performance of OD process in fruits and vegetables before applying other efficient treatments and formulating a special product in food industry. In this paper, we investigated the effects of variable parameters of OD process on mass transfer kinetics, optimal duration of the process and performance ratio of this process for eggplant samples; besides, feasibility of predicting mass transfer kinetics by mathematical and artificial neural networks was evaluated. The results of this study will be helpful for all researchers and producers who want to know more about the nuances of impacts of different OD variables on kinetics of mass transfer in fruits and vegetables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our aim was to evaluate the qualitative properties of kiwifruits produced by refractance window ( RW) as a novel drying method. The effects of slice thicknesses (0.8, 1.6 and 2.4 mm) and drying temperatures (80, 90 and 100C) on drying duration as well as qualitative parameters of dried samples including textural hardness, color, rehydration index and organoleptic properties were investigated. The required time to reach the final moisture content was considerably lower in RW method compared with oven drying, which was maximally 140 min lower for slice thickness of 2.4 mm at 100C. Generally, ΔE values and rehydration ratios of oven-dried kiwifruits were higher and lower than RW-dried samples, respectively. The average scores given to each sensory property of oven-dried samples were between 1 and 3, whereas they were in the range of 4-5 for RW-dried kiwifruits, exhibiting more satisfactory situations for the latter samples. Practical Applications It is necessary to develop alternative drying methods that could guarantee quality retention and maximize financial productivity during the drying process. Refractance window is a novel drying technique utilizing circulating hot water to transfer thermal energy to a thinly spread liquid material placed on a conveyor belt. In this work, we have successfully utilized this technique for drying kiwifruits, and the results have been compared with conventional oven drying for the first time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the influence of drying temperature (40, 50, 60C) and airflow velocity (2 and 3 m/s) on drying onion was evaluated by a custom designed fluidized bed dryer equipped with a heat pump dehumidifier. A comparative study was performed among nonlinear regression techniques, fuzzy logic and artificial neural networks to estimate the dynamic drying behavior of onion. Among nine mathematical models, approximation of diffusion with R2 = 0.9999 and root mean square error = 0.004157 showed the best fit with experimental data. Fuzzy logic tool in MATLAB with Mamdani model in the form of If-Then rules along with triangular membership function used for simulation, interpolation and obtaining a theoretical increase in experimental moisture ratios were used. Feedforward-backpropagation neural system with application of Levenberg- Marquardt training algorithm, hyperbolic tangent sigmoid transfer function, training cycle of 1,000 epoch and 2-5-1 topology was determined as the best neural model in terms of statistical indices. Practical Applications Forecasting kinetics of food drying by application of precise mathematical and dynamic modeling techniques as well as preparing particular patterns for describing such drying behaviors of diverse food products seem unavoidable for processing factories to optimize the quality of their dried food products and reduce operational costs. For this purpose, in this study, we applied different temperatures and airflow velocities to dry onion by a custom designed fluidized bed dryer equipped with a heat pump dehumidifier, predicting its drying behavior by regression, fuzzy logic and artificial neural network techniques and comparing accuracy of those models. Also, this paper compares prediction patterns of drying onion by fluidized bed drying with those of other food products dried by various drying methods. The results of this study will be helpful for all researchers and producers who want to know more about the nuances of impacts of different fluidized bed drying variables on the patterns of heat and mass transfer in fruits and vegetables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this research, the effects of different dryers including refractance‐window (RW) with 200 or 300 μm Mylar membrane, or Pyrex glass and oven drying, and various temperatures of 25, 60, 70, and 80 °C on saffron quality were surveyed. Levels of safranal, crocin, and picrocrocin for saffron stigma and anthocyanin content for saffron petal were considered as the major quality indices and modeling of their drying kinetics was carried out. While for saffron stigma, RW dryer through Pyrex glass surface and higher temperatures (70 and 80 °C) led to the highest contents of picrocrocin, safranal, crocin, for saffron petal, RW dryer through 200 μm Mylar membrane resulted in the maximum anthocyanin content (106.79 mg/L). Meanwhile, our comparison revealed that RW is a more reliable approach to dry saffron stigma while keeping its functional ingredients, that is, coloring, aromatic, and bitterness strength, than previously introduced novel approaches. The best Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) topologies to predict RW (200 or 300 μm Mylar membrane, or Pyrex glass) or oven drying data for saffron stigma were those networks having feed‐forward backpropagation network type, hyperbolic tangent sigmoid transfer function and one hidden layer with 3, 7, 5, or 4 neurons in it, respectively. Practical applications: Saffron is the dried stigmas of flowers called as "Crocus sativus L." scientifically and "red gold" in the market because of its high value. Our aim of this research was to introduce a suitable alternative for common traditional drying of saffron as refractance‐Window (RW) and suggest appropriate modeling patterns for industrial application of this drying type in real situations. The second aim of this research was to determine the best drying conditions of saffron petal since the major weight of saffron flower is related to its petal, and anthocyanin of petal extracts could be used as a natural colorant in the food industry, but temperature has a substantial impact on anthocyanin stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• α-Tocopherol nanocapsules loaded into carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) film. • The levels of polycaprolactone, α-tocopherol and lecithin were selected as independent variables. • The encapsulation efficiency and release patterns of nanocapsules were determined. • The optimized levels were 75.33 mg of PCL, 200 mg of α-tocopherol, and 2 mg mL−1 of lecithin. • CMC films containing 70% nanocapsules showed the highest antioxidant attributes. The aim of the current study was to optimize vitamin E (α-tocopherol) loaded polycaprolactone (PCL) nanocapsules into the carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) film. For this purpose, polycaprolactone concentration, α-tocopherol level, and lecithin concentration were selected as independent variables, and encapsulation efficiency and nanocapsule size designated as dependent variables. The organization of experiments was carried out using response surface methodology and Box-Behnken design. Afterwards, the α-tocopherol nanocapsule loaded CMC films subjected to antioxidant test, release test and release kinetics. From the results, the encapsulation efficiency of films containing 30–70% α-tocopherol nanocapsules was varied between 88.43 and 99.66%. The enlarged nanocapsules with the enhanced encapsulation efficiency were obtained by increasing in PCL concentration, while increase in α-tocopherol concentration caused a drop in encapsulation efficiency accompanied by distended particle size. The variation in lecithin concentration wasn't significantly (p < 0.05) impact on encapsulation efficiency and nanocapsule size. The desirability function suggested the following concentrations of variables: 75.33 mg of PCL, 200 mg of α-tocopherol, and 2 mg mL−1 of lecithin. Antioxidant potential of CMC films followed a linear pattern with the addition of more α-tocopherol nanocapsules, so that films containing 70% nanocapsules showed the highest radical scavenging activity of 68.85%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since saffron is an added-value product, and the most expensive agricultural product, it is necessary to increase its shelf life, prevent its quality loss during storage, and maintain its organoleptic properties, enabling producers to export saffron with higher quality and better consumer acceptability. So, in this research, saffron samples were coated through applying different carbohydrate biopolymers: maltodextrin with DE = 4 or DE = 20 (MD4 and MD20) or their combination with nanocellulose fibres (MDC4 and MDC20). Finally, the experiments were carried out to measure rehydration ratio, water activity, crocin content, color values, and sensory properties of saffron samples coated by different materials. MDC4 resulted in the lowest rehydration ratio among coated samples since, first, lower DE degrees of biopolymer complexes decreased moisture adsorption and solubility of maltodextrin and second, crystalline nanocellulose fibres increased tortuous and bended pathways in materials and reduced penetration possibilities of water molecules. MDC4 was the most effective treatment in preventing crocin decrease. Indeed, film forming characteristic of maltodextrin with low hydrolysis degree and special structure of nanocellulose led to the maintenance of crocin bioactive ingredient. SEM observations revealed coating on saffron surfaces as a thin clear and brilliant layer which enhanced saffron acceptability for our panelists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to specific thermophysical properties of nanofluids, compared with conventional thermal fluids (steam and hot water), their application in diverse industries, to improve heat transfer and to save energy, has increased. One important aspect of applying nanofluid thermal processing is shortening the process time which could have high potentials in the food industry since nutritional and bioactive components would be maintained much higher than common thermal processes. In this project, possibility of replacing water with alumina-water nanofluids (2 and 4% concentrations) during high temperature short time processing (75, 80 and 85 °C for 15, 30 and 45 s) of watermelon juice in a shell and tube exchanger regarding its qualitative properties (lycopene, vitamin C, color, pH and TSS) was investigated. Reduction in process time when applying 2 and 4% nanofluids, up to 24.88 and 51.63%, had considerable effects on maintaining qualitative properties for watermelon juices. For instance, thermal processing by 0, 2 and 4% nanofluids at 75 °C for 15 s could keep 81.15, 84.81 and 91.28% of lycopene and 61.11, 63.70 and 67.04% of vitamin C, respectively. pH and TSS indices of processed watermelon juices were in the range of 5.58–5.82 and 9.0–9.4, respectively, showing no considerable correlation with the heating media used in thermal processing. Our results revealed that nutritional and physicochemical properties of watermelon juice processed with alumina nanofluids were better than common thermal processing by water with 9.89, 6.18 and 50.38% higher lycopene, vitamin C and color retention in the final product, respectively. Industrial Relevance Even so thermal processes are effective in preventing microbial spoilage of fruit juices, high volume of energy transfer in long durations into food products with heat sensible ingredients or properties results in biochemical and nutritional losses, development of unpleasant reactions, changes in overall quality of food products, and high energy consumption. Nowadays, consumers demand for food products with long shelf lives, high quality and proper prices are increasing. So, to meet these demands, food industries are looking for alternative thermal technologies to reduce losses in food characteristics and process costs, and introduce a fresh, nutritious, healthy and affordable food produce. Thermal conductivity of conventional fluids is much lower than metals and oxidized metals. For example, thermal conductivities of copper and alumina are 700 and 60 times higher than the thermal conductivity of water, respectively. Accordingly, fluids with suspended particles of metals or oxidized metals benefit from better heat transfer properties. The term of Nanofluid refers to each stable two-phase compound that includes both base fluids and nanoparticles (lower than 100 nm, at least in one dimension). There is no research dealing with effects of adding nanoparticles to conventional thermal fluids for fruit juices processing. So, the goal of this research was to introduce nanofluid technology for thermal processing of food products for the first time, increasing heat transfer efficiency in shell and tube exchangers by nanofluids and frugality in energy consumption for pasteurization, reducing thermal processing duration and better quality retention of food products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pomegranates, originally cultivated in Iran and a valuable medicinal and nutritional fruit, could be converted into pomegranate juice powder to be accessible in other seasons and used as a valuable ingredient in other food and pharmaceutical products. In this research, pomegranate juice was spray dried at three maltodextrin levels (25, 35 and 45% w/w) and two inlet air temperatures (124 and 143 °C) and physicochemical and nutritional characteristics of the powder were surveyed. The experiments were carried out to measure drying yield, water solubility index, apparent density, color values, anthocyanin content, and morphological properties of the pomegranate juice powders. Inlet air temperature just could affect density of the powder while maltodextrin level could influence anthocyanin content of the final powder as well. Higher maltodextrin levels and temperatures lowered a* values of the powder, due to the lower anthocyanin content remained in the product at these situations. SEM analysis revealed that lower maltodextrin levels and higher inlet air temperatures resulted in smaller but smoother particles. In conclusion, pomegranate juice powders produced at 25% maltodextrin level and 124 °C, with high water solubility index of 95%, high density of 0.889 g cm − 3 , and anthocyanin content of 8 mg L − 1 , are suitable and nutritionally-rich choices for industrial production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is necessary to apply some preservatives for tomato paste since in the harvest season, a high load of tomatoes need to be processed as they are among highly perishable products. Application of antimicrobial extracts or essential oils, as natural preservatives, in their raw forms might reduce their efficiency when they are exposed to environmental conditions. However, microencapsulation is a well-known method to solve this problem. Our main goal was to restrict fungal growth rate in stored tomato paste and increase its storage stability by incorporating encapsulated olive leaf phenolic-rich extract. Total Soluble Solids (TSS), consistency, pH, color indices and diametrical growth rate of Aspergillus flavus were measured for different samples. The treatments designed in terms of considering two levels of non-encapsulated olive phenolics extract with 500 and 1000 ppm (NE 500 and NE 1000), the same levels with encapsulated extract; i.e., 500 and 1000 ppm (ME 500 and ME 1000), and similar levels of the common preservative of sodium benzoate with 500 and 1000 ppm (B 500 and B 1000). Antifungal properties of NE samples were higher than ME ones during storage although ME samples could maintain diametrical growth rate of the fungus more stable than NE ones. NE samples justified lower maximum growth rate than ME samples while ME samples could extend lag phase of microbial growth compared with NE one and delay their internal deteriorative reactions. Among Baranyi, modified Baranyi, Modified Gompertz, and Logistic models, Modified Gompertz model represented the best model and could fit the growth factors of A. flavus on tomato paste with higher R2 index as well as lower RMSE and SSE indices. Based on the results obtained, it could be concluded that usage of encapsulated olive leaf extract in tomato paste is an effective, natural and sustainable approach to improve the shelf life of tomato paste since this natural compound could perform as favourable as preservatives; also it could maintain physicochemical as well as microbial properties of tomato paste for a long term. Thus, it is strongly recommended that application of encapsulated olive leaf extract to be considered seriously by the tomato paste industry as it can effectively reduce the mold and fungal contaminations which are very common and prevalent in the plants. The future work in this regard should focus on sensory evaluations when incorporating encapsulated olive leaf extract into tomato paste. • Microencapsulated OLE could maintain physicochemical properties of tomato paste. • Tomato paste containing microencapsulated OLE could extend lag phase of microbial growth. • Modified Gompertz model represented the best describing model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) films reinforced by nanoencapsulated vitamin E. • Main physical, mechanical and structural properties of nanocomposites were investigated. • Loading vitamin E nanocapsules decreased tensile strength and increase elongation at break. • FTIR spectra (C = O at 1710 cm−1) confirmed the apt loading of nanocapsules into CMC film matrix. • The generated film has an excellent features to apply in food items containing lipids or fats. Nanoencapsulated vitamin E (α-tocopherol) incorporated into the carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) films using film-forming cast solution method. Then, some physical, mechanical, thermal and structural attributes of the active films were scrutinized. From the obtained results, addition of α-tocopherol nanocapsules significantly (p < 0.05) decreased the water vapour permeability (WVP), tensile strength (TS) and Young's modulus, while elongation at break (EAB) significantly (p < 0.05) increased. Morphology of CMC films revealed that nanocapsules cause porosity and changes in film matrix structure. The DSC (differential scanning calorimetry) patterns exhibited a drop in melting points of the film composites as a result of α-tocopherol addition. The FTIR (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy) spectra confirmed the successful loading of α-tocopherol into the structure of CMC films, due to the formation of carbonyl group (C O) via phenol part of α-tocopherol at 1710 cm−1 within the CMC film. α-tocopherol loaded CMC composite films could be proposed for sheltering food items containing lipids or fats which stored at the ambient temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main goal of this study was to prepare bionanocomposites by combination of gelatin (10% w / v ), k-carrageenan (0.5%) and nano-SiO 2 (1, 3 or 5%). Then, mechanical properties (tensile strength, elongation at break, Young's modulus), gas permeability (water vapor, oxygen), water solubility, color, UV–vis transmission/absorbance, water vapor adsorption isotherms and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis of nanocomposites were evaluated. As the results indicated, inclusion of nano-SiO 2 (at each level) could increase tensile strength and Young's modulus significantly, with the latter becoming nearly 110% higher at 5% nanoparticle level compared with gelatin-carrageenan biocompostes. Furthermore, incorporation of 5% nano-SiO 2 could decrease water vapor permeability of biocomposites from 8.9 to 1.6 × 10 −11  g m −1  s −1  Pa −1 and their oxygen permeability from 226 to 97 cm 3  μm m −2  day −1  atm −1 . Water vapor adsorption isotherms revealed that the water activity of 0.5 was the critical point beyond which the difference in equilibrium moisture content between nanoparticle-incorporated films and biocomposites increased considerably. Besides, this research demonstrated that including 5% of nano-SiO 2 is a good solution to delay UV light driven reactions as it elevated absorbance of UV light (220 nm) by biocomposites up to 4 times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The barberry ( Berberis vulgaris ) extract which is a rich source of anthocyanins was used for spray drying encapsulation with three different wall materials, i.e., combination of maltodextrin and gum Arabic (MD + GA), maltodextrin and gelatin (MD + GE), and maltodextrin (MD). Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was applied for optimization of microencapsulation efficiency and physical properties of encapsulated powders considering wall material type as well as different ratios of core to wall materials as independent variables. Physical characteristics of spray-dried powders were investigated by further analyses of moisture content, hygroscopicity, degree of caking, solubility, bulk and absolute density, porosity, flowability and microstructural evaluation of encapsulated powders. Our results indicated that samples produced with MD + GA as wall materials represented the highest process efficiency and best powder quality; the optimum conditions of microencapsulation process for barberry anthocyanins were found to be the wall material content and anthocyanin load of 24.54% and 13.82%, respectively. Under such conditions, the microencapsulation efficiency (ME) of anthocyanins could be as high as 92.83%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this research, effects of beeswax (BW) on functional properties of whey protein concentrates (WPC):pullulan (PUL) films were investigated. For this purpose, 0, 10, 20 and 30 w/w glycerol % BW rates and 30:70, 50:50 and 70:30 w/w% WPC:PUL ratios were applied. Films containing 70% WPC:30% PUL (WPC70) and 30% BW (BW30) justified the highest contact angle (92.4°) among all films; SEM micrographs indicated that BW could come toward the surface of films during drying stage and resulted in a higher hydrophobic behavior of bilayer films compared with blend films. WPC70 supplied the lowest T g values (36–48 °C) among different proportions of WPC–PUL; the highest melting points were just assured in the absence of BW regardless of combination ratio for WPI:PUL. BW30 films deserved lower roughness rates than BW20 (and even BW10) films, indicating more advantageous microstructure and higher hydrogen connections in BW30 films and justifying similar melting points attained for BW30 films to BW20 or 10 ones. Overall, application of WPC70 and BW30 was recommended to obtain optimum combination of final properties for WPC–PUL–BW bilayer films as SEM exhibited flexible and elastic structures of such films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]