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Nowadays, there is increasing interest in natural antioxidants from food by-products. Astaxanthin is a potent antioxidant and one of the major carotenoids in crustaceans and salmonids. An ultra-high pressure liquid chromatographic method was developed and validated for the determination of astaxanthin in shrimp by-products, and its migration from new packaging materials to food simulants was also studied. The method uses an UPLC® BEH guard-column (2.1 × 5 mm, 1.7 µm particle size) and an UPLC® BEH analytical column (2.1 × 50 mm, 1.7 µm particle size). Chromatographic separation was achieved using a programmed gradient mobile phase consisting of (A) acetonitrile-methanol (containing 0.05 m ammonium acetate)-dichloromethane (75:20:5, v/v/v) and (B) ultrapure water. This method was evaluated with respect to validation parameters such as linearity, precision, limit of detection, limit of quantification and recovery. Low-density polyethylene films were prepared with different amounts of the lipid fraction of fermented shrimp waste by extrusion, and migration was evaluated into food simulants (isooctane and ethanol 95%, v/v). Migration was not detected under the tested conditions., (Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

A new, simple, and reproducible isocratic high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method has been developed for the determination of free and total tyrosine and tryptophan in a protein concentrate. To determine total amino acids, the method involves alkaline hydrolysis of the proteins with sodium hydroxide at 120 degrees C for 4h in the absence of air. Best results were achieved with a SS Exil ODS column 5microm (25cmx0.46cm i.d.), with an eluent of methanol: 40mM sodium acetate buffer (adjusted to pH 4.5 with acetic acid; 20:80, v/v), a flow rate of 0.80mL/min at 26 degrees C, and with programmable fluorescence detection. Under optimum conditions excellent linearity was obtained, and the overall recovery was 90.5, and 95.9% for total tryptophan and tyrosine, respectively. The precision results showed that the relative standard deviation of the repeatability and reproducibility were < or =4.78 and < or =4.65, respectively. This method was used to quantify the cited analytes in the protein concentrate obtained during the lactic acid fermentation of shrimp waste.

The project ‘Preparation of active packaging with antioxidant and antimicrobial activity based on astaxanthin and chitosan’ (PAPAAABAC, in Spanish PEACAABAQ) brings together a multi-disciplinary team from Mexico, Spain and Portugal, with expertise in different areas of food and polymer sciences. The working programme includes optimisation of the extraction and characterisation of astaxanthin and chitosan from shrimp waste, and incorporation of these compounds into plastic (polymeric matrices), in order to obtain new packaging with antioxidant and antimicrobial properties (active packaging) and finally control-release studies which are carried out in order to determine the quantity of active compounds that should be included in the packaging. This is a 2-year project which started in 2009 and is funded by FONCYCIT (Fund for International Cooperation of Science and Technology EU-Mexico; Fondo de Cooperación Internacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia Unión Europea-Mexico) under the coordination of Professor Jaime López Cervantes from the Technological Institute of Sonora (ITSON). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]