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Background Due to the increasing trend in consumer habits to use healthy food products with low fat content, reduction of oil uptake during different frying processes is necessary. Recent studies have clearly revealed that microstructural changes occurred during frying operations significantly impact oil uptake. These variations are assessed for better comprehension of the mechanisms involved in oil absorption of fried products to minimize oil uptake without sacrificing organoleptic and textural properties of the foods. Different strategies such as state-of-the-art computational simulations based on numerical analysis of simultaneous momentum, heat and mass transfer modeling during frying have been attempted by several researchers to better control the process. Scope and approach This review paper presents a comprehensive and up-to-date review of microstructure variations covering all existing methods of frying operations comprising deep-fat frying, vacuum frying, hot-air frying, non-fat frying and microwave frying together with post-frying treatments and process modeling of frying. Key findings and conclusions Oil uptake can be controlled during frying by proper process design regarding different products and frying operations. Textural and organoleptic characteristics of fried foods are affected by applying various frying processes. Microstructural changes and post-frying treatments influence oil uptake during frying. In addition, suitable design and optimization of frying using process modeling is important to produce fried food products with high quality.

In this study, steady-state and oscillatory rheology of seven commercial meat sauces were investigated in the temperature range of 0–75 °C using a controlled-stress rheometer, at shear rates between 0.1 and 100 s−1 and oscillatory frequency sweeps of 0.01–10 Hz. The sauces exhibited pseudoplastic behavior well described by the Hershel–Bulkley model (R2 ≥ 0.975). Estimates of model parameters showed that the yield stress and consistency index ranged from 0.027 to 33.958 Pa and 4.614 to 41.313 Pasn, respectively. The flow behavior index, n (0.027 ≤ n ≤ 0.551), confirmed the pseudoplastic behavior of the sauces. Temperature had a statistically significant effect on the estimated model parameters (p

Meat is a complex matrix of structural features exhibiting physical and chemical variations. The duality of the spatial and spectral information in the hyperspectral image of meat provides complementary information, and a synergistic fusion of the information will allow for the development of a rapid and non-invasive system based on hyperspectral imaging for assessment of a chemical component in meat. Intramuscular fat (IMF) is a critical factor in meat purchase decision making. Traditional techniques for IMF measurement are time-consuming destructive and laborious. This study investigated the use of data fusion techniques to fuse spectral and image data obtained from hyperspectral images of pork samples for the purpose of developing a technique for rapid and non-destructive prediction of IMF in pork. Following the acquisition of the images, image processing was conducted to create the region of interest. The mean spectral and the textural information data were obtained from the region of interest by spectra averaging and the use of Gabor filter and gray-level co-occurrence matrix techniques for image pattern recognition. These features were systematically fused using low-level, mid-level, and high-level data fusion techniques. The fused data were inputted into partial least square, and support vector machines to developed prediction models for IMF in pork. The result showed that the data fusion resulted in a higher prediction of IMF than the use of either spectral or textural information in isolation.

The low-cost, ultra-compact and handheld microNIR spectrometer over the spectral range of 1150–2150 nm was explored to detect the adulteration of wheat flour in this study. Eight varieties of cassava flour were used as adulterants and were adulterated in wheat flour at five adulteration levels of 5, 10, 20, 30 and 40%. Both principal component analysis-linear discriminant analysis (PCA-LDA) and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) methods were employed to establish 2-class, 3-class and 6-class discriminant models, using different types of preprocessed absorbance spectra. The overall prediction accuracies of the 2-class discriminant models all achieved over 95.00% in separating the pure and adulterated wheat flour, with the best overall accuracy of 97.53%, regardless of the adulterated cassava flour variety. The best overall prediction accuracy of 93.83% was obtained in discriminating the flour samples into the three classes of 0% (pure wheat), 5% + 10% and 20% + 30% + 40%, regardless of the adulterated cassava flour variety. However, the highest overall accuracy of the 6-class model attained only 75.31% in classifying the wheat samples into the six groups of 0% (pure wheat), 5, 10, 20, 30 and 40%, regardless of the adulterated cassava flour variety. Overall, the obtained results demonstrated the usefulness of the employed low-cost spectrometer in detecting the wheat flour adulteration in a rapid and non-destructive manner.

This study evaluated the impact of different concentrations of glutamic acid (1, 3, 5 and 7 mM) and sodium chloride (NaCl- 100, 200, 300 and 400 mM) elicitations on the biosynthesis of phenolic compounds and their antioxidant properties in common bean sprouts. Results showed that high glutamic acid concentrations (5 and 7 mM) elicited maximum levels of stress markers (H2O2, catalase and peroxidase), phenylpropanoid triggering enzymes (phenylalanine ammonia-lyase and tyrosine ammonia-lyase), and subsequent elevation of phenolic compounds. Although stress markers were elevated, it recorded no negative influence on the sprouting potential of common beans. Also, maximum antioxidant capacities were observed with phenolic compounds extract elicited with 5 mM glutamic acid at 96 h of sprouting, over their NaCl and control counterparts. Multiple quadratic regression studies led to the conclusion that, for optimum biosynthesis of phenolic compounds, synergistic activities of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase and tyrosine ammonia-lyase are required rather than in their isolated catalytic activities.

Intramuscular fat (IMF) quality in muscle contributes to important aspects of meat quality and is critical to the nutritional, sensory values, and shelf stability of meat. The measurement of IMF quality currently relies on gas chromatography (GC), which is labor-intensive and time-consuming. This study investigated the use of hyperspectral imaging to predict the quality of IMF in pork loin cuts. Pork loin cuts were scanned using hyperspectral imaging (900–1700 nm), followed by GC analysis of the fatty acid profile. Mean spectral features (MSF), Gabor filter features (GFF), and wild line detector feature (WLDF) techniques were used to extract texture features and then related with the GC results by partial least-squares regression (PLSR) algorithm. Simplified models were developed using PLSR from selected wavelengths, and the results of the validation provided by the WLD features showed coefficient of determination (R2) for C14:0, C16:0, C16:1, C18:0, C18:1, C18:2, SFA (saturated fatty acid), MUFA (monounsaturated fatty acids), and PUFA (polyunsaturated fatty acid) that ranged from 0.805 to 0.942 and root mean square error of prediction ranged from 0.087 to 0.304 mg/g meat. The result indicates that texture features from hyperspectral images could be used to develop a rapid tool for assessment of the IMF quality in the pork.

Phenolic concentrations in ready-to-eat pulse sprouts can be enhanced under abiotic stress conditions, such as exposure to high-temperature treatments. However, data on the correlations between high-temperature treatments, induction of stress markers, stimulations of phenylpropanoid triggering enzymes, and accumulation of phenolics during the sprouting stage of pulses, such as common bean, is limited. Thus, this study was set to investigate how different levels of temperature elicitation (25, 30, 35, and 40 °C) and sprouting time (24, 48, 72, and 96 h) influence phenolic biosynthesis and antioxidant properties of common bean sprouts. Oxidative stress markers (H2O2, malondialdehyde, antioxidant enzymes—catalase and guaiacol peroxidase) were measured and correlated with activities of phenylpropanoid triggering enzymes (phenylalanine ammonia-lyase and tyrosine ammonia-lyase), phenolic accumulations (total phenolic acids, total flavonoids, and anthocyanins), and antioxidant capacities (DPPH, ABTS, and Fe2+ scavenging) at each treatment level. Findings showed that temperature elicitation at 30 °C and 96 h of sprouting significantly increased phenolic biosynthesis and all tested antioxidant properties. This observation corresponded with its maximum activation of phenylpropanoid triggering enzymes and antioxidant enzymes throughout the sprouting process, compared to control (25 °C) and higher temperature levels (35 and 40 °C). Furthermore, although accumulated H2O2 and malondialdehyde levels increased with increasing temperature treatments, this trend was above threshold levels and limited sprout morphological characteristics. Hence, 30 °C temperature elicitations of common bean during sprouting can help enhance their nutraceutical value as organic edible sprouts.

Sustainability has been a global focus in recent decades. It has been viewed in various forms and measured across many fields. One of the critical assessment tools that measure both environmental sustainability and economics is eco-efficiency. In this paper, the trend of eco-efficiency research over the last two decades (1998–2018) has been evaluated based on 5582 scientific publications on the web of science using bibliometric analysis. The result provides a detailed analysis of the number of papers, authors, journals, institutes, countries, citations, co-citations, bibliographic coupling, and the general eco-efficiency research trend. The analysis shows that keywords such as life cycle analysis and data envelopment analysis alongside other concepts have been used frequently in eco-efficiency research. The eco-efficiency concept and its approaches have been applied across a wide range of sectors. The result shows that besides engineering, and environmental science, the concept is also trending in the business economics sector. The study also reveals an increasing growth trend in its application in industrial and environmental sustainability, recording 576 publications in 2017. Following the analysis, pathways for future research have been suggested. The benefits of eco-efficiency research are significant and show that its application will lead to efficient resource utilization while minimizing environmental impact.

In recent times, food consumption has advanced beyond simply meeting growth and development needs to include the supply of ingredients that can protect against diseases. Among such non-nutritive ingredients are phenolic compounds. These are benzene-ringed secondary metabolites produced in plants upon exposure to environmental stress. Previous studies have linked phenolic compounds to bioactive benefits (e.g., antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer) with these bioactivities dependent on their biochemical structure and concentrations of individual phenolic compounds present in the food system. However, majority of plant foods are thermally processed into ready-to-eat forms, with these processing methods potentially altering the structure and subsequent bioactivities of endogenous phenolic compounds. Thus, the aim of this chapter is to highlight on emerging non-thermal novel technologies (such as pulsed electric field, radiation, ultrasonication, high hydrostatic pressure processing and high pressure carbon dioxide processing) that can be exploited by the food industry to preserve/enhance bioactivities of phenolic compounds during processing.

The freshness of meat is an important quality attribute. Thiobarbituric Acid Reactive Substances (TBARS), a classical marker of lipid oxidation, is used as an indicator of freshness in meat. This study investigated the application of a miniaturized and portable Near Infrared (NIR) spectroscopy (1100–2200 nm) for rapid monitoring of TBARS in minced pork stored at 4 °C for 0, 2, 4 and 8 days. NIR data was pre-treated with standard normal variate (SNV), multiplicative scatter correction (MSC), and Savitzky Golay first derivative (FD). Models developed, based on full wavelengths, using partial least square regression (PLSR) showed good results in terms of their coefficients of determination (R2). The optimized result was obtained from MSC with R2 of 0.844 and RMSE of 0.099 mg MDA/kg meat in the prediction. To build a simpler model, optimal wavelengths were selected by successive projection algorithm (SPA) and weighted regression coefficients (RC) and used to develop four new models based on PLSR and MLR algorithms (SPA-PLSR, SPA-MLR, RC-PLSR, RC-MLR). The simplified model (RC-PLSR) revealed good results with R2p of 0.830 and RMSE of 0.068 mg MDA /kg meat. The promising result in this study indicated the potential of using a miniaturized NIR spectroscopy as a good handheld tool for rapid monitoring of TBARS values for assessment of freshness in minced pork.

Biodiesel is a clean and renewable resource that consists of mono-alkyl esters of long chain fatty acid, which could be obtained from the transesterification reaction of vegetable oils and animal fats with alcohols and catalysts. Biodiesel yield has typically been determined using expensive and laborious techniques. The attempt of this study was to examine the potential of quantifying the biodiesel conversion in real time using refractive index in transesterification process of canola oil with methanol and KOH. Biodiesel yields at five different mixing intensities and reaction times were measured using a refractometer. The measured results were then compared with analytical data obtained from thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) technique over a temperature range of 25℃ - 600℃. Experimental results indicated that the FAME conversions at different mixing intensity and reaction time measured from refractometer correlated well to the relative weight losses from TGA method with R2 = 0.93 (p ≤ 0.05); however, the refractometer may over-estimate the biodiesel yield when the reaction rate was too low. Overall, the refractometer technique is cheaper and easier to manage and could provide a reliable prediction of biodiesel yield in real time.

Background As demands for fried foods are increased by consumers, so is its health concern. Food quality and safety specialists have been making efforts to provide healthy and nutritious foods through optimization of frying processes and products. Studies have revealed that three techniques could be used to reduce the amount of oil in fried foods, namely, modification of product surface, modification of frying technique and modification of frying medium. Scope and approach This review summarizes up-to-date findings regarding the related works of literature undertaken in order to reduce oil content in fried foods. It emphasizes the importance of modifying product surface and frying technique in reducing oil uptake during deep-fat frying. Key findings and conclusions Owing to the fact that frying is majorly a surface phenomenon, modification of product surface has proven to be the most effective procedure in reducing oil uptake. However, more studies are needed in the application of the other two techniques especially modifying the oil medium. Coating has been used as one of the techniques to modify product surface. From the literature reviewed, soy protein isolate, methylcellulose, whey protein isolate and wheat gluten protein isolate showed to be the best materials for coating, depending on the substrate which can reduce oil uptake by 35–40%. Little work has been done on the application of hydrocolloids as pre-dusting agents, although the technique has shown to be effective in enhancing oil reduction in deep-fried foods. Studies have also shown that bulk of oil in fried foods are absorbed during cooling (post-frying) than during frying. Therefore, more research is needed on post-treatment of fried foods to reduce oil content.

Six variables (temperature, pressure, static time, dynamic time, chemical pretreatment, and particle size) were evaluated in the supercritical CO2 extraction of oil from oats (Avena sativa L.), by the responses obtained using a Plackett–Burman statistical design, including the mass of oil extracted, main fatty acids (GC–MS), polyphenols (HPLC), antioxidant activity (ORAC), and total phenolic content (TPC). For the mass of oil extracted, pressure (55 MPa) and particle size (>250 μm) were significant, with a highest yield of 0.800 g/20 g oat. Oleic acid was the most abundant fatty acid (45–53%), followed by linoleic (36–42%) and palmitic (12–16%). Fatty acid composition was significantly affected by particle size, pretreatment, and temperature. The polyphenols vanillin (43.33 μg/g oil), ferulic acid (53.6 μg/g oil), vanillic acid (0.78 μg/g oil), and coumaric acid (2.2 μg/g oil) were detected. Pretreatment and high temperature were significant for increasing the polyphenol content of the oil fractions. TPC was also increased by temperature and pretreatment (97.1 mg gallic acid equivalents/100 g oil) and showed a good correlation with polyphenols (R2 = 82%). Additionally, ORAC antioxidant activity (265 mmol Trolox equivalents/g oil) was significantly affected by pretreatment, temperature (80 °C), and particle size (>250 μm).

Ultrasound is sound waves with above the human hearing range frequency that is approximately 20 kHz. Application of power ultrasound in combination with other food processing methods including drying, is considered to be an emerging and promising technology. The use of novel non-thermal technologies, such as power ultrasound, is suitable to facilitate the drying of heat sensitive food materials. Ultrasound enhance heat and mas transfer which result in faster moisture removal during drying due to heating, vibration and synergistic effects. These effects could lead to product quality preservation in terms of color, texture, vitamin C and antioxidants content, by the use of milder drying conditions, and in some cases can promote better energy efficiency. In this article, after a brief review on the history of ultrasonic drying, different methods are categorized and combinations of ultrasound with novel drying methods and their effects on phytochemicals are discussed with the focus on the recently published articles. Studies showed that the quality of ultrasonically dried products was usually higher than conventionally dried products. However, the effect of ultrasonic drying on the texture and nutritional value of the products should be further investigated.

Cranberry and blueberry pomaces are rich in antimicrobial and antioxidant compounds. They have been identified as potential antibiotic alternatives in animal feed, but their antioxidative capacity for maintaining or improving the meat quality in broilers is not well documented. This study was to determine whether cranberry and wild blueberry pomaces in diets could positively influence the broiler meat quality. A total of 3,150 broilers were randomly allotted to 10 dietary treatments with bacitracin methylene disalicylate, wild cranberry pomace (CRP) (0.5 and 1% of the basal diet), and wild blueberry pomace (BLP) (0.5 and 1% of the basal diet) alone or in combination with a mixture of feed enzymes. The results showed that supplementation with the CRP or BLP did not affect meat lightness and yellowness, while the deeper red meat (higher a∗ values) was observed in the birds receiving the diet containing 0.5% BLP against those in CRP treatments (P = 0.015). In addition, inclusion of CRP or BLP in the diet did not change meat texture and proximate composition (moisture, protein, fat, ash) irrespective of pomace concentrations. Although there were no obvious effects of CRP or BLP supplementation on meat antioxidant capacity and the incidence of myopathies (P > 0.05), the upward trend of antioxidant capacity and less severity of woody breast were observed in birds fed with 0.5% CRP. Furthermore, supplementation of 0.5 or 1.0% CRP without the enzyme resulted in higher mRNA levers of Nrf, Gpx2, and HO-1 (P

Highlights • High-intensity ultrasound treatment of rice starch was conducted at different process temperatures. • Severe ultrasound treatment conditions led to complete gelatinization of rice starch. • Ultrasound treatment enhanced rheological and textural properties of starch-based sauces. • Ultrasonication improved the freeze/thaw stability of starch-based sauces. • Ultrasound treated starches are potentially applicable in the formulation of starch-based sauces., In this study, ultrasonication, a physical, relatively cheap, and environmentally benign technology, was investigated to characterize its effect on functional properties of rice starch and rice starch-based sauces. Temperature-assisted ultrasound treatment improved the granular swelling power, fat and water absorption capacities, and thermal properties of rice starch, signifying its suitability in the formulation of starch-based sauces. Rheological characterization of the formulated sauces revealed a shear-thinning flow behavior, well described by the Ostwald de Waele model, while viscoelastic properties showed the existence of a weak gel. Results indicated that ultrasonication significantly enhanced the pseudoplastic behavior of starch-based sauces. Additionally, textural analysis showed that textural attributes (stickiness, stringiness, and work of adhesion) were also improved with ultrasonication. Moreover, enhanced freeze/thaw stability was also achieved with ultrasound-treated starch-based sauces. Overall, the results from this study show that ultrasound-treated starches can be used in the formulation of sauces and potentially other food products, which meets the requirements for clean label and minimally processed foods.

The fibrous structure of meat muscle makes it an anisotropic optical material. As such, spectral information varies with the orientation of the muscle. In this study, spectral data from pork cuts were obtained by a transverse scan (TRANSCAN), radial scan (RADISCAN), and longitudinal scan (LONGSCAN) by using hyperspectral imaging. The information was used to develop and compare the prediction models for intramuscular (IMF) content prediction by partial least square regression (PLSR), support vector machines regression (SVMR), and backpropagation artificial neural network (BPANN). The three modeling algorithms showed equal capability for modeling IMF in pork. The accuracy of the prediction models from the three scans was in the order of TRANSCAN ≥ RADISCAN ≥ LONGSCAN. Successive projection algorithm reduced the wavelengths to 93%. The reduced wavelengths were used to build new models that showed similar accuracy to the models of the original wavelengths. This study shows that muscle orientation influences the accuracy of the prediction models.

In this study, water absorption characteristics of some rice varieties (Bisalayi, FARO 61, FARO 60, FARO 52 and FARO 44) from Nigeria were studied at 30°C, 45°C, 60°C and 75°C by determining the increase in grain weight as a function of time during soaking. Differences in moisture content among the selected varieties of paddy during soaking were significant (P < 0.05) at all temperatures considered. Using the experimental moisture data, a non-linear regression procedure was applied to an analytical solution of the Fick’s second law of the diffusion for an infinite cylinder. The predicted values of instantaneous moisture contents were in good agreement with the experiential data with R2 of (0.834 - 0.997). Water absorption rate was found to increase with soaking temperature, while water saturation time decreased with temperature. Average values of diffusion coefficients of moisture during soaking of paddy rice at different temperatures (30°C, 45°C, 60°C and 75°C) were estimated as 6.25 × 10 -11, 6.28 × 10 -11, 7.02 × 10 -11, and 5.51 × 10 -11 and 5.52 × 10 -11 m2/s for Bisalayi, FARO 61, FARO 60, FARO 52 and FARO 44, respectively. The activation energies of the diffusivity through different varieties of rice grains werecalculated using Arrhenius-type equation for diffusion dependence on temperature and were determined as 41.96, 38.69, 40.16, 34.05 and 42.12 kJ/mole for Bisalayi, FARO 61, FARO 60, FARO 52 and FARO 44 for the respectively rice variety above.

This study presents field data and results on local fish processing, its energy supply, and consumption in the Northern Province of Zambia. The study also evaluates the impact of processing conditions on fish quality and cost for the different processing systems available in the selected communities. The result shows that fuelwood is the primary source of energy for fish processing used either in a modified three-stone fire (MTSF) system or a recently developed kiln. The charcoal smoking alternative had the least fuel consumption, yet was not considered as the preferred option due to the high cost of the fuel, a smaller quantity of fish processed per batch and longer processing time. The result also revealed that irrespective of the system used, the type of fish being processed and the pre-smoking drying time had a significant impact on the total energy consumption. Overall, the smoking kiln was found to increase the quantity of fish processed by five folds, reduce fuel use by 48% and reduce the overall smoking time per kilogram fish processed by 39%. A relatively higher fish quality was obtained with the use of the smoking kiln in comparison with the MTSF and the charcoal smoking system. The use of the smoking kiln as a fish processing system is recommended because it improves the quality of the fish, can scale up fish processing due to its capacity and reduces energy use with its associated costs.

Conductive hydro-drying also known as Refractance Window drying is a relatively new drying technology, which uses hot water to carry thermal energy to materials to be dehydrated. It has a high rete...

A pilot study was conducted to develop nondestructive calibration models to discriminate organic and conventional rice from selected field trials in Heilongjiang Province, China using near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy with the absorption mode in the wave number range of 12000–4000 cm−1. Multivariate methods such as principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares (PLS) regression were used to interpret the NIR spectral data. PLS regression was used for discrimination between organic and conventional rice samples after several pretreatments of the spectra. The coefficient of determination (R2) value for the PLS regression model was 0.8430 with a standard error for cross validation (SECV) of 0.1992 and a root mean square error for cross validation (RMSECV) of 0.1982. Overall, the results indicated good performance of the prediction models and supported the capability of NIR spectroscopy to classify between discriminate organic and conventional rice. This study further supports the utilization of NIR in the discriminative analysis of foods and as a noteworthy method for the authentication of organic rice at the industrial level.

The effects of temperature (150, 165 and 180 °C) and frying method (deep fat and hot air frying methods) on the kinetic of doughnut's crust formation and also crust features were investigated in this study. Results revealed that at high frying temperatures in deep fat frying method, a higher percentage of doughnut surfaces were covered with crust, while at low temperatures using hot-air frying process, the crust percentage of the doughnut was higher compared with those of other frying method. By decreasing the temperature of fryer, the difference between frying time of two methods reduced gradually in a manner that at 150 °C the frying time was the same for both methods. Formation of doughnut's crust in deep fat frying method started from its lower and lateral parts but for hot air method, the formation began from the upper surface. Doughnut's crust formation during deep fat frying was more dependent on temperature than that of hot air fried ones. Hot air frying of doughnut reduced crust roughness and created a smoother surface compared to the deep fat fried samples. Decreasing the frying temperature for both methods increased the crust roughness. The results of this research permit a better understanding of crust formation procedure in deep fat and hot air frying process.

French fries were deep-fat fried in crude palm oil (CPO), refined canola oil (RCO) and a blend of CPO/RCO (1:1 w/w) at 170 °C for different durations. The fries were analyzed for the presence of certain bioactive nutrients originating from the frying oils. The French fries absorbed over 50% of total carotenoids, 40% of tocotrienols and CPO > RCO. The moisture ratio, oil uptake, and browning index were modeled with a first order kinetic model, while the changes in the concentration of nutrients in the fries were modeled using the biphasic first order model. In all cases, the coefficients of determination, R2, calculated were above 0.92. The French fries produced using CPO and the blend of CPO/RCO absorbed less oil and were significantly enriched with carotenoids and vitamin E.

This objective of this study was to evaluate the kinetics of mass transfer, microstructural development, the impact of freezing method (Unfrozen, −18 °C, −82 °C and N 2 ) and storage (0–4 months) on the quality of finish-fried parfried-frozen potato strips. Frying parfried potato between 170 and 190 °C showed significant (P

Dates are naturally rich in antioxidants and other bioactive molecules. To enhance the shelf life and market value of these bioactive molecules, free flow spray-dried date powder was produced in a ...

Pork subcutaneous fat (PSF) is used for the development of several products, and the evaluation of the qualitative and quantitative characteristics currently involves lengthy procedures. In this study, the discriminant and predictive capability of near-infrared hyperspectral imaging were tested on PSFs, which were collected from the belly, ham, loin, and shoulder. The spectral information from the hyperspectral images was used to discriminate amongst these fats as well as predict their iodine values (degree of fat unsaturation) using partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and partial least squares regression (PLSR). The result showed that PLS-DA was outstanding in discriminating PSFs with classification error in the validation dataset ≤0.05%. For the IV, result for the IV measurement showed a good accuracy (R2p = 0.77 and RMSEP = 1.83-g I2/100g fat). This study showed that the hyperspectral imaging technique has the potential to discriminate PSFs from different locations of the pork carcass and also evaluate the IV.

This study investigated the potential of using the image of the rib end to assess pork marbling scores along Longissimus thoracis. Previous studies have shown the success of hyperspectral imaging in marbling score assessment of individual pork chops. In this research, hyperspectral imaging methods were employed to study the possibility of pork marbling assessment along longissimus thoracis using the NIR image of the rib end. Pattern analysis algorithms were used to extract efficient features from the rib end of the pork loin. Multiple linear regression (MLR) and leave-one-out cross validation were applied to build prediction models using the extracted features. Experiments showed that the prediction models performed well with correlation coefficients of calibration (Rc) ≥ 0.94, correlation coefficients of cross validation (Rcv) ≥ 0.88, correlation coefficients of prediction (Rp) ≥ 0.89. The promising results indicated the potential of using NIR images of rib ends for the assessment of marbling score along longissimus thoracis.

Pulsed light (PL) treatment is an emerging tool for food safety & is increasingly being used for sanitization of food and contact surfaces. L. monocytogenes contamination is one of the most important microbiological threat to food safety. This study was conducted to assess its resistance to PL treatment by establishing the destruction kinetics of 5 strains of L. monocytogenes obtained from different marine sources (shrimp, lobster, crab and salmon) on top of surface-agar plates or dispensed in liquid-media. L. monocytogenes Scott A strain was found to be the most resistant, requiring 20s for 5-log reduction at 800 V and 5 cm distance from PL source; while the strain 323 was least resistant. PL voltage, treatment time and distance from the PL source played a significant role in the destruction of L. monocytogenes and a correlation was established to estimate lethality contributed by the PL treatment. Results revealed potential of PL treatment to sanitize smooth and dry surfaces (D-value of 0.91 ± 0.23 s at 800 V, and Z v value of 500 ± 24 V); however, its penetration to liquid samples was poor (D-value of 93±5s). Nevertheless, for liquid-media, a thin-profile treatment can be considered. These results will be useful in establishing PL treatment for L. monocytogenes and other pathogens.

Fat and fatty acids (FAs) are important quality parameters of dairy foods, characterizing their nutritional value. Efficient routine analyses of their contents are of critical importance for dairy farms and factories. Conventional methods for determining fat and FAs contents of dairy foods are time-consuming, laborious, destructive to samples and often requiring use of hazard solvents, which make it impossible for real-time and on-line measurements. Spectroscopic techniques based on near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), Raman spectroscopy (RS), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) have been studied extensively for fat and FAs analyses of dairy foods, and promising results have been shown. In this context, this paper summarized the current research progress in application of the three important techniques in predicting fat content and FAs composition of dairy products such as milk, milk powder and cheese. First, the working principles and features of these techniques were described, and then the research advances of each technique for fat and FAs analyses of the dairy foods are presented in detail and the factors influencing their modeling results are discussed. Perspectives on their current situation, future trends and challenges are also discussed.

The thermostability of tocochromanols (tocopherols and tocotrienols) and carotenoids in virgin palm oil (VPO), refined canola oil (RCO) and blends of the two oils under deep-fat frying conditions at 170–190 °C was investigated. Normal-phase HPLC was used to monitor the tocochromanols variation over frying time at each temperature. The changes in total carotenoids content was analyzed spectrophotometrically. The deterioration kinetic rate of each homolog detected followed a reaction order greater than 1. The rates were dependent on frying temperatures and were satisfactorily modeled by the Arrhenius relationship. The rate of deterioration and the activation energy showed that the least stable homologs were γ-tocopherol and γ-tocotrienol while δ-tocotrienol and carotenoids were the most stable. In VPO, the carotenoids were more retained while the tocochromanols were less stable. This was further evidenced by the high activation energy (Ea of 71 ± 5 kJ/mol) for carotenoids in VPO. The tocopherol and tocotrienol homologs had greater stability in the blends as shown by their comparatively higher Ea values. The Ea for γ-tocopherol, γ-tocotrienol, α-tocopherol and α-tocotrienol in the blend were 20 ± 2, 47 ± 16, 48 ± 9, and 74 ± 4 kJ/mol, respectively. These behaviors are related to the initial composition of the oils and their calculated oxidizability (Cox) value.

Conventional methods for determining fat content and fatty acids (FAs) composition are generally based on the solvent extraction and gas chromatography techniques, respectively, which are time consuming, laborious, destructive to samples and require use of hazard solvents. These disadvantages make them impossible for large-scale detection or being applied to the production line of meat factories. In this context, the great necessity of developing rapid and nondestructive techniques for fat and FAs analyses has been highlighted. Measurement techniques based on near-infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance and hyperspectral imaging have provided interesting and promising results for fat and FAs prediction in varieties of foods. Thus, the goal of this article is to give an overview of the current research progress in application of the four important techniques for fat and FAs analyses of muscle foods, which consist of pork, beef, lamb, chicken meat, fish and fish oil. The measurement techniques are described in terms of their working principles, features, and application advantages. Research advances for these techniques for specific food are summarized in detail and the factors influencing their modeling results are discussed. Perspectives on the current situation, future trends and challenges associated with the measurement techniques are also discussed.

This paper presents a simplified energy improvement system using agricultural waste for local rice processing. An integrated steam and hot air production unit using rice husk energy was evaluated thermodynamically. Besides characteristics of steam and hot air, temperature effectiveness of the fluid streams, energy and exergy flow within system components were also studied. Effect of input operating parameters on steam production and drying air temperature together with their correlation have been shown. Overall system energy and exergy efficiencies were found to be 47.81% and 10.93%, respectively. Although, the combustor showed the highest temperature, energy and exergy efficiencies, it was the main source of exergy destruction contributing more than 60%.

Parboiling is an energy and labour intensive pre-milling process aimed at improving the quality of paddy rice. Several parboiling processes along with different energy supply systems have been developed and reported to improve the overall grain quality, processing time and energy consumption. This paper reviews the parboiling process – concept, systems, energy supply and consumption, as well as the impact of energy use on product quality. Rice husk is most widely used energy source for parboiling and has been used primarily in direct combustion systems, as briquettes or through gasification systems. Parboiling energy consumption varies widely depending on the process conditions, parboiling system, processing capacity and the energy source.

Post frying conditions play a very important role in consumer acceptability of French fries. During post frying holding time, from when fried potatoes are removed from a fryer to when consumed, texture of the product dramatically changes. Therefore, it is important to understand how and why these changes happen. In this study, the effect of different batter formulations and post frying holding time (with and without using a heat lamp) on fat and moisture distribution, textural and thermal properties of fried potato strips was studied. Moisture content ranged from 3.90 to 5.32 (in core region), 0.54 to 1.19 (in crust region), and 1.96 to 2.89 g/g db (in whole potato strips). Fat content of the core, crust and whole potato strip regions ranged between 0.01–0.03, 0.14–0.25, and 0.07–0.15 g/g db, respectively. A slight migration of moisture from the core to crust regions was observed under heat lamp holding, but this did not affect the total moisture content. Potato samples that were not kept under heat lamp showed lower hardness than samples kept under heat lamp. Brittleness values of potato samples increased from 0 to 10 min heat lamp duration and after that it significantly decreased. It was found that glass transition temperature of the samples was also affected by batter formulation and heat lamp duration.

The underlying relationships between growth temperature, membrane fatty acid composition (mFAC) and PEF resistance of Escherichia coli (E. coli) were explored. Results indicated the PEF resistance of E. coli at stationary stage was directly related to mFAC. For the cells at stationary stage, as growth temperature decreased from 37 °C to 15 °C, the PEF (23.3 kV/cm, 1.2 ms) lethality of E. coli was increased 1.5 log10, reached 3.2 log10. Meanwhile, the proportion of unsaturated fatty acid (UFA) was increased from 20.07 to 47.65%. And the fluidity index (FI) of the cell membrane was also increased from 0.42 to 1.42. It revealed that the PEF resistance of E. coli at stationary stage was determined by the mFAC and fluidity of the cell membrane. Those conclusions were also confirmed by cytomembrane fluidity determined by fluorescence probe (DPH) and the different PEF-induced electro-permeabilization of dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC) and Dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC) vesicles. On the other hand, for the cell at exponential stage, the PEF resistance of E. coli was rarely affected by mFAC. The PEF (23.3 kV/cm, 1.2 ms) lethality of cells was almost the same (3.2 log10) at different growth temperature.

The study presents a performance evaluation of an integrated rice parboiling stove (IRPS) fuelled with either rice husk or wood in comparison with the three stone fire (TSF) stove currently being used. The stoves were initially tested using the water boiling test. The efficiency, fire power and specific fuel consumption of IRPS were found to be 29%, 16 kW and 0.14 kg/kg rice husk, respectively. To enhance continuous steam production, a heat exchanger extension was made to the IRPS and the efficiency re-evaluated using the indirect boiler efficiency estimation approach, together with pollutants emission factors and safety. The stove efficiency after the extension increased to 46%. The emission factors for CO, CO 2 and C x H y were in ranges from 10.6 to 12.0, 785–793, 0.4–2.2 g/kg of rice husk, respectively. Comparison between rice husk and wood combustion in IRPS shows that emission factors for rice husk were significantly lower than wood but decrease with stove fire power.

This research explores the effect of temperature, pressure, static time, dynamic time, co‐solvent, pretreatment, and particle size on the supercritical/subcritical extraction of ursolic acid (UA), polyphenols, and their antioxidant activity. Experiments were controlled by a screen‐out (Plackett–Burman) statistical methodology. From the results, it could be observed that similar conditions benefited the extraction of UA and polyphenols. The highest yield of UA (6,117.2 µg/g) was obtained when ethanol (25% w/w), particle size (>250 µm), and temperature (60°C) were at their high boundaries. Phloridzin and epicatechin were identified as the most abundant polyphenols, showing concentrations of 531.4 and 288.3 µg/g, respectively. A maximum oxygen radical absorbance capacity of 113.5 µmol TE/g and total polyphenolic capacity (TPC) of 1.7 mg GAE/g were obtained. As a result, higher yields were strongly related to the effect of variables on diffusion and solubility, leading to a more efficient and sustainable process. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: There is always a need to develop efficient and environmentally friendly extraction processes. It is well known that most of the conventional extraction methods are solvent intensive, time‐consuming, and require multistep. Supercritical extraction has demonstrated to be a feasible nonconventional extraction method. However, before scaling, it is essential to screen‐out critical variables among the set of variables available. The extraction of ursolic acid (UA) and polyphenol fractions from apple pomace has the potential for their application in the food and pharmaceutical industry. The current research evaluates the effect of seven variables in the extraction of UA, polyphenols, and their antioxidant capacity from apple pomace. The information here presented aids in understanding which variables are more important for the extraction process.

Potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L.) are a good dietary source of carbohydrates in the form of digestible starch (DS) and resistant starch (RS). As increased RS content consumption can be associated with decreased chronic disease risk, breeding efforts have focused on identifying potato varieties with higher RS content, which requires high-throughput analysis of starch profiles. For this purpose, freeze drying of potatoes has been used but this approach leads to inaccurate RS values. The present study objective was to assess the starch content (RS, DS and total starch (TS)) of three cooked potato genotypes that were dried using freeze drying and innovative drying techniques (microwave vacuum drying, instant controlled pressure drop drying and conductive hydro-drying) relative to freshly cooked potato samples. Depending on the genotype, all drying methods showed one or more starch measures that were significantly different from freshly cooked values. The combination of ultrasound and infrared assisted conductive hydro-drying was the only method identified to be associated with accurate assessment of DS and TS content relative to fresh samples. The drying treatments were all generally associated with highly variable RS content relative to fresh controls. We conclude that freshly cooked samples must be used for selecting varieties with a high proportion of RS starch as drying of cooked potatoes leads to unreliable RS measurements.