Development of a Convenient Home Meal Replacement Product Containing Roasted Abalone (Haliotis discus hannai) with Honey Butter Sauce

Abalone (Haliotis discus hannai) has high nutritional value and market demand. However, it is generally sold as a raw product, which suffers from lengthy preparation, low commercial value, and a short shelf life. To address these problems, we processed abalone as a home meal replacement (HMR) product using superheated steam and quick freezing technology. Response surface methodology was used to optimize the roasting process. A test HMR product was produced by mixing roasted abalone with honey butter sauce at a ratio of 70:30 (w/w), then evaluated for its physicochemical, biological, and nutritional characteristics and shelf life. Roasting abalone at 220 °C for 2 min resulted in high scores for hardness and overall acceptance. The roasting process successfully maintained the chemical characteristics of abalone, including pH, volatile basic nitrogen, and thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances. The sensory characteristics of the test HMR product were maintained using quick freezing methods. Moreover, nutritional analysis revealed that the test HMR product contained macro- and micronutrients, amino acids, and fatty acids, which could contribute to meeting daily nutritional needs. The estimated shelf life of the product was 30 months. Therefore, this study successfully developed a high-quality HMR product containing abalone.

Numerical Modelling of Heat Transport in Freezing Mortars with an External Liquid Reservoir

Several studies indicate that the temperature distribution in concrete may affect the extent of frost scaling. This study presents a numerical model that describes the thermal response of freezing mortars in the presence of an external liquid reservoir, where the external liquid is either pure water or 3% sodium chloride solution. The phase transformation of supercooled external liquid is modelled in two stages: quick freezing, when the supercooled liquid starts to form crystals and slow freezing. The model is developed in two parts. In part I, the focus is the modelling of external liquid, and therefore a non-porous body with an external liquid reservoir is modelled and validated. In part II, the model developed in part I is developed further for a porous body containing different phases, i.e., unfrozen liquid and ice, in the pores. A comparison of simulated and experimentally measured temperature distributions shows a good agreement.

Effect of Steam and Smoke Cooking Processes on Web-Foot Octopus (Amphioctopus sp.) Home Meal Replacement Product

In Korea, the web-foot octopus (Amphioctopus sp.) is commonly consumed as jjukkumi bokkeum, a spicy stir-fried octopus dish. Using steaming and smoking methods, we made jjukkumi bokkeum home meal replacement (HMR) products. The response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to optimize the steam and smoke processes. Quick freezing was applied to freeze the test product at −35 °C. Then, the physicochemical, biological, nutritional characteristics, and shelf-life of the test HMR products were evaluated. The optimal conditions for steaming and smoking were 95 °C for 2 min and 70 °C for 11 min, respectively. The pH, volatile basic nitrogen content, and thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances content decreased after steaming and smoking, indicating that these processes maintained these parameters well. Sensory evaluation revealed that there were no changes in these characteristics after freezing and reheating. Further, the test HMR products contained the daily nutritional requirements of macro and micronutrients, as well as amino acids and fatty acids. The shelf-life of the HMR products was estimated to be 15 months. The findings of this study indicate that the application of steam and smoke processes to produce a jjukkumi bokkeum HMR product results in a high-quality product with a long shelf-life.

Quick freezing of garden strawberries to obtain biologically active ingredients

The results of the comparative analysis of the effectiveness of modern technologies for freezing strawberries showed their prospects and the need to use them to obtain biologically active ingredients of diets. The optimal mode of freezing of garden strawberries was established, which contributed to the greatest extent to the preservation of the original qualitative characteristics of berries - 35 °C below zero, followed by low-temperature storage at a temperature of 18 °C below zero. The authors established the correlation between the amount of juice loss and changes in the organoleptic characteristics of defrosted berries. The regression equations were obtained that characterized the change in cryoresistance and complex organoleptic assessment from the duration of low-temperature storage of frozen berries. The optimal shelf life of frozen berries was 12 months.

Preservation of Biologically Active Compounds and Nutritional Potential of Quick-Frozen Berry Fruits of the Genus Rubus

Cryoprotective freezing methods are increasingly being developed and used as an effective means of protecting valuable bioactive compounds in processed berry fruits. The quick-freezing method allows the bioactive compounds in the plant material to be preserved over a longer period of time, thus providing a high-quality product with significant antioxidant capacity. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of the quick-freezing method on physico-chemical properties and bioactive compounds content of fruits in three soft fruit species: tayberry, raspberry, and blackberry, and to evaluate the stability of specific phytochemicals during the three-month storage period. The freezing method had a significant effect on the physicochemical properties with a significantly less drip loss observed after thawing in fruit frozen by quick-freezing (at −34 °C for 25 min) compared to fruit frozen classically (−18 °C to 24 h). The color of quick-frozen fruits also changed significantly less compared to fresh fruits. Of the bioactive compounds analyzed, it should be noted that there was a significantly lower loss of ascorbic acid recorded during quick-freezing. On average, the quick-frozen fruits contained 28% more ascorbic acid than the classical frozen fruits. In general, the quick-freezing procedure contributed to a better preservation of total polyphenolic compounds and anthocyanins, and thus berry fruits also showed higher values of antioxidant capacity during quick freezing than during the classical procedure. During the storage period of three months, a decrease in the content of all the bioactive compounds studied was observed, although it should be emphasized that this loss during storage was not as pronounced in fruits frozen by the quick-freezing method as in classically frozen fruits. It can be concluded that the quick-freezing contributes significantly to the preservation of valuable bioactive compounds of berries and that this processing method can be considered important for maintaining the nutritional properties of berry fruits.

Glycosphingolipid GM3 is localized in both exoplasmic and cytoplasmic leaflets of Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasite plasma membrane

Lipid rafts, sterol-rich and sphingolipid-rich microdomains on the plasma membrane are important in processes like cell signaling, adhesion, and protein and lipid transport. The virulence of many eukaryotic parasites is related to raft microdomains on the cell membrane. In the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored proteins, which are important for invasion and are possible targets for vaccine development, are localized in the raft. However, rafts are poorly understood. We used quick-freezing and freeze-fracture immuno-electron microscopy to examine the localization of monosialotetrahexosylganglioside (GM1) and monosialodihexosylganglioside (GM3), putative raft microdomain components in P. falciparum and infected erythrocytes. This method immobilizes molecules in situ, minimizing artifacts. GM3 was localized in the exoplasmic (EF) and cytoplasmic leaflets (PF) of the parasite and the parasitophorous vacuole (PV) membranes, but solely in the EF of the infected erythrocyte membrane, as in the case for uninfected erythrocytes. Phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PtdIns(4,5)P2) was localized solely in the PF of erythrocyte, parasite, and PV membranes. This is the first time that GM3, the major component of raft microdomains, was found in the PF of a biological membrane. The unique localization of raft microdomains may be due to P. falciparum lipid metabolism and its unique biological processes, like protein transport from the parasite to infected erythrocytes.

STUDY OF CHANGES IN CURRANT DURING FAST FREEZING

Frozen berries have a number of undeniable advantages: they do not require additional preparation costs, are almost ready to eat, and most importantly, thanks to modern technologies, they retain almost twice as much nutrients as with other canning methods. Increasingly, there are risks associated with internal and external factors, as well as problems with excess yields that threaten not to sell the product fresh. short shelf life immediately after harvest, which increases the critical dependence on market prices. One of the progressive technological methods of processing fruit and berry products is quick freezing. The use of such freezing gives, first of all, a low degree of product damage, minimally reduces the biological value and taste characteristics, and the use of freezing does not significantly affect the quality of the thawed product.The main task of an industrial or commercial line for shock freezing of berries is to ensure almost instantaneous preservation of the product, which will retain all its nutritional value and taste. This is usually achieved by rapidly chilling the berries to -18 °C. By far the best option for extending the shelf life of freshly cooked food is to freeze it quickly. There are various options, but the best known is the freezing technology. For instant freezing without crystallization, it is necessary to provide a temperature of -5 ...- 18 °C. Experimental data were obtained during research. The temperature regime of storage of currants with the preservation of quality indicators using a freezing device is also considered. When frozen quickly, the berries should be blown from all sides or literally float in a stream of frosty air of the appropriate temperature. The duration of this process depends on the type and size of the berries, as well as on the intensity of the cooling air flow. The current direction in the field of research of frozen berries is the preservation of consumer properties of berries after freezing