Impact of high pressure processing on microbiological, nutritional and sensory properties of food: a review

Purpose The increased demand for high-quality, nutritionally rich processed food has led to non-thermal food processing technologies like high pressure processing (HPP), a novel process for microbial inactivation with minimal loss of nutritional and sensory properties. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the impact of HPP on the microbiological, nutritional and sensory properties of food. Design/methodology/approach Recent research on the role of HPP in maintaining food quality and safety and the impact of process conditions with respect to various food properties have been explored in this paper. Also, the hurdle approach and the effectiveness of HPP on food quality have been documented. Findings HPP has been verified for industrial application, fulfilling the consumer demand for processed food with minimum nutrition loss at low temperatures. The positive impact of HPP with other treatments is known as the hurdle approach that enhances its impact against microorganism activity and minimizes the effects on nutrition and sensory attributes. Originality/value This paper highlights the impact of HPP on various food properties and a good alternative as non-thermal technology for maintaining shelf life, sensory properties and retention of nutrients.

A Review of using Nanostructured Materials in Food Safety, Packaging and Storage

Food-grade Nano designed materials are largely utilized with a few methodologies for further developed food properties as far as quality and medical advantages. The food-grade nanostructured materials for the most part incorporate inorganic and natural materials, where the utilization of natural nanomaterials, like polysaccharides, proteins, lipids, and others, has been expanded for their profile based assets. Food-grade nanostructured materials might offer further developed food properties as far as surface, shading, flavor, supplement substance, rheology and others, which must be basically checked. The nanostructured materials are likewise used to foster bundling materials, in both essential and optional bundling, for custom fitted properties with diminished waste. Be that as it may, the food handling is estimated as far as movement properties, toxicological conduct of nanoparticle among bundle and food materials, as food handling is a main pressing issue in securing the bundled items for the duration of the existence cycle. Among accessible, polysaccharide-based nanostructured materials, for example, nanocellulose, nanochitosan, nanostarch, and so on, are widely utilized materials for tuned food properties.

Development of a Biomimetic Masticating Robot for Food Texture Analysis

Assessing the food texture via mastication is important for advancing knowledge of food properties so as to develop favorable and healthy food products. Oral processing of food by robots can enable an in vitro assessment of food texture by simulating human mastication objectively. In this study, a chewing robot is developed to mimic the rhythmic motion of the molars to enable controllable chewing kinematics and a biomimetic oral environment. The robotic chewing is realized using a 3 degree-of-freedom (DOF) linkage mechanism, which recreates the molar grinding movement based on molar trajectories and chewing cycle durations previously reported in the literature. Moreover, a soft pneumatically actuated cavity is developed to provide a space to contain and reposition the food between occlusions. In order to regulate the robotic chewing having variable molar trajectories and chewing durations, the mathematical relationship of the linkage's actuators and molar movements is investigated for the purpose of motion analysis and control. Accordingly, the design of the robot in terms of linkage, oral cavity and mechatronics system is performed. The built robot is validated by tracing a planned variable molar trajectory while chewing peanuts. The performance of robot chewing is validated by demonstrating the ability of the robot to chew the peanuts similar to that by human through comparison of peanut particle size distributions (PSDs) and particle median size diameters.

Metal-based nanoparticles, sensors, and their multifaceted application in food packaging

Due to the global rise of the human population, one of the top-most challenges for poor and developing nations is to use the food produces safely and sustainably. In this regard, the storage of surplus food (and derived products) without loss of freshness, nutrient stability, shelf life, and their parallel efficient utilization will surely boost the food production sector. One of the best technologies that have emerged within the last twenty years with applications in the packaging of food and industrial materials is the use of green mode-based synthesized nanoparticles (NPs). These NPs are stable, advantageous as well as eco-friendly. Over the several years, numerous publications have confirmed that these NPs exert antibacterial, antioxidant, and antifungal activity against a plethora of pathogens. The storage in metal-based NPs (M-NPs) does not hamper the food properties and packaging efficiency. Additionally, these M-NPs help in the improvement of properties including freshness indicators, mechanical properties, antibacterial and water vapor permeability during food packaging. As a result, the nano-technological application facilitates a simple, alternate, interactive as well as reliable technology. It even provides positive feedback to food industries and packaging markets. Taken together, the current review paper is an attempt to highlight the M-NPs for prominent applications of antimicrobial properties, nanosensors, and food packaging of food items. Additionally, some comparative reports associated with M-NPs mechanism of action, risks, toxicity, and overall future perspectives have also been made.

Post Harvest Applications of Cold Plasma Technology: A Review

Plasma is the fourth state of matters which have a wide application in food processing and post harvest technology. Plasma when applied over crops has tremendous effects in improvement in the quality and other post harvest attributes. Application of cold plasma technology could effectively induce desirable changes in its overall quality and diverse physiology. The following review would discuss the application of non-thermal plasma technology to disinfect and decontaminate processed food product and fresh horticultural crops. Horticultural crops which are treated with plasma technology do not show any loss in nutrients. The packaging materials can also be sterilized by using plasma technology. Similarly, the food packed inside a package can also be sterilized without harming the package integrity. Beside that it can also be used to reduce the enzymatic activity of fresh fruits and vegetables and help to modify the food properties. Cold plasma technology can penetrate fungal biofilm and destroy resting fungal spores. This technology can also be harnessed to remove residual toxic pesticide from food products and fresh fruits and vegetables. However, the technology might sound a bit expensive but have a long future in terms of utility.

Food Properties of Lebui Bean Powder Extract Fermented by Rhizopus Sp.

The fermentation that involves the performance of microbes is very effective for breaking the glycoside bonds that bind bioactive compounds in cells without using high temperatures and chemicals, as well as to improve the quality of nutritional components. Bioactive compounds in free form, obtained from the fermentation of black bean powder (Cajanus sp.) need to be extracted and characterized to obtain the types of bioactive compounds that have the potential to be applied in functional foods. Fermented black bean powder used in this experiment is the fermented lebui bean powder that has been fermented using the fungus Rhizopus sp. for two days. These lebui beans are local beans from Lombok Island, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. This experiment aimed to determine the type and concentration of organic solvents, which can maintain the quality of nutritional contents and bioactive compounds of fermented lebui bean powder. The nested design was used. The main factor was the type of solvent (n-hexane or ethanol), while the solvent concentration (70% or 90%) was the second factor and nested in the main factor. The result showed that ethanol 90% was the best organic solvent to extract the bioactive compound in fermented lebui bean powder, and this extract contained protein, lipid, moisture, ash, fiber, and carbohydrates respectively 26.33%; 13.60%; 14.24%; 3.28%; 16.03%; and 26.54%. The bioactive compounds identified were phenolic, flavonoid, and anthocyanin, respectively 78.544 mgGAE/g; 217.358 mgQE/g; and 147.665 ppm.

Potato Industry By-Products as a Source of Protein with Beneficial Nutritional, Functional, Health-Promoting and Antimicrobial Properties

Most potato proteins are fractions of albumin and globulin, soluble in water and in water and salt solutions, respectively; these are patatin glycoproteins, with a pIs in the range of 4.8–5.2. This group of proteins is typical of potato and they are referred to as patatin or tuberin. Around 30–50% of soluble potato proteins comprise numerous fractions of protease inhibitors with a molecular weight in the range of 7–21 kDa; they are often heat-resistant, showing a wide spectrum of health-promoting effects. The nutritional value of proteins is related to the content of amino acids, their mutual proportions and digestibility. Natural proteins of the patatin fraction are characterized by favorable functional properties, including foam formation and stabilization, fat emulsification or gelling. Native potato proteins may also exhibit beneficial non-food properties, such as antimicrobial or antitumor, as well as antioxidant and antiradical. Depending on the method of isolation and the applied factors, such as pH, ionic strength and temperature, the directions of using potato protein preparations will be different.

Strength or Nausea? Children’s Reasoning About the Health Consequences of Food Consumption

Children’s reasoning on food properties and health relationships can contribute to healthier food choices. Food properties can either be positive (“gives strength”) or negative (“gives nausea”). One of the main challenges in public health is to foster children’s dietary variety, which contributes to a normal and healthy development. To face this challenge, it is essential to investigate how children generalize these positive and negative properties to other foods, including familiar and unfamiliar ones. In the present experiment, we hypothesized that children might rely on cues of food processing (e.g., signs of human intervention such as slicing) to convey information about item edibility. Furthermore, capitalizing on previous results showing that food rejections (i.e., food neophobia and picky eating) are a significant source of inter-individual variability to children’s inferences in the food domain, we followed an individual approach. We expected that children would generalize the positive properties to familiar foods and, in contrast, that they would generalize more often the negative properties to unfamiliar foods. However, we expected that children would generalize more positive and less negative properties to unfamiliar sliced foods than to whole unfamiliar foods. Finally, we expected that children displaying higher levels of food rejections would generalize more negative properties than children displaying lower levels of food rejections. One-hundred and twenty-six children, aged 3–6 years, performed an induction task in which they had to generalize positive or negative health-related properties to familiar or unfamiliar foods, whole or sliced. We measured children’s probability of generalization for positive and negative properties. The children’s food rejection score was assessed on a standardized scale. Results indicated that children evaluated positively familiar foods (regardless of processing), whereas they tend to view unfamiliar food negatively. In contrast, children were at chance for processed unfamiliar foods. Furthermore, children displaying higher levels of food rejections were more likely to generalize the negative properties to all kinds of foods than children displaying lower levels of food rejections. These findings entitle us to hypothesize that knowledge-based food education programs should take into account the valence of the properties taught to children, as well as the state of processing of the food presented. Furthermore, one should take children’s interindividual differences into account because they influence how the knowledge gained through these programs may be generalized.

Stevia rebaudiana germplasm characterization using microsatellite markers and steviol glycosides quantification by HPLC

Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni, Asteraceae, is an herbaceous perennial plant native to Paraguay. This species is considered since ancient times a medicinal plant with important bioactive compounds and pharmacologic and food properties, namely diterpenes glycosides. The high natural sweetener potential stevioside and rebaudioside A produced by S. rebaudiana plants are suitable sucrose substitutes, and their obtention is influenced by environmental, phytosociological, and genetic factors. The plants’ genetic profile and sweet potential depiction are needed for suitable plant selection for improvement and deployment. Thirty-one S. rebaudiana accessions grown in the same plot where leaves samples were collected in early 2019, were genotyped using six microsatellite markers, including two steviol glycosides biosynthesis functionally involved markers. Additionally, an aqueous extract of each sample was obtained in a water bath and purified by SPE for stevioside and rebaudioside A quantification by normal phase HPLC. Stevioside and rebaudioside A contents varied between 0.53–7.36% (w w−1) and 0.37–3.60% (w w−1), respectively. Two genotypes displayed interesting ratios of rebaudioside A/stevioside (number 3 and 33). The level of genetic similarity between genotypes was tested through a pairwise similarity coefficient, and two groups of individuals had the same fingerprinting. Strong relatedness was found within genotypes, possibly due to cloning, thus, influx of new germplasm ought to be made to prevent mating between relatives, and for further selection and genetic improvement.