Qualitative Evaluation of Fish Fingers Prepared from Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) and Pangasius (Pangasius pangasius) Stored at -18±2°C

Background: The fish being highly perishable food item consumed in all strata of people. The production of freshwater fish is on the rise and need to be processed in a variety of forms to make them available for people. Nowadays, numbers of value added fish products are available in the market for consumption to achieve health beneficial effect and to cope up with malnutrition. However, consumers are unaware of the quality of the products available in the market. Therefore, the present work was undertaken to evaluate the quality of fish fingers produced from tilapia and pangasius during storage at -18±2°C. Methods: The fresh tilapia and pangasius were purchased from local market to prepare fillets. The fingers were prepared from tilapia and pangasius fillets and par fried at 180°C for 30 seconds. The fried fingers were cooled at once at room temperature and stored in deep freeze at -18±2°C for shelf-life study during November 2019 to March 2021. Result: The results indicated that the fish fingers prepared from tilapia could be stored for 33 days and pangasius fingers had a shelf-life of only 27 days. All biochemical parameters viz. pH, TVB-N, PV, FFA and TBA were found increasing as the storage study progresses. The sensory score of the fish fingers produced from both the fishes were got drastically reduced at the end of deep freeze storage at -18±2°C. Overall study indicated that tilapia and pangasius fish can be successfully utilized for the preparation of various value added fish product such as fish fingers and would have sufficient shelf life at deep freeze storage at -18±2°C.

Inhibition of Protein and Lipid Oxidation of Beef Patties by Using Sumac Fruit Extract During Freeze Storage

The fruits of sumac Rhus coriaria L. are widely used in traditional folk medicine as spices and flavors, especially in meats, because they are a rich source of natural antioxidants and also their tremendous potential in improving the quality of meat. The study aimed to use different concentrations of sumac fruits extract ( SFE) prepared with a concentration of control T 0, T1: 0.05% and T2: 0.1% and studying their effect on inhibiting protein and lipid oxidation of beef patties stored in Freeze - 18±1 °C for 90 days. The T2 could significantly inhibit an increased carbonyl content, PV and TBA value (P<0.01) and inhibition of pH value at (P<0.01) while the thiol content and water content significantly (P<0.01) decreased finding. The SFE may be used as natural antioxidant compound in helping to extend the period of meat products.

Prevalence, Molecular Characterization and Antimicrobial Susceptibility of Clostridioides difficile Isolated from Pig Carcasses and Pork Products in Central Italy

In the last decade, the incidence and severity of Clostridioides difficile infections (CDIs) in humans have been increasing and community-associated infections have been described. For these reasons, the interest in C. difficile in food and in food animals has increased, suggesting other possible sources of C. difficile acquisition. This study evaluated the presence of C. difficile on pig carcasses at the slaughterhouse and in pork products in Central Italy. The contamination rate on pig carcasses was 4/179 (2.3%). Regarding food samples, a total of 216 pork products were tested (74 raw meat preparations and 142 ready-to-eat food samples made by cured raw meat). The real-time PCR screening was positive for 1/74 raw meat preparation (1.35%) and for 1/142 ready-to-eat food samples (0.7%) C. difficile was isolated only from the raw meat preparation (pork sausage). All the isolated strains were toxigenic and susceptible to all the tested antibiotics. Strains isolated from carcass samples displayed A+B+CDTa+CDTb+ profile, were toxinotype IV and belonged to the same ribotype arbitrary named TV93, while the one isolated from food samples displayed A+B+CDTa-CDTb- profile and it was not possible to determine ribotype and toxinotype, because it was lost after freeze storage. It was concluded that the prevalence of C. difficile in the pork supply chain is very low.

Effects of low temperature storage of Mastura (J37) jackfruit bulbs on the physical quality of jackfruit frozen confection

Mastura (J37) jackfruit variety planted in Pahang (Malaysia) is less preferred by the consumers due to its low sweetness and high-water content properties. This has caused major backlog in the plantation as reported by Pahang State Farmers Association (PASFA). In this study, among the proposed solutions given was to build a frozen confection processing line to further process the flesh. The jackfruit used were vacuum-packed and stored under refrigerated and frozen conditions. The overrun, melting resistance, and hardness of jackfruit frozen confection produced from jackfruit stored in both low temperature conditions showed comparable results. The overrun of 50 to 55 % were obtained for frozen samples at different weeks. Jackfruit frozen confections had lower overrun compared to the controlled sample as air incorporation was prevented by the elements contained in jackfruit. The control frozen confection sample without addition of jackfruit puree resulted in an average melting mass of 24.6 g and melting resistance of 59 % which was the strongest melting resistance in comparison to other jackfruit frozen confections. The inconsistent hardness of jackfruit frozen confections suggests that the content of total soluble solid increased throughout week 1 to week 3 for refrigeration storage and week 1 to week 6 for deep-freeze storage had no trending effect on the hardness of frozen confection. The output obtained from this work provides data for the downstream processing of Mastura (J37) jackfruit. These data are helpful as they contribute towards the understanding of further processing of this particular jackfruit variety into end products, in order to solve the issue faced by PASFA. The solution helps decrease waste generated from the surplus and value add the variety.

Effects of different low temperature storage conditions on the physico-chemical properties of Mastura (J37) jackfruit bulbs

Mastura (J37) jackfruit planted in Pahang (Malaysia) is less preferred by the consumers and has caused backlog in the plantation as reported by Pahang State Farmers Association (PASFA). In this study, the proposed solution given was to use vacuum packaging to pack the bulbs and store them at 8-10ᵒC (refrigerator) and -18ᵒC (deep-freezer). After 3 weeks of storage, deep-frozen vacuum-packed bulbs had lower ripening index (265) and microbial count (6x102cfu/ml) when compared to refrigerated vacuum-packed bulbs which had higher ripening index (629) and higher microbial count (52x102cfu/ml). The lightness, L* value of vacuum-packed jackfruit bulb samples under deep-freeze storage was higher compared to the ones under refrigeration storage. The output obtained from this work provides preliminary data which are useful for Mastura (J37) jackfruit further downstream processing. These data are helpful as they contribute towards the understanding of further processing of this particular jackfruit variety into end products, in order to solve the issue faced by PASFA.

Long-term deep-freeze storage of Neonectria ditissima conidium suspensions does not reduce their ability to infect apple trees

Fresh, wild-type conidium suspensions of Neonectria ditissima prepared from sporulating European canker lesions for use in field inoculation trials are not always readily available. The effect of freezing inoculum on the viability of spores and their ability to cause infection in situ was assessed using 15—19 frozen N. ditissima conidium suspensions during 2015—2017. Freshly prepared inoculum and water only were used to inoculate rasp wounds on ‘Braeburn’ (2015), ‘Scilate’/Envyâ„¢ (2016) and ‘Royal Gala’ and ‘Braeburn’ (2017) along with frozen inoculum ranging in age from 1—462 days at concentrations >104 conidia/mL. Lesion development was assessed at approximately monthly intervals. In all experiments, there was no substantial effect of storage time on lesion development although germination in droplets may have decreased during storage. As expected, there was a cultivar effect (2017 data only), with fewer lesions on ‘Braeburn’ compared with ‘Royal Gala’. Long-term deep-freeze storage up to 462 days of N. ditissima conidium suspensions (>104 conidia/mL) did not affect the ability of spores to infect apple trees. Therefore, spore suspensions can be batch-prepared and stored frozen for future experimental use.