Study of Knowledge of Breastfeeding Practices in Infants from 0 to 6 Months

The rate of exclusive breastfeeding from 0 to 6 months in Côte d'Ivoire was 16.67 % in 2014. The objective of this study is to identify the difficulties related to the practice of exclusive breastfeeding of infants from birth to 6 months with a view to finding sustainable solutions for its implementation. A survey study was carried out on a sample of 200 women in the municipality of Bingerville from 7 October 2020 to 7 February 2021. After analysis, the results of the survey show that in the Bingerville locality of Côte d'Ivoire, the difficulties relating to the decline in exclusive breastfeeding are largely linked to the insufficient production of breast milk. The results have made it possible to record some species of food plants. They undoubtedly possess lactogenic properties, which make it possible to cope with the insufficient production of milk in the udder. Thus, after 24 hours, these food plants have made it possible to increase the production of breast milk in the udders intended for infants. The registered food plants will help to ensure the food security of the infant through the improvement of milk production in breastfeeding mothers.

Reviewer Acknowledgements for Journal of Food Research, Vol. 10 No. 6

Journal of Food Research wishes to acknowledge the following individuals for their assistance with peer review of manuscripts for this issue. Their help and contributions in maintaining the quality of the journal are greatly appreciated. Journal of Food Research is recruiting reviewers for the journal. If you are interested in becoming a reviewer, we welcome you to join us. Please contact us for the application form at: [email protected] Reviewers for Volume 10, Number 6 Antonello Santini, University of Napoli "Federico II", Italy Corina-aurelia Zugravu, University of Medicine and Pharmacy Carol Davila, Romania Elke Rauscher-Gabernig, Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety, Austria Elsa M Goncalves, Instituto Nacional de Investigacao Agrária (INIA), Portugal Jose Maria Zubeldia, Clinical Regulatory Consultant for the HIV & Hepatitis C initiative at Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative, Spain Lucas Massaro Sousa, IFP Energies Nouvelles, France Meena Somanchi, United States Department of Agriculture, United States Sefat E Khuda, Centre for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, United States Xingjun Li, Academy of the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration, China

Culinary Properties of Raw Versus Conventional Soy Sauce during Tuna Preparation

Soy sauce is a traditional Japanese seasoning made from fermented soybeans. As global demand grows, identifying novel soy sauce applications and benefits must become a priority. While conventional soy sauce undergoes heat-sterilization, filter-sterilization produces a lighter-colored (raw) soy sauce with preserved mold enzyme activities. As the impact of raw soy sauce during food (especially seafood) preparation remains unstudied, the present study compared the differential impact of raw and conventional soy sauce on tuna culinary properties. First, soy sauce color and protease activity were assessed. Next, tuna was marinated in soy sauce and non-alcoholic mirin for 0, 10, 35, or 60 min. Finally, marinated tuna properties (mass, salt content, surface salt penetration, color, rupture load, surface wetness, and protein content) were objectively assessed, and subjective sensory evaluation (appearance, aroma, wetness, softness, saltiness, umami, and overall taste) was performed by a blinded panel. Findings confirmed the lighter color of and the preservation of protease activity in raw soy sauce. Raw soy sauce significantly enhanced surface tenderization, salt penetration, and wetness, while both soy sauces increased surface firmness via salt-induced dehydration. Respondents significantly preferred the appearance and saltiness level of raw soy sauce-marinated tuna, and the umami and overall taste of tuna marinated in raw soy sauce for 60 min. The findings of this study, to our knowledge, demonstrate for the first time the potential culinary superiority of raw soy sauce in certain applications, and support future research to further define such applications.

Risk Communication under Conflicting Information: The Role of Confidence in Subjective Risk Assessment

In this study, we develop a model of food consumption with a focus on the subjectively assessed risk of consumers and their degree of confidence in their risk assessment and use it to examine consumer behavior in the chaotic situation created by the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011. The data were collected in March 2012 using a mail survey for 1300 Japanese women, the primary food purchasers. The respondents were asked to evaluate the cancer risk of eating agricultural products, which were assumed to be grown in the affected area, despite meeting national regulatory standards for radioactive materials, as a measure of their risk assessment and willingness to purchase Fukushima beef. The results show that the effect of confidence in a consumer’s risk assessment on their behavior depends on the stated risk level: when stated risk is below an estimated critical value, termed the switching point, the risk perceived by a consumer without confidence exceeds that of one with confidence. On the other hand, perceived risk is inversely related to confidence when the stated risk exceeds the switching point.

Prevalence of Hypertension and Its Associated Factors among Adults in Selected Areas of Bangladesh: A Community Based Cross-sectional Study

Background: Hypertension is a silent killer and an overwhelming global public health challenge. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and associated factors of hypertension among adults in Bangladesh. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study design was conducted among 400 adults who lived in Dhaka, Mymensing, Sylhet and Khulna District. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire that is adapted from the WHO Stepwise approach. Data was analyzed by SPSS version 25. Descriptive statistics and bivariate logistic regression analysis were conducted and statistical significance was declared at a p-value ≤0.05. Results: This study identified a high prevalence of hypertension in the study area and it was 39.75%. Among the male the prevalence was 23.5% and the prevalence was 16.5% among female. In this study hypertension was significantly associated with the age group 51-65 years (OR=1.02; CI 0.557-1.862) , ever smoking (OR= 2.59; CI 1.718-3.917) consume  less fruits (OR=3.125; CI 0.839-11.632) and vegetable (OR=2.25; CI 1.364-3.725), physically inactive (OR=1.48;CI 0.973-2.252) overweight (OR=7.98; CI 4.612-13.793) and had diabetes mellitus (0R=2.38; CI 1.213-4.659). Conclusion: The prevalence of hypertension was considerably higher in this study area. Hence, the health care system needs to establish strategies to improve the diagnostic and screening services. Community-level intervention and regular assessment, screening, and diagnosis of behavioral, socio-demographic, and physiological risk factors, screening, should be institutionalized to address the occult burden of hypertension.

Enrichment of Fermented Sorghum Flour with Pumpkin Pulp and Seed for Production of A Vitamin A and Iron Enhanced Supplementary Food

Vitamin A and iron deficiencies are prevalent in preschool children being a public health concern. The study aimed at developing a flour blend formulation made of sorghum, pumpkin pulp and seeds and examining its contribution to the daily nutrient requirement for iron and vitamin A among preschool children. Three flour blends were formulated using a mixture of fermented sorghum flour, pumpkin seed flour and pumpkin pulp flour with the following ratios 80:10:10 (FP1), 70:15:15 (FP2) and 60:20:20 (FP3), respectively whereas control was made of 100% fermented sorghum flour. The flour blends and the control were analyzed for moisture content, protein, crude fiber, crude fat, ash, carbohydrate, beta-carotene and iron content. Further, sensory tests were conducted using a nine-hedonic scale to evaluate consumers acceptability of porridge made of the flour samples. Microbial analysis was conducted to establish the safety of developed flours. The results show that as the proportion of pumpkin pulp and pumpkin seed flours increased the protein content, ash, vitamin A and iron content significantly (P<0.05) increased. The flour blend FP3 recorded the highest amount of protein (22.87%), vitamin A (875.00 µg RAE/100g) and iron (27.51 mg/100g). The FP2 flour blend was the most preferred with sensory score of 7.91 and had ability to meet >70% of daily protein, iron and vitamin A requirements of preschool children thus most suitable for a feeding trial. The findings of this study demonstrate that pumpkin pulp and pumpkin seed can be used to enhance the nutritive value of sorghum and as such meet the protein, iron and vitamin A requirements of preschool children aiding in the eradication of nutritional deficiencies.

Can Canadians afford the new Canada’s Food Guide? Assessing Barriers and Challenges

The objective of this study was to investigate Canadian’s awareness and use of Canada’s Food Guide and to explore barriers to adopting the recommendations. We also conducted a cost analysis to measure the affordability of the 2019 Food Guide compared to the previous version. Although 74% of Canadians were aware of the new Food Guide, it ranked low as a preferred source of information; as well, affordability is a top concern when implementing the recommendations. However, eating based on the 2019 Food Guide is more affordable than the 2007 version at food prices in either year. These results bring into question the influence Food Guides have on population’s health behaviour.

An in Vitro Antifungal and Antiaflatoxigenic Properties of Commiphora myrrha and Prunus mahaleb

Aflatoxins and especially aflatoxin B, are the devastating contaminant of food and feed products with hazardous effects to mankind and his domestic animals. These investigations were set to evaluate the effect of various levels of Commiphora myrrha resin (1.0, 1.25, 2.25, and 3.25 g/100 ml) and Prunus mahaleb seed extract (0.75, 1.5, 2.5, and 3.5 g/100 ml) on the growth and aflatoxin secretion by two aflatoxigenic strains of Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus. The two plant extracts significantly (p<0.05) decreased aflatoxin secretion, and inhibited the fungal growth. Resin of C. myrrha displayed 51.9-95.7% reduction in total aflatoxin secretion by A. flavus, and 46.9-92% for A. parasiticus, and Seed extract of P. mahaleb decreased aflatoxin up to 53.7-95.8% and 40-94.7%, respectively. The inhibition of aflatoxin B (B1 and B2) by myrrh resin and seed extract of mahaleb ranged between 51.7-93.5, 50-93.6% (A. flavus) and 39.5-89.7%, 37.9-93% (A. parasiticus). The mycelial dry weight of A. flavus and A. parasiticus ws decreased up to 46.1-58.7%, 28.9-51.3% (Myrrh resin), and between 45-56.9%, 33.3-55.9% (Mahaleb seed extract). Nonetheless, the two plant extracts did not detoxify aflatoxin B1. Therefore, it apparent that the resin of C. myrrha and seed extract of P. mahaleb affected the biosynthesis pathway of aflatoxins. Thus, they can be recommended as effective natural plant biopreservative against aflatoxin contamination of food and feed products.

Reviewer Acknowledgements for Journal of Food Research, Vol. 10 No. 5

Journal of Food Research wishes to acknowledge the following individuals for their assistance with peer review of manuscripts for this issue. Their help and contributions in maintaining the quality of the journal are greatly appreciated. Journal of Food Research is recruiting reviewers for the journal. If you are interested in becoming a reviewer, we welcome you to join us. Please contact us for the application form at: [email protected] Reviewers for Volume 10, Number 5 Ammar Eltayeb Ali Hassan, University of Tromsø, Norway Bojana Filipcev, University of Novi Sad, Serbia Bruno Alejandro Irigaray, Facultad de Química, Uruguay Claudia Alejandra Narvaez, University of Manitoba, Canada Corina-aurelia Zugravu, University of Medicine and Pharmacy Carol Davila, Romania Diego A. Moreno-Fernández, CEBAS-CSIC, Spain Elke Rauscher-Gabernig, Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety, Austria Elsa M Goncalves, Instituto Nacional de Investigacao Agrária (INIA), Portugal Emma Chiavaro, University of Parma, Italy Eng-Tong Phuah, Universiti Teknologi Brunei, Brunei J. Basilio Heredia, Research Center for Food and Development, Mexico Jose Maria Zubeldia, Clinical Regulatory Consultant for the HIV & Hepatitis C initiative at Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative, Spain Leonardo Martín Pérez, Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina, Argentina Liana Claudia Salanta, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Romania Meena Somanchi, United States Department of Agriculture, United States Mohd Nazrul Hisham Daud, Malaysian Agricultural Research & Development Institute, Malaysia Philippa Chinyere Ojimelukwe, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike, Nigeria Rania I. M. Almoselhy, Agricultural Research Center, Egypt Vezirka Jankuloska, University "St. Kliment Ohridski" - Bitola, Republic of Macedonia Xingjun Li, Academy of the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration, China Y. Riswahyuli, Gadah Mada University, Indonesia Zahra Saleh Ahmed, National Research Centre, Egypt

Untargeted Metabolomics Profiling of High Beta Carotene Cassava with respect to Postharvest Physiological Deterioration

Cassava roots undergo postharvest physiological deterioration (PPD), and for most varieties it sets in within 72 hours of harvest. An untargeted metabolomics approach combined with a data-driven approach for statistical analysis was used to characterize and profile high beta-carotene cassava varieties with the aim of identifying any relevant metabolite changes that occur during PPD. Sixteen cassava root samples from four cassava lines were planted in a greenhouse and harvested after four months. The samples included four of 2 conventionally bred beta carotene cassava varieties – UMUCASS 38, UMUCASS 45 and four of 2 transgenic high beta carotene cultivars - EC20-7 and EC20-8 cassava lines. Extracts of fresh cassava roots from 20-100 mg tissues were used for the analyses and data were processed using Elements for Metabolomics software. Starch and lipid metabolites were the major constituents which may help explain the observed differences in starch and dry matter content among the varieties. The results provide further insight in the understanding of PPD and suggestions on controlling this deterioration in cassava are made.