Use of heat-moisture treated maize starch to modify the properties of wheat flour and the quality of noodles

Waxy, normal and high-amylose maize starches were subjected to heat-moisture treatment (HMT) and then added to wheat flour (WF) in different ratios (1%, 5% and 10%). The properties of blends and their cooked noodles were studied to investigate the effects of HMT starches. The incorporation of HMT starch in WF led to an increase in swelling power, peak viscosity and breakdown and to a decrease in setback, thus inhibiting retrogradation, hence enhancing resultant noodle softness. Compared to the same addition ratio of native starch to WF, HMT starch led to higher tensile strength and extensibility in resultant noodles. WF with added HMT starch had higher resistant starch than with native starch. This study showed that addition of HMT maize starch has potential to bring nutritional benefits. However, it is necessary to select the proper blending ratio and amylose content of starch to add, in consideration of its effect on noodle quality.     

A new sorbent that simultaneously sequesters multiple classes ofpollutants from water: Surfactant modified zeolite

A zeolite (ZFA) was synthesized from coal fly ash and then modified using hexadecyltrimethylammonium. The surfactant modified ZFA (SMZFA) was evaluated for its versatility to sequester multiple classes of pollutants from water. The target pollutants include ionic inorganic pollutants (ammonium and phosphate), ionic organic pollutants (methylene blue and humic acid), ionizable organic pollutants (bisphenol A,-chlorophenol and phenol, with different pKa), and electrically neutral or-ganic pollutants (aniline, nitrobenzene, and naphthalene, with different hydrophobicity). The SMZFA showed high potential for the retention of ammonium and phosphate, being comparable with ZFA. While the negative charge in the internal pores of zeolite was responsible for the retention of ammonium, the oxides of CaO, Al2O3and Fe2O3in the non-zeolite fraction, which originated from coal fly ash but received modification during zeolite synthesis, accounted for the removal of phosphate. Results also showed that while ZFA had little affinity for humic acid, the ionizable, and the electrically neutral organic compounds, SMZFA exhibited greatly enhanced adsorption capacity. Thus, the surfactant modified external surface, which formed a bilayer micelle of zeolite, imparts a hydrophobic characteristic that enables the uptake of the organic pollutants. We showed that SMZFA is a promising versatile sorbent for water treatment.     

Classification and Prediction by LF NMR

The classification analysis and firmness prediction of sweet corn subjected to different treatments were investigated to develop the potential application of low field nuclear magnetic resonance for food quality control. Principal component analysis (PCA) was firstly used for exploiting the invisible changes of the internal characteristics of blanched sweet corn. Then, two classification methods involving regression analysis in combination with linear discriminant analysis (LDA), which is based on data compression technology (PCA and partial least squares, PLS), were compared. The PCA score plots clearly showed that the samples varied according to the temperature of the treatment. For the goal of classification, the principal components extracted from the PLS analysis were more useful than those obtained from PCA. Cross validation was helpful to determine the appropriate number of principal components. In fact, it proved that PLS combined with LDA yielded the highest success classification rate (94.3%), and PLS also performed well in firmness prediction of processed sweet corn.     

Synergistic effects of high pressure processing and slightly acidic electrolysed water on the inactivation of Bacillus cereus spores

Bacillus spores are concerns for their resistance to heat, high pressure processing (HPP), and disinfectants. We examined the effects of HPP and slightly acidic electrolysed water (SAEW) on inactivation of B. cereus spores. Spores' suspensions were prepared with 2‐(N‐morpholino) ethanesulfonic acid (MES) buffer or SAEW with available chlorine content (ACC) of 24, 35, 44 or 55 mg L^?1, and then subjected to HPP. The individual effects of HPP or SAEW on spores were negligible (<1.0 log CFU mL^?1). With factorial design and anova analysis, HPP + SAEW treatment was shown to have significantly positive effects on spores’ inactivation. The optimal conditions were 300 MPa HPP + SAEW with 44 mg L^?1 ACC or 200 MPa HPP + SAEW with 44 mg L^?1 ACC + 500 MPa HPP, producing reductions of 3.27 and 3.99 log CFU mL^?1, respectively. HPP + SAEW have potentials to serve as two effective hurdle techniques for inactivating B. cereus spores.     

Salmonella typhimurium resistance on pulsed electric fields associated with membrane fluidity and gene regulation

Effects of different growth temperatures on cytoplasmic membrane fluidity and phospholipids phase transition temperature (T_m) of Salmonella typhimurium and resistance to pulsed electric field (PEF) inactivation, as well as the expression of stress-related genes and fatty acid biosynthesis-associated genes were investigated. Results indicated that the PEF resistance of S. typhimurium increased as growth temperature increased. S. typhimurium cultivated at 10 °C exhibited the lowest PEF resistance with the reduction of 4.23 log₁₀ CFU/mL, while the reduction of 2.10 log₁₀ CFU/mL was found in S. typhimurium cultivated at 45 °C under the same PEF treatment, due to the up-regulation of the expression of fabA gene, which was characterized by the lowest T_m of membrane phospholipids and the greatest membrane fluidity. Although the expression of alternative sigma factors were altered by growth temperature, these genes were not essential for S. typhimurium to develop PEF resistance, suggesting that the PEF resistance modified by growth temperature could be caused by alterations in membrane fluidity.Industrial relevancePulsed electric fields (PEF) treatment has been widely applied in nonthermal pasteurization and increasingly focused on synergistic combinations with other techniques such as thermal treatment, sonication and antibacterial agents to improve the efficacy of PEF to inactivate micro-organisms. Our results indicated that S. typhimurium cultivated at relatively lower temperature was easily inactivated by PEF, due to the up-regulation of the expression of fabA gene, which was characterized by the lowest phase transition temperature of cytoplasmic membrane phospholipids and the greatest membrane fluidity. Therefore, the underlying mechanism of alterations in PEF resistance of S. typhimurium induced by growth temperature was explored to achieve better understanding of microbial inactivation by PEF.     

Sorption isotherms and thermodynamic properties of freeze‐dried colostral whey powders with different additives

Moisture adsorption isotherms of colostral whey (CW) powders with different additives (maltodextrin and sucrose) were determined using gravimetric static method at 15–35 °C in the water activity range of 0.067–0.76. The moisture adsorption isotherms obtained were typical sigmoid curves, and the modified‐Halsey and Guggenheim–Anderson–de Boer (GAB) equations gave the best fit to experimental data among five well‐known equations. Addition with maltodextrin into CW powders could effectively decrease equilibrium moisture content (EMC), whereas addition with sucrose increased EMC in the water activity of 0.43–0.76 at 15 and 25 °C and in the water activity of 0.21–0.76 at 35 °C, respectively. Thermodynamic properties including net isosteric heat of sorption and differential entropy were determined from adsorption data using Clausius–Clapeyron equation. The results showed that net isosteric heat of sorption of all the samples decreased exponentially with increasing EMC. Enthalpy–entropy compensation theory was applicable for adsorption process of all the samples, and the adsorption processes were enthalpy‐driven.     

Zein molecules in aqueous acetic acid solution: Self-assembling behaviors and formation mechanism of gluten-free doughs

The assembly behavior of biopolymers is affected by the type of solvent used. Previous investigations have focused on the self-assembly of zein molecules in aqueous ethanol. In this study, the self-assembly behavior of zein molecules in aqueous acetic acid solutions and their application in the development of zein-based gluten-free doughs was investigated. Zein molecules in low concentrations of acetic acid (30%–60%, v/v) assembled into irregular entities, in medium concentrations (70%, v/v) there was intermediate transition, and at high concentrations (80%–100%, v/v) they formed regular spheres. Interestingly, protein fibril formation was found to occur in 50% zein solutions in 50% and 60% acetic acid, as self-standing gels with solid-like properties resulted and the findings were verified using rheology. The 50% zein solutions in 70% acetic acid could form viscoelastic masses after anti-precipitation with the addition of excess water. Gluten-free dough with wheat-like properties was obtained by mixing the viscoelastic zein masses with wheat starch at room temperature. SEM observations showed that the formation mechanism for zein-based doughs involves the dispersion of starch granules in a three-dimensional zein network. These results will help to improve our understanding of zein assembly behavior regulation, and provide technical support for the development of zein in gluten-free food products.     

Physicochemical and structural characteristics of starches from Chinese hull‐less barley cultivars

Fourteen hull‐less barley cultivars, collected from four major cultivated areas in China, were employed to investigate the structural and physicochemical properties of their starches in this study. Relatively wide variations in physicochemical properties of the starches were observed. Amylose content ranged from 23.1% to 30.0%, swelling power and water solubility index ranged from 12.8 to 19.9 g g^?1 and 12.7% to 23.7% respectively. Peak viscosity was from 170 to 346 Rapid Visco Unit (RVU), peak temperature (T_p) of starch gelatinisation was from 55.6 to 61.8 °C and enthalpy of starch retrogradation ranged from 0.3 to 3.1 J g^?1. Weight‐based chain‐length proportions of fa, fb₁, fb₂ and fb₃ in amylopectins ranged from 21.65% to 24.95%, 44.48% to 49.44%, 15.56% to 17.19% and 9.83% to 16.66% respectively. Correlation analyses showed that amylose content was inversely related to pasting parameters and enthalpy of gelatinisation. Pasting properties and amylopectin structures were the most important parameters to differentiate starch properties among different hull‐less barley cultivars in this study. This work will be useful for exploring applications of Chinese hull‐less barley starches in food and non‐food industries.     

Low humidity air drying of apple slices: Effect of EMR pretreatment on mass transfer parameters,energy efficiency and quality

The apple slices were treated with electromagnetic radiations (EMR) namely, infrared (IR) and microwave (MW) and dried using low humidity air (LHA) and normal hot air (HA) at 40 °C. The effect of EMR pretreatment on drying kinetics, mass transfer, shrinkage, porosity, energy efficiency and product quality was evaluated. The combination of EMR pretreatment with LHA drying reduced the drying time by 23.4 to 27.3%, and the dried product had lower shrinkage (60 to 65%) as well as higher porosity (0.38 to 0.45) compared to control. Among the EMR pretreatments, IR treated slices retained a higher amount of ascorbic acid (78.68%), phenolic content (74.42%), antioxidant activity (79.54%) and better color compared to MW treated. EMR pretreatment reduced the energy requirement for drying by 26.5 to 37.1%. The mass transfer parameters (moisture diffusivity and mass transfer coefficient) estimated using the analytical model proposed by Dincer and Dost showed higher values for EMR treated samples. Moisture content predicted for both the drying methods showed good agreement with experimental values. The present study demonstrated that for heat sensitive products like apple, a combination of IR pretreatment and LHA drying could be effective for reducing drying time as well as energy requirements and also to obtain better quality products.