Physical properties of egg whites and whole eggs relevant to microwave pasteurization

Microwave pasteurization is a novel thermal processing technology in which non-uniform heating may be a major challenge. In this study, the suitability of using egg whites (EWs) and whole eggs (WEs) as model foods to evaluate the heating uniformity and to determine the cold and hot spots during microwave pasteurization was investigated. The samples were prepared from mixtures of water with commercial EW or WE powders at different solid concentrations (20%, 25%, 27.5%, and 30%) and salt contents (0, 50, 100, and 200 mM). Critical physical properties for desirable model food systems include appropriate dielectric properties, gelation temperatures, gel strengths, and water holding capacities (WHCs). The gelation temperature of liquid EW and WE were 70 and 80 °C; both fell in the pasteurization temperature range. At 915 MHz, the dielectric constants of liquid EW and WE samples and their heat induced gels decreased with solid concentration while the loss factor was not affected. Loss factors of liquid EW and WE samples increased linearly with salt addition, which could be explained by the linear increase of electrical conductivities by adding salt. The strength and WHC of heat induced EW and WE gels increased linearly with solid concentration, while salt addition had no significant effect. The results demonstrated the suitability of using EW and WE as model foods to determine the heating uniformity during microwave pasteurization process.     

An expert egg grading system based on machine vision and artificial intelligence techniques

The main purpose of this research was design and development of an intelligent system based on combined fuzzy logic and machine vision techniques for grading of egg using parameters such as defects and size of eggs. The detected defects were internal blood spots, cracks and breakages of eggshell. The Hue-Saturation-Value (HSV) color space was found useful in obtaining visual features during Image Processing (IP) stage. The fuzzy inference system (FIS) was designed based on triangular and trapezoidal membership functions, fuzzy rules with logical operator of AND inference system of Mamdani and method of center average for defuzzifier. The evaluation results of IP algorithms showed that use of IP technique has good performance for defects and size detection. The Correct Classification rate (CCR) was 95% for size detection, 94.5% for crack detection and 98% for breakage detection. The overall accuracy FIS model in grading of the eggs was 95.4.     

Immunoreactivity of hen egg allergens: Influence on in vitro gastrointestinal digestion of the presence of other egg white proteins and of egg yolk

Hen egg white comprises of a complex mixture of proteins, which greatly differ in their physicochemical characteristics and relative abundance. We aimed to identify potential undiscovered egg allergens within the egg white proteome and investigated the existence of matrix effects on the proteolytic stability and resultant IgE-binding of the allergenic proteins. In addition to the main egg allergens: ovalbumin (OVA), ovomucoid (OM) and lysozyme (LYS), two minor egg white proteins, tentatively identified as ovoinhibitor and clusterin, were found to react with serum IgE from egg-allergic patients. Egg white exhibited residual immunoreactivity after gastrointestinal digestion due to the presence of intact OVA and LYS, as well as of several IgE-binding peptides derived from OVA. The presence of egg yolk slightly increased the susceptibility to hydrolysis of egg white proteins and abrogated bile salt-induced precipitation of LYS in the duodenal medium. However, the resultant immunoreactivity against IgE of egg white proteins after in vitro digestion was not significantly modified by the presence of yolk components.     

Woven Surface and Form

The Advanced Geometry Unit (AGU) at Arup, founded by Cecil Balmond and Charles Walker, has become synonymous with a highly mathematical, topological approach to architecture. It has, however, collaborated on some of the most exciting experimental fabric structures of recent years, including Anish Kapoor's Marsyas at Tate Modern and Rem Koolhaas's Cosmic Egg at the Serpentine Gallery. Here, the unit's Tristan Simmonds, Martin Self and Daniel Bosia describe how the AGU has progressed research into textile techniques that encompass tailored biomorphic forms alongside knot diagrams. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

加快禽蛋中高附加值天然产物高效提取与产品开发

本文通过对禽蛋制品深加工的研究和开发领域国内外技术现状和发展趋势的分析,提出以市场为导向,依靠科学技术,研究开发出禽蛋产品中高附加值天然产物,为第三代功能食品提供必要的原料、主剂、添加剂及功能因子,提高禽蛋价值,促进禽蛋生产的发展。该文系统介绍了禽蛋中高附加值天然产物高效提取与产品开发的主要研究内容和技术路线,并将超临界流体萃取、膜分离、色谱分离、超微细粉碎、酶处理等高新技术应用于禽蛋产品中的蛋黄卵磷脂、溶菌酶、高F值寡肽、蛋黄免疫球蛋白和蛋壳钙制剂等高附加值天然产物的提取制备与产品开发中,提高了其产品的科技含量和价值。通过市场需求分析认为该项目是切实可行的。     

Analysis of Volatiles Induced by Oviposition of Elm Leaf Beetle Xanthogaleruca luteola on Ulmus minor

Egg deposition of the elm leaf beetle Xanthogaleruca luteola causes the emission of volatiles from its food plant, Ulmus minor. These volatiles are exploited by the egg parasitoid, Oomyzus gallerucae, to locate its host. In contrast to other tritrophic systems, the release of volatiles is not induced by feeding but by egg deposition. Previous investigations showed that the release is systemic and can be triggered by jasmonic acid. Comparison of headspace analysis revealed similarities in the blend of volatiles emitted following egg deposition and feeding. The mixture consists of more than 40 compounds; most of the substances are terpenoids. Leaves next to those carrying eggs emit fewer compounds. When treated with jasmonic acid, leaves emit a blend that consists almost exclusively of terpenoids. Dichloromethane extracts of leaves treated with jasmonic acid were also investigated. After separation of extracts of jasmonate induced elm leaves on silica, we obtained a fraction of terpenoid hydrocarbons that was attractive to the parasitoids. This indicates that jasmonic acid stimulates the production of terpenoid hydrocarbons that convey information of egg deposition to the parasitoid.     

Egg shell waste as an activation agent for the manufacture of porous carbon

Egg shell waste was used as an activation agent directly for the manufacture of a biomass-derived porous carbon,which possessed a surface area of 626 m~2·g~(-1) and was rich in nitrogen, sulfur and oxygen functionalities. The activation mechanism was proposed, and the carbon showed its potential to act as an adsorbent for the adsorptive removal of various contaminants from both aqueous and non-aqueous solutions, possessing maximum adsorption capacities of 195.9, 185.1, 125.5 and 44.6 mg·g~(-1) for sulfamethoxazole, methyl orange, diclofenac sodium and dibenzothiophene, respectively. Through the utilization of egg shell waste as a sustainable activation agent, this work may help to make the widely applied biomass-derived porous carbons more economical and ecological.     

Rheological characterisation of yolk-based gels and Staphylococcus growth

Model yolk-based (10% v/v) gels with different concentrations of κ-carrageenan (0–2% w/w) were characterised employing rheological measurements, textural analysis and scanning electron microscopy. Additionally, the effect of the microstructure of the model gels on the growth rate of Staphylococcus was also evaluated. In all cases, the nature of the gel was dominated by the elastic component, specifically, 1.5, 1.75 and 2% κ-carrageenan samples can be described as ‘true gels’ (tan δ < 0.1). Maximum strength of the interactions between rheological units (A) was observed with 1.75% κ-carrageenan (4.74 ± 0.38 kPa), which indicates that the strength of interactions was determined not only by κ-carrageenan concentration, but also by the amount of yolk. Finally, an inverse linear correlation was found between the maximum specific growth rate of Staphylococcus and rheological data (R² > 0.99).     

Encapsulation of Long-Chain n-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids Using Egg Yolk

Egg yolk is well known for its excellent emulsifying property. In this article, egg yolk was used as the encapsulating matrix to prevent the oxidation of n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids from fish oil. A 2 × 2 × 5 complete block design with three replications was used. Two levels of fish oil (1% and 5%) and two levels of esterification type (triglycerides or ethyl esters) of eicosapentaenoic/docosahexaenoic fatty acids were used. Time was considered a fixed factor with five levels. Emulsions were prepared by homogenization and stored for up to 4 weeks at 4–6 °C, with weekly sampling. Emulsions were analyzed for particle size and distribution, encapsulation efficiency, and surface oil. The oxidative stability of the emulsions was evaluated before and after cooking at 150–170 °C for 75 s. The addition of triglycerides resulted in a larger average particle size (234 ± 12.4 nm). All emulsions achieved 100% encapsulation efficiency and showed no significant change in the surface oil concentration during storage. After 4 weeks of storage, the concentration of eicosapentaenoic + docosahexaenoic fatty acids in nonencapsulated fish oil triglycerides and ethyl esters decreased by 20.32% and 14.74%, respectively, while the emulsions showed no significant differences. In addition, no peroxide or propanal formation was detected in raw emulsions over the storage period. Propanal formation was negligible in cooked samples, and the peroxide value showed no differences between the egg yolk control and the emulsions. Therefore, egg yolk was observed to be an efficient encapsulating food matrix that protects n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids against oxidation and degradation.     

Characteristics of pulsed photo-stimulated luminescence and thermoluminescence for the identification of gamma irradiated poultry eggs

Pulsed photo-stimulated luminescence (PPSL) is a simple screening method that can be employed qualitatively at the spot for the detection of eggs treated with ionizing radiation.Due to the variations in the results during storage,the eggs of ostrich,duck,hen,and quail were irradiated to doses of 0,1,2,and 3 kGy.Most of the samples were incorrectly identified during storage after four months of irradiation.Thermoluminescence (TL) technique was also tried by using egg shells in order to confirm the irradiation treatment in eggs.TL glow curves were recorded between the temperatures 50℃to 400℃at the rate of 5°/s for all the control and irradiated samples.On the basis of integrated areas of first glow curves (TL1),the glow curve ratios (TL1/TL2) and the shapes of maxima of TL1, the irradiation treatment of all the eggs was confirmed.Furthermore,the presence of calcite and aragonite minerals that cause the TL signal in the egg shells were studied using X-ray diffraction spectrometry.