Food Processing Areas Research Articles

Fundamentals of nanoscale polymer-protein interactions and potential contributions to solid-state nanobioarrays.

Protein adsorption onto polymer surfaces is a very complex, ubiquitous, and integrated process, impacting essential areas of food processing and packaging, health devices, diagnostic tools, and medical products. The nature of protein–surface interactions is becoming much more complicated with continuous efforts toward miniaturization, especially for the development of highly compact protein detection and diagnostic devices. A large body of literature reports on protein adsorption from the perspective of ensemble-averaged behavior on macroscopic, chemically homogeneous, polymeric surfaces. However, protein–surface interactions governing the nanoscale size regime may not be effectively inferred from their macroscopic and microscopic characteristics. Recently, research efforts have been made to produce periodically arranged, nanoscopic protein patterns on diblock copolymer surfaces solely through self-assembly. Intriguing protein adsorption phenomena are directly probed on the individual biomolecule level for a fundamental understanding of protein adsorption on nanoscale surfaces exhibiting varying degrees of chemical heterogeneity. Insight gained from protein assembly on diblock copolymers can be effectively used to control the surface density, conformation, orientation, and biofunctionality of prebound proteins in highly miniaturized applications, now approaching the nanoscale. This feature article will highlight recent experimental and theoretical advances made on these fronts while focusing on single-biomolecule-level investigations of protein adsorption behavior combined with surface chemical heterogeneity on the length scale commensurate with a single protein. This article will also address advantages and challenges of the self-assembly-driven patterning technology used to produce protein nanoarrays and its implications for ultrahigh density, functional, and quantifiable protein detection in a highly miniaturized format.

At Your Fingertips: Rapid Retrieval of Product Information from the National Pesticide Information Center

Author(s): Stone, Dave; Ross, Sean | Abstract: The National Pesticide Information Center (NPIC), a cooperative agreement between the Environmental Protection Agency and Oregon State University, serves as an objective source of pesticide information for the public and professionals. In 2013, NPIC launched an innovative tool to retrieve pesticide product information called Mobile Access to Pesticides and Labels (MAPL; accessible at www.npic.orst.edu/mapl). MAPL allows users to query pesticide products by multiple parameters, including EPA registration number, active ingredient, product name, and registrant. Important to professionals, MAPL allows users to search for products by pest type and application site. The results can be further stratified by product registration status, transfers, and cancellations. For example, a search of products registered to control “Norway rats” in “food processing areas” yields 61 active products and 983 cancelled products. Once a product is selected, users are able to download the federal label in PDF format. Additional information includes contact information for the manufacturer, synonyms for the chemical active ingredient, signal word, restricted use status, and formulation. When available, NPIC links their active ingredient fact sheets to the selected products to provide users with important health, safety, and environmental information. MAPL was designed to perform optimally on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, as well as displaying consistently on a variety of desktop browsers.

Investigation of the pollution status and the waste reusing ability in trade village Duong Lieu, Hoai Duc, Hanoi

Vietnam has about 2,000 trade villages locating mainly in the north. Duong Lieu village in Hoai Duc, Hanoi, is one of the key areas of agricultural production and food processing. However, this area is affected by serious environmental pollution, particularly caused by solid waste and wastewater. Solid wastes of the starch production process from arrowroot are disposed in large amounts and represent the main reason for environmental pollution in Duong Lieu village. These wastes are present anywhere in this village, for example on the main road, in gardens, event fill in ponds and ditches. The components of the dried arrowroot waste are mainly carbon-rich substances such as starch (5%), cellulose (90%) and N, P, K (0.5%; 0.11%; 0.16%, respectively). The fresh arrowroot waste has humidity of up to 80%. This substrate is suitable for culture of straw mushroom and oyster mushroom. The mushrooms use cellulose as carbon source for their growth. Therefore, waste from arrowroot that can be recycled efficiently by the biological method for culturing mushrooms. This treatment method is suitable to the conditions of Vietnam because it does not only reduce waste residues but also is environmentally friendly.
 Việt nam có khoảng 2000 làng nghề và tập trung chủ yếu ở miền Bắc. Dương Liễu là một trong những vùng trọng điểm chế biến nông sản thực phẩm. Song hiện tại khu vực này đang bị ô nhiễm môi trường nghiêm trọng,đặc biệt ô nhiễm rác thải và nước thải. Chất thải rắn củaquá trình chế biến tinh bột từ củ dong là rất lớn. Nó có mặt khắp nơi từ trong nhà ra ngoài ngõ thậm chí lấp đầy cống rãnh, ao hồ. Đây chính là nguyên nhân gây nên ô nhiễm môi trường vùng làng nghề. Thành phần của bã dong rất giàu cellulose (90%), tinh bột (5%) và có cả nitơ, photpho, kali tương với 0,5%, 0,11% và 0,16%; độ ẩm của bã dong tươi lên tới 80%. Cơ chất này thích hợp để trồng nấm rơm và nấm sò. Bởi các loại nấm này sử dụng cellulose là nguồn cung cấp cacbonchính để sinh trưởng. Do vậy, bã thải từ củ dong có thể được tái sử dụng hiệu quả bằng phương pháp sinh học như là dùng trồng nấm. Đây là một sự lựa chọn phù hợp với điều kiện Việt Nam,vừagiảm thiểu chất thải dư thừa vừathân thiện với môi trường.

Genomic characteristics comparisons of 12 food-related filamentous fungi in tRNA gene set, codon usage and amino acid composition

Filamentous fungi are widely exploited in food industry due to their abilities to secrete large amounts of enzymes and metabolites. The recent availability of fungal genome sequences has provided an opportunity to explore the genomic characteristics of these food-related filamentous fungi. In this paper, we selected 12 representative filamentous fungi in the areas of food processing and safety, which were Aspergillus clavatus, A. flavus, A. fumigatus, A. nidulans, A. niger, A. oryzae, A. terreus, Monascus ruber, Neurospora crassa, Penicillium chrysogenum, Rhizopus oryzae and Trichoderma reesei, and did the comparative studies of their genomic characteristics of tRNA gene distribution, codon usage pattern and amino acid composition. The results showed that the copy numbers greatly differed among isoaccepting tRNA genes and the distribution seemed to be related with translation process. The results also revealed that genome compositional variation probably constrained the base choice at the third codon, and affected the overall amino acid composition but seemed to have little effect on the integrated physicochemical characteristics of overall amino acids. The further analysis suggested that the wobble pairing and base modification were the important mechanisms in codon–anticodon interaction. In the scope of authors' knowledge, it is the first report about the genomic characteristics analysis of food-related filamentous fungi, which would be informative for the analysis of filamentous fungal genome evolution and their practical application in food industry.

O21 Fractionnement alimentaire, satiété et métabolisme

Nanofiltration (NF) is a pressure-driven membrane operation with separation characteristics between those of reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration widely used for several applications such as water softening and wastewater treatment. With the increased demand for products with greater nutritional value and environmentally friendly processing procedures, NF has become a reliable and technoeconomically attractive operation in the food processing industry for the fractionation, concentration, and purification of different products and byproducts.In this chapter an overview of NF applications in some selected areas of food processing, such as fruit juice clarification, and the dairy, sugar, and wine industries, is given in the light of the recent developments on pilot and large scale investigations. Recent advances on the use of NF membranes for the recovery of functional compounds from agro-food byproducts are also included. Key advantages which can be achieved in both stand-alone and integrated systems over conventional technologies are analyzed and discussed.

Experimental Design and Optimization of Ultrasound Treatment of Food Products

Mathematical modeling for food product development or unit operations modification to produce a food is increasing and adopting some statistical techniques, such as response surface methodology (RSM), to solve problems where several independent variables (or factors) influence the response variable value. Technical problems, data analysis and modeling, experimental design and independent variables’ choice make food scientist and developers harder engagement. Variable selection and optimization of outcome of desired product is challenging task. For this purpose, scientist should aim at determining optimum levels of the main ingredients/compounds in order to obtain suitable responses from desired properties (like aromas, color, physicochemical, rheological and sensory parameters). Therefore, by using statistical techniques, ingredients and their variation range can be tested with a minimum number of experiments while reducing energy, time and cost of testing. This procedure is crucial when laboratory testing of power ultrasound processing of food product should be scaled-up. Scientist that deals with this area of novel non-thermal food processing knows the problem of scaling up, and the procedure is mostly not linear when comparing results from small volumes to large ones. Therefore, experimental planning and design would lead to energy, time and consumables saving, and to be environmentally friendly.

Hydrodynamic Cavitation for Food and Water Processing

Hydrodynamic cavitation, which was and is still looked upon as an unavoidable nuisance in the flow systems, can be a serious contender as an alternative to acoustic cavitation for intensification of different physical and chemical processing applications. Hydrodynamic cavitation results in the generation of hot spots, highly reactive free radicals and turbulence associated with liquid circulation currents, which can result in the intensification of various physical/chemical operations. The present work highlights the different aspects of hydrodynamic cavitation including the basic mechanism, bubble dynamics analysis with recommendations for optimum operating parameters, reactor designs and an overview of applications in different areas of food and water processing. The major applications discussed in the work include food sterilization, microbial cell disruption for the release or extraction of enzymes, water disinfection and wastewater treatment. It appears that hydrodynamic cavitation results in conditions similar to those generated using acoustic cavitation but at comparatively much larger scale of operation and with better energy efficiencies.

Processing of food pictures: Influence of hunger, gender and calorie content

In most cases obesity, a major risk factor for diabetes mellitus type 2 and other associated chronic diseases, is generated by excessive eating. For a better understanding of eating behavior, it is necessary to determine how it is modulated by factors such as the calorie content of food, satiety and gender. Twelve healthy normal weighted participants (six female) were investigated in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study. In order to prevent the influence of social acceptability, an implicit one-back task was chosen for stimulus presentation. We presented food (high- and low-caloric) and non-food pictures in a block design and subjects had to indicate by button press whether two consecutive pictures were the same or not. Each subject performed the task in a hungry and satiated state on two different days. High-caloric pictures compared to low-caloric pictures led to increased activity in food processing and reward related areas, like the orbitofrontal and the insular cortex. In addition, we found activation differences in visual areas (occipital lobe), despite the fact that the stimuli were matched for their physical features. Detailed investigation also revealed gender specific effects in the fusiform gyrus. Women showed higher activation in the fusiform gyrus while viewing high-caloric pictures in the hungry state. This study shows that the calorie content of food pictures modulates the activation of brain areas related to reward processing and even early visual areas. In addition, satiation seems to influence the processing of food pictures differently in men and women. Even though an implicit task was used, activation differences could also be observed in the orbitofrontal cortex, known to be activated during explicit stimulation with food related stimuli.

Microbiological evaluation of poultry house wall materials and industrial cleaning agents

SUMMARY Proper cleaning of commercial poultry production units, particularly after the removal of litter, is essential for a successful biosecurity program. The effectiveness of a cleaning regimen depends on numerous variables, such as organic load, building design, and wall and floor materials. The objective of this project was to compare the efficacy of industrial cleaning agents used in food-processing establishments with one commonly used on farm, and to determine if the type of wall material influenced the effectiveness of these products. Iodine, a disinfectant traditionally used in broiler housing, was compared with 2 cleaning agents commonly used in food-processing areas. Each cleaner was applied to 3 types of building material (plywood, metal, and plastic), which had been placed in commercial broiler pens to achieve an organic load. Plywood maintained a higher bacterial load after cleaning than other building material types. Additionally, iodine was not as effective as either the foam or gel cleaner commonly used in food-processing establishments. This information will be useful in developing good sanitization protocols for commercial poultry production.

Do European Standard Disinfectant tests truly simulate in-use microbial and organic soiling conditions on food preparation surfaces?

The results from European standard disinfectant tests are used as one basis to approve the use of disinfectants in Europe. The design of these laboratory-based tests should thus simulate as closely as possible the practical conditions and challenges that the disinfectants would encounter in use. No evidence is available that the organic and microbial loading in these tests simulates actual levels in the food service sector. Total organic carbon (TOC) and total viable count (TVC) were determined on 17 visibly clean and 45 visibly dirty surfaces in two restaurants and the food preparation surfaces of a large retail store. These values were compared to reference values recovered from surfaces soiled with the organic and microbial loading, following the standard conditions of the European Surface Test for bactericidal efficacy, EN 13697. The TOC reference values for clean and dirty conditions were higher than the data from practice, but cannot be regarded as statistical outliers. This was considered as a conservative assessment; however, as additional nine TOC samples from visibly dirty surfaces were discarded from the analysis, as their loading made them impossible to process. Similarly, the recovery of test organisms from surfaces contaminated according to EN 13697 was higher than the TVC from visibly dirty surfaces in practice; though they could not be regarded as statistical outliers of the whole data field. No correlation was found between TVC and TOC in the sampled data, which re-emphasizes the potential presence of micro-organisms on visibly clean surfaces and thus the need for the same degree of disinfection as visibly dirty surfaces. The organic soil and the microbial burden used in EN disinfectant standards represent a realistic worst-case scenario for disinfectants used in the food service and food-processing areas.

Persistence of Campylobacter jejuni on surfaces in a processing environment and on cutting boards

The objectives of the study were to determine the spread and persistence of Campylobacter in a poultry processing plant and to provide a quantitative estimate of the survival of Campylobacter jejuni on the surface of a cutting board. Several contact surfaces in a poultry processing plant were sampled before the start of processing, after 30 min and after 120 min. Next, the survival of four C. jejuni strains was studied on a beech and polypropylene cutting board during 120 min. A rapid introduction and spread of Campylobacter in a well cleaned processing plant as well as a significant survival in time on the example of a cutting board is shown. The need to prevent cross-contamination in the food processing and preparation area and the importance of an integrated approach throughout the whole food chain to control transmission of Campylobacter is highlighted.

Properties and applications of microbial transglutaminase.

Some properties and applications of the transglutaminase (TGase) referred to as microbial TGase (MTGase), derived from a variant of Streptomyces mobaraensis (formerly classified as Streptoverticillium mobaraense), are described. MTGase cross-linked most food proteins, such as caseins, soybean globulins, gluten, actin, myosins, and egg proteins, as efficiently as mammalian TGases by forming an epsilon-(gamma-glutamyl)lysine bond. However, unlike many other TGases, MTGase is calcium-independent and has a relatively low molecular weight. Both of these properties are of advantage in industrial applications; a number of studies have illustrated the potential of MTGase in food processing and other areas. The crystal structure of MTGase has been solved. It provides basic structural information on the MTGase and accounts well for its characteristics. Moreover, an efficient method for producing extracellular MTGase has been established using Corynebacterium glutamicum. MTGase may be expected to find many uses in both food and non-food applications.

Salmonella typhimurium DT1104: has it had its day?

IN the 1990s, there was an epidemic of salmonellosis in humans and domestic livestock in the UK. The predominant Salmonella in humans remained S enteritidis phage type (PT) 4. However,...

Bactericidal Effects of Negative Air Ions on Airborne and Surface Salmonella Enteritidis from an Artificially Generated Aerosol

The bactericidal effect of high levels of negative ions was studied using a custom-built electrostatic space charge device. To investigate whether the ion-enriched air exerted a bactericidal effect, an aerosol containing Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) was pumped into a sealed plastic chamber. Plates of XLT4 agar were attached to the walls, top, and bottom of the chamber and exposed to the aerosol for 3 h with and without the ionizer treatment. The plates were then removed from the chamber, incubated at 37°C for 24 h, and colonies were counted. An average of greater than 103 CFU/plate were observed on plates exposed to the aerosol without the ionizer treatment (control) compared with an average of less than 53 CFU/plate on the ionizer-treated plates. In another series of experiments, the SE aerosol was pumped for 3 h into an empty chamber containing only the ionizer and allowed to collect on the internal surfaces. The inside surfaces of the chamber were then rinsed with 100 ml phosphate-buffered saline that was then plated onto XLT4 plates. While the rinse from the control chamber contained colony counts greater than 400 CFU/ml of wash, no colonies were found in the rinse from the ionizer-treatment chamber. These results indicate that high levels of negative air ions can have a significant impact on the airborne microbial load, and that most of this effect is through direct killing of the organisms. This technology, which also causes significant reduction in airborne dust, has already been successfully applied for poultry hatching cabinets and caged layer rooms. Other potential applications include any enclosed space such as food processing areas, medical institutions, the workplace, and the home, where reduction of airborne and surface pathogens is desired.

Technology, Gender and Employment in the 'Developing' Countries

This paper considers the effects of technology on women's employment in the 'developing countries', particularly in the areas of offshore electronics, mining and food production and processing. The factors which lead to the 'gendering' of employment are presented and the interaction of technology with these different factors is considered. Indigenous women's technology and the reasons for the failure of technology transfer to rural women are also discussed.

Evaluation of model parameter accuracy by using joint confidence regions: application to low complexity neural networks to describe enzyme inactivation

An existing low complexity, black box artificial neural network model (ANN model) is investigated towards its more general applicability in the field of high isobaric–isothermal inactivation of enzymes. The use of this non-linear modeling technique makes it possible to describe accurately synergistic effects of pressure and temperature in contrast with more classical models used in this novel area of food processing. The modeling approach will be illustrated on a new experimental data set, being used to validate the structural characteristics of the selected ANN model. Moreover, joint confidence regions, taking into account the correlation between model parameters, will be constructed. The results will be translated towards the raw experimental data.

Total Quality Management

Quality management with a consumer orientation has become a key issue in the food industry. Although Total Quality Management has been discussed, little work has been done on how this concept could be formally introduced to the area of food processing. This paper integrates Deming's approach to Total Quality Management with food processing.

Applications of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging in process engineering

During the past decade, the application of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging techniques to problems of relevance to the process industries has been identified. The particular strengths of NMR techniques are their ability to distinguish between different chemical species and to yield information simultaneously on the structure, concentration distribution and flow processes occurring within a given process unit. In this paper, examples of specific applications in the areas of materials and food processing, transport in reactors and two-phase flow are discussed. One specific study, that of the internal structure of a packed column, is considered in detail. This example is reported to illustrate the extent of new, quantitative information of generic importance to many processing operations that can be obtained using NMR imaging in combination with image analysis.

Hot‐fillable vinyl bottles

AbstractThe use of plastic containers will grow 11% per year over the next ten years as metal and glass decline. Plastic is the material of choice for food containers in all areas of food processing including hot‐fill and retort packaging. This is due in large part to the strides that have been made in barrier property improvement, better manufacturing, and improvements in the economics, esthetics, and physical properties of plastics. Hot‐fill and retort packaging account for approximately 64% of the total packaged foods, and in the next 10 years this is expected to increase to 68%. Of the two, the hot‐fill method reportedly will gain in importance while retorting will decline by about 1% per year in effect pushing the growth in hot‐fill packaging to about twice that of the overall food packaging business. Since 1980, PVC bottles have grown from 100 MM lbs to more than 200 MM lbs of resin in 1987 (growth of approximately 15% per year). However, PVC bottles still represent only 7% of all plastic bottles and only 1% of all materials used to make rigid containers—an indication of great future potential. One of the serious disadvantages of PVC, however, is its low heat resistance which limits the service temperature of finished articles to about 70°C. Further penetration by PVC bottles can be accelerated by raising the heat resistance above the hot‐fill levels of 85°C–100°C. This would permit PVC to be used for many food applications such as fruit juices and table syrups. Now an additive is available that can be formulated with PVC to form miscible, transparent blends with increased service temperatures. The miscibility of the glutarimide acrylic copolymers in PVC allows it to significantly improve heat resistance without effecting the optical properties of the container. As a result, single layer PVC bottles can be made on conventional blow molding equipment that can be hot‐filled at 85°C–100°C, have glass‐like clarity, with good impact and moderate oxygen barrier resistance. The discussion will include guidelines for compounding the imide copolymer with PVC, properties attainable, and a look at the economics versus other hot‐fillable containers.

Un cas d'innovation: l'isoglucose

Among the post-war technological innovations in the food processing area, High Fructose Corn Syrup is an outstanding case from several points of view : economical and political issues, scientific and technical significance, complexity of the innovation process. Milestones of the historical process are reviewed. Each of three converging branches (corn syrup processing, carbohydrate isomerizing, enzyme immobilisation) displays a specific kind of logic. The innovation process scheme is compared with classical hypotheses dealing with the economic determination of technical progress: a) early economic information of the innovation process, b) positive effect of industrial concentration on innovation. First, it is argued that in this case the so-called « marked pressure » and « technological opportunity » logic, when precisely combined in typical « technological transfers », are complementary rather than antagonistic. On the second point, the history of HFCS suggests that efficiency of industrial concentration, very high in the last stages (innovation), decreases when going back to the invention stages. Then the returns on the R-D investments in the HFCS market were rewarded to individual firms while the oligopolistic structure remained unaffected.