Pyrolysis characteristics, thermo-kinetic parameters, and evolved gas analysis for waste biomass derived from food processing industries

A combinatorial stress-alleviation strategy for efficient β-carotene production in Escherichia coli.

Enzyme immobilization on hydrogels: An overview on methods, interactions, and divers applications.

Psychrophilic bacteria have been widely found in extreme low-temperature environments such as the Arctic and Antarctic oceans and glacial lakes. Some of these bacteria possess the hydrolytic enzyme α-amylase, which functions to hydrolyze starch into simple sugars such as maltose, maltotriose, and glucose. The structure of psychrophilic α-amylase is highly flexible due to reduced hydrophobic interactions and an increased number of hydrophilic residues. This unique structure allows the enzyme to function optimally at low temperatures, specifically 0–20 °C. High-quality enzymes can be obtained through integrated production stages, including the isolation of psychrophilic bacteria, low-temperature fermentation, and stepwise purification. Response Surface Methodology is often employed to achieve high yet economical enzyme yields. The enzyme isolated from psychrophilic bacteria is purified through ammonium sulfate precipitation, dialysis, and several chromatographic techniques performed sequentially to obtain a pure enzyme ready for characterization. Biochemical characterization reveals high enzyme activity at low temperatures, an optimal pH range of 6.5–8.0, and a strong dependence on calcium ions to maintain structural stability. Kinetic analysis shows that psychrophilic α-amylase has a low Michaelis constant (Km), indicating high substrate affinity that enables optimal performance even when substrate availability is limited. These advantages are widely utilized in various fields, particularly the food-processing industry, such as syrup production, baking, fermented beverages, and frozen-food processing. The ability of α-amylase to function at low temperatures provides significant benefits for food processing because it reduces energy requirements, thereby lowering production costs. The application of psychrophilic α-amylase also offers a promising solution for achieving environmentally friendly food-processing industries.

A method of a steam single body vacuum evaporator with natural circulation for sea buckthorn juice concentration parameters’ engineering calculation has been developed. The purpose of the work was this equipment’s optimal design and technological parameters determining, bioactive product’s components preservation ensuring, as well as both the resulting juice concentrate and by products (pulp) as livestock feed additives possibility using. Based on the proposed analytical dependencies, quantitative relationships have been established between key technological modes (producing, operating pressure) and this device’s design parameters. For a brief, with a capacity of only 10 kg/h at 50 kPa producing, the workload is 0,41 m2, height of the working zone is 0,6 m, total unit’s height is 0,94 m. The diameters of the tubes are also calculated: for the second steam - 250 mm (DN250) discharging, for the larger width - 20 mm (DN20) supplying. To ensure the structure’s strength and safety, a minimum wall thickness of 1,8 mm was determined. The obtained results and developed methodology make it possible to reasonably design compact and energy efficient evaporators that a gentle temperature regime of concentration ensuring, which is critically important for the final product’s nutritional value preserving. The proposed approach is applicable not only in food industry for juice products processing, but also in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries for working with thermolabile solutions, as well as in animal husbandry for the of vitamin and nutrient concentrates from plant raw materials for feed additives producing. For this topic further development, research is recommended to refine the heat transfer coefficient for various products including livestock products processing and hydrodynamics in the separation zone optimization.

Maharashtra is an important agricultural state in India, with a majority of its population directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture. The state is home to a large number of crops such as sugarcane, cotton, soybean, rice, pulses, and horticultural crops such as oranges, grapes, mangoes, and pomegranates. Small-scale industries based on these products are contributing to the economic development of rural and urban areas. Argo-based small scale industries are an important tool for boosting the rural economy and generating employment. Through these industries, farmers get a direct market for their products and can earn more profit by adding value. Modern technology, various government schemes, global market demand and changing consumer attitudes are creating new opportunities for agro-based small scale industries in Maharashtra. Today, there is immense potential in food processing industry, dairy and animal husbandry-based industries, oilseed processing, fruit and vegetable processing, organic fertilizer production, cold storage and packaging, direct sales through e-commerce, and agri-tourism. These industries not only strengthen the rural economy but also contribute to the overall industrial and economic development of the state. Therefore, it is very important to study the topic “New Opportunities of Argo-Based Small Scale Industries in Maharashtra State and Their Contribution to Economic Development”. This study can clarify the growing possibilities of Agro-Based Small Scale Industries, their challenges and the place of these industries in the progress of the state.

Introduction Food safety incidents in the food processing industry have frequently occurred, exposing significant management loopholes in the food supply chain. To address these deficiencies, digital traceability serves as a promising solution. However, its implementation alters profit structures, creating new supply chain coordination challenges. Methods To investigate these changes, we develop a differential game model between a supplier and a processor. This study aims to systematically analyze the influence of digital traceability on food safety and supply chain profits. On this basis, it further explores effective methods for profit distribution and the key conditions required for their success. Results The research results are as follows. First, digital traceability is effective in improving the safety of food raw materials and food, except in cases where profit is distributed based on safety level or supplier effort, combined with an insufficient profit share for the supplier. Second, when the raw material safety attenuation factor is high, it is more favorable to distribute profit based on the raw material safety level, and when it is low, it is more favorable to distribute profit based on the supplier's effort. Third, in the initial distribution modes, digital traceability usually leads to a decrease in supplier profit and an increase in processor profit. In other modes, the effect depends on the distribution coefficient. Discussion Therefore, the selection of an appropriate profit distribution plan must be determined by key parameters such as the decay rate of raw material safety levels and the penalty amount, to ensure both food safety and mutual profitability.

ABSTRACT Solar dryer dries crops, vegetables, fruit, pulp, and fish varieties during the daytime. While the use of solar energy provides an economic benefit for micro, small, and medium farmers and business owners in the food processing industry, it is also essential to provide flexibility in utilization of the solar heat as per demand for easy adoption of these solar dryers. For this purpose, standalone solar collector storage (SCS) using phase change material for flexibility enhancement of existing solar dryers has been developed and presented in this paper. The study focuses on understanding the system’s operating performance to support a continuous drying process throughout the night using heated air. The SCS can store between 8–11 MJ of thermal energy during the day, which is substantial for a solar application. After the sunset system has ability to raise the ambient air temperature by 10–14°C while maintaining a 36 kg/h airflow rate, demonstrating practical viability for continuous drying operations. A maximum recovery of 4.6 MJ of the stored energy has been achieved for 11 h discharge. An operating strategy has also been developed to operate the SCS within the latent heat range of the phase change material to perform better during discharging.

BackgroundEnvironmental and public health impacts are critical in the food processing industry. To demonstrate responsiveness to stakeholder expectations, firms foreground sustainability reporting through frameworks such as Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Yet the sustainability rhetoric usually centers on visible, marketable, and peripheral dimensions, including packaging, energy use, and philanthropy. In contrast, domains within their core operations, including product composition, nutritional quality, and marketing ethics, receive limited attention. Subsequently, concerns over the commercial determinants of health rise, particularly for vulnerable populations.MethodsThe study follows an embedded mixed-methods design to examine whether sustainability disclosures align with firms’ innovation strategies. Using 2023 data from 90 multinational or export-oriented food processing firms, hierarchical and multiple regression models assess the effects of ESG sub-dimensions and CSR scores on R&D expenditure, controlling for market capitalization (MC). To complement the quantitative analysis, the study includes a qualitative examination of selected firms, illustrating how sustainability-innovation gaps manifest in practice.ResultsFindings reveal no systematic alignment between sustainability and innovation strategies. The environmental dimension shows a marginally positive yet statistically insignificant relationship with R&D, while social, governance, and CSR metrics exhibit no meaningful association. MC remains the strongest predictor of R&D, highlighting that financial and organizational capacity drives innovation rather than sustainability commitment. Notably, CSR aligns more closely with environmental than social performance, indicating a selective legitimacy orientation. Firm-level evidence also reflects the patterns of symbolic compliance, illustrating how strong ESG scores can coexist with weak sustainability integration.ConclusionThe weak coupling between sustainability communication and innovation behavior exposes a structural gap between corporate legitimacy efforts and tangible outcomes for sustainable development. Firms that prioritize reputational visibility over substantive innovation reinforce health inequities and constrain systemic reform. To enhance environmental and public health outcomes, both corporate and regulatory strategies should move beyond symbolic compliance toward outcome-based accountability. Such a shift can better incentivize innovation that enhances nutritional quality, strengthens social equity, and protects environmental integrity.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12992-025-01166-9.

Enhanced catalytic activity of a novel trypsin by semi-rational design with mechanistic insights from molecular simulations.

To achieve net-zero targets globally, industrial decarbonisation is a major priority. This paper examines lost energy resources in a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and the deployment of novel wastewater heat recovery (WWHR) technology in the food and beverage processing industry. Four industrial WWTPs were monitored in Ireland to quantify the available embedded energy. Post monitoring, WWHR technology was developed to be integrated within existing infrastructure without compromising the primary function, and evaluated in real operating conditions. On average, 1.11–2.55 GWh/a of embedded energy was measured within the wastewater. The direct WWHR pilot plant resulted in a projected recovery rate of 10.89 MWh/a, leading to substantial economic savings and emission reductions. Incorporating a water-to-water heat pump incurred energy savings of 13.5 MWh/a. Nationally, the energy recovery potential was assessed to be 82.1 GWh/a in Ireland and 476.9 GWh/a in the UK. A large proportion of the energy embedded in this wastewater remains to be recovered and, based on the monitoring campaign, could amount to 118.5 TWh/a and 20.4 TWh/a for the UK and Ireland, respectively. WWHR could serve a prominent role in increasing operational energy efficiency of manufacturing processes by enacting energy, economic and emission savings, thus leading to industrial decarbonisation.

Preparation of ginsenoside Rd using a novel α-L-arabinofuranosidase BpAbf51A from Bacillus pumilus.

Enhanced production of hyperthermophilic Pyrococcus furiosus β-glucosidase in Corynebacterium glutamicum by optimization of the promoter, vector backbone, and His-tag location.

XYZ is one of the companies engaged in the food and beverage processing industry sector in Indonesia. XYZ currently sets one of the indicators in the KPI regarding the defect rate, which is a maximum of 2%. In 2022, one of the XYZ biscuit products, namely cream-filled coconut biscuits, had an average defect rate of 3%, exceeding the company's tolerance limit. The purpose of this study is to identify the types of defects in cream-filled coconut biscuit products, identify critical factors that cause defects, and give recommendations for appropriate improvements to overcome these causal factors. The method used in this research is Six Sigma, with the Define, Measure, Analyze, and Improve stages. The analysis stage uses RCA and FMEA to determine the root cause of the problem. Furthermore, the 5W+1H method is used to determine the appropriate improvement; the improvement selected is the design of SOPs for the cleanliness of production equipment.

The ohmic heating, also called Joule heating is employed as pasteurization technique in juices of litchi, mango, guava and aloe vera. It is an advanced heating treatment where heating is homogenous and mainly employed for thermal treatment of food and juices. The temperature ranges from 20 oC - 70 oC at different voltage gradients (7V/cm, 12V/cm, 17V/cm, 22V/cm, 27V/cm) in present study. The observed electrical conductivity showed a linear rising behavior (0.04S/m – 1.73 S/m)with rise in temperature due to ohmic heating and the results indicated that the effect of voltage gradient was statistically significant on the ohmic heating rate (p<0.05). The significant changes were observed in the pH value of juices at room temperature for mango, guava and aloe vera before and after ohmic heating. The value of TSS of the chosen juices does not change significantly due to ohmic heating. The measurements of these parameters during ohmic heating are important in designing of ohmic heaters for commercial applications and food processing industry.

Capsicum residue generated from industrial capsaicin extraction is rich in nutrients and represents a significant fraction of solid waste in the food processing industry. Despite its potential value, limited efforts have been devoted to its resource recovery, leading to considerable resource loss and environmental burdens. This study systematically evaluates the applicability of existing food waste recycling technologies for capsicum residue and assesses its valorization potential through comprehensive characterization. The results indicate that capsicum residue holds promise as a feedstock for pectin extraction and as a component in animal feed. Regarding anaerobic fermentation for acid production, the maximum volatile fatty acids (VFAs) yield and VFAs/SCOD ratio reached 462.09 mg·L−1 and 3.16%, respectively, suggesting moderate potential for acidogenic conversion but limited suitability for methanogenesis. Fluorescence spectroscopy of dissolved organic matter revealed that microbial humic-like substances (C1) were the dominant fluorophore, accounting for 42.64% of the total fluorescence, followed by terrestrial humic-like (C2, 19.28%), fulvic-like (C3, 19.12%), and tryptophan-like (C4, 18.95%) components. The favorable C/N ratio of amino acids and humic substances supports the feasibility of composting. Additionally, trace levels of residual capsaicin may confer antibacterial benefits and enhance soil fertility, further supporting the potential of capsicum residue as a value-added resource.

Ensuring food safety and quality is critical in the food-processing industry, where the detection of contaminants remains a persistent challenge. This study assesses the feasibility of hyperspectral imaging (HSI) for detecting foreign objects on pork belly meat. A Specim FX17 hyperspectral camera was used to capture data across various bands in the near-infrared spectrum (900–1700 nm), enabling identification of contaminants that are often missed by traditional visual inspection methods. The proposed solution combines a segmentation approach based on a lightweight Vision Transformer with specific pre- and post-processing strategies to distinguish contaminants from meat, fat, and conveyor belt, while emphasizing on a low false-positive rate. On a test set of 55 images with contaminants, the method retained most true positives; on 183 clean images, the full pipeline eliminated all false positives. Across 208 additional images acquired under production-line temperature variation (10–55 °C), only one image exhibited small false positives, and on a challenging 95-image set with fat-like spectra the pipeline produced zero false positives. These results demonstrate high detection accuracy and training efficiency while addressing issues such as noise, temperature drift, and spectral similarity. The findings support the feasibility of real-time HSI for automated quality control.

The growth of the food processing industry has led to an increase in domestic demand for shallots, thus intensifying cultivation in areas suitable for shallot development. Magne Wish organic fertilizer creates a symbiotic relationship between plants, soil, and native soil microbes, combined with the use of mulch to maintain soil moisture, temperature fluctuations, and weed growth. The purpose of this study was to obtain the response of organic fertilizer dosage with the type of mulch so that the dosage of organic fertilizer and the type of mulch could be obtained to increase the yield of shallots. The study was conducted in the rice fields of Subak Aban, Tegal Darmasaba with a factorial randomized block design consisting of two factors, namely the dosage of organic fertilizer (D), 4 levels D1 = (100, 200,300,400 kg. ha-1 and Mulch Type, 3 levels, namely (Black Silver Plastic; Rice Straw; Rice Husk).

Durum wheat is not a traditional crop in countries with a temperate climate, but the growing demand for semolina in the food processing industry has increased the popularity of this cereal species in the farming sector. The pathogens responsible for Fusarium crown rot (FCR), eyespot, and sharp eyespot contribute to lodging, disrupt the translocation of water and nutrients in plants, and decrease yields. The present study was conducted in several dozen locations in Poland to determine the severity of FCR, eyespot, and sharp eyespot in more than ten durum wheat cultivars, to identify stem-base pathogens, to analyze the virulence of Fusarium graminearum, and to evaluate the effectiveness of seed dressing in reducing the severity of infections in durum wheat seedlings. Durum wheat cultivars were screened in field and plot experiments in Poland. The virulence of F. graminearum and the effectiveness of biological and chemical seed dressing in reducing the incidence of FCR were determined in vivo. In the studied locations, symptoms of FCR and eyespot were observed on 16–76% and 1–36% of durum wheat stems, respectively, on average. Sharp eyespot was noted only in one year of the study in a single location (1–6%). The severity of the analyzed diseases was generally low. Fusarium avenaceum, F. culmorum, F. graminearum, F. oxysporum, F. poae, F. solani, and F. sporotrichioides were isolated from stems with symptoms of FCR. The number of F. graminearum and F. culmorum isolates was significantly positively correlated with the severity of FCR symptoms (r = 0.480 and r = 0.485, respectively). Fusarium graminearum was identified in 15 locations, and F. culmorum was detected in six locations. Seed treatment with triticonazole reduced the number of ungerminated kernels by 42.6% in comparison with the untreated control. Seed treatment involving Debaryomyces hansenii decreased the number of ungerminated kernels by 31.1% on average, but this effect was noted only in cv. Floradur. All durum wheat cultivars evaluated in Koch’s postulate test were severely infected, but F. graminearum isolates differed in virulence. Fusarium graminearum was the most prevalent pathogen in durum wheat stands, and it was highly virulent for seedlings. To decrease the incidence of FCR in durum wheat stands, new resistant varieties should be tested, suitable farming locations with desirable soil and environmental conditions should be identified, and new agricultural treatments should be developed.

The increasing production of fruit and vegetable by-products from the food processing industry presents both environmental challenges and opportunities for valorisation as sources of bioactive compounds. These by-products, including peels, seeds, pomace, and leaves, are rich in polyphenols, carotenoids, dietary fibres, glucosinolates, phytosterols, and essential oils, which exhibit antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and prebiotic activities. Recent advances in green extraction technologies, including ultrasound-, microwave-, supercritical fluid-, and cold plasma-assisted extraction, allow for an efficient and sustainable recovery of these compounds, while preserving their bioactivity. Incorporation of by-product-derived extracts into functional foods and nutraceuticals offers health-promoting benefits and supports circular bioeconomy strategies. However, challenges remain in standardisation, safety assessment, and regulatory approval, among others. This review summarises current progress and outlines future directions for the sustainable utilisation of fruit and vegetable by-products in health-oriented applications.