Vegetable Pieces Research Articles

Liking and sensory determinants of perceived naturalness and healthiness. A study on pizzas with young adults in a natural eating environment

This study aims to determine the sensory drivers of liking, perceived naturalness, and healthiness of pizzas in an ecological setting. The approach consisted in evaluating beliefs, perceptions, and liking by consumers of a large range of 16 pizzas representative of the French commercial market and selected on environmental and nutritional criteria. Sixty-four pizza consumers were invited to take 16 different meals in real-setting conditions of consumption at a university restaurant with pizza as the main course. Pizzas were also characterized by a trained sensory panel. This study confirms a positive link between liking and healthiness and naturalness, even though individual differences were evident, with some consumers prioritizing naturalness while others favored healthiness. Frozen pizzas are perceived as highly processed but were well liked when evaluated in the dining condition. Overall, preferences were mainly driven by the presence of multiple pieces of vegetables, sauce, and color. Drivers of dislike were mostly related to texture (stickiness and difficulty to cut). Although preference, naturalness, and healthiness mappings are relatively similar, our models show a discrepancy in the way texture drives preferences and perceived healthiness. This suggests that texture may play a critical role in the trade-offs between liking and healthiness, and that there may be a fine line between what is considered a desirable texture and a healthy texture. Individual regressions provided insights into consumer diversity, while combining sensory profiling with consumer-based methods offered a comprehensive understanding of product perception.

Automated Handling and Feeding Techniques for Skewering Operations

Highlights An automated system connects skewering operations for unattended kebab production. Separating and aligning meat cubes, vegetable slices, and shrimp (C-shape). Multi-machine mode for producing meat and vegetables, and shrimp and vegetable kebabs. Abstract. Barbecue kebab skewers typically consist of various meat choices, including chicken, lamb, pork, or seafood, and vegetables such as onion and pepper. Traditionally, manual kebab-making is a time-consuming and labor-intensive process, which is considered to be replaced by semi-auto and full-auto skewering machines. Currently, semi-auto skewering machines still require two main manual preparation processes: align the small meat and vegetable pieces into lines for skewering operations; superpose the large pieces of meat and vegetables, then do skewering and cutting operations. Fully automated skewering machines also have two different strategies. The first one is to use rotating scrappers and cups with a respective depth to ensure only one item can be loaded into each cup. All the cups are arranged into sequential cup rows and cup lines for skewering operations. However, the cups are frequently left empty because the rotating scrapper design often blocks any items falling into cups. Thus, some processing facilities still need extra labor to manually fill these empty cups. Another solution is the pick-and-place method by using robot arms and real-time image processing equipment, which cannot process irregular food pieces, such as shrimps (C-shape). In this paper, a novel fully automated handling and feeding system has been developed to prepare and connect the skewering operations to establish unattended kebab production lines. The performances of singulation, handling, and feeding operations have been investigated with different parameter settings and food items. Besides, the presented machine system is the first realization of unattended kebab production lines to process shrimps (C-shape), and the first design of using horizontal skewering operation to produce meat and vegetable kebabs (cube+ square piece) and shrimp and vegetable kebabs (C-shape+ square piece). This study will be beneficial for developing more effective next-generation skewering technologies and better value-added meat and seafood products. Keywords: Automated skewering, Computer vision, Food sorting automation, Kebab skewer, Robotic food preparation, Singulation.

Household Waste Utilization With Eco-Enzyme Training

Waste is an invaluable or worthless object that exists around the community. Waste is a very serious problem and is also a social, economic, and cultural problem. Daily household waste is inevitable, but there is no serious management of this waste, especially for organic waste. For this reason, it is necessary to handle organic waste by turning waste into more useful products, namely making eco-enzymes. The purpose of this activity is to increase knowledge and skills about eco-enzymes. This activity was carried out at the Aisyiyah Tarubasan Branch in Karanganom, Klaten with 40 members. The implementation of this service activity was carried out through 2 (two) activities, namely: 1) providing education to members of the Aisyiyah Tarubasan Branch about managing organic waste with eco-enzymes; 2) holding training on the utilization of organic waste in the form of fruit peels, fruit pieces, vegetable pieces into the eco-enzymes

Effect of Longer Family Meals on Children’s Fruit and Vegetable Intake

Family meals are a formative learning environment that shapes children's food choices and preferences. As such, they are an ideal setting for efforts to improve children's nutritional health. To examine the effect of extending the duration of family meals on the fruit and vegetable intake in children. This randomized clinical trial used a within-dyad manipulation design and was conducted from November 8, 2016, to May 5, 2017, in a family meal laboratory in Berlin, Germany. Included in the trial were children aged 6 to 11 years who did not follow a special diet or have food allergies and adult parents who served as the nutritional gatekeeper in the household (ie, the family member responsible for at least half of the food planning and preparation). All participants underwent 2 conditions: control, defined as regular family mealtime duration, and intervention, defined as 50% longer mealtime duration (10 minutes longer on average). Participants were randomized to the condition they would complete first. Statistical analyses of the full sample were conducted between June 2 and October 30, 2022. Participants had 2 free evening meals under different conditions. In the control or regular condition, each dyad ate in the same amount of time as their reported regular mealtime duration. In the intervention or longer condition, each dyad had 50% more time to eat than their reported regular mealtime duration. The primary outcome was the number of pieces of fruits and vegetables eaten by the child during a meal. A total of 50 parent-child dyads participated in the trial. Parents had a mean (range) age of 43 (28-55 years) years and were predominantly mothers (36 [72%]). Children had a mean (range) age of 8 (6-11) years and included an equal number of girls and boys (25 [50%]). Children ate significantly more pieces of fruits (t49 = 2.36, P = .01; mean difference [MD], 3.32 [95% CI, 0.96 to ∞]; Cohen d = 0.33) and vegetables (t49 = 3.66, P < .001; MD, 4.05 [95% CI, 2.19 to ∞]; Cohen d = 0.52) in the longer condition than in the regular mealtime duration condition. Consumption of bread and cold cuts did not significantly differ between conditions. The children's eating rate (bites per minute over the regular mealtime duration) was significantly lower in the longer than in the regular condition (t49 = -7.60, P < .001; MD, -0.72 [95% CI, -0.56 to ∞]; Cohen d = 1.08). Children reported significantly higher satiety after the longer condition (V = 36.5, P < .001). Results of this randomized clinical trial suggest that the simple, low-threshold intervention of increasing family mealtime duration by approximately 10 minutes can improve the quality of children's diet and eating behavior. The findings underscore the potential for such an intervention to improve public health. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03127579.

Functional food compositions using spirulina for the production of health jelly

Healthy nutrition is a key task for many countries, and its solution is to enrich food with functional food ingredients, including microalgae spirulina. The market of spirulina processed products is dynamically developing, which is due to its unique chemical composition cyanobacteria (protein substances, phycocyanin, sulfated polysaccharides), which provides immunomodulatory properties when eating its processed products. Traditionally, the Russian drink, originally used to maintain the gastrointestinal tract is jelly. The drink has a gel-like consistency and a fruity/milky taste. New types of jelly have been developed with the addition of spirulina and various fruits and vegetables (apples and ginger, apricot, grapes and apple, kiwi and banana, Jerusalem artichoke, carrot). Concentrates and dried pieces of fruits and vegetables also contain a rich complex of physiologically important substances: vitamins, micro- and macroelements, dietary fiber. Starch in the formulation was replaced with pectin, and in compositions with jerusalem artichoke and carrots, oatmeal and flaxseed flour were additionally introduced, ensuring the colloidity of the system and containing soluble dietary fiber. The high organoleptic evaluation of the developed jelly compositions showed the possibility of their implementation for the consumer market of healthy food products, and the combination of tropical fruits in recipes will expand the geography of consumers.

The effectiveness of EM4 and Local Micro-organisms (LOM) Activators in Organic Waste Processing in Brikama Market West Coast Region, The Gambia

Compost is the result of decaying process of organic materials due to the interaction between decomposing microorganisms found within. Compost is a type of organic fertilizer that originates from decomposed organic materials. Observations at Brikama Market indicated 20 vegetable vendors with at least 5 pieces of vegetables decaying, market sales decline by approximately 5 kg for every transaction. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of organic waste treatment using EM4 and LOM. This research is purely experimental, uses Posttest Group design and Independent Sample T-Test. This research was conducted in groups, with different forms of waste-treatments which included the use of EM4 and local microorganism activators and observed as it decays. The results obtained differences in the average processing of organic waste using EM4 and LOM activators. The average temperature of EM4 activator 29.89°C while LOM 29.97°C. The average humidity 48.67 for EM4 activator while LOM 49.64 and the average pH of EM4 activator 5.96 while LOM 5.43. The research revealed significant changes in EM4 and LOM activators seen from the measurement of temperature, humidity and pH. It is recommended to the community to participate in managing waste, especially organic waste by making compost using EM4 and LOM activators.

A method for rearing and assessing the health of the sugarcane pest Dermolepida albohirtum (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae)

AbstractRearing insects in controlled conditions is a prerequisite to supply high‐quality specimens for bioassays. However, while artificial diets and standardized rearing methods have been developed for many phytophagous insects, especially Lepidoptera, there are limited published diets for root‐feeding Coleoptera which are commonly fed either grass roots or pieces of vegetables as a simple alternative to artificial diets during bioassays. These feeding options, while convenient, can be considered suboptimal as they do not maximise the insects' development and health. Additionally, it is also important to develop standardised screening methods designed to test sublethal effects of control agents which may have repellent, antifeedant, antimetabolic and/or delayed mortality effects. The greyback canegrub (Dermolepida albohirtum, Waterhouse) is the most damaging native pest of Australian sugarcane, but no rearing method or artificial diet has ever been developed for this species. Our objectives were to improve bioassay methodology for D. albohirtum by describing and developing standard rearing and health assessment protocols. We describe a successful rearing method to raise healthy D. albohirtum larvae with a total of 48.8% of first instars successfully moulting to the second instar. We also tested a modified artificial diet which increased the weight, size and food uptake of larvae compared to traditional methods (i.e., pieces of carrots). For example, the average weight increase of larvae fed with the modified diet was 3.4 times higher than for carrot‐fed larvae while modified diet‐fed larvae were 2.1 times wider than if they were fed with carrots. Finally, we developed a method to measure larval activity which can be used to identify sublethal effects of control agents such as effects on activity level. Our methods may also be applied to improve bioassay methodology for other root‐feeding Coleoptera.

STUDY OF NUTRIENT CONTENT IN ECO ENZYMES FROM VARIOUS TYPES OF ORGANIC MATERIALS

One of the organic waste processing technologies is Eco Enzyme. Eco enzyme is a complex solution of light to dark brown color, which has a fresh sour aroma. Organic waste, in the form of fruit peels, unused fruit flesh, and vegetable pieces, is collected in containers/barrels and then mixed with molasses/brown sugar and water with a certain dose. The recommended dose for the ratio of molasses: organic waste: water is 1:3:10. The fermentation results produce environmentally friendly enzymes and other beneficial elements for agriculture. This study aims to determine the nutrient content of P2O5, K2O, and the C/N ratio of eco enzymes derived from various organic materials. This study used a non-factorial, completely randomized design (CRD). This study used 6 treatment combinations consisting of: P1 = Musa paradisiaca L Boobs (1.5 kg) + Tithonia diversifolia Leaves (1.5 kg); P2 = Musa paradisiaca L weevil (1.5 kg) + Terminalia catappa leaves (1.5 kg); P3= Musa paradisiaca L Weevil (1.5 kg) + Spreading Leaf Shoots (1.5 kg); P4= Mimosa pudica Root (1.5 kg) + Tithonia diversifolia Leaf (1.5 kg); P5 = roots of Mimosa pudica daughter (1.5 kg) + Terminalia catappa leaves (1.5 kg); P6 = Roots of Mimosa pudica (1.5 kg) + Shoots of Spreading Leaves (1.5 kg). The results showed that using organic materials significantly affected the K2O content and the C/N ratio of the eco enzyme.

Remarkable archerfish recognise that unfamiliar insects are animals

Lurking beneath overhanging foliage, archerfish have one thing on their mind: taking a well-aimed pot-shot at the next insect that settles within range. Squirting a ballistic jet of water, the tenacious assassins precisely target their victims, ready to dine. ‘Object recognition is critical for animal survival’, says Ronen Segev from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, explaining that distinguishing dinner is an essential life skill. But how do these remarkable fish differentiate a tasty treat from an unpalatable plant? ‘It's a complex task’, says Segev, who was curious to find out which visual features archerfish depend on when identifying a delicious nibble. He and his colleagues, Svetlana Volotsky, Ohad Ben-Shahar and Opher Donchin, also from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, began showing images of appetising insects, flowers and leaves to archerfish to find out how the aquatic snipers distinguish fauna from flora.Fortunately, the fish are quite content to squirt at images on a computer screen, so Segev and Volotsky first encouraged the archerfish to take fire at a circle on a screen, in return for a food pellet reward. Then, Volotsky trained the snipers to aim at images of one specific spider viewed from a range of angles while trying to distract it with an image of a piece of vegetation. Once the fish were reliably spitting at the spider images, she tested whether they were capable of recognising the spider from any random direction by offering the fish a completely new view of the spider, which they hadn't seen before, beside an image of a piece of vegetation or another spider. If the fish had really learned to recognise their spider, it would still take a shot at it, even if it was seeing it from an unfamiliar angle. Impressively, the archerfish were still able to select their target spider, regardless of the direction of view; they can definitely recognise individual objects. But could the fish learn from experience to categorise an insect that they had never seen before as an animal?This time, Volotsky trained the fish to spit at images of insects, ranging from ants and beetles to flies and spiders, while trying to distract them with images of plants. Once the fish were dependably taking shots at the insects, she tried outwitting them by presenting them with images of unfamiliar insects, to find out whether the fish could recognise that any old insect is an animal. Astoundingly, the fish still targeted the insect images, even though they had never seen those creatures before. ‘Archerfish can generalise from examples to make object recognition of natural object classes’, says Segev.But how were the determined fish able to learn to distinguish plants from animals? This time, Volotsky, Ben-Shahar, Donchin and Segev teamed up to break down images of insects, flowers and leaves into 18 different features. Then, they built a computer program (known as a support-vector machine), which can learn to classify different types of information, that reproduced the fish's decision-making process to find out which features are necessary for archerfish to distinguish between animals and plants. Impressively, the fish only needed six essential features, including the loose perimeter encircling the object, how jagged or smooth the shape is and the texture of its surface, to distinguish animals from plants, with the first two factors being the most significant. And this is quite remarkable because, apparently, we use a similar, albeit slightly more elaborate, strategy to recognise each other's faces.

Physical and morphological characteristics of edible coatings based on pectin and guava by-products applied to guava pieces

ABSTRACT: Edible coatings based on polysaccharides have been applied on pieces of fruits and vegetables before drying because of their potential to improve physical and nutritional characteristics of dehydrated plant foods. In the present study, physical and thermal properties of pectin-based films, with and without the incorporation of by-products obtained from the processing of red guava, were determined. These properties allow one to predict the likely behaviour of these films when used as edible coatings on guava pieces, during and after their dehydration. Thus the structural and morphological characteristics and the physical, thermal and sorption properties of the films and of the fruit pulp were determined, using scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and the static gravimetric method to determine the water-sorption curves. The addition of by-products provided crystallinity to the pectin film, attributed to their cellulose content, and hardly altered the water retention capacity of the pectin films. However, the pectin contributed to presenting a slightly higher sorption moisture at equilibrium, as compared to the guava pulp. The glass transition temperatures reported at extremely low moisture contents, both in the pulp and in the films with added by-products, indicated that at intermediate moisture contents, the fruit/film ensemble was in the rubbery state at room temperatures, providing softness to the dehydrated product. The images showed good integration of the edible films with the surface of the guava pieces.

Comparison of steaming and boiling of root vegetables for enhancing carbohydrate content and sensory profile

Root vegetables have unique techno-functional and nutritional properties however, their use in processed foods is limited to a few species, partially due to a lack of knowledge related to the impact of thermal treatments on the sensory properties. This study investigated the effect of steaming and boiling on the microstructure, mechanical properties, and sensory profile of three model root vegetables with distinct carbohydrate composition: Jerusalem artichoke ( Helianthus tuberosus L.), parsnip ( Pastinaca sativa ), and beetroot ( Beta vulgaris ). Thermally treated Jerusalem artichoke and parsnip showed higher content of cell wall polysaccharides, particularly β-glucans (e.g. cellulose) and pectic components, compared to raw. Steaming produced more cell shrinkage and loss of cell-cell adhesion than boiling, leading to softer vegetables. Processed beetroot showed loss of cell turgor and drastic softening but not clear changes in overall carbohydrate content. The scores for several flavour and in-mouth attributes were higher for steamed vegetables compared to boiled. Our results give insights on the processability of root vegetables towards products with enhanced sensory and nutritional properties. • Steaming and boiling increase dietary fibre in Jerusalem artichoke and parsnip. • Steamed vegetables are softer, have larger cell shrinkage and loss of cell adhesion. • Textural changes in processed beetroot are not related to total carbohydrates. • Flavour and in-mouth sensory attributes scores are higher for steamed vegetables. • Results give insights to use root vegetable pieces in processed foods.

Health behaviours as predictors of the Mediterranean diet adherence: a decision tree approach.

This study aimed to identify health behaviours that determine adolescent's adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MD) through a decision tree statistical approach. Cross-sectional study, with data collected through a self-fulfilment questionnaire with five sections: (1) eating habits; (2) adherence to the MD (KIDMED index); (3) physical activity; (4) health habits and (5) socio-demographic characteristics. Anthropometric and blood pressure data were collected by a trained research team. The Automatic Chi-square Interaction Detection (CHAID) method was used to identify health behaviours that contribute to a better adherence to the MD. Eight public secondary schools, in Algarve, Portugal. Adolescents with ages between 15 and 19 years (n 325). According to the KIDMED index, we found a low adherence to MD in 9·0 % of the participants, an intermediate adherence in 45·5 % and a high adherence in 45·5 %. Participants that regularly have breakfast, eat vegetable soup, have a second piece of fruit/d, eat fresh or cooked vegetables 1 or more times a day, eat oleaginous fruits at least 2 to 3 times a week, and practice sports and leisure physical activities outside school show higher adherence to the MD (P < 0·001). The daily intake of two pieces of fruit and vegetables proved to be a determinant health behaviour for high adherence to MD. Strategies to promote the intake of these foods among adolescents must be developed and implemented.

How addition of peach gel particles to yogurt affects oral behavior, sensory perception and liking of consumers differing in age

Addition of particles to foods, such as fruit pieces to dairy products or vegetable pieces to soup, is a convenient approach to alter nutritional composition, appearance, perception and acceptance. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of addition of peach gel particles to yogurt on oral behavior, sensory perception and liking of consumers differing in age. One homogeneous yogurt and seven yogurts with peach gel particles were prepared. The added peach gel particles varied in size, fracture stress, or concentration. Oral behavior of n = 62 healthy Dutch, young adults (21 ± 2 years) and n = 62 healthy Dutch elderly (70 ± 5 years) participants was characterized by video recordings. Yogurts’ sensory properties and liking were scored on nine-point scales. Elderly consumed yogurts with higher number of chews and longer consumption time leading to lower eating rate than young adults. Addition of particles, regardless of characteristics, increased number of chews, consumption time, and decreased eating rate up to 60% for both consumer groups, with an average decrement of 110 g/min for young and of 63 g/min for elderly consumers. With increasing peach gel hardness and concentration, the number of chews and consumption time increased while eating rate decreased. Peach gel particle size did not affect oral behavior. Sensory perception of yogurts with added peach gel particles was similar for healthy young adult and healthy elderly. Only small differences in sensory perception were observed between the young adults and elderly for flavor attributes, crumbliness, juiciness, and perceived particle size. Similarly, minor differences in liking of a few yogurts with peach pieces were observed between both consumer groups. Thus, healthy ageing seems to affect sensory perception of semi-solid foods to a limited extent only. We conclude that changes in food texture by addition of particles can be used as a strategy to steer eating rate and potentially impact food intake of young adult and elderly consumers while maintaining or enhancing food palatability. Additionally, particle characteristics can be modified to target specific consumer groups that might differ in eating capabilities.

SURVEY OF EXISTING INFANT FEEDING PRACTICES: INTERVIEWING THE PARENTS

Introduction. Healthy feeding is essential for infants’ healthy growth, psychomotor, cognitive and social development. First years of life are an important period when a person’s dietary habits are formed and the risks of obesity can be quickly formed and realized. Today, overweight and obesity are more dangerous for children’s health than underweight and malnutrition.The aim of the study was to evaluate the existing infant feeding practices using parental survey data (self-reported) in the context of modern evidence-based recommendations.Materials and methods. Anonymous survey of parents based on random sampling method was conducted as forphysical and psychomotor development of their infants, feeding practices, history of diseases, vaccination etc. Parents who had children of the second or third year of life were asked toanswer the questions online filling in the Google form on the forums of Odessa (Ukraine). By the end of the survey we received individual results, an automatically generated Excel pivot table and online charts.Results. There were 168 completed questionnaires in total. Assessment of children’s physical growth at the age of 1 year by using a z-score revealed: body weight for age is above + 2σ in 22.6% and + 3σ in 1.8% of children; body length for age + 3σ in 8.9%; body weight for body length ratio above + 2σ in 8.9% and above + 3σ in 3.0% of children. It was found out that 88.1% women initiated breastfeeding; 61.9% of them continued breastfeeding up to 6 months and 54.8% up to 12 months. 35.1% of breastfed children received water from the first months of life. 61.9% of children received vitamin D. 91.6% of parents started giving their childrenfirst supplementary food at the age of 4-6 months. At the age of 5–7 months, 92.9% of children were given vegetable puree, 77.4%, – fruit puree, 49.6% – meat, 38.1% – porridge, 28% – egg yolk. Infants’ menu was quite diversified at 9-12 months. It was revealed that some parents gave their children the following foods, drinks or ingredients which were not recommended for infants under 1 year: whole cow's milk - 20.2%, goat's milk – 11.3%, fruit juices – 49.4%, sugary drinks – 28.0%, honey - 13.1%; salt - 58.0%, sugar - 39.9%; tea – 23.8%. Parents fed their children by the hour in 19.1% of cases, turned on the TV (video) to feed the child in 40.5% of cases and forced the child to eat up the entire portion in 14.9% of cases; while the appetite of the child was regarded as satisfactory by 91.7% of parents. By the age of 1 year 38.1% of children were not given meatballs or fish, 29.1% – pieces of vegetables or fruits; 20.2% – other food in pieces. 23.8% of parents reported about adverse food reactions / signs of food allergy in their children. 39.3% of children were exposed to secondhand tobacco smoke. 45.8% of children were vaccinated according to immunization schedule, 38.7% of them were vaccinated partially or with a disruption of schedule, 15.5% ofinfants were not vaccinated until 1 year. During their life 30.4% of children had the acute respiratory diseases 1 time, 19.6% – 2 times, 18.5% – 3 times or more; 20.2% of children once suffered from acute intestinal infections; 1.8% of them had chronic diseases. During the first year of life 19.6% of children were hospitalized once and 4.2% of them twice or more.Conclusions. According to the weight / length ratio 11.9% of one-year-old children have overweight and a risk obesity in future. Sufficient prevalence and duration of breastfeeding was revealed, however, more than one third of children received water from the first months of life, which means breastfeeding was predominant but not exclusive. Supplementary feeding was introduced mostly in time, so infants’ menu was quite diversified by the age of 9-12 months. However, the first supplementary food products were not loaded with iron for most children, which caused anemia in 14.3% of them. Children often received foods, drinks, and ingredients that were not recommended for babies: whole animal milk, fruit juices, sugary drinks, honey, tea, sugar, salt. The increase of easily digestible carbohydrates was probably one of the overweight causes in children. Signs of non-responsive (inconspicuous) feeding were found (feeding by the hour, turning on the video during feeding, forcing the child to eat up the entire portion), which probably contributed to children’s overfeeding and could also cause excess weight. Almost one third of one-year-old infants neither acquired the skills of chewing food in pieces nor received finger food.

Invading fungus forces zombie ant's death grip

If it's thoughts of zombies that keep you awake at night, you shouldn't be worried about zombie humans; it's the carpenter ants (Camponotus castaneus) that should concern you most. When infected by a specialised fungus (Ophiocordyceps unilateralis sensu lato), the hapless ants are unable to resist its potent power. Losing free will, the unfortunate victims locate tall pieces of vegetation, marching to a high point before the fungal infection forces them to clamp their mandibles – jaws – tightly onto a leaf vein or twig. There, the ill-fated host expires, only to be consumed from within by its evil fungal lodger, ready to scatter its spores below in the hope of infecting the next unsuspecting victim. Yet, despite the insects’ loss of control, Colleen Mangold from Pennsylvania State University, USA, explains that the fungus does not attack their brains directly: ‘the mandibular muscles … of infected ants are extensively colonised by the fungus’, she says. Wondering how the fungus exerts control over the ants’ powerful jaw muscles, Mangold and PI David Hughes decided to take a closer look inside the muscle itself.‘The most difficult aspect of the study was the infections’, says Mangold, explaining that the fungus cannot take hold inside ant nests; the insects must be roaming free to be susceptible. Even then, the fungus only thrives in the humidity of Brazil or South Carolina, so Mangold, Melissa Ishler and Rachel Loreto had to recreate a warm humid environment in the lab in order to collect the infectious spores from diseased individuals. The team also had to figure out the correct dose of spores to ensure that the ants could not defeat the fungus before it took effect and forced them to lock their jaws tightly onto a piece of foliage.Swiftly freezing the dying insects and removing their jaw muscles before preserving them and scrutinising the structures in an electron microscope, Missy Hazen and Mangold could see that fungus filaments had penetrated the muscle. However, when the team investigated the structures where nerve signals enter the muscle, they were unaffected; the fungus had not disabled the nervous system to weld the jaws in place. Instead, it looked as if the fungus had caused the muscle to contract so forcefully that the filaments in the muscle fibres – which slide past each other when the muscle contracts – were damaged and swollen. In addition, the fungus had broken the membrane covering the muscle fibres, leaving the fibres exposed and potentially vulnerable to toxins released by the invader. They also noticed tiny bead structures (vesicles) attached to the fungus filaments, which they suspect could be part of the ants’ attempts to fight back at the lethal infection, or be packed with fungal toxins that could send the muscle into spasm.However, Mangold adds that there is still more to learn about the fungus's influence on its innocent ant hosts. ‘The next steps we want to take include isolating those vesicles and determining whether they are coming from the fungus or the host’, she says. And she is keen to find out exactly what is packaged within. In the meantime, I hope your dreams aren't too haunted by the prospect of hordes of zombie ants scrambling to their final destiny.

Fungal species associated with fruit and vegetables transported to the J.G. Mendel station and the influence of UV-C treatment on their fungal community

The aim of this study was to investigate the fungal community associated with fruits and vegetables transported into the Antarctic region and observe qualitative changes of their surface mycobiota after UV-C treatment. This measure is used to prevent the post-harvest diseases of stored fruits and vegetables and reduce the risk of introducing non-native species to the Antarctic environment. In total, 82 strains of filamentous fungi were isolated from the surfaces of 64 pieces of fresh fruits and vegetables before and after their UV-C treatment. They were assigned to the genera Penicillium, Fusarium, Mucor, Cladosporium, and Acremonium. After the UV-C treatment of the examined fruits and vegetables, spores of the genera Fusarium, Cladosporium and Acremonium were not detected, while spores of the genera Penicillium and Mucor were more resistant and stayed viable after the treatment. Penicillium strains prevailed in the examined samples. Their introduction to the Antarctic environment could represent a potential risk for endemic autochthonous organisms.

As good as expected? How consumer expectations and addition of vegetable pieces to soups influence sensory perception and liking.

This study investigated the effect of mechanical contrast and particle flavour concentration of carrot particles added to soups on expected and perceived sensations and liking. The properties of a chicken soup were varied by addition of real carrots, model carrots and model chicken particles differing in size, fracture stress, and/or carrot flavour concentration. The four aims of the study were: (1) To study the effect of mechanical contrast on expected and perceived sensations; (2) To investigate the role of particle carrot flavour concentration on perceived sensations and liking; (3) To study the effect of dis/confirmation of expected by perceived sensations on liking; (4) To investigate the consumer's preferences and ideal profile of soups. Expected sensory properties were affected by particle size: the larger the particles, the higher the expected intensities for hardness, chewiness, and crunchiness of soups. Perceived sensory properties were significantly influenced by size and fracture stress of carrot particles. Increasing flavour concentration in model carrot particles added to soups marginally influenced liking suggesting that flavour concentration in particles added to soups has a limited effect on liking. When model carrot particles were added to soups, expected sensory properties were confirmed by perceived sensory properties, and consequently liking did not change considerably. The congruency and familiar appearance of the model carrot pieces probably contributed to the confirmation of expectations. When model chicken pieces were added to soups, expected sensory properties were disconfirmed by perceived sensory properties leading to a significant decrease in liking. Soups containing medium-sized, soft carrot particles were the closest to the consumer's ideal product profile. To summarize, consumer expectations and physicochemical properties of chicken and carrot particles added to chicken soup contributed to perception and liking of soups. We conclude that the sensory product profile of common products such as soups can be optimised by addition of congruent and familiar particles that match consumer' expectations.

Intrepid rafting weevil larvae survive 6 days at sea

There are many talented creatures in the Animal Kingdom, from swimmers and flyers to species with extreme hearing and vision, but Wen-San Huang from the National Museum of Natural Science, Taiwan, wants to add rafting to the list of extraordinary animal achievements. He knew that flightless insects, and even some small mammals, can wash up on distant shores in just a matter of days, having clung to pieces of vegetation that are washed out to sea and carried over hundreds of kilometres by strong ocean currents. However, success is only assured if the plucky seafarers are capable of surviving immersion in dehydrating saltwater. Huang also realised that insects may undertake these perilous voyages at different life stages, either as eggs or as larvae. As flightless Pachyrhynchus weevils have dispersed over great distances and successfully colonised some Pacific islands, Huang and Hui-Ying Yeh tested the resilience of one member of the family to saltwater.‘These weevils [Pachyrhynchus jitanasaius] cannot be caught using traps, so we look for them in the field and catch them in trees with nets’, says Hui-Yun Tseng, who travelled to Green Island off the coast of Taiwan with Jung-Ya Hsu to collect three pairs of the elusive beetles. Then, Yeh painstakingly collected the beetles’ minute eggs and installed them in tiny perforations in fish poison tree (Barringtonia asiatica) leaf veins to develop, first into larvae and then into adults. Once Yeh had established the P. jitanasaius colony in the laboratory, she immersed all three beetle life stages in water – ranging from fresh to brackish (16.5‰ salinity) and full seawater (35‰ salinity) – for 3, 7 and 14 days to see how the insects faired. Sadly, none of the adults survived for more than 1.5 days – even in freshwater – with most dying within the first 24 h, making it unlikely that the adults could endure such perilous crossings. However, the larvae were hardier – 25% surviving 7 days of immersion in seawater – and many went on to develop successfully into adults. But the weevil eggs were the most robust, with more than 80% hatching, regardless of the salinity.So how well would the larvae survive when burrowed within pieces of ocean-going fruit? Having implanted one weevil larva per fish poison tree fruit, Yeh installed a wave-making machine in a tank in the lab and allowed the fruit to bob about in the simulated ocean for 6 days – the length of time that it would take for a fruit to travel from the Babuyna Islands, off the Philippines, to the Japanese Yaeyama Islands. And, in an even more audacious experiment, Huang and Yeh cast some of the larvae-laden fruit adrift in the Kuroshio current off Taiwan for 6 days to find out whether any of the insects would survive. Remarkably, two of the larvae emerged alive from the lab-bound fruit and the team was even more impressed when, after retrieving the drifting fruit from the Pacific, they discovered two more survivors, both of which went on to develop into adults.‘Our study provides the first empirical evidence that P. jitanasaius larvae can survive oceanic rafting inside fish poison tree fruit’, says Huang, who suspects that the tough waterproof fruit, packed with buoyant air pockets and nutrition, could provide the ideal mode of transport for pioneering weevil settlers.

Community Kitchen Freezing and Vacuum Packaging

First paragraphs: In a 2016 study of fresh food loss on Vermont farms, Salvation Farms Director Theresa Snow and her colleague offered insights into farmer production problems. They extrapolated from their survey results that about 14.3 million pounds (6.5 million kg) of vegetable and berry losses occur on Vermont farms every year. Farm food problems included market saturation of fresh zucchini, lack of available help, not enough storage, blemishes on edible produce, fewer customers at farmers mar­kets, and deterioration of produce in storage while waiting for a future market. Farm fresh produce waste problems, however, can be a training opportunity for community kitchens. My interest in frozen food processing began after working on a community supported agricul­ture (CSA) vegetable farm in the late 1990s, where excess produce was composted, left to rot, or fed to pigs. To me, a retired farmer and former family and consumer science teacher, these farm food waste issues shouted opportunities for addressing today’s food waste and healthy food challenges through freezing. My response to this waste was to design and build a kitchen in 2000 (inspected by New York State Agriculture and Markets) to explore value-added processing. The next year the Cornell Food Venture Center approved several frozen and vacuum-packed procedures I had developed. Boil-in-bags are used for blanching vegetables. After cooling, the vegetable broth is drained off and frozen to use to cook grains or to include in soup kits. Cut vegetable pieces are weighed, put into labeled 3 ml bags, vacuum sealed, and frozen. The vegetables are combined with separately packed cooked dry beans, cooked whole grains, savory sauces, and spices as freezer meal kits.... See the press release for this article.

Dynamics of physical trail construction and of trail usage in the leaf-cutting ant Atta laevigata

Leaf cutting ants of the genus Atta build long lasting physical trails to exploit the vegetation around their nest. In this paper we investigated the dynamics of physical trail construction and usage in the leaf-cutting ant Atta laevigata. We assessed the average duration of physical trail construction in a pasture environment and estimated the impact of the change in the physiognomy of the terrain on ant speed, individual gross transport rate and rate of resource collection by taking into account the effects of confounding variables for each of these parameters. We also examined whether ants are able to adjust their foraging behaviour at the individual or collective level in order to maintain the same rate of vegetation return to their nest along the construction process. We found that a colony of A. laevigata needs between 4½ and 6½ days to complete a physical trail. The construction proceeded in a fairly uniform manner along the trail, suggesting that it is not the result of the coordinated action of a small group of specialized individuals progressing along the trail but rather of the sum of uncoordinated actions of individual workers. Ant speed increased by a 2.6 factor on a cleared trail compared to an uncleared trail and individual gross transport rate nearly doubled. However, there was no significant change along the construction process in traffic intensity, the proportion of ants returning to the nest with a piece of vegetation or the rate of resource delivery to the nest. The main benefit of trail construction is thus to mobilize less foragers on the trail to collect the same amount of food, leaving the possibility for the remaining workers to forage on other trails or to accomplish other tasks.