Journal of Food Quality最新文献

Freekeh, a traditional Middle Eastern grain made from immature wheat grains, is known for its distinctive flavor and nutritional benefits. This study evaluated the physico-chemical (the color index L^∗a^∗b^∗ and physical impurities, moisture, carbohydrates, protein, fiber, and ash) and microbiological (the total bacterial count and the fungal count) properties of nine freekeh commercial products available in the local market and produced by local Palestinian companies. Different freekeh products were collected from the local market, and each company was assigned a code of the following: A1, A2, A3, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7, A8, and A9. The variations in quality attributes (chemical, physical, and microbiological properties) across various companies have been examined using ANOVA. Our findings showed significant differences in fiber, ash, protein, and fat contents among different freekeh samples, while no significant differences were found in moisture content. Freekeh products showed significant differences in L^∗ (lightness) and a^∗ (the redness index) values between products. The color index (in particular L^∗ and a^∗ values) indicated that freekeh products were harvested at diverse harvesting stages, both the milky or dough grain growth stages. Microbiological analysis revealed considerable significant differences in total bacterial and fungal counts. Total aerobic bacterial (1–4 log CFU/g) and total fungal (1.39–4.29 log CFU/g) counts were significantly varied between freekeh products. Moreover, the content of physical impurities (straw, soil, insects, and foreign seeds) ranged from 0% to 2%. In conclusion, our study demonstrated significant variation in locally produced freekeh products’ chemical and physical properties. These findings emphasize the potential influence of manufacturing practices on freekeh quality and highlight the need for improved compliance with Palestinian standards.

This study analyzed the fermented grains from different stages of fermentation at the Bei Da Cang Distillery, aiming to reveal the succession patterns of bacterial communities and their relationship with physicochemical indicators during fermentation. The results showed that starch and sugar content gradually decreased, while moisture content and acidity continuously increased. Key bacterial genera such as Acetilactobacillus jinshanensis, Lactobacillus acetotolerans, Bacillus pumilus, and Lentilactobacillus kefiri dominated different fermentation rounds, with Acetilactobacillus jinshanensis being particularly prevalent in all stages, contributing to the stability of microbial communities and flavor formation. The study also found significant correlations between bacteria and physicochemical parameters. Lactobacillus acetotolerans and Lentilactobacillus kefiri significantly promoted starch degradation; the activity of Lactobacillus acetotolerans is negatively correlated with acidity. These findings provide scientific insights for optimizing fermentation conditions to improve the flavor and quality of Baijiu.

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of different nutrition systems on the volatile compounds, odor attributes, and fat formation tendency in young bulls. A total of 15 heads were Eastern Anatolian Red (EAR) bulls that were 15 months old were used, five bulls in each group. G-I (only pasture, Group 1) grazed only on pasture for 93 days. G-II (pasture with concentrate supplementation, Group 2) was kept on pasture for 93 days and concentrate at the level of 1.5% of lively weight was supplemented daily on the pasture, every evening. G-III (pasture followed by concentrate finishing in barn, Group 3) was fed on a diet made up of concentrate and roughages in a barn, individually, for additional 40 days following 93-day pasture. Initial, final, hot carcass, and pelvic fat weights for each animal in groups were obtained, and fat formation tendency was determined. Statistical analyses featured the G-I that was superior in terms of slower pelvic fat formation acceleration. Musculus longissimus lumborum (MLL) was collected from animals for the analysis of sensory characteristics and volatile compounds. Correlation coefficient with Warner–Bratzler shear (WBS) of tenderness sensory was a low negative (-0.114), whereas it was, significantly, high with juiciness, flavor intensity (FI), general acceptability (GA), and number of chews before swallowing (NCBS) (p < 0.01). Detailed analyses revealed significant differences (p < 0.05 to 0.01) among nutrition groups in key volatile compounds such as ethyl benzene, styrene, 1-methyl-azetidine, 2-isocyanato propane, 1-methyl-4-(1-methylpropyl)-benzene, naphthalene, pentanal, hexanal, heptanal, benzaldehyde, nonanal, 2-methyl-3-phenyl-propanal, tetradecanal, hexadecanal, octadecanal, 2,3-octanedione, acetophenone, 2-pentyl furan, acetic acid, ethyl ester, and 1-octen-3-ol, underscoring the diversity and richness of these compounds. Volatile compounds such as toluene, 2-methyl-3-phenyl-propanal, tetradecanal, hexadecanal, tridecane, pentadecane, heptanal, and acetophenone exhibited positive correlation with G-I that grazed the only pasture. In addition to slow pelvic fat formation rate tendency, the execution of G-I and G-II models, concentrated by different and diversity volatile compounds, aligns with health-conscious consumer trends, also presenting an opportunity for increased global demands.

This study investigates the antioxidant and estrogenic properties of native Iranian honeys, particularly in human breast cancer. Honey’s bioactive compounds are crucial in combating oxidative stress and preventing chronic diseases such as cancer, yet limited research has focused on these effects specific to Iranian honeys. Utilizing the E-screen method, the proliferative effects (PEs) of cedar and citrus honeys versus commercial varieties were analyzed. The findings revealed that cedar honey possessed the highest phenolic content (93.09 mg/100 g) followed by citrus honey of southern Iran (61.06 mg/100 g) and citrus honey of northern Iran (43.18 mg/100 g), significantly enhancing its antioxidant activity, as evidenced by a DPPH free radical inhibition of 47.1%. Estrogenic activity was also notable, with cedar honey promoting MCF-7 cell proliferation (PE = 1.21) more effectively than other samples. However, increased concentrations induced cytotoxic effects, inhibiting cell growth from 5 mg/mL onwards. Intriguingly, citrus honeys also elevated intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) at 0.1 mg/mL, suggesting a complex interplay between antioxidant and estrogenic actions. Also, cedar honey had a greater ability to inhibit MCF-7 cells with an apoptosis rate of 25.5% compared to the others. Overall, cedar and citrus honeys exhibit dose-dependent estrogenic activity and promote ROS production, underscoring their potential as functional foods in cancer prevention strategies.

Developing a robust and reliable geographical origin discrimination model, unaffected by grape varieties, wine types, or the scale and distance of the wine-growing area, is essential for the sustainable growth of China’s wine industry. A total of 967 wine samples were collected from 10 original regions in China, and 27 elemental profiles and two stable isotope ratios were determined by ICP-MS and IRMS, respectively. PCA was used to evaluate the contributions of 29 regional markers in classifying the geographical regions of Chinese wine. Six chemometric methods were employed, including PCA, PLS-DA, RF, ANN, SVM, and R-Part, to verify the regions and subregions of Chinese wine. This study successfully proposed advanced simultaneous classification models for original regions and subregions of Chinese wine using multielements and stable ratios combined with random forest (100% accuracy) for the first time.

Consumer demand for sustainable and healthy food options, along with the need for effective food preservation, has highlighted the importance of natural antioxidants. This study investigates the effects of Sargassum bovianum seaweed extract, a potential natural antioxidant and nutraceutical, on the quality and sensory properties of sesame oil. Results showed that the acid and peroxide values of Sargassum algae were 0.1 ± 0.003 meq/kg and 0.08 ± 0.03 meq/kg, respectively, indicating a low level of oxidation. Total lipid contents were 2.3 ± 0.2%, and 40 ± 1.1% for Sargassum algae and sesame seed oil samples, respectively. Similarly, sesame oil exhibited significantly lower oxidation parameters in the presence of Sargassum extract. Sensory evaluation results showed that the oil’s sensory properties were retained and a high level of consumer acceptance. GC-FID analysis of sesame, seaweed, and oil-bearing algae revealed fatty acid counts of 13, 18, and 14, respectively, with the highest contributions of linoleic acid, palmitic acid, and linoleic acid. Furthermore, their GC-MS analysis revealed 52, 53, and 44 compounds with multiple chemical structures, respectively. Depending on the concentration, the addition of TBHQ, ascorbic acid, and seaweed treatments to sesame oil significantly increased the DPPH free radical inhibition activity. S. bovianum extract has shown a promising potential as a natural antioxidant in preserving the quality and extending the shelf life of sesame oil, with the additional benefit of maintaining sensory acceptance. This coincides with the growing interest in replacing synthetic antioxidants in foods with natural alternatives.

Potassium fertilisation plays an important role in improving pineapple fruit weight and quality. Potassium chloride (KCl)-based compound fertilizer instead of potassium sulphate (K₂SO₄) is often used in the pineapple cultivation due to its cheaper cost. A naturally formed mineral fertiliser mined in the U.K. known as polyhalite is one of the K₂SO₄-based fertiliser suitable for use in pineapple cultivation, besides supplying other macronutrients, which include magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca) and sulphur (S). This study aimed to evaluate the effects of polyhalite application after anthesis on yield, quality and postharvest storage shelf life of MD2 pineapples. Results showed that the average fruit weight increased by 12.8% with polyhalite dosage with significant increase recorded at the dose of 660 kg/ha. N, K, Mg, Ca and B levels in D leaf increased with polyhalite application. Pineapples treated with 660 kg/ha had slightly higher total soluble solids (11.30%), crude fibre content (28.50%), titratable acidity (13.30%) and sensory profile of overall acceptability (1.90%) compared with the control (without polyhalite application) at Day 13 of storage period. Thus, it can be concluded that polyhalite has the potential to serve as fertiliser source supplying K and secondary macronutrients such as Ca, Mg and S to enhance yield, quality and shelf life of pineapples grown in Malaysia.

Flaxseed oil, rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids such as α-linolenic acid (50%–60%) and essential vitamins (E and A), is highly susceptible to oxidation, leading to the formation of harmful by-products that diminish its nutritional value. Addressing this oxidative instability is critical for preserving the oil’s health benefits. While synthetic antioxidants such as butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) are commonly used to mitigate oxidation, they pose potential carcinogenic risks, prompting the search for safer, natural alternatives. Curcumin, derived from turmeric, has shown to exhibit potent antioxidant properties due to its unique molecular structure, including both phenolic and beta-diketone moieties, making it an attractive candidate for replacing synthetic antioxidants. This study aimed to use peroxidase and TBARS tests to investigate the comparative effects of curcumin and BHT on the oxidative stability of flaxseed oil. Results demonstrated that curcumin at higher concentrations (500 and 1000 ppm) significantly improved the oil’s resistance to oxidation, as indicated by lower peroxide and TBARS values during storage at elevated temperatures. Activation energy (Ea) calculated from TBARS tests increased in case of 500 and 1000 ppm curcumin, which proves inhibitory effect of antioxidants toward the oxidation reaction in these samples. In terms of Ea calculated from peroxide value, a decrease is seen for samples containing 200 ppm BHT and 500 ppm curcumin which shows the ease of the oxidation process and lower shelf life in these samples compared to the ones containing 200 and 1000 ppm of curcumin. In the current study, the change in entropy (ΔS) decreases to 1000 ppm curcumin which explains the slower rate of oxidation in this case. Also, higher concentration of curcumin could inhibit an increase in the acid value at all temperature conditions, especially at 97°C. Furthermore, curcumin exhibited superior antioxidant efficacy compared to BHT, suggesting its potential as a natural antioxidant in food applications. This research underscores the importance of curcumin in enhancing the shelf life and oxidative stability of flaxseed oil, offering a natural, safer alternative to synthetic antioxidants in the food industry.

It is reported that coconut (Cocos nucifera Linn.) water possesses properties such as being refreshing, cardioprotective, digestive stimulant, and having therapeutic and nutritional benefits. In this study, an attempt has been made to make a therapeutic and nutritional beverage consisting of coconut water and orange (Citrus sinensis Linn.) juice. Different ratios of the blended beverage were tested, and the final composition with 80% coconut water and 20% orange juice was chosen. Proximate analysis, sensory evaluation, phenolic and flavonoid contents, and antioxidant activity were determined. Thin-layer chromatography (TLC) identified and quantified the beverage’s metabolites. Shelf-life evaluation was performed by assessing bacterial count and phenolic and flavonoid contents for up to 1 month. Further, network pharmacology analysis was performed to find out the tentative bimolecular relationship of identified metabolites in antioxidant potential. The results demonstrated that the blended beverage remained stable, including pH, °Brix, ash content, titratable acidity, total sugars, protein, and fat. The blended beverage exhibited strong antioxidant activity with significant contents of ascorbic acid, phenolic, and flavonoid levels. The content of gallic acid, hesperidin, and cinnamic acid in blended beverages was found to be 0.46%, 0.23%, and 0.31%, respectively. TLC–bioautography revealed that gallic acid is a predominant antioxidant compound in blended beverages. The network pharmacology analysis of identified metabolites with target proteins and genes plays a multimechanistic role in antioxidant potential. The study revealed that the beverage’s quality was maintained for the first month. The formulated beverage is rich in antioxidants and beneficial for human health.

Fruits contain good nutrients such as protein and vitamins; therefore, fruits are usually used as complementary food ingredients. Apple fruit is one of the most important traditional table fruits in the temperate zone besides being the most commonly consumed fruit in the world. Apple’s freshness is a decisive characteristic of consumer choice. Consumption may increase if apples of satisfactory freshness and quality are provided to the consumers. Reduced freshness of canned apple fruit results in significant spoilage during storage and distribution, affecting both agricultural profitability and consumer satisfaction. Many approaches have been presented to predict apple fruit freshness; however, most of these studies suffer from low accuracy due to poor image quality and the unavailability of sufficient data. This study aims to grade the freshness level of canned apple fruits by combining digital image processing and machine learning techniques. The proposed technique involves data collection of apple fruit, image segmentation, and preprocessing, creating the neural network model, training the network model, and testing for apple freshness prediction. A dataset is collected for apple fruit images for fresh, semifresh, and rotten classes, which is further augmented for more images. We extensively evaluated the performance of the proposed convolutional neural network–transfer learning (CNN-TL)–based technique. For performance evaluation, ResNet, GoogleNet, AlexNet, VGG, MobileNetV2, and InceptionV3 are also utilized due to their superior performance reported in the existing literature. The experimental results indicate the superior performance of the proposed approach with a 98% accuracy on the original dataset, which is better than other deep learning models. The model secures a 97% accuracy on the augmented dataset. Cross-validation results report a 97.71% accuracy using five folds. Furthermore, a comparison with existing state-of-the-art approaches shows that the proposed approach has better results for apple freshness classification.