Journal of Food Engineering最新文献

For real-time dynamic quality evaluation of pork meat, the thermal accumulation monitoring for the entire period is essential. The research aims to develop a novel covalent organic framework (COF) gel capable of recording such information. The COF with self-responsive irreversible color change property was synthesized using benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxaldehyde, 2,5-diamino-1,4-benzenedithiol dihydrochloride and p-phthalaldehyde as monomers. The thermal accumulation was monitored based on the COF over a broad temperature range (−22 °C–55 °C), which covered the storage temperatures of the pork meat. The results were easily readable by series visible color variations (yellow, green, blue and dark blue) displayed by COF during the thermal accumulation monitoring in the temperature range (25 °C–55 °C) of study. At the lower temperature (−22 °C–4 °C), small variation of the thermal information can be effectively represented by quantitative analysis. The color change rates were in the order of k_-22 °C < k_{4 °C} < k_25 °C < k_35 °C < k_55 °C. The activation energy of reaction was 65.31 kJ mol⁻¹. The indicator gel was prepared by the COF combining with carrageenan in pure aqueous medium. The potential application of the COF gel for real-time monitoring the dynamic quality change of pork samples was investigated. The response signals of the COF gel were well matched with the growth rate of microbe in pork meat. The proposed COF gel based thermal history indicator is promising for real-time monitoring dynamic quality changes of pork meat during the cold supply chain.

Fried centipede, a popular food in southern China and Vietnam, is well known for its notable health benefits owing to its unique chemical composition. This study focused on acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitor screening, bioactivity evaluation, and the extraction of bioactive compounds derived from fried centipedes. To determine the accuracy of in vitro AChE inhibitor screening, receptor-ligand affinity ultrafiltration and enzymatic reaction kinetics technologies were employed for the rapid screening and structural identification of bioactive compounds and to verify the enzyme inhibition activity and mechanism of the compounds. Moreover, molecular docking and dynamic simulations were utilized to assess the effectiveness of the target, and the integration of experimental and computational approaches facilitated a comprehensive analysis of the active compounds and their activities at four levels. To address the issues of low content and low extraction and separation efficiencies of bioactive compounds derived from centipedes, an activity-oriented complex preparation method (consecutive ultrasonic-assisted centrifugal extraction coupled online with UNIFAC countercurrent chromatography and semi-high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was developed for efficient extraction, online concentration, and complex separation of the identified AChE ligands. As a result, six active compounds, including cytidine, guanine, uracil, hypoxanthine, xanthine, and β-thymidine demonstrated significant binding affinity to the AChE active sites within 3 h. This study provided valuable insights into the active compounds of fried centipedes and their potential anti-Alzheimer's disease properties. These findings contribute to the advancement of animal food preparation methodologies by combining cutting-edge extraction techniques, biological activity screening, and the development of AChE inhibitors from fried centipedes. Our method serves as a valuable reference for exploring and developing functional animal materials from diverse medicinal resources.

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of ultrasonication on the formation of crystalline network of monoglycerides (MGs) and Tween 20 (Tw20) in a continuous matrix of olive oil. Several analytical methods such as differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), confocal and polarized optical microscopy, rheometry, and infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) were employed to characterize the ultrasonicated oleogel structures. DSC and FT-IR provided evidence that ultrasonication accelerated the crystallization of the β-polymorph of the monoglycerides. Confocal and optical microscopy revealed that ultrasonication resulted in shorter and thinner β-MGs crystals. The addition of Tw20 to the system led to formation of oil-in-oil emulsion gels with the β-MGs crystals acting as Pickering particles. Rheology showed that ultrasonication induced the formation of stronger but with lower yield stress oleogels. Overall, ultrasonication can modulate the structure of MGs-based crystallized networks, thereby influencing the thermomechanical properties, which could be beneficial for fat substitution in food products.

Perishable horticultural products may necessitate multi-packaging for preservation. The optimized primary and secondary packaging designs allow to reduce cooling time and ensure uniform product temperature, thereby enhancing fruit quality. This study examined how the secondary package design impacts the cooling of strawberries in airtight clamshells (AC) during precooling. The AC design simulates heat transfer within Modified Atmosphere Package (MAP) where there is no direct interaction between the external cooling air and the internal environment of the clamshell. Laboratory experiments were conducted to simulate one level of a pallet, using artificial material instead of real strawberries in order to have a better control of thermophysical properties and thus to better investigate heat transfer mechanisms. The thermal performance of an existing tray design was compared to three new alternative designs. The effect of air headspace, vent holes area and inlet airflow rate on the cooling efficiency was investigated.

Experimental results revealed significant cooling heterogeneities among different AC positions, with the largest observed disparities being 1.8 h for half cooling time (HCT) and 3.7 h for seven-eight cooling time (SECT) in the current tray design. Incorporating vent holes into the current commercialized tray design demonstrated superior cooling performance, with 8% improvement of the overall average HCT. Analysis showed increasing the thickness of the air headspace above the AC increased 91% and 113% the overall average HCT and SECT, respectively. The research found that airflow distribution in a tray has a critical effect on the heat transfer between the AC walls and the surrounding air temperature. Thus, the packaging design is crucial in ensuring proper ventilation around the ACs.

The alternative designs or operating under a lower airflow rate revealed a potential to cut down on energy use for ventilation. Specifically, when the airflow rate was reduced by one-quarter, there was a remarkable 94% decrease in energy usage. However, this benefit is counterbalanced by a 100% increase in the overall average HCT, which might adversely affect the product quality. Hence, optimizing the packaging design is essential to ensure the right balance between energy efficiency and product quality.

The HCT exhibited a linear correlation with the external resistance, which is influenced by the airflow behavior, whatever the AC positions and tray designs.

Gentle extraction of ingredients from raw materials is essential for high-quality food ingredients and can lead to reducing the use of water, chemicals, and energy in the extraction. For example, a simple aqueous extraction can yield a mixture of oil, in the form of a natural oil-in-water oleosome emulsion, and proteins. The oleosomes and proteins can then be further separated in a next step. We explored a continuous counter-current electrophoretic process that separates oleosomes and proteins based on their electrophoretic mobility by balancing an electric field with an opposing solvent flow. The separation is accomplished through the retention of the component with the higher electrophoretic mobility, the oleosomes, and the passage of the proteins, having lower mobility. The fluxes of oleosomes and proteins from rapeseed, after aqueous extraction, were analyzed as a function of the electric field (0–75 Vcm⁻¹) and 1.2 ± 0.1 mLmin^-1 solvent flow rate. At 50 Vcm⁻¹, the permeation flux of proteins was 10-fold higher than that of oleosomes, as shown by the selectivity increasing to 9.84 from 1.90 at 25 Vcm⁻¹. The difference in their flux promises to become more pronounced under an increasing treatment duration, but two main technical limitations, electrolysis-based pH alteration and membrane fouling, restrict further separation. We expect the listed challenges can be mitigated with the addition of electrode rinse chambers and the use of larger pore size membranes.

This study investigates the characteristics of chickpea protein-stabilized Pickering emulsion transformed into a mayonnaise-like product, and examines the effects of altering the oil phase (65–73%) and high-pressure homogenization (0–300 Bar) on its appearance, rheological properties, thixotropy, particle size distribution, and freeze-thaw stability. The results reveal that with an increase in oil phase content or homogenization pressure, the chickpea protein emulsion undergoes a transition from an unstable to a densely packed state, exhibiting gel-like behavior with a significant rise in viscoelasticity and a gradual reduction in particle size. Augmenting the oil phase leads to a decrease in protein chain length and oil droplet size. Within the experimental range, when the chickpea protein content is 5%, and the oil phase is 69%, or when the oil phase is 65% with a homogenization pressure of 40 Bar, the emulsion demonstrates an optimal appearance and rheological properties closely resembling commercial mayonnaise products. This achievement represents a significant milestone in formulating emulsions that closely mimic the characteristics of prevalent mayonnaise products in the market.

A large-scale study was conducted to obtain a more holistic understanding of the cooking behavior for different bean accessions in terms of cooking kinetics and time to cook. Fresh and aged soaked beans from twenty-four accessions were assessed for texture evolution during cooking at 95 °C using the most informative objective compression texture analysis method. Texture evolution was modelled by the conventional fractional conversion model as well as modified three-parameter models to capture the lag phase. The initial texture varied across bean accessions and is significantly positively related to bean size. Significant but limited differences in initial texture on ageing were observed, the difference being accession dependent. The texture evolution during cooking, cooking kinetics and time to cook varied across bean accessions and storage conditions and all bean accessions developed the hard to cook defect. The softening rate constants for fresh beans were significantly higher (0.026–0.053) and more variable than for aged beans (0.008–0.014, almost similar values). Fresh and aged beans of a given accession softened to similar levels of final relative hardness. The lag phase was more prominent in aged beans (up to ≈25 min) than non-aged beans (0–7 min). Therefore, the difference in time to cook for fresh beans across accessions is mainly determined by the difference in initial hardness and cooking rate constant, while for aged beans these differences depend on initial hardness and lag time and to a lesser extent on the cooking rate constant.

Subcritical solvent extraction (SSE) is an efficient and versatile technology for the recovery of bioactive compounds from food by-products. The present work aims to study the SSE efficiency and kinetics for the extraction of grape marc polyphenols. Water, ethanol, and a 50% water-ethanol mixture (EtOH 50%) were used as green solvents. The higher polyphenol content (4.05 ± 0.23 g_GAE/100 g_{d. m.}) and antioxidant activity (42.30 ± 0.68 mg _α-toc/mL) were obtained with subcritical EtOH 50% at 120 °C and 10.3 MPa, respectively, 1.5- and 3-fold higher than the conventional extraction. According to kinetic modeling, SSE was four-fold faster and a degradation phenomenon of polyphenols was highlighted for times longer than 10 min. The two-site kinetic model and a second order exponential decay function suitably described the extraction kinetics and degradation phase, respectively (R² > 0.97). A remarkable effect was highlighted on the polymerization degree and galloylation percentage of proanthocyanidins by SSE, and an increase in their antioxidant activity was observed.

The cold-pressed horseradish (Armoracia rusticana L.) root juice was used for spray-drying encapsulation within different biopolymeric carriers (maltodextrin/alginate, maltodextrin/guar gum, and maltodextrin/gum Arabic) to ensure easier handling and preservation of its bioactive compounds. The obtained encapsulates were added in mayonnaise formulations as potential substitutes for synthetic antioxidants. Physicochemical, spectrophotometric, and chromatographic analyses of the encapsulates showed the presence of various phenolic compounds and a pronounced antioxidant activity. The encapsulates were stable in terms of total phenolic content retention over 6 months of storage at −18 °C. The determination of the peroxide and p-anisidine values as well as the accelerated oxidation stability analysis showed that the horseradish encapsulates added to the mayonnaise were more potent in maintaining the oxidative stability of the mayonnaise than the synthetic antioxidant. The added encapsulates positively affected the pH and acid values of the mayonnaises. Also, mayonnaises with encapsulates were sensory acceptable. These results suggest that encapsulated horseradish root juice within various carriers could find useful application as a natural antioxidant in food products to prevent oxidation and prolong shelf-life.

The tenderness of meat is determined by muscle components, mainly including myofibrillar and connective tissues. In the present study, the microstructures evolution and mechanics behavior of yak postmortem muscle subjected to resonance vibration treatment was investigated by experimental and numerical investigation, in order to illustrate the resonance tenderization mechanism and the mechanical relationship of muscle components. The results show that there are three orders of natural frequencies of the raw yak meat, and the resonance frequency is determined as 26 Hz. By vibration treatment at this frequency, the shear force and MFI of the vibrated meat is 35.70 N and 62, respectively, exhibiting remarkable tenderizing effect compared with the raw sample and other frequencies treated samples. The microstructures and vibration modal simulation have revealed that the stress concentration happens in the junction of muscle fibers and extracellular matrix (collagenous connective tissues), leading to the detachment of endomysium connective tissues from muscle fibers and the disappearance of M-bands in myofibrils, thus resulting the significant tenderization. The resonance also causes the stress-strain behaviors of meat transiting from plastic deformation to elastic deformation. The experimental and numerical results reveal that the physical destruction of the cross-linkings or interactions between muscle fibers and endomysium connective tissues induced by resonance, plays a crucial role in the detachment of muscle components, transformation of stress-strain behavior and the significant tenderization effect.