• Basic Information
• Additional Info

Basic Information

• Project No. and Title: NC_OLD1023 : Engineering for food safety and quality
• Period Covered: 10/01/2011 to 09/01/2012
• Date of Report: 02/05/2013
• Annual Meeting Dates: 10/14/2012 to 10/16/2012

Participants

Anantheswaran, R; Aryana, Kayanush; Balasubramaniam, V.M.; Barringer, Sheryl; Datta, Ashim; Dolan, Kirk; Gunasekaran, Sundaram; Heldman, Dennis; Jackson, David; Jun, Soojin; Kaletunç, Gönül; Karwe, Mukund; Lee, Youngsoo; Mallikarjunan, Kumar; Martin, Fernandasan; Nindo, Caleb; Padua, Graciela; Payne, Fred; Ruan, Roger; Sablani, Shyam; Sanmartingonzalez, Mariaf; Sastry, Sudhir; Singh, R. Paul; Sivanandan, Litha; Subbiah, Jeyam; Takhar, Pawan; Torres, Antonio; Walker, Steve; Wilson, Lester; Zhong, Qixin;

Accomplishments

Impacts

1. Quinoa seeds could be puffed after extrusion to produce gluten-free snacks with low saponin contents. The quality of cakes puffed at 226°C heating time for 6 s using 34% moisture extrudates with a tempering moisture of 12% is similar to existing commercial products. Both extrusion and puffing reduced the saponins content. This is desirable since the saponins in quinoa seeds impede the nutrient absorption and induce unpalatable bitter taste.
2. Antimicrobials such as Nisin can be delivered into food products using edible food bioploymers. An understanding of the factors that govern the thermodynamics and kinetics of nisin release from the biopolymer films will be useful in designing a coating within a package or an edible coating for a food product for controlled release applications.
3. Research focuses on increasing the stability and activity of enzymes to increase the rate at which they catalyze (accelerate) biochemical reactions. By doing so, we can decrease the amount of enzyme, hence decreasing processing costs. In the case of juice clarification, simultaneously the product can be pasteurized, obviating the need of further thermal treatment downstream. Improved product quality can be expected.
4. The NMR/MRI hardware and software we developed and/or improved will enable researchers to produce higher signal to noise ratio of the low field imaging system when it is used to acquire images of low moisture foods. These improvements will further broaden the application of such low cost non-destructive and non-invasive imaging techniques in food science and engineering research.
5. NASAs packaged food items will not provide the required 5-year shelf life for Mars missions. Other processing methods to commercial sterility will need to be considered.
6. For the collaborative research between California-Davis and Texas Tech, mathematical modeling will provide a predictive tool to reduce oil uptake and improve quality of fried foods.
7. Immersive learning tools such as video games provide new opportunities for educators to teach undergraduate students. The video game on brewing offers a novel paradigm to present science and engineering content in an engaging manner.
8. Results obtained from computational modeling of gastric digestion illustrate the complex dynamics of gastric contents and the potential use of these models to provide a unique insight of how foods disintegrate in a human stomach.
9. The application of sonication to a sanitation wash with selected sanitizers significantly enhanced microbial reduction. The use of surfactant further boosts the efficacy of the washing treatment. A combined treatment of sanitizer, ultrasound, and surfactant may provide a useful tool to effectively enhance the microbial safety of fresh produce.
10. Microencapsulation is a technique to provide protection and barrier for materials included in the capsules. Probiotics have many health benefits but they have shown poor survivability causing difficulties for their applications. Microencapsulation has been used as a solution but the effect of atomization on the viability of probiotics has not been thoroughly evaluated. Researchers evaluated the effect of atomization on viability of microencapsulated probiotics during microencapsulation process, storage and simulated gastrointestinal tract. Results showed that two-fluid nozzle atomization showed significantly better viability than centrifugal atomization during long-term storage and simulated gastrointestinal tract. This study shows that microencapsulation could effectively protect probiotics and improve their viability. The results provide solid background for using nozzle over the centrifugal atomization.
11. Health and wellness are at the top of the national agenda. It is widely recognized that the basis of good health is good nutrition. Towards that effect, a number of industry initiatives are based of fortifying foods to expand their nutritional impact. A major hurdle is the low bioavailability of a number of nutritionally effective compounds. Nanotechnology research, based on cellular biology aims at providing the delivery vehicles needed to carry valuable nutrients in the cell.
12. The results from fresh produce studies will allow processors to produce safe, high quality fruit and vegetable in whole or cut form (sampling methods, sensors, improved processing methods).
13. A generic numerical modeling technique was developed which can be used for analysis of any frozen food system. Similar to the microbial quality prediction, analysis of chemical quality of food items can also be done. From the results obtained we propose to design a Time -Temperature Integrator (TTI), which, based on kinetic models of microbial growth and heat transfer simulation under different packing and storage scenarios, would indicate whether the product is suitable for consumption or not based on safety concerns.
14. Ultrasonic transmission can be used for increasing the shelf life of pasteurized milk by inactivating spore formers to a greater extent.
15. Consumer demand for food products with improved quality and safety can be achieved by two means, new process alternatives such as pressure processing technologies, or by minimizing over- and under-processing risks. The latter arises when extreme or mean values, respectively, are used in the food engineering calculations required to select product formulations, processing conditions, packaging materials and storage facilities (including storage time). The over- and under-processing risks can be minimized by considering the variability of all the parameters in those food engineering calculations.
16. Improved methods for developing, validating, and applying microbial (and quality) models will: (a) Help food processors meet consumer demand for higher-quality, safe foods, (b) Enable a higher degree of reliability/certainty in validation of critical food safety processes, and (c) Improve industry capabilities in complying with rapidly evolving food safety regulations.
17. By developing outreach programs to disseminate best practices for enhancing food safety and quality to stakeholders, fresh-cut fruits and vegetables safety and quality will be enhanced. We expect number of outbreaks will be reduced.
18. We continued our efforts for developing new and improved processing technologies for ensuring the safety of food products, while maintaining their quality and sensory attributes.
19. Work on ozone interaction with tissue and on gas sanitization shows clearly that current safety strategies of washing used by the produce industry are flawed. In particular, if a bubble happens to reside beneath a piece of contaminated produce, the washing process may have been entirely ineffective. This is a key impact which we plan to disseminate widely. Work on chlorine dioxide will provide similar information.
20. In the confectionery coating industry, hard butters are frequently used as cocoa butter replacers. An electrohydrodynamic system (EHD), which forms fine droplets with a relatively narrow size distribution, may be beneficial in confectionary coating to produce more even coverage. This study optimized the amounts of different ingredients needed to produce even coverage.
21. Studies on quality improvement of alternative processing technologies has resulted in much industry interest and further investigation. Currently pressure pasteurization is a 4 billion dollar market.
22. The developed methodology can accurately predict the dielectric properties of the samples by using the regression equations from the biphasic model as a function of moisture content and temperature or just temperature independently. Also electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) can be an accurate tool to quantify impedance changes of potato samples with different moisture contents and correlate the impedance values with dielectric properties, eventually substituting a traditional measurement using a high temperature dielectric probe.
23. Novel delivery systems are being studied for incorporation of lipophilic compounds in food matrices to improve quality, chemical stability, and bioactivity. These compounds are significant to improving healthfulness, quality, and microbiological food safety. Food biopolymers are major components of food products and ingredients. Improving physical properties of food biopolymers is critical for food quality.
24. The global probiotics market was worth $14.9 billion in 2007. It is expected to be worth $19.6 billion in 2013. The US probiotics market has grown 8.7% from 2004  2009 to $5 billion, and is expected at to grow to $6.4 billion by 2013. Probiotic (health beneficial) bacteria upon being ingested, have to survive the acid and bile conditions of the host then reach and establish in the lower gastrointestinal tract before conferring the health benefits. The mild PEF conditions identified here can be used for pretreating cultures to enhance certain desirable attributes.
25. Edible films present a new method to maintain the safety and quality of highly perishable food products and are a new strategy used by food manufacturers to retain moisture, provide attractive appearance and to control microbial growth. Therefore, the developed edible films have potential to reduce microbial growth, aid in moisture retention, extend shelf life and preserve sensory quality of food.
26. The high cost and potential toxicity of biodegradable polymers like PLGA has increased interest in octenyl succinate-modified phytoglycogen and waxy corn starch as natural carriers. The chemically- modified biopolymers can entrap lipophilic bioactive compounds thus improving food quality, bioavailability, and safety. Evaluation of the glass transition temperature (Tg) and water sensitivity of different octenyl succinate-modified biopolymers is helpful to design new encapsulation matrices at high relative humidity conditions.
27. The application of nanoencapsulated essential oils can be efficiently delivered into inaccessible sites at a controlled rate where pathogens are protected against conventional intervention methods. The coatings are an effective tool to increase shelf life of fresh-cut fruits.
28. Salmonella, E. coli and Listeria are public health concern, since these microorganisms have been associated with food-borne outbreaks from consumption of leafy vegetables. Predictive microbiology is a useful tool to determine the growth of pathogens in foods during processing and storage and the impact of strategies to minimize the risk of pathogen contamination.
29. Most fresh produce in the US does not receive a lethality step to inactivate pathogens during processing and/or handling. Recent studies indicate the internalization of pathogenic organisms into the core of leafy vegetables rather than contamination in the exposed surface only. This bacterial mobility makes surface treatments to reduce E. Coli O157:H7 and Salmonella very ineffective. In addition, most of the commercially used interventions employ chemical agents, with detrimental effects on the organoleptic properties of the food. Thermal processing of fresh produce is not an option. Therefore, non-thermal interventions such as electron beam irradiation are the only alternatives currently available to include as a lethality step in fruits and vegetables processing.
30. The lab-to-community technology transfer initiative Extension trainings and workshops on value-addition and byproduct utilization using novel food processing technologies have gained momentum and this can be used as a strategy to increase the (1) food security and (2) interest and awareness of food entrepreneurs/prospective entrepreneurs to increase the food businesses.
31. Currently, food product developers of frozen microwaveable entrees consider microwave as a black box. Cooking instructions were developed by trial and error. Mathematical model assists food product developers in understanding microwave interactions with various food products and use them for food product design that cooks more uniformly in microwave oven. Uniformity of cooking should minimizes food safety issues with frozen microwaveable food products.
32. Many outbreaks can be traced to tainted spices and the recent realization that bacteria can survive in low moisture food has led to the need for treatment of these food additives. Alternative methods of spice treatments are being investigated: the use of far infrared radiation (FIR), and treatment with ethanol vapor. Both technologies produced a 5 log reduction in Salmonella in black pepper and paprika. Both show promise for further development.

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