A domestic-like carrot cooking methodology for multiple research applications.

Domestic-oriented research focusing on food requires methodologies that closely mimic practices occurring in home kitchens while meeting scientific standards. Currently however, there is a lack of methodologies that can be implemented in both laboratory and home environments. This paper proposes a method that fulfills the scientific requirements of repeatability and reproducibility, while utilizing commonly available materials and processes found in the average household. The method is applied to the preparation, boiling, and seasoning of roots of Daucus carota L. ("carrots"), which can be employed in various scientific fields with only minor adjustments. Three scientific experiments utilizing this methodology are presented, namely sensory evaluation, ionic chromatography measurements, and NMR experiments. In the existing literature, numerous protocols have been used for carrot sample preparation, hindering direct comparisons between studies. In this paper we would like to highlight the ability of the methodology to enhance comparability, as well as its potential utilization in other research applications. The main principles underlying the proposed methodology can also be extrapolated to prepare samples of several other vegetables or cereals.•Comprehensive guidelines for standardizing the shapes, lengths, and widths of carrots are outlined, ensuring minimal variability while preserving the integrity of the raw material.•The cooking method for carrots is tailored to utilize commonly available household materials, while meeting scientific standards required for research purposes.•Seasoning practices involving readily available domestic materials, like commercial salt, are suggested.

Space farming: Horticulture systems on spacecraft and outlook to planetary space exploration.

Successful human space exploration requires more products than can be taken as payload. There is a need, therefore, for in-space circular manufacturing. Requirements for this include limited resource inflow, from either Earth or other planets and the generation of minimal waste. The provision of nutritious food is a clear need for human survival on the Moon or Mars and is one of the most complex to solve. Demand in large quantities, constant and reliable provision of food requires the development of specialist agricultural technologies. Here, we first review the history of space farming over the past five decades. This survey assesses the technologies which have been tested under the harsh conditions of space, identifying which modern horticultural components are applicable for in-space plant growth. We then outline which plants have been grown and under what conditions, and speculate upon the types of plants that could be selected to best nourish astronauts. Current systems are focussed on experimentation and exploration, but do not yet provide turn-key solutions for efficient food production within a long-term space exploration scenario. With that take, this review aims to provide a perspective on how an engineered closed circular environmental life-support system (ECCLES) might be constructed. To exemplify the latter, nutrient auto accumulation by biofortification is proposed through the integration of space farming and space mining, which is uncharted on Earth.

Identification of markers of thermal processing ("roasting") in aqueous extracts of Coffea arabica L. seeds through NMR fingerprinting and chemometrics.

Roasting of Coffea arabica L. seeds gives rise to chemical reactions that produce more than 800 compounds, some being responsible for the desired organoleptic properties for which the beverage called "coffee" is known. In the industry, the "roasting profile," that is, the times and temperatures applied, is key to influence the composition of roasted coffee beans and the flavour of the beverage made from them. The impact of roasting on the chemical composition of coffee has been the subject of numerous studies, including by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. However, the roasting equipment and profiles applied in these studies are often far from real industrial conditions. In this work, the effects of two critical technological parameters of the roasting process, namely, the "development time" (the period of time after the "first crack," a characteristic noise due to seed disruption) and the final roasting temperature on coffee extracts, were investigated. Seeds were roasted at pilot scale according to 13 industrial roasting profiles and extracted in D2 O. The extracts were analysed by 1 H NMR experiments. The NMR spectra were compared using (a) quantitative analysis of main signals by successive orders of magnitude and (b) chemometric tools (principal component analysis, partial least squares and sparse-orthogonal partial least squares analysis). This allowed to identify compounds, which may serve as markers of roasting and showed that changes in chemical composition can be detected even for slight change in final temperature (~1°C) or in total roasting time (~25 s).

In situ quantitative 1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy discriminates between raw and steam cooked potato strips based on their metabolites.

A direct quantitative proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy method was developed for the measurement of saccharides, organic acids and amino acids in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) tuber filaments, a complex gel-like food matrix. The method requires minimal sample preparation. It is thus a faster alternative compared to liquid sample matrices, as well as an extension to methods analyzing only selected metabolites in the sample. The samples in this study were either raw or steamed potato strips that were either measured as D2O extracts or directly without extraction or derivatization steps (in situ technique). A total of 22 compounds were identified in extracts and 18 in potato strips. Of these, 20 compounds were quantifiable in potato extracts and 13 compounds in potato strips. The effect of thermal processing was reflected in the profile of analyzed compounds. One example was fumaric acid, which was completely lost in steamed samples in both measurement techniques. Additionally, the content of γ-aminobutyric acid in steamed potato strips was lower. In potato extracts, the contents of additional 7 compounds were statistically different. The raw and steamed samples separated into two groups with multivariate models both in extracts and potato strips, and these groups were linked to changes in aforementioned compounds. These results demonstrated that the in situ quantitative 1H NMR technique is a useful tool to analyze potato metabolites. This technique could be further applied to any gel-like complex matrix, meaning that lengthy sample pretreatment could be skipped.

Investigating the performance of in situ quantitative nuclear magnetic resonance analysis and applying the method to determine the distribution of saccharides in various parts of carrot roots (Daucus carota L.).

In order to explore the performance of the analytical method called in situ quantitative nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy - is q NMR - the distribution of glucose, fructose and sucrose in various parts of a carrot root (Daucus carota L.) - primary xylem, secondary xylem, phloem, cortex; top part and lower part - was determined. The influence on the quality of spectra of drying samples before analysis was studied, as well as the influence of the length of strips of tissue used in analysis. Finally samples as small as 240 mm(3) could be studied directly, with minimum prior treatment (only drying), along with deuterated water for locking and a sealed capillary tube containing a solution of 0.5% of the sodium salt of (trimethylsilyl)propionic-2,2,3,3-d4 acid, used both as an internal reference and for quantification. With optimized parameters, the coefficients of variation for measurements were observed to have an average value of 0.038, with a standard deviation of 0.047.

Optimizing separation conditions of 19 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by cyclodextrin-modified capillary electrophoresis and applications to edible oils.

For the first time, the separation of 19 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) listed as priority pollutants in environmental and food samples by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA) and the European Food Safety Authority was developed in cyclodextrin (CD)-modified capillary zone electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescence detection (excitation wavelength: 325 nm). The use of a dual CD system, involving a mixture of one neutral CD and one anionic CD, enabled to reach unique selectivity. As solutes were separated based on their differential partitioning between the two CDs, the CD relative concentrations were investigated to optimize selectivity. Separation of 19 PAHs with enhanced resolutions as compared with previous studies on the 16 US-EPA PAHs and efficiencies superior to 1.5 × 10(5) were achieved in 15 min using 10mM sulfobutyl ether-ß-CD and 20mM methyl-ß-CD. The use of an internal standard (umbelliferone) with appropriate electrolyte and sample compositions, rinse sequences and sample vial material resulted in a significant improvement in method repeatability. Typical RSD variations for 6 successive experiments were between 0.8% and 1.7% for peak migration times and between 1.2% and 4.9% for normalized corrected peak areas. LOQs in the low µg/L range were obtained. For the first time in capillary electrophoresis, applications to real vegetable oil extracts were successfully carried out using the separation method developed here.

Influence of the colloidal structure of dairy gels on milk fat fusion behavior: quantification of the liquid fat content by in situ quantitative proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (isq (1) H NMR).

Dairy gels (DG), such as yoghurts, contain both solid and liquid fats at the time of consumption, as their temperature rises to anything between 10 and 24 °C after being introduced into the mouth at 4 °C. The mass ratio between solid and liquid fats, which depends on the temperature, impacts the organoleptic properties of DG. As the ordinary methods for determining this ratio can only be applied to samples consisting mainly in fat materials, a fat extraction step needs to be added into the analytical process when applied to DG, which prevents the study of the potential impact of their colloidal structure on milk fat fusion behavior. In situ quantitative proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (isq (1) H NMR) was investigated as a method for direct measurements in DG: at temperatures between 20.0 and 70.0 °C, the liquid fat content and the composition of triacylglycerols of the liquid phase (in terms of alkyl chains length) were determined. Spectra of isolated milk fat also enable the quantification of the double bonds of triacylglycerols. Statistical tests showed no significant difference between isolated milk fat and milk fat inside a DG in terms of melting behavior: the fat globule membrane does not seem to have a significant influence on the fat melting behavior.