Effects of defect action level of Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) fragments on quality of wheat flour.

BACKGROUND: Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) is one of the most important secondary storage pests of all types of flour and flour-based products. The present study focuses on the fragment producing behaviour of T. castaneum in wheat flour during storage and its effect on the quality parameters and defect action level (DAL) of fragments. The US Food and Drug Administration has set a DAL of 75 insect fragments in 50 g of flour. Box-Behnken design was used to optimize the storage conditions (storage period in days and temperature in degrees Celsius) and insect density (numbers) to keep insect fragments below the DAL. RESULTS: Optimization results indicated that the presence of single number of adult of T. castaneum is enough to cross the DAL of insect fragments within a storage period of 21 days at a storage temperature of 30 °C. Insect fragments cause perceptible changes in the quality of wheat flour. When sample attained DAL of T. castaneum fragments in wheat flour,the various quality parameters were analysed in that moisture content of wheat flour was 10.8 ± 0.26%, total colour change was 2.052 (ΔE value), T. castaneum progeny emergence was 19.66 ± 1, uric acid was 1.8 ± 0.16 g kg-1 and microbial count was 7.34 ± 0.5 cfu g-1 . CONCLUSIONS: Results from the present study indicate that the presence of even a single adult of stored pest in wheat flour should not be ignored. It is mandatory to determine the threshold level and frequent sampling is required to achieve zero tolerance of stored product insects in food commodities. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry.

Effect of process parameters of microwave-assisted hot air drying on characteristics of fried black gram papad.

Papad is a crunchy wafer-like snack food consumed all over India and other Asian countries. Traditionally, sun-drying requires more drying time and reduces less moisture from papad, which absorbs more oil during frying. The current study was carried out using microwave-assisted hot air drying (MAHD) to reduce fried papad oil content. Box-Behnken design (BBD) was selected to perform 17 trials for drying of papad using MAHD along with different power levels (300, 600, and 900 W), exposure times (30, 60, and 90 s) and hot air temperatures (40, 50 and 60 °C). The fried papad characteristics were evaluated in terms of oil content, oil uptake ratio, porosity, expansion and texture using standard procedures. MAHD helped reduce higher than 30% of fried papad oil content compared to the traditional method. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) confirmed that the MAHD papad has fewer pore structures than sun dried-fried papad. Using response surface methodology (RSM), the optimized parameters of MAHD was found to be 653 W power level with an exposure time of 56 s at 43 °C of drying temperature, which reduced oil content (7.90 ± 0.02%), oil uptake ratio (1.50 ± 0.03), porosity (16.33 ± 0.29%) and expansion (7.97 ± 0.02%) of fried papad.

Combined effect of ohmic heating and enzyme assisted aqueous extraction process on soy oil recovery.

This research describes a new technological process for soybean oil extraction. The process deals with the combined effect of ohmic heating and enzyme assisted aqueous oil extraction process (EAEP) on enhancement of oil recovery from soybean seed. The experimental process consisted of following basic steps, namely, dehulling, wet grinding, enzymatic treatment, ohmic heating, aqueous extraction and centrifugation. The effect of ohmic heating parameters namely electric field strength (EFS), end point temperature (EPT) and holding time (HT) on aqueous oil extraction process were investigated. Three levels of electric field strength (i.e. OH600V, OH750V and OH900V), 3 levels of end point temperature (i.e. 70, 80 and 90 °C) and 3 levels of holding time (i.e. 0, 5 and 10 min.) were taken as independent variables using full factorial design. Percentage oil recovery from soybean by EAEP alone and EAEP coupled with ohmic heating were 53.12 % and 56.86 % to 73 % respectively. The maximum oil recovery (73 %) was obtained when the sample was heated and maintained at 90 °C using electric field strength of OH600V for a holding time of 10 min. The free fatty acid (FFA) of the extracted oil (i.e. in range of 0.97 to 1.29 %) was within the acceptable limit of 3 % (oleic acid) and 0.5-3 % prescribed respectively by PFA and BIS.

Optimization of process parameters for the production of spray dried Ber (Ziziphus jujube L.) powder.

The study covers effect of operating variables of spray dryer i.e. inlet temperature (170, 180, 190, 200 and 210 °C,), aspirator blower capacity (40, 50, 60, 70 and 80 %) and feed pump capacity (9, 12, 15, 18, and 21 %) and processing parameters of feed i.e. total soluble solid (TSS) of feed (7.5 %) and encapsulating material, maltodextrin (4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 %), aerosil (1.0 %), citric acid (0.25 %) upon the physical properties (colour, packed density and hygroscopicity) of powder were observed. After complete evaluation and analysis of all the attributes for physical properties i.e. colour, packed density (0.45 g/cc) and hygroscopicity (0.17 g/g dry matter), it was concluded that best quality of Ber powder were obtained at inlet air temperature 190 °C, aspirator blower capacity 60 %, feed pump capacity 15 %, encapsulating material 8 %.