Microbiological contamination profile in soft drinks.

Soft drinks are food matrices propitious to the growth of acidophilic bacteria, yeasts, and filamentous fungi due to their pH, water activity, and the presence of nutrients. Off-flavor, clouding, and package stuffing are the only parameters producers have to detect spoilage when it is often too late for the brand's reputation. In this work, microbiological analyses were performed on non-alcoholic beverages of Brazilian and Bolivian brands. As a result, Gram-positive, Gram-negative, yeast, and filamentous fungi were isolated. Zygosaccharomyces bisporus yeast was isolated from different flavored stuffed products, and Gluconacetobacter liquefaciens and Brevibacillus agri were isolated from packages without visible signs of deterioration. These microorganisms were identified by MALDI-TOF. For products with visible growth of filamentous fungi, microscopic identification keys identified Aspergillus flavus, Penicillium citrinum, Paecilomyces niveus, and Paecilomyces variotii. These work's findings reflect a failure to sanitize raw materials since the isolates' primary origin is the soil and the water, pointing to the lack of process control in soft drinks.

Health issues and technological aspects of plant-based alternative milk.

A growing number of consumers opt for plant-based milk substitutes for medical reasons, like cow's milk protein allergy (CMPA), lactose intolerance (LI), or as a lifestyle choice. Plant-based milk substitutes, or plant extracts, are water-soluble extracts of legumes, oilseeds, cereals or pseudocereals that resemble bovine milk in appearance. It is produced by reducing the size of the raw material, extracted in water and subsequently homogenized, being an alternative to cow's milk. They are considered cow's milk replacers due to similar chemical composition and can also be used as a substitute for direct use or in some animal milk-based preparations. On the other hand, these substitutes exhibit different sensory characteristics, stability and nutritional composition from cow's milk. They are manufactured by extracting the raw material in water, separating the liquid, and formulating the final product. Others process like homogenization and thermal treatments are indispensable to improve the suspension and microbiological stabilities of the final product so that can be consumed. However new and advanced non-thermal processing technologies such as ultra-high pressure homogenization and pulsed electric field processing are being researched for tackling the problems related to increase of shelf life, emulsion stability, nutritional completeness and sensory acceptability without the use of high temperatures. Some pre-treatments such as peeling, bleaching or soaking can be performed on the raw material in order to improve the final product. The nutritional properties are influenced by the plant source, processing, and fortification. The addition of other ingredients as sugar, oil and flavorings is done to the plant-based milk substitute to make them more palatable and be more acceptable to consumers. Thus, the aim is to review the main reasons for the consumption of plant-based milk substitute as well as the raw materials used and the technological aspects of its production.