Effects of frozen storage on the quality characteristics of frozen whole buckwheat extruded noodles.

The effects of frozen storage (-18 °C, 180 days) on the quality of frozen whole buckwheat extruded noodles (FWBEN) were investigated. The water content of FWBEN decreased, while the reheating time, water absorption, and dry consumption rate increased with prolonged storage time. Cooking loss increased from 3.20% to 4.31%. Texture analysis indicated that the hardness initially increased, then decreased. Microstructure results showed that the starch gel structure was damaged to a certain extent after storage for a longer period of time, whereas the porous structure became non-uniform with the appearance of cracks. The relative crystallinity gradually increased, and the freezable water content decreased with prolonged storage. These results demonstrated that FWBEN quality was affected by starch retrogradation and ice recrystallization. In general, FWBEN quality was relatively stable during 180 days of frozen storage at -18 °C.

Fully-Automated High-Throughput NMR System for Screening of Haploid Kernels of Maize (Corn) by Measurement of Oil Content.

One of the modern crop breeding techniques uses doubled haploid plants that contain an identical pair of chromosomes in order to accelerate the breeding process. Rapid haploid identification method is critical for large-scale selections of double haploids. The conventional methods based on the color of the endosperm and embryo seeds are slow, manual and prone to error. On the other hand, there exists a significant difference between diploid and haploid seeds generated by high oil inducer, which makes it possible to use oil content to identify the haploid. This paper describes a fully-automated high-throughput NMR screening system for maize haploid kernel identification. The system is comprised of a sampler unit to select a single kernel to feed for measurement of NMR and weight, and a kernel sorter to distribute the kernel according to the measurement result. Tests of the system show a consistent accuracy of 94% with an average screening time of 4 seconds per kernel. Field test result is described and the directions for future improvement are discussed.