Plasma-Activated Water for Food Safety and Quality: A Review of Recent Developments.

Plasma-activated water (PAW) has received a lot of attention lately because of its antibacterial efficacy and eco-friendly nature. Compared to traditional disinfectants, this novel and intriguing option has a high disinfectant capacity while causing little to no modifications to the foodstuffs. Until now, PAW has successfully demonstrated its effectiveness against a broad range of microorganisms on a wide variety of food items. Though the efficacy of PAW in microbial reduction has been extensively reviewed, a relatively significant issue of food quality has been largely overlooked. This review aims to summarize the current studies on the physicochemical characteristics and antimicrobial potential of PAW, with an in-depth focus on food quality and safety. According to recent studies, PAW can be a potential microbial disinfectant that extends the shelf life of various food products, such as meat and fish products, fruits and vegetables, cereal products, etc. However, the efficacy varies with treatment conditions and the food ingredients applied. There is a mixed opinion about the effect of PAW on food quality. Based on the available literature, it can be concluded that there has been no substantial change in the biochemical properties of most of the tested food products. However, some fruits and vegetables had a higher value for the enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD) after PAW treatment, while only a few demonstrated a decrease in the Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) value. Sensory properties also showed no significant difference, with some exceptions in meat and fish products.

A Comprehensive Review on Bio-Preservation of Bread: An Approach to Adopt Wholesome Strategies.

Bread is a food that is commonly recognized as a very convenient type of food, but it is also easily prone to microbial attack. As a result of bread spoilage, a significant economic loss occurs to both consumers and producers. For years, the bakery industry has sought to identify treatments that make bread safe and with an extended shelf-life to address this economic and safety concern, including replacing harmful chemical preservatives. New frontiers, on the other hand, have recently been explored. Alternative methods of bread preservation, such as microbial fermentation, utilization of plant and animal derivatives, nanofibers, and other innovative technologies, have yielded promising results. This review summarizes numerous research findings regarding the bio-preservation of bread and suggests potential applications of these techniques. Among these techniques, microbial fermentation using lactic acid bacteria strains and yeast has drawn significant interest nowadays because of their outstanding antifungal activity and shelf-life extending capacity. For example, bread slices with Lactobacillus plantarum LB1 and Lactobacillus rossiae LB5 inhibited fungal development for up to 21 days with the lowest contamination score. Moreover, various essential oils and plant extracts, such as lemongrass oil and garlic extracts, demonstrated promising results in reducing fungal growth on bread and other bakery products. In addition, different emerging bio-preservation strategies such as the utilization of whey, nanofibers, active packaging, and modified atmospheric packaging have gained considerable interest in recent days.

Boiling-induced changes on physicochemical, bioactive compounds, color, and texture properties of pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima).

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effect of boiling duration on physicochemical, bioactive compounds, antioxidant activity, color, and texture properties of pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima). The pumpkin was subjected to boiling for 1, 5, 10, and 20 min at 100 ℃. The physicochemical analyses showed that pH, moisture, and water solubility index were increased, whereas ash content was decreased with increasing the boiling time. Prolong boiling exhibited a detrimental effect on bioactive compounds of pumpkin, and it was found that 20 min of boiling caused about 25.91% ± 2.21% loss of total phenolic content, 14.79% ± 1.03% loss of total carotenoids content, and 18.46% ± 1.34% loss of antioxidant activity. A kinetic study was conducted to quantify the losses occurring in bioactive compounds, antioxidant activity, changes in color, and firmness of pumpkin. The study revealed that the logistic model can predict the variation in bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity with higher R2. However, first-order kinetic models were found suitable to predict the changes occurring in bioactive compounds, antioxidant activity, color properties (L*, a*, b*, Chroma), and firmness. The total color changes (ΔE) showed a good fit with zero-order kinetic models (R2 = 0.98). The t1/2 and D-value were calculated for all measured parameters of pumpkin. These findings would be useful in designing thermal processes and related calculations of pumpkin.