Recent advances in the technology of chapatti: an Indian traditional unleavened flatbread.

Chapatti is a flattened circular flatbread also known as roti, poli, safari, and phulka, usually baked on a hot iron griddle. It is a staple diet of India and hence the quality of chapatti plays a major role in its acceptance. The overall quality of chapatti is dependent on various attributes such as pliability, handfeel, chapatti eating quality, and taste. These attributes are influenced by numerous factors, including wheat genotypes, wheat varieties, the molecular weight distribution of proteins, and processing techniques. This staple food has been extensively studied for various aspects, including processing, mechanism, fractionation, and reconstitution, quality improver, shelf life extension and also the mechanization of processing. This review focus on all the above-mentioned aspects and innovations carried out in this area.

Chemometric approach-based characterization and screening of gluten free flours for development of Indian unleavened flatbread.

The objective of the study was to screen amongst various gluten free flours to prepare Indian unleavened flatbread using principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) as a mathematical tool. Gluten free flours studied in this work were, rice, sorghum, moong, amaranth, sama, ragi, water chestnut, buckwheat, soy, tamatind kernel, chickpea, black gram and unripe banana flour. The characteristics of sorghum: rice flatbread was analyzed such as dough making ability, subjective rollability, puffing and acceptability with respect to wheat. Interrelationship between the parameters analyzed and the different gluten free flours were investigated by using PCA and HCA. PCA revealed that the first two components represented 92.56% of the total variability in flatbread making characteristics. HCA classified samples into 6 clusters on the basis of measured flatbread making characteristics. From the results, moong, water chestnut and unripe banana flour in addition to mixture sorghum: rice (30:70) flour were chosen as ingredients for the preparation of Indian unleavened flatbread.

A comprehensive overview of functional and rheological properties of aloe vera and its application in foods.

Aloe vera catches attention of food industry due to its various health benefits like emollient, anti-inflammatory, purgative, anti-microbial, aphrodisiac, antifungal, and antioxidant. Aloe vera gel has excellent functional and nutritional properties and its incorporation into food can increase its functional and nutritional value of the food. However, both the pulp and aloe gel contain a lot of insoluble polymer particles, which affect the rheological behaviour and physical stability mechanisms of the suspensions during storage and processing. While many researchers have explored the application of aloe vera juice in the food products, no literature review of food applications of aloe vera along with their rheological properties have been complied. Hence, the present review aimed to focus on the utilization of aloe vera in the various sectors of food processing and gives insights on the rheological and flow behaviour of aloe vera juice which is a critical parameter for its food application.

Pasting, viscoelastic and rheological characterization of gluten free (cereals, legume and underutilized) flours with reference to wheat flour.

In this study, the rheological properties of dough prepared from gluten free flours (rice, sorghum, moong, water chestnut and unripe banana) and wheat dough were determined. Pasting properties and viscoelastic properties were analyzed using rheometer and dough rheology experiment was performed on texture analyzer. Water chestnut flour exhibited highest peak viscocity (22.6 Pa s), trough viscosity (12.1), breakdown viscosity (10.5 Pa s) and final viscosity (14.92 Pa s) than others while unripe banana flour showed highest setback viscosity (4.54 Pa s). Pasting temperature was found to be highest for sorghum followed by wheat and others. The highest elastic (G') and loss (G″) module were obtained for moong flour. Wheat and gluten free flours were found to exhibit thixotropic effect. Moong flour dough was found to be the stickiest (dough stickiness 57.83 g) followed by WCF, UBF, wheat, rice and sorghum. Similar trend was observed for dough strength. These flours can be proved as key materials for the gluten-free products market and can provide additional inexpensive advantage to the food processing industry.

Non-thermal plasma: An advanced technology for food industry.

In this era of green technology, plasma technology is one of the novel techniques intended towards many industries including food industry as a principal application due to less utilization of energy, solvents, and water with minimum impact on food quality. The foremost purpose behind the utilization of nonthermal plasma processing (cold plasma) lies in the retention of freshness of food products along with furtherance of sensory properties as well as functional and nutritional composition. In addition, this technique assists in shelf life extension and carries out desirable modifications in the structure of food and packaging material. This technology has been proven to be advantageous over other technologies since all these processes are carried out at low temperature, hence is highly suitable for heat-sensitive materials. The present review summarizes the mechanism of this plasma technology along with its benefits to the industry, for example improvements in cooking quality, enhancements in enzyme activity, modification of starches, and microbial inactivation. Also, the effects of plasma treatment on characteristics of various food products have been elaborated in this review.

Novel, energy efficient and green cloud point extraction: technology and applications in food processing.

Recently, a novel technique for extraction of functional thermally sensitive bioactive components from food has been developed due to its green efficacy (no toxic chemicals) and cost effectiveness. Cloud point extraction (CPE) is one of the such best alternative techniques that can be used for extraction of wide range of organic and inorganic components using green surfactants. It is a simple, rapid and inexpensive extraction technique which involves clustering of non-ionic surfactant monomers to form a hydrophobic core (micelle), which then entraps the hydrophobic bioactive compounds within it. CPE can be applied for extraction of bioactives from food processing waste as well as separation and purification of proteins. Besides that, research has received special attention on sample preparation for analysis of food constituents in the last decade. The scope of CPE is very vast in these sectors because of the advantages of CPE over other methods. This review deals with significance of CPE method and their potential green applications in food processing.

Bioactive characteristics and optimization of tamarind seed protein hydrolysate for antioxidant-rich food formulations.

Tamarind seed has been a source of valuable nutrients such as protein (contains high amount of many essential amino acids), essential fatty acids, and minerals which are recognized as additive to develop perfect balanced functional foods. The objective of present work was to optimize the process parameters for extraction and hydrolysis of protein from tamarind seeds. Papain-derived hydrolysates showed a maximum degree of hydrolysis (39.49%) and radical scavenging activity (42.92 ± 2.83%) at optimized conditions such as enzyme-to-substrate ratio (1:5), hydrolysis time (3 h), hydrolysis temperature (65 °C), and pH 6. From this study, papain hydrolysate can be considered as good source of natural antioxidants in developing food formulations.

Bioactive L acidissima protein hydrolysates using Box-Behnken design.

This study examines the extraction and hydrolysis of proteins using single factor and Box-Behnken Design (BBD). From single factor tests, optimised extraction parameters were 1% alkali concentration, 40 °C temperature, 60 min time, and 1:20 solid to alkali ratio. Under these conditions; 924.31 mg/g of total protein was obtained from Limonia acidissima (L acidissima). The maximum degree of hydrolysis was 39.82% at pH 2, enzyme to substrate ratio 2.5% (w/w), and hydrolysis time was 42.41 min using BBD design. L acidissima seed protein hydrolysate showed 32.94% DPPH and 88.18% of ABTS activity at concentration of 100 µg/ml and 1 mg/ml, respectively. Reducing power of 0.16 and metal chelating activity of 87.39% was obtained from 5 mg/ml protein hydrolysates. This implied that L acidissima seed protein hydrolysate could be utilised in protein rich product or as protein supplements.