Recommended food supplies under conditions of natural and provoked catastrophes.

Natural catastrophes include those of biological origin as the pandemic provoked by virus SARS CoV2, earthquakes, flooding and hurricanes among others, while provoked ones are mainly those related to wars and social movements. These situations may cause food shortage and challenge food safety and security systems. In this review, strategies to produce foods aimed to alleviate food needs before, during and after catastrophic conditions are described based on the supply of various processed, intermediate and low moisture foods and three categories of food supplies are depicted based on the nature of the adverse conditions, Also, relevant patents on on innovative food preparations and containers for disaster areas are discussed. Innovation to produce appropriate and nutritious foods for disaster zones may include food bags containing individual packages of high protein, high fiber/vitamins and carbohydrate/oils ingredients in dried/vitreous state. Additionally, the role of food structure on food preservation is mentioned in the context of ready to eat, nutritious and sensory acceptable food supplies during natural or provoked catastrophes is also reported.

Water droplet spreading and recoiling upon contact with thick-compact maltodextrin agglomerates.

BACKGROUND: The food and pharmaceutical industries handle a number of compounds in the form of agglomerates which must be put into contact with water for rehydration purposes. In this work, liquid-solid interaction between water and maltodextrin thick-compact agglomerates was studied at different constituent particle sizes for two compression forces (75 and 225 MPa). RESULTS: Rapid droplet spreading was observed which was similar in radius to the expected one for ideal, flat surfaces. Contact angle determinations reported oscillations of this parameter throughout the experiments, being indicative of droplet recoiling on top of the agglomerate. Recoiling was more frequent in samples obtained at 225 MPa for agglomerate formation. Agglomerates obtained at 75 MPa exhibited more penetration of the water. Competition between dissolution of maltodextrin and penetration of the water was, probably, the main mechanism involved in droplet recoiling. Micrographs of the wetting marks were characterized by means of image analysis and the measurements suggested more symmetry of the wetting mark at higher compression force. CONCLUSION: Differences found in the evaluated parameters for agglomerates were mainly due to compaction force used. No significant effect of particle size in recoiling, penetration of water into the agglomerate, surface texture and symmetry was observed.

Synthesis, Controlled Release, and Stability on Storage of Chitosan-Thyme Essential Oil Nanocapsules for Food Applications.

The nanoencapsulation of thyme essential oil has been greatly important in food science, given its remarkable antioxidant and antimicrobial capacity. However, its analysis in storage has not been established in terms of physical stability, antioxidant capacity, and release studies. In this paper, chitosan-thyme oil nanocapsules were prepared by the ionic gelation method. These were characterized for differential calorimetry, release kinetic, and infrared spectroscopy. The chitosan-thyme oil nanocapsules were stored at 4 and 25 °C for 5 weeks, the changes in particle size, zeta potential, stability (diffuse reflectance), and antioxidant capacity were analyzed and associated with nanocapsules' functionality. The results show that the storage time and temperature significantly modify the particle size (keeping the nano-size throughout the storage), the release of the bioactive was Fickian with t0.193 according to Korsmery & Peppas and best described by Higuchi model associated with changes in the zeta potential from 8 mV to -11 mV at 4 °C. The differential scanning calorimetry and infrared spectroscopy results confirm the good integration of the components. The antioxidant capacity revealed a direct relationship with residual oil concentration with a decrease in the ABTS test of 15% at 4 °C and 37% at 25 °C. The residual bioactive content was 77% at 4 °C and 62% at 25 °C, confirming nanoencapsulation effectiveness. The present investigation provides helpful information so that these systems can be applied in food conservation.