A study on incorporation of giloy (Tinosporacordifolia) for the development of shelf-stable goat milk based functional beverage.

Goat milk has achieved significant place in human diet owing to its enormous therapeutic properties. There exists a scope of value-addition of goat milk to potentiate its health benefits by incorporating herbs and plants. Giloy (Tinospora cordifolia), a traditional medicinal plant with rich bioactive composition, can enhance the bioactive properties and shelf-life of goat milk. To this end, a study was conducted to develop shelf-stable giloy-goat milk beverage (GGB) by adding debittered giloy juice to goat milk (GM) and analyse the detailed product profile including proximate composition, bioactive properties, sensory, rheological, and structural characterisation. GGB resulted in two-fold increase (P < 0.05) in antioxidant activity and total phenolic content, thus enhancing the bioactive properties of the beverage as compared to GM. Further, increase in the particle size of GGB was observed along with components interaction, which was confirmed by FTIR, scanning electron and fluorescent microscopy. Storage stability studies indicated that bioactive properties of GGB remained unaffected (P > 0.05) by the sterilization process up to 90 days and sensory characteristics were not compromised till 105 days of storage. Therefore, the developed GGB is considered to be a shelf-stable beverage that retains its bioactive and sensory properties even after sterilization, making it a promising functional dairy product.

Development and comparison of shelf stable extended and dehydrated goat meat cubes containing four different legume based binder mixes.

A study was undertaken to develop shelf stable hot air oven dried goat meat cubes extended with different legume based binder mixes. Based on preliminary trials, four different formulations containing 80 % meat mince + 10 % Bengal gram based binder mix (HBE), 70 % meat mince + 20 % green gram based binder mix (HGR), 80 % meat mince + 10 % black gram based binder mix (HBL) and 80 % meat mince + 10 % lentil based binder mix (HLE) were selected and subjected to physico-chemical, microbiological and sensory characteristics. Among treatments, HGR showed a significantly higher pH (6.53 ± 0.01), whereas there was no significant difference in other physico-chemical parameters. Moisture content (10.37 ± 1.06 %) was highest in HLE, while protein (49.68 ± 1.78 %) and ash (8.71 ± 0.30 %) contents were higher in HBL. On texture profile analysis, hardness, gumminess and chewiness parameters were highest for HLE and lowest for HBL. In all treatments, total plate, Staphylococcus aureus and yeast and mold counts were in acceptable range and coliforms were not detected. Scores for sensory attributes of rehydrated cubes were in good to very good range in all treatments, however, higher scores for appearance, flavour, texture, juiciness and overall acceptability were observed in HBL. The dehydrated cubes could be used to prepare curry within few minutes and is a boon to busy housewives.

Shelf life study of hurdle treated ready-to-eat spiced buffalo meat product stored at 30 ± 3 °C for 7 weeks under vacuum and aerobic packaging.

Shelf stable ready to eat spiced pickle type buffalo meat product was prepared after desorbing in infusion solution (glycerol 3.5%, sodium chloride 5.0%, honey2.0%, mango powder 2.2%, spices 1.0%, sodium nitrite 0.015%, phosphate 0.2%, Sorbic acid 0.2%.and acetic acid 1%), pressure cooking of meat in infusion solution for 20 min followed by frying for 2 min in mustard oil and mixing with prefried condiments and spices. The physico-chemical properties i.e. pH, water activity, proximate composition, FFA, Soluble hydroxyproline, TBA values, nitrite content, protein solubility, shear force value, haempigments, microbiological and sensory quality of the product remained good and hygienically safe and almost comparable in aerobic PET jars and multilayered nylon barrier pouches stored at 30 ± 3 °C for 7 weeks .It can be suggested that storage of such product may be conveniently done even in food grade PET jars without going for vacuum packaging which is a bit costly.

Growth and Non-Thermal Inactivation of Staphylococcus aureus in Sliced Dry-Cured Ham in Relation to Water Activity, Packaging Type and Storage Temperature.

Dry-cured ham (DCH) could support the growth of Staphylococcus aureus as a halotolerant bacterium, which may compromise the shelf-stability of the product according to the growth/no growth boundary models and the physicochemical parameters of commercial DCH. In the present study, the behavior of S. aureus is evaluated in sliced DCH with different water activity (aw 0.861-0.925), packaged under air, vacuum, or modified atmosphere (MAP), and stored at different temperatures (2-25 °C) for up to 1 year. The Logistic and the Weibull models were fitted to data to estimate the primary kinetic parameters for the pathogen Log10 increase and Log10 reduction, respectively. Then, polynomial models were developed as secondary models following their integration into the primary Weibull model to obtain a global model for each packaging. Growth was observed for samples with the highest aw stored at 20 and 25 °C in air-packaged DCH. For lower aw, progressive inactivation of S. aureus was observed, being faster at the lowest temperature (15 °C) for air-packaged DCH. In contrast, for vacuum and MAP-packaged DCH, a higher storage temperature resulted in faster inactivation without a significant effect of the product aw. The results of this study clearly indicate that the behavior of S. aureus is highly dependent on factors such as storage temperature, packaging conditions and product aw. The developed models provide a management tool for evaluating the risk associated with DCH and for preventing the development of S. aureus by selecting the most appropriate packaging according to aw range and storage temperature.

Multi-accelerant approach for rapid shelf-life determination of beverages in polymeric packaging.

An effective analysis method with multiple accelerant factors is needed for shelf-life determination and prediction for food products with reduced analysis time. Raising the storage temperature is the most common approach utilized in the conventional accelerated shelf-life test (ASLT) to reduce the shelf-life testing time of food. Oxygen pressure as an accelerant for the shelf-life determination of food products has not been given much attention even though it has shown a negative impact on food shelf-life. Combining oxygen pressure and temperature as accelerants has the potential to further reduce the overall analysis time compared to the ASLT. This study focuses on the effects of applying oxygen pressure and temperature as multi-accelerants on the shelf-life of a shelf-stable product by investigating the extent of vitamins degradation and modeling the reaction using a mechanistic approach. A shelf-stable model food fortified with vitamins A, B1, C and D3 was developed to investigate the effect of multiple accelerants on the quality indicators of shelf-stable foods in a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) container. PET bottles filled with model food were placed in a high-pressure (138 kPa) 100% oxygen environment at 40 °C. This novel process is named as the ultra-accelerated shelf-life test (UASLT). Samples were also subjected to ASLT conditions at 40 °C and control condition at 22.5 °C, both at ambient pressure for comparison. UASLT treatment induced a rapid degradation of 27.1 ± 1.9%, 35.8 ± 1.0%, and 35.4 ± 0.7% in vitamins A, C and D3, respectively, in just 50 days. Slower degradation was observed with samples kept under the ASLT conditions for 105 days with a degradation of 24.0 ± 2.0%, 32.0 ± 3.1% and 25.1 ± 1.5% for vitamin A, C and D3, respectively. The control samples that were studied for 210 days showed 14.9 ± 5.0%, 13.8 ± 2.2% and 10.6 ± 0.8% degradation in vitamins A, C and D3, respectively. The increase in the ΔE values due to browning in samples kept at the UASLT, ASLT and control conditions were 11.67 ± 0.09, 7.49 ± 0.19 and 2.51 ± 0.11, respectively. The degradation of vitamin B1 was similar across the treatments. The addition of oxygen pressure significantly increased the degradation reaction rates of the vitamins and color due to the rapid influx of oxygen. A mechanistic model that coupled oxygen diffusion and simultaneous vitamin degradation provided a good fit to the experimental data for the UASLT treatment with a rate constant of 0.686, 0.631 and 0.422 M-1day-1 for vitamins C, D3 and A, respectively. Elevated external oxygen pressure can be used as an accelerant along with moderate temperatures for rapid shelf-life testing of products in polymeric packaging with two-fold reduction in the overall analysis time as compared to ASLT.

In situ alginate crosslinking during spray-drying of lactobacilli probiotics promotes gastrointestinal-targeted delivery.

Alginate-based formulations have shown desirable functional characteristics for probiotic encapsulation. However, current technologies used to produce these formulations are inefficient, detrimental to probiotics viability or do not produce dry, shelf-stable products. Herein, we developed a novel spray-drying technique that combines particle formation, alginate crosslinking and drying into a single step, thereby streamlining the production of encapsulated probiotics powder. Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) encapsulated in six encapsulation formulations were characterized and compared. Among the six formulations investigated, the crosslinked alginate with sucrose formulation (Ca-Alg-Suc) was found to be most promising, achieving ~109 CFU/g of surviving LGG after spray-drying and exposure to simulated gastric fluid (SGF). The Ca-Alg-Suc formulation was further evaluated with Lactiplantibacillus plantarum and Lacticaseibacillus paracasei, and similar results of high post-spray-drying and post-SGF viabilities were obtained. Successful encapsulation of different lactobacilli probiotics via the proposed spray-drying technique highlights potential of this procedure to be scaled up for commercial applications.

Ascorbic acid specifically reduces the misclassification of nonirritating reactive chemicals in the OptiSafe™ macromolecular eye irritation test.

Recently, we showed that the addition of physiological concentrations of ascorbic acid, a tear antioxidant, to the OptiSafe™ macromolecular eye irritation test reduced the false-positive (FP) rate for chemicals that had reactive chemistries, leading to the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and molecular crosslinking. The purpose of the current study was to 1) increase the number of chemicals tested to comprehensibly determine whether the antioxidant-associated reduction in OD is specific to FP chemicals associated with ROS chemistries and 2) determine whether the addition of antioxidants interferes with the detection of true positive (TP) and true negative (TN) ocular irritants. We report that when ascorbic acid is added to the test reagents, retesting of FP chemicals with reactive chemistries show significantly reduced OD values (P < 0.05). Importantly, ascorbic acid had no significant effect on the OD values of TP or TN chemicals regardless of chemical reactivity. These findings suggest that supplementation of ascorbic acid in alternative ocular irritation tests may help improve the detection of TN for those commonly misclassified reactive chemicals.

Effects of the addition of vinegar, weight loss and packaging method on the physicochemical properties and microbiological profile of biltong.

Biltong is an Ready to Eat (RTE) shelf stable salted/dried meat product stored under ambient conditions. The effect of vinegar addition during salting, weight loss during drying and packaging (modified atmosphere and vacuum) on the physicochemical and microbiological properties of beef biltong over a 3 months storage at 25 °C was investigated. Biltong dried to ~50% weight loss had a moisture content of ~50 g/100 g, salt content of 7.49 g/100 g and water activity >0.81 whilst biltong dried to 65% weight loss had a moisture content of 30 g/100 g, salt content of 7.14 g/100 g and water activity <0.78. Packaging method had no effect. Vinegar decreased the pH of biltong to 4.91, delayed the growth of total viable counts and reduced the coliforms count but not the yeasts and moulds. Escherichia coli was below the detection limit of 1 log cfu/g, Salmonella spp. and Listeria monocytogenes were absent and Staphylococcus aureus counts were <1.3 log cfu/g.

Bacteria and Bioactivity in Holder Pasteurized and Shelf-Stable Human Milk Products.

Background: Historically, Holder pasteurization has been used to pasteurize donor human milk available in a hospital setting. There is extensive research that provides an overview of the impact of Holder pasteurization on bioactive components of human milk. A shelf-stable (SS) human milk product, created using retort processing, recently became available; however, to our knowledge, little has been published about the effect of retort processing on human milk. Objective: We aimed to assess the ability of retort processing to eliminate bacteria and to quantify the difference in lysozyme and secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA) activity between Holder pasteurized (HP) and SS human milk. Methods: Milk samples from 60 mothers were pooled. From this pool, 36 samples were taken: 12 samples were kept raw, 12 samples were HP, and 12 samples were retort processed to create an SS product. All samples were analyzed for total aerobic bacteria, coliform bacteria, Bacillus cereus, sIgA activity, and lysozyme activity. Raw samples served as the control. Results: One raw sample and 3 HP samples contained B. cereus at the time of culture. There were no detectable bacteria in SS samples at the time of culture. Raw samples had significantly greater lysozyme and sIgA activity than HP and SS samples (P < 0.0001). HP samples retained significantly more lysozyme and sIgA activity (54% and 87%, respectively) than SS samples (0% and 11%, respectively). Conclusions: Human milk processed using Holder pasteurization should continue to be screened for the presence of B. cereus. Clinicians should be aware of the differences in the retention of lysozyme and sIgA activity in HP and SS products when making feeding decisions for medically fragile or immunocompromised infants to ensure that patients are receiving the maximum immune protection.

Effect of water and gluten on physico-chemical properties and stability of ready to eat shelf-stable pasta.

A multi-analytical and multi-dimensional approach was used to investigate the effect of moisture and gluten on physico-chemical properties of shelf-stable ready to eat (RTE) pasta. Moisture and frozen water contents were not affected by formulation nor storage time. Hardness and retrograded amylopectin significantly increased during storage in all samples, more markedly in pasta with the lowest moisture content. Higher amounts of water and gluten reduced pasta hardening and contributed to control RTE pasta quality. (1)H FID became steeper in all samples during storage, but no effect of high moisture and gluten levels was observed on the mobility of these protons. Three proton T2 populations were observed (population C, population D and population E). Population C and D were not resolved during all storage. (1)H T2 relaxation time of the most abundant population (population E) shifted to shorter times and the amount of protons increased during storage, more importantly in the samples with lower moisture and gluten content.

Characteristics of an Acidophilic Bacillus Strain Isolated from Shelf-Stable Juices.

An acidophilic sporeformer was isolated from several varieties of shelf-stable juices. The organism sporulated on potato dextrose agar (pH 3.5) at 37°C within 24 hours and grew well in fruit and berry juices. The pH range of growth in potato dextrose broth was 3.0 to 5.3. The D87.8°C' D91.1°C' and D95°C determined in berry juice were 11.0, 3.8, and 1.0 min, respectively. The ability of this organism to grow at low pH and to survive pasteurization poses a threat of economic loss by spoilage to beverage producers. The organism could not be identified based on its characteristics or the fatty acid profile comparison to those of other Bacillus species, including the acidophilic B. acidocaldarius .