A Chemometric Approach to Establish Underlying Connections between Lipid and Protein Oxidation and Instrumental Color and Texture Characteristics in Brazilian Dry-cured Loin.

This study aimed to use chemometrics to evaluate the influence of lipid and protein oxidation on the color and texture characteristics of Brazilian dry-cured loin (Socol, BDL). Upon exploration using hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), two clusters were formed, indicating that higher water activity (aw) was associated with higher lipid and protein oxidation. However, this fact was associated with softening and low color quality (a*, chroma, and cured color). In a more in-depth exploration, using principal component analysis (PCA) for each cluster separately, connections between protein and lipid oxidation were found in high aw, as demonstrated by their statistical association. In the same way, relationships between high hardness and carbonyl contents were obtained only in high aw. In addition, an overall relationship (p < 0.05) between nondestructive measurements, such as hardness, and destructive methods (malonaldehyde and carbonyl contents) demonstrate that nondestructive techniques can be promising for further studies in the method replacement field. In this study, reasonable explanations of the connections between oxidative damage and quality traits in Socol are provided.

Production and characterization of Gluconacetobacter xylinus bacterial cellulose using cashew apple juice and soybean molasses.

Bacterial cellulose (BC) has been largely used in biomedical and technological fields. The use of agro-industrial byproducts as alternative source of carbon and nitrogen in culture media reduces the BC cost production, adds value to the byproducts and minimizes the environmental impact. In this study, the use of cashew apple juice and soybean molasses were evaluated to produce BC by Gluconacetobacter xylinus in comparison to the usual Hestrin and Schramm medium (HS). BC produced in static cultivation was characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. The BC production (4.50 g L-1) obtained from the medium using cashew apple juice as carbon source (20 g L-1) with soybean molasses as nitrogen source (10 g L-1) was superior than HS medium (4.03 g L-1). Morphological analysis showed that bacterial celluloses produced with agro-industrial byproducts combined were similar to those found for the pellicle obtained from HS medium.