ABSTRACT
Urbanisation and changing food habits in India have resulted in a shift in consumption from cereals to protein-based foods. Women play a major role in India in all activities related to food at household and therefore, the current paper reports the findings of the qualitative work conducted to understand women consumers' preference and perception towards meat and its attributes as a function of their awareness. The study collected the responses from 510 women residents of Metropolitan city of Bengaluru, India using questionnaires directly by face-to-face interviews and generated data on preference for fresh meat, purchase habits, value added meat products consumption, awareness about meat quality, and future expectations about meat sector. Findings from the current study indicate that, chicken is the most preferred meat (41.76%) while beef was least preferred (5.88%). The 40.59% of respondents preferred meat tenderness as an important eating quality followed by juiciness (37.06%) and flavor (12.94%). Consumers rated ritual slaughter, animal welfare and food safety as relevant issues in meat production, whereas regulations pertaining to meat production, processing of meat and food labelling were of minor significance. The study provide an insight into the significance of various consumer behaviour with respect to choice of meat, awareness on ritual slaughter, animal welfare and processing which is helpful in prioritizing future consumer research and policy decisions in India.
Subject(s)
Consumer Behavior , Meat Products , Animals , Attitude , Cattle , Female , Food Safety , Humans , Meat/analysisABSTRACT
[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.0c00410.].
ABSTRACT
Direct visualization of soft organic molecules like cellulose is extremely challenging under a high-energy electron beam. Herein, we adopt two ionization damage extenuation strategies to visualize the lattice arrangements of the ß-(1â4)-d-glucan chains in carboxylated nanocellulose fibers (C-NCFs) having cellulose II crystalline phase using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Direct imaging of individual nanocellulose fibrils with high-resolution and least damage under high-energy electron beam is achieved by employing reduced graphene oxide, a conducting material with high electron transmittance and Ag+ ions, with high electron density, eliminating the use of sample-specific, toxic staining agents, or other advanced add-on techniques. Furthermore, the imaging of cellulose lattices in a C-NCF/TiO2 nanohybrid system is accomplished in the presence of Ag+ ions in a medium revealing the mode of association of C-NCFs in the system, which validates the feasibility of the presented strategy. The methods adopted here can provide further understanding of the fine structures of carboxylated nanocellulose fibrils for studying their structure-property relationship for various applications.
ABSTRACT
Highly dispersed isotactic polypropylene (iPP) nanocomposites were prepared by incorporating two different sized Mg-Al LDH nanoparticles with different loadings from 1 to 10 wt % using a modified solvent mixing method. Larger sized LDH nanoparticles (â¼3-4 µm) were prepared from the gel form of Mg-Al LDH, and the smaller sized nanoparticles (â¼50-200 nm) were prepared by sonication of as-synthesized LDH particles. Such obtained LDH nanoparticles were carefully characterized using wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), transmission electron microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. WAXD and atomic force microscopy results indicate that the LDH nanoparticles were highly dispersed in the iPP matrix. The influence of LDH nanoparticles size and concentration on the thermal stability, spherulitic morphology, melting behavior, isothermal crystallization kinetics, and lamellar structure of iPP were investigated. Incorporation of low loadings of sonicated LDH particles (e.g., 1-2.5 wt %) show substantial effect on thermal stability, spherulite size, crystallinity, and crystallization half-time and lamellar morphology of iPP compared to the pure iPP and that of nanocomposites with larger LDH particles with same loadings. The better nucleation ability of iPP in the presence of sonicated LDH can be attributed to the high surface area of LDH nanoparticles along with its better dispersibility within the polymer matrix. The incorporation of LDH nanoparticles does not change the crystallization growth mechanism and crystal structure of iPP.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Carnosic acid (CA) and rosmarinic acid (RA) are potent antioxidants. The effectiveness of an antioxidant in a food system is dependent on a range of factors such as concentration, phenolic content, physical state of the substrate, processing and storage. However, the antioxidant activity of powder vs liquid and higher vs lower phenols is not clear in different matrices. In this study, OxiKan-WS4 (4.0% RA), OxiKan-S10 (10% CA) and OxiKan-R8 (8% CA) were investigated against lipid oxidation in raw and cooked ground chicken patties during refrigerated storage. RESULTS: OxiKan-WS4 had the highest (P < 0.05) total phenolic content, whereas OxiKan-S10 and OxiKan-R8 exhibited higher DPPH radical-scavenging activity and reducing power relative to OxiKan-WS4. Lipid oxidation was minimized in meat with added extracts, as indicated by lower (P < 0.05) thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances, peroxide value and free fatty acid. Addition of natural antioxidant extracts at 10 mg equivalent total phenols per 100 g meat did not affect the sensory scores relative to non-treated controls. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that the physical state (powder vs liquid) of CA or RA plays an important role in determining their antioxidant efficacy.
