An Adaptive Partial Least-Squares Regression Approach for Classifying Chicken Egg Fertility by Hyperspectral Imaging.

Partial least-squares (PLS) regression is a well known chemometric method used for predictive modelling, especially in the presence of many variables. Although PLS was not initially developed as a technique for classification tasks, scientists have reportedly used this approach successfully for discrimination purposes. Whereas some non-supervised learning approaches, including, but not limited to, PCA and k-means clustering, do well in identifying/understanding grouping and clustering patterns in multidimensional data, they are limited when the end target is discrimination, making PLS a preferable alternative. Hyperspectral imaging data on a total of 672 fertilized chicken eggs, consisting of 336 white eggs and 336 brown eggs, were used in this study. Hyperspectral images in the NIR region of the 900-1700 nm wavelength range were captured prior to incubation on day 0 and on days 1-4 after incubation. Eggs were candled on incubation day 5 and broken out on day 10 to confirm fertility. While a total number of 312 and 314 eggs were found to be fertile in the brown and white egg batches, respectively, the total number of non-fertile eggs in the same set of batches was 23 and 21, respectively. Spectral information was extracted from a segmented region of interest (ROI) of each hyperspectral image and spectral transmission characteristics were obtained by averaging the spectral information. A moving-thresholding technique was implemented for discrimination based on PLS regression results on the calibration set. With true positive rates (TPRs) of up to 100% obtained at selected threshold values of between 0.50 and 0.85 and on different days of incubation, the results indicate that the proposed PLS technique can accurately discriminate between fertile and non-fertile eggs. The adaptive PLS approach was, thereby, presented as suitable for handling hyperspectral imaging-based chicken egg fertility data.

Challenges and Prospects of Plant-Protein-Based 3D Printing.

Three-dimensional (3D) printing is a rapidly developing additive manufacturing technique consisting of the deposition of materials layer-by-layer to produce physical 3D structures. The technique offers unique opportunities to design and produce new products that cater to consumer experience and nutritional requirements. In the past two decades, a wide range of materials, especially plant-protein-based materials, have been documented for the development of personalized food owing to their nutritional and environmental benefits. Despite these benefits, 3D printing with plant-protein-based materials present significant challenges because there is a lack of a comprehensive study that takes into account the most relevant aspects of the processes involved in producing plant-protein-based printable items. This review takes into account the multi-dimensional aspects of processes that lead to the formulation of successful printable products which includes an understanding of rheological characteristics of plant proteins and 3D-printing parameters, as well as elucidating the appropriate concentration and structural hierarchy that are required to maintain stability of the substrate after printing. This review also highlighted the significant and most recent research on 3D food printing with a wide range of plant proteins. This review also suggests a future research direction of 3D printing with plant proteins.

Electromagnetic, Air and Fat Frying of Plant Protein-Based Batter-Coated Foods.

There is growing consumer and food industry interest in plant protein-based foods. However, quality evolution of plant protein-based meat analog (MA) is still a rarely studied subject. In this study, wheat and rice flour-based batter systems were used to coat plant protein-based MA, and were partially fried (at 180 °C, 1 min) in canola oil, subsequently frozen (at -18 °C) and stored for 7 days. Microwave heating (MH), infrared heating (IH), air frying (AF) and deep-fat frying (DFF) processes were employed on parfried frozen MA products, and their quality evolution was investigated. Results revealed that the fat content of MH-, IH- and AF-treated products was significantly (p < 0.05) lower than DFF-treated counterparts. Batter coatings reduced fat uptake in DFF of MA-based products. Both the batter formulations and cooking methods impacted the process parameters and quality attributes (cooking loss, moisture, texture, color) of MA-based coated food products. Moreover, the post-cooking stability of moisture and textural attributes of batter-coated MA-based products was impacted by both the batter formulations and cooking methods. Glass transition temperature (Tg) of MA-based products' crust ranged from -20.0 °C to -23.1 °C, as determined with differential scanning calorimetry. ATR-FTIR spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy analysis revealed that surface structural-chemical evolution of MA-based products was impacted by both the coating formulations and cooking methods. Overall, AF has been found as a suitable substitute for DFF in terms of studied quality attributes of meat analog-based coated products.

3D Food Printing Applications Related to Dysphagia: A Narrative Review.

Dysphagia is a condition in which the swallowing mechanism is impaired. It is most often a result of a stroke. Dysphagia has serious consequences, including choking and aspiration pneumonia, which can both be fatal. The population that is most affected by it is the elderly. Texture-modified diets are part of the treatment plan for dysphagia. This bland, restrictive diet often contributes to malnutrition in patients with dysphagia. Both energy and protein intake are of concern, which is especially worrying, as it affects the elderly. Making texture-modified diets more appealing is one method to increase food intake. As a recent technology, 3D food printing has great potential to increase the appeal of textured foods. With extrusion-based printing, both protein and vegetable products have already been 3D printed that fit into the texture categories provided by the International Dysphagia Diet Standardization Initiative. Another exciting advancement is 4D food printing which could make foods even more appealing by incorporating color change and aroma release following a stimulus. The ultra-processed nature of 3D-printed foods is of nutritional concern since this affects the digestion of the food and negatively affects the gut microbiome. There are mitigating strategies to this issue, including the addition of hydrocolloids that increase stomach content viscosity and the addition of probiotics. Therefore, 3D food printing is an improved method for the production of texture-modified diets that should be further explored.

Impact of thermo-sonication on quality indices of starch-based sauces.

In this study, ultrasonication, a physical, relatively cheap, and environmentally benign technology, was investigated to characterize its effect on functional properties of rice starch and rice starch-based sauces. Temperature-assisted ultrasound treatment improved the granular swelling power, fat and water absorption capacities, and thermal properties of rice starch, signifying its suitability in the formulation of starch-based sauces. Rheological characterization of the formulated sauces revealed a shear-thinning flow behavior, well described by the Ostwald de Waele model, while viscoelastic properties showed the existence of a weak gel. Results indicated that ultrasonication significantly enhanced the pseudoplastic behavior of starch-based sauces. Additionally, textural analysis showed that textural attributes (stickiness, stringiness, and work of adhesion) were also improved with ultrasonication. Moreover, enhanced freeze/thaw stability was also achieved with ultrasound-treated starch-based sauces. Overall, the results from this study show that ultrasound-treated starches can be used in the formulation of sauces and potentially other food products, which meets the requirements for clean label and minimally processed foods.

Non-Destructive Assessment of Chicken Egg Fertility.

Total hatching egg set (for both egg production chicks and broilers) in the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada report 2017 was over 1.0 billion. With the fertility rate for this year observed to be around 82%, there were about 180 million unhatched eggs (worth over 300 million Canadian dollars) incubated in Canada for the year 2017 alone. These non-hatching (non-fertile) eggs can find useful applications as commercial table eggs or low-grade food stock if they can be detected early and isolated accordingly preferably prior to incubation. The conventional method of chicken egg fertility assessment termed candling, is subjective, cumbersome, slow, and eventually inefficient, leading to huge economic losses. Hence, there is a need for a non-destructive, fast and online prediction technology to assist with early chicken egg fertility identification problem. This paper reviewed existing non-destructive approaches including ultrasound and dielectric measurements, thermal imaging, machine vision, spectroscopy, and hyperspectral imaging. Hyperspectral imaging was extensively discussed, being an emerging new technology with great potential. Suggestions were finally proffered towards building futuristic robust model(s) for early detection of chicken egg fertility.

Effect of Non-Conventional Drying Methods on In Vitro Starch Digestibility Assessment of Cooked Potato Genotypes.

Potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L.) are a good dietary source of carbohydrates in the form of digestible starch (DS) and resistant starch (RS). As increased RS content consumption can be associated with decreased chronic disease risk, breeding efforts have focused on identifying potato varieties with higher RS content, which requires high-throughput analysis of starch profiles. For this purpose, freeze drying of potatoes has been used but this approach leads to inaccurate RS values. The present study objective was to assess the starch content (RS, DS and total starch (TS)) of three cooked potato genotypes that were dried using freeze drying and innovative drying techniques (microwave vacuum drying, instant controlled pressure drop drying and conductive hydro-drying) relative to freshly cooked potato samples. Depending on the genotype, all drying methods showed one or more starch measures that were significantly different from freshly cooked values. The combination of ultrasound and infrared assisted conductive hydro-drying was the only method identified to be associated with accurate assessment of DS and TS content relative to fresh samples. The drying treatments were all generally associated with highly variable RS content relative to fresh controls. We conclude that freshly cooked samples must be used for selecting varieties with a high proportion of RS starch as drying of cooked potatoes leads to unreliable RS measurements.

Non-Destructive Spectroscopic Techniques and Multivariate Analysis for Assessment of Fat Quality in Pork and Pork Products: A Review.

Fat is one of the most important traits determining the quality of pork. The composition of the fat greatly influences the quality of pork and its processed products, and contribute to defining the overall carcass value. However, establishing an efficient method for assessing fat quality parameters such as fatty acid composition, solid fat content, oxidative stability, iodine value, and fat color, remains a challenge that must be addressed. Conventional methods such as visual inspection, mechanical methods, and chemical methods are used off the production line, which often results in an inaccurate representation of the process because the dynamics are lost due to the time required to perform the analysis. Consequently, rapid, and non-destructive alternative methods are needed. In this paper, the traditional fat quality assessment techniques are discussed with emphasis on spectroscopic techniques as an alternative. Potential spectroscopic techniques include infrared spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance and Raman spectroscopy. Hyperspectral imaging as an emerging advanced spectroscopy-based technology is introduced and discussed for the recent development of assessment for fat quality attributes. All techniques are described in terms of their operating principles and the research advances involving their application for pork fat quality parameters. Future trends for the non-destructive spectroscopic techniques are also discussed.

Phaseolus vulgaris lectins: A systematic review of characteristics and health implications.

Legume lectins are carbohydrate-binding proteins of non-immune origin. Significant amounts of lectins have been found in Phaseolus vulgaris beans as far back as in the last century; however, many questions about their potential biological roles still remain obscure. Studies have shown that lectins are anti-nutritional factors that can cause intestinal disorders. Owing to their ability to act as toxic allergens and hemagglutinins, the Phaseolus vulgaris lectins are of grave concern for human health and safety. Nonetheless, their potential beneficial health effects, such as anti-cancer, anti-human immunodeficiency virus (anti-HIV), anti-microbial infection, preventing mucosal atrophy, reducing type 2 diabetes and obesity, promoting nutrients absorption and targeting drugs, are of immense interest. The significance of Phaseolus vulgaris lectins in biological researches and the potential biomedical applications have placed tremendous emphasis on the development of purification strategies to obtain the protein in pure and stable forms. These purification strategies entail considerations such as effects of proteolysis, heating, gamma radiation, and high-hydrostatic-pressure that can have crucial outcomes in either eliminating or improving bioactivities of the lectins. Thus, up-to-date research findings of Phaseolus vulgaris lectins on different aspects such as anti-nutritional and health impacts, purification strategies and novel processing trends, are systematically reviewed.

Absorption mechanism of whey-protein-delivered curcumin using Caco-2 cell monolayers.

Curcumin (CCM) is a bioactive polyphenolic compound that suffers a low bioavailability because of its low water solubility. In this work ß-lactoglobulin (ß-Lg) and nanoemulsion were used as carriers to deliver curcumin. The pH stability of ß-Lg-CCM was investigated. The digestion of ß-Lg-CCM and the nanoemulsion was studied using an in vitro gastrointestinal model. The effect of different carriers on the permeability of curcumin was assessed using the Caco-2 cell monolayer model. The results revealed that the water solubility and the pH stability of curcumin significantly increased by binding with ß-Lg. In SDS-PAGE experiments the ß-Lg-CCM complex and nanoemulsion were found to be resistant to pepsin digestion but sensitive to trypsin. In the permeability experiment it was shown that the digested nanoemulsion and ß-Lg-CCM improved significantly the permeation rate of curcumin.

In vitro studies of the digestibility of lectin from black turtle bean (Phaseolus vulgaris).

In this study, the in vitro digestibility of lectin from black turtle bean was investigated in simulated gastric fluid (SGF) and tryptic digestion, using kinetic densitometric analysis for SDS-PAGE and spectroscopic measurements. It was found that the native lectin was relatively stable in both SGF (half-life=22.71 min) and tryptic digestion (half-life ⩾90 min), the susceptibility of the protein to hydrolysis by proteases was markedly increased by preheating and also enhanced by demetallization. An unfolding state of the preheated lectin was observed by UV and fluorescence spectroscopy, although the conformational changes were found to be limited by the demetallization. This study provides evidence that metal ions may provide resistance during protease hydrolysis, and suggests both preheating and demetallization contribute to in vitro proteolytic degradation of lectin.

pH stability study of lectin from black turtle bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) as influenced by guanidinium-HCl and thermal treatment.

The pH stability of lectin from black turtle bean was characterized by a variety of biophysical techniques over the pH range from 2.0 to 10.0. The zero-order and second-derivative UV spectra at different pH values indicated that the tertiary structure of the protein does not change significantly with changes in pH. The maxima emission fluorescence of the lectin upon excitation at 280 nm and 295 nm were found to be blue shifted 1.2 nm at pH 2.0, and with a red-shift of 1.0 nm at pH 10.0. The chemical denaturation results obtained by monitoring the intrinsic fluorescence of the lectin indicated that unfolding of the protein induced by guanidine hydrochloride (GdnHCl) could be described using a three-state model. Complete unfolding of the protein was observed at pH 7.2 in the presence of 6.5 M GdnHCl after 2 weeks, which suggested that the lectin was stable at various pHs. Irreversible thermal denaturation of lectin was also investigated at various pHs by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The first-order two-state kinetic model was applied to explain the scan-rate dependent DSC transitions. Both the higher activation energy (Ea) computed from the irreversible thermal denaturation and the three-state chemical denaturation process suggested that the lectin structure remained significantly unchanged from pH 2.0 to 10.0, which indicated that the structure of the lectin was stable over a wide pH range.

Optimisation of pulsed ultrasonic and microwave-assisted extraction for curcuminoids by response surface methodology and kinetic study.

A response surface methodology and a kinetic study were used to optimise the pulsed ultrasonic and microwave techniques in the extraction of curcuminoids. Microwave-assisted extraction had the same efficiency as pulsed ultrasonic-assisted extraction, and both methods were better than continuous ultrasonic extraction of curcuminoids. For the pulsed ultrasonic-assisted extraction, the optimal conditions were 60% amplitude (AMP), 83% ethanol (v/v), 3/1 (s/s) pulsed duration/interval time and 10 min irradiation time. For the microwave-assisted extraction, the optimal conditions were 82% ethanol, 10% power level and 7 min of extraction time. Both methods used a 1:200 mass to solvent ratio.

Recent developments in hyperspectral imaging for assessment of food quality and safety.

Hyperspectral imaging which combines imaging and spectroscopic technology is rapidly gaining ground as a non-destructive, real-time detection tool for food quality and safety assessment. Hyperspectral imaging could be used to simultaneously obtain large amounts of spatial and spectral information on the objects being studied. This paper provides a comprehensive review on the recent development of hyperspectral imaging applications in food and food products. The potential and future work of hyperspectral imaging for food quality and safety control is also discussed.

Near-infrared spectral image analysis of pork marbling based on Gabor filter and wide line detector techniques.

Marbling is an important quality attribute of pork. Detection of pork marbling usually involves subjective scoring, which raises the efficiency costs to the processor. In this study, the ability to predict pork marbling using near-infrared (NIR) hyperspectral imaging (900-1700 nm) and the proper image processing techniques were studied. Near-infrared images were collected from pork after marbling evaluation according to current standard chart from the National Pork Producers Council. Image analysis techniques-Gabor filter, wide line detector, and spectral averaging-were applied to extract texture, line, and spectral features, respectively, from NIR images of pork. Samples were grouped into calibration and validation sets. Wavelength selection was performed on calibration set by stepwise regression procedure. Prediction models of pork marbling scores were built using multiple linear regressions based on derivatives of mean spectra and line features at key wavelengths. The results showed that the derivatives of both texture and spectral features produced good results, with correlation coefficients of validation of 0.90 and 0.86, respectively, using wavelengths of 961, 1186, and 1220 nm. The results revealed the great potential of the Gabor filter for analyzing NIR images of pork for the effective and efficient objective evaluation of pork marbling.

Binding of curcumin to ß-lactoglobulin and its effect on antioxidant characteristics of curcumin.

The binding of curcumin (CCM) to bovine ß-lactoglobulin (ß-Lg) was investigated by Fourier transform infrared and fluorescence. The effect of binding on antioxidant activity of CCM was determined by using ABTS and hydroxyl radical scavenging capacity and total reducing ability. Our results showed that when CCM binds to ß-Lg, it lead to a partial change in protein structure. In fact, CCM was bound respectively to two different sites of protein at pH 6.0 and 7.0 via hydrophobic interaction. CCM-ß-Lg complex was formed by one molecule of protein combining with one molecule of CCM. Moreover, the average distance from one binding site to Trp residues in protein is similar with another. This result suggested that fluorescence resonance energy transfer cannot be used as unique method to study the characteristics of binding of ligands to proteins. The antioxidant activity of CCM might be improved by binding with ß-Lg.

Effect of Carboxylmethyl Cellulose Coating and Osmotic Dehydration on Freeze Drying Kinetics of Apple Slices.

The effect of different concentrations of sugar solution (hypertonic) (30%, 45% and 60% w/v) and carboxyl methyl cellulose (CMC) (0%, 1% and 2% w/v) coating on freeze drying of apple slices was studied. In total, nine treatments with respect to concentrations of hypertonic solution and coating layer were prepared to analyze their influence on the physical and chemical properties of freeze dried apple slices. It was observed that increase in the sugar solution concentration, decreased the moisture content of the apple slices significantly impacting its water activity, texture and sugar gain. Application of different concentrations of CMC coating had no significant effect on the properties of dried apple slices. A significant change was observed for color of CMC coated freeze dried apple slices pretreated with 60% sugar solution. Drying kinetics of pretreated apple slices were fitted by using two drying models, Newton's and Page's. Page's model showed higher R-square and lower root mean square error (RSME) compared to Newton's model.

Effect of pulsed electric field on the rheological and colour properties of soy milk.

The effects of pulsed electric field (PEF) treatments on rheological and colour properties of soy milk were evaluated. Flow behaviour, viscosity and rheological parameters of PEF-treated soy milk were monitored using a controlled stress rheometer. For PEF treatments, electric field intensity of 18, 20 and 22 kV cm(-1) and number of pulses of 25, 50, 75 and 100 were used. For the measurements of rheological properties of soy milk shear rates between 0 and 200 s(-1) was used. The rheological behaviour of control and the PEF-treated soy milk were described using a power law model. The PEF treatments affected the rheological properties of soy milk. Apparent viscosity of soy milk increased from 6.62 to 7.46 (10(-3) Pa s) with increase in electric field intensity from 18 to 22 kV cm(-1) and increase in the number of pulses from 0 to 100. The consistency index (K) of soy milk also changed with PEF treatments. Lightness (L*), red/greenness (a*) and yellowness/blueness (b*) of soy milk were affected by PEF treatments.