Effect of thermal, nonthermal, and combined treatments on functional and nutritional properties of chickpeas.

Cicer arietinum or chickpea is an important and highly nutritious pulse, a source of complex carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, and minerals, considered non-allergenic, and non-GMO crop. Processing technologies play an important role in modifying some chickpea properties and thus increasing its nutritional and health benefits. Herein is summarized and compared the available data on nutritional and functional aspects caused by thermal, nonthermal, and combinations of treatments for chickpea processing. The study focuses on describing the processing conditions necessary to change chickpea matrices aiming to enhance compound bioavailability, reduce anti-nutritional factors and modify functional characteristics for industrial application in product development. Thermal and nonthermal treatments can modify nutrient composition and bioavailability in chickpea matrices. Thermal treatments, moist or dry, prevent microbial spoilage, increase product palatability and increase protein quality. Nonthermal treatments aim to shorten the processing time and use less energy and water sources. Compared to thermal treatments, they usually preserve organoleptic attributes and bioactive compounds in chickpea matrices. Some treatment combinations can increase the efficacy of single treatments. Combined treatments increase antioxidant concentration, protein digestibility and available starch contents. Finally, despite differences among their effects, single and combined treatments can improve the nutritional and physicochemical properties of chickpea matrices.

Towards the Development of 3D-Printed Food: A Rheological and Mechanical Approach.

Additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, has raised interest in many areas, such as the food industry. In food, 3D printing can be used to personalize nutrition and customize the sensorial characteristics of the final product. The rheological properties of the material are the main parameters that impact the 3D-printing process and are crucial to assuring the printability of formulations, although a clear relationship between these properties and printability has not been studied in depth. In addition, an understanding of the mechanical properties of 3D-printed food is crucial for consumer satisfaction, as they are related to the texture of food products. In 3D-printing technologies, each manufacturing parameter has an impact on the resulting mechanical properties; therefore, a thorough characterization of these parameters is necessary prior to the consumption of any 3D-printed food. This review focuses on the rheological and mechanical properties of printed food materials by exploring cutting-edge research working towards developing printed food for personalized nutrition.

Effective Stiffness of Fused Deposition Modeling Infill Lattice Patterns Made of PLA-Wood Material.

Fused deposition modeling (FDM) uses lattice arrangements, known as infill, within the fabricated part. The mechanical properties of parts fabricated via FDM are dependent on these infill patterns, which make their study of great relevance. One of the advantages of FDM is the wide range of materials that can be employed using this technology. Among these, polylactic acid (PLA)-wood has been recently gaining attention as it has become commercially available. In this work, the stiffness of two different lattice structures fabricated from PLA-wood material using FDM are studied: hexagonal and star. Rectangular samples with four different infill densities made of PLA-wood material were fabricated via FDM. Samples were subjected to 3-point bending to characterize the effective stiffness and their sensitivity to shear deformation. Lattice beams proved to be more sensitive to shear deformations, as including the contribution of shear in the apparent stiffness of these arrangements leads to more accurate results. This was evaluated by comparing the effective Young's modulus characterized from 3-point bending using equations with and without shear inclusion. A longer separation between supports yielded closer results between both models (~41% for the longest separation tested). The effective stiffness as a function of the infill density of both topologies showed similar trends. However, the maximum difference obtained at low densities was the hexagonal topology that was ~60% stiffer, while the lowest difference was obtained at higher densities (star topology being stiffer by ~20%). Results for stiffness of PLA-wood samples were scattered. This was attributed to the defects at the lattice element level inherent to the material employed in this study, confirmed via micro-characterization.

Evaluation of nutritional composition and technological functionality of whole American Bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus), its skin, and its legs as potential food ingredients.

Frog farming systems do not take advantage of their byproducts, which represents health risks and environmental pollution. The present study aimed to evaluate the proximate composition, amino acid, and fatty acid profile of American Bullfrog byproducts (whole frogs (WF), legs (LF), and skin (SF)) and their technological functionality. Results showed that WF, LF, and SF protein content was 47.6, 88.4, and 91.1% dry base (d.b.), correspondingly. Fat content resulted in 34.6, 3.2, and 4.2% (d.b.), respectively. Moreover, byproducts contain all the essential amino acids (23.8-46.6%), and the unsaturated fatty acids predominated the saturated fats. Samples showed water and oil absorption capacities of 1.8-2.6% and 1.8-4.0%, respectively, while oil and water emulsion capacities were 76.7-98.3% and 36.1-85.6%, correspondingly. Additionally, SF presented a gelling capacity in a 5% concentration. These results showed that frogs' byproducts have adequate nutritional and functional capacities, compared to other vegetable and animal flours used in the industry.

Instant Controlled Pressure Drop as Blanching and Texturing Pre-Treatment to Preserve the Antioxidant Compounds of Red Dried Beetroot (Beta vulgaris L.).

Red beetroot is rich in bioactive compounds such as polyphenols, flavonoids, betaxanthins, betacyanins, among others. According to selected processing methods, the bioaccessibility of these compounds could be either enhanced or decreased. This study evaluated the effect of four different drying conditions: (1) Traditional Drying (TD), (2) Swell Drying (SD), (3) DIC Blanching + Traditional Drying (BTD), and (4) DIC Blanching + Swell Drying (BSD) on the antioxidant content and the antioxidant activity of red beetroots. Obtained results showed that in all the cases, by comparing to Traditional Drying (TD), the coupling of a DIC Blanching pre-treatment to a Swell Drying treatment (BSD) maintained or enhanced the preservation of the Total Phenolic Compounds (TPC), the Total Flavonoids Compounds (TFC), the Betanin Concentration (BC), the Trolox Equivalent Antioxidant Capacity (TEAC), and the Free Radical Scavenging Activity by DPPH (IC50) of red beetroots. Various studies have shown that thanks to the expanded and porous structure triggered by the Swell Drying process, it has been possible to achieve better antioxidants extraction and better whole quality. Hence, by coupling DIC as a blanching-steaming pre-treatment, it was possible to preserve better the antioxidant content and the antioxidant activity of red dried beetroots.

Antioxidant Content of Frozen, Convective Air-Dried, Freeze-Dried, and Swell-Dried Chokecherries (Prunus virginiana L.).

Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana L.) is rich in bioactive molecules as phenolics, which can act as antioxidants, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, among others; however, due to its high perishability, most of this fruit is wasted. Freezing and sun drying have been the most adopted techniques to avoid its postharvest deterioration. Nevertheless, both processes have presented some drawbacks as high storage costs and losses of bioactive molecules. Therefore, to preserve these molecules, this study compared the impact of convective airflow drying (CAD), freezing (FR), freeze drying (FD), and swell drying (SD). Total phenolics content (TPC), total flavonoids content (TFC), kuromanin concentration (KC), and antioxidant activity (antiradical activity (ARA) and Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity assay (TEAC)) of chokecherries were measured. "Swell drying" is a drying process coupling convective airflow drying to the Instant Controlled Pressure Drop (DIC) expansion. A central composite rotatable design was applied to optimize the DIC variables and responses. Results showed that both freezing and swell drying effectively preserve the TPC, TFC, KC, and ARA. Moreover, SD samples also presented the highest TEAC. Contrary, in the case of CAD, it caused the highest losses of both antioxidant content and activity. Swell drying remedies the shrinkage and collapsing of dried food structure, which results in a better antioxidants extraction.

Characterization of the Mechanical Properties of FFF Structures and Materials: A Review on the Experimental, Computational and Theoretical Approaches.

The increase in accessibility of fused filament fabrication (FFF) machines has inspired the scientific community to work towards the understanding of the structural performance of components fabricated with this technology. Numerous attempts to characterize and to estimate the mechanical properties of structures fabricated with FFF have been reported in the literature. Experimental characterization of printed components has been reported extensively. However, few attempts have been made to predict properties of printed structures with computational models, and a lot less work with analytical approximations. As a result, a thorough review of reported experimental characterization and predictive models is presented with the aim of summarizing applicability and limitations of those approaches. Finally, recommendations on practices for characterizing printed materials are given and areas that deserve further research are proposed.

In Vitro Fecal Fermentation of High Pressure-Treated Fruit Peels Used as Dietary Fiber Sources.

Fruit by-products are being investigated as non-conventional alternative sources of dietary fiber (DF). High hydrostatic pressure (HHP) treatments have been used to modify DF content as well as its technological and physiological functionality. Orange, mango and prickly pear peels untreated (OU, MU and PPU) and HHP-treated at 600 MPa (OP/55 °C and 20 min, MP/22 °C and 10 min, PPP/55 °C and 10 min) were evaluated. Untreated and treated fruit peels were subjected to fecal in vitro fermentations. The neutral sugar composition and linkage glycosidic positions were related to the production of short chain fatty acids (SCFA) resulting from the fermentation of the materials. After HHP-treatments, changes from multibranched sugars to linear sugars were observed. After 24 h of fermentation, OP yielded the highest amount of SCFA followed by PPU and MP (389.4, 282.0 and 204.6 µmol/10 mg DF, respectively). HHP treatment increased the SCFA concentration of orange and mango peel by 7 and 10.3% respectively, compared with the untreated samples after 24 h of fermentation. The results presented herein suggest that fruit peels could be used as good fermentable fiber sources, because they yielded high amounts of SCFA during in vitro fermentations.

The dietary fiber profile of fruit peels and functionality modifications induced by high hydrostatic pressure treatments.

The effect of high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) and temperature on composition of non-conventional dietary fiber (DF) sources and functional properties were evaluated. Mango, orange, or prickly pear peels were processed at 600 MPa during 10 min at 22 ℃ and 55 ℃. Total (TDF), soluble (SDF), and insoluble (IDF) dietary fiber, water/oil holding, and retention capacity, solubility, swelling capacity, and bulk density were assayed. An increment in the SDF content was observed due to the effect of pressure with the greatest changes noticed in mango peel, increasing from 37.4% (control) to 45.7% (SDF/TDF) in the HHP-treated (55 ℃) sample. Constant values of TDF after the treatments suggest a conversion of IDF to SDF in mango (38.9%-40.5% dw) and orange (49.0%-50.8% dw) peels. The highest fiber solubility values were observed for mango peel ranging between 80.3% and 83.9%, but the highest increase, from 55.1% to 62.3%, due to treatment was displayed in orange peel processed at 22 ℃. A relationship between DF modifications induced by HHP treatment and changes in the functional properties of the materials was established. Application of HHP opens up the opportunity to modify non-conventional sources of DF and to obtain novel functional properties for different food applications.

Combined effect of high hydrostatic pressure and mild heat treatments on pectin methylesterase (PME) inactivation in comminuted orange.

BACKGROUND: Comminuted orange, a product obtained by grinding the juice and peel and used to formulate beverages, has a high pectin methylesterase (PME) activity; thus the inactivation of this enzyme is necessary to avoid quality losses related to cloud loss. The use of high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) and mild temperature allows inactivation of enzymes with minimal quality changes. This work aimed to evaluate the effect of pressure, mild temperature and time of treatment, including come-up and holding time, on the inactivation of PME in comminuted orange, and to apply kinetic and response surface models (RSM) to predict residual PME activity (A/A0 ). RESULTS: During come-up time in treatments at 68 °C, the higher the pressure, the lower was the A/A0 obtained. At 550 MPa/68 °C/10 min the lowest residual activity value was obtained (15.6%). A/A0 was well adjusted to the RSM, and a first-order kinetic model was applied to describe the inactivation of PME. In general, the higher the pressure, the lower was the A/A0 reached, as the increasing values of k from 3.5 × 10(-2) to 55.5 × 10(-2) min(-1) indicated. Activation volume (Va ) values ranging from -9.2 to -17.7 cm(3) mol(-1) , and activation energies (Ea ) between 50.0 and 68.2 kJ mol(-1) were calculated. CONCLUSION: 550 MPa/68 °C/10 min, 350 MPa/68 °C/10 min and 450 MPa/56 °C/10 min treatments were satisfactory (∼84% inactivation) to inactivate PME. A first-order kinetic model was applied to describe PME inactivation, and the resulting A/A0 adjusted to the RSM. In addition, linearized Arrhenius and Eyring equations were well fitted in order to obtain Ea and Va , respectively.