Effect of the temperature and ultrasound on salt impregnation process of haddock.

The influence of different brine temperatures (5, 15 and 25 °C) and ultrasound on the salt gain (SG) and water gain (WG) kinetics of haddock cubes during vacuum impregnation (VI) process was evaluated. Samples were taken from salt solution (4 g NaCl/ 100 g solution) after 0, 20, 40, 60, 100, 140 and 180 min of brining process for salt and moisture analysis. Ultrasound assisted VI and increasing temperature in the salt solution increased (P < 0.05) the salt content, and SG value in the haddock cubes. Furthermore, ultrasound assisted VI enhanced the water diffusion into the cubes and resulted in an increase in WG value. The ultrasound process increased the salt effective diffusion coefficient (Ds) and the highest Ds was found at 25 °C brine temperature. Azuara, Diffusive, Peleg, Weibull, Z and L models were tested to predicting SG and WG kinetics and Azuara was the best model during brining process of haddock cubes.

Application of ultrasound-assisted vacuum impregnation for improving the diffusion of salt in beef cubes.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of different vacuum impregnation (VI) conditions (Control, VI-250, VI-500, VI-750, US-VI-250, US-VI-500 and US-VI-750) on the salt gain (SG) and water gain (WG) kinetics of beef cubes. The cubes were immersed in brine solution (4 g NaCl/ 100 g solution) and salted at different levels of vacuum (250, 500 and 750 mbar) using VI method with and without ultrasound. The final moisture and salt contents of the cubes were 78.60% and 1.59%, respectively, and the samples were salted the fastest with US-VI-250. Five kinetic models were selected to evaluate the SG and WG kinetics, and Azuara model exhibited the best fit. In addition, the salt (Ds) and moisture (Dw) diffusion coefficients were in the range of 5.94-8.11 × 10-9 m2/s and 5.17-8.64 × 10-9 m2/s, respectively. It can be concluded that the ultrasound-assisted VI could shorten the brining time by improving the salt diffusion in beef cubes.

Quality characteristics of cold-dried beef slices.

In this study, salted and pasteurized beef slices were dried to approximately 40% water content at different low temperatures (10, 15 and 20 °C) and air flow rates (1, 2, 3 and 4 m/s) and the quality characteristics of the cold-dried beef slices were investigated. The TBARS values of cold-dried slices increased from 42.01 to 54.54 µmol MDA/kg with the increase in drying temperature and from 27.29 to 67.79 µmol MDA/kg with the increase in air flow rate indicating that low temperature and low air flow rate can help to avoid the lipid oxidation. Low drying temperature was also found to impact on the color of cold-dried slices. Additionally, it was determined that the microbiological quality of cold-dried slices decreased as the temperature increased from 10 to 20 °C and air flow rate increased from 1 to 4 m/s. Finally, the slices dried at 10 °C and 3 m/s had higher sensorial property scores. Consequently, low drying temperature and high air flow rate could enhance the quality of dried beef slices.

Drying kinetics, adsorption isotherms and quality characteristics of vacuum-dried beef slices with different salt contents.

In this study, the effect of salt content (0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 g/100 g dry basis) on the drying kinetics, adsorption isotherms, and quality characteristics of beef slices were investigated. Beef slices were salted and vacuum-dried at 70 °C, until a moisture content of 32% (dry basis). The adsorption isotherms of the dried beef slices were described at 25 °C. The drying time for beef slices at the salt contents of 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 g NaCl/100 g d.b. were 212, 207, 194, 160 and 137 min respectively. Modified Henderson and Pabis, and Page models exhibited a better fit for the drying kinetics of beef slices than the other drying models tested. The adsorption isotherm of dried beef slices is typical Type-II, but the addition of salt led to this behavior to change to type III. The BET model (R2 > 0.98 and %E ≤ 13.40) for all samples exhibited a good fit to the experimental data.

Investigation of the Usability of Retrograded Flour in Meatball Production as A Structure Enhancer.

This study aimed to research the possibilities of using retrograded flour produced in the laboratory environment in meatballs and the characteristics of these meatballs. In the use of retrograded flour to produce meatballs, it was ensured that the meatball properties, with respect to chemical, physical and sensorial aspects, were comparable to those of meatballs produced with bread (traditional) and rusk flour (commercial). The cooking loss of meatballs produced with using retrograded flour was similar to that of commercial meatballs. Doses of retrograded flour from 5% to 20% led to a significant decrease in cooking loss, from 21.95% to 6.19%, and in the diameter of meatballs, from 18.60% to 12.74%, but to an increase in the thickness of meatballs, from 28.82% to 41.39% compared to the control. The increase of a* and b* values was shown in that the meatballs were browned on cooking with increasing retrograded flour doses because of non-enzymatic reactions. The springiness of the traditional meatballs was significantly higher than that of the other meatballs. This might have been due to the bread crumbs having a naturally springy structure. Moreover, the addition of retrograded flour in the meatballs significantly (p<0.05) affected the hardness, springiness and cohesiveness of the meatballs with respect to textural properties. Accordingly, it is considered that the use of 10% retrograded flour is ideal to improve the sensorial values of meatballs and the properties of their structure.

Lymph Node Density in Node-Positive Laryngeal Carcinoma: Analysis of Prognostic Value for Survival.

OBJECTIVE: We investigated the value of lymph node density (LND) as a predictor of survival in patients with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and positive neck node (pN+) after laryngectomy. STUDY DESIGN: Case series with chart review. SETTING: Katip Celebi University Ataturk Training and Research Hospital, Izmir, Turkey. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We reviewed the records of 289 patients with newly diagnosed primary laryngeal carcinomas who underwent partial or total laryngectomy and combined neck dissection at a tertiary referral center between June 2006 and December 2014. Patients with pN+ laryngeal SCC (n = 101) were included in the study. Overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were used to evaluate the prognostic significance of LND. RESULTS: In 101 patients with pN+ laryngeal SCC, LND ≥0.09 and number of metastatic lymph nodes >4 were significantly associated with OS and DFS but not the overall tumor, node, and metastasis stage. Forward stepwise Cox regression analysis revealed that LND ≥0.09 was the only independent predictor of both DFS and OS. Furthermore, the odds ratio of LND ≥0.09 was 10 times higher in patients with regional recurrence when compared patients without regional recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: LND was the only independent prognostic predictor of OS and DFS in patients with pN+ laryngeal SCC. Moreover, patients with LND ≥0.09 were significantly associated with high risk of regional recurrence. Thus, patients with LND ≥0.09 are at high risk of regional recurrence and death and may be considered for adjuvant chemoradiation.