Instant noodles are consumed worldwide, but instant noodles are often unhealthy. Therefore, in the current study, instant noodles were produced with composite flour (a blend of wheat flour and potato starch at weight ratios of 9:1, 8:2, and 7:3) incorporated with red seaweed powder (Eucheuma denticulatum) in proportions of 0, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, and 15%. The noodles’ sensory, physicochemical, and cooking properties were then determined. The incorporation of 7.5−15% of seaweed powder significantly (p < 0.05) increased the cooking yield, reduced the cooking loss, lengthened the cooking time, and decreased the pH values and water activity. The addition of seaweed powder weakened the tensile strength and softened the noodles. Seaweed noodles were denser and greener than control noodles. Among the three seaweed noodles (F2, F5, and F12) selected through the ranking test, panelists preferred F2 and F5 (both scoring 4.63 on a 7-point hedonic scale for overall acceptability) more than F12. Overall, F5 (at a wheat flour: potato starch ratio of 9:1; 15% seaweed powder) is the best-formulated seaweed noodle in this study, owing to its highest cooking yield and lowest cooking loss even with prolonged cooking, lowest water activity, and acceptable sensory qualities.
Food contamination is a matter of serious concern, as the high concentration of chemicals present in the edibles poses serious health risks. Protecting the public from the degrees of the harmfulness of contaminated foods has become a daunting task. This article highlights the causes, types, and health implications of chemical contamination in food. The food contamination could be due to naturally occurring contaminants in the environment or artificially introduced by the human. The phases of food processing, packaging, transportation, and storage are also significant contributors to food contamination. The implications of these chemical contaminants on human health are grave, ranging from mild gastroenteritis to fatal cases of hepatic, renal, and neurological syndromes. Although, the government regulates such chemicals in the eatables by prescribing minimum limits that are safe for human consumption yet measures still need to be taken to curb food contamination entirely. Therefore, a variety of food needs to be inspected and measured for the presence of chemical contaminants. The preventative measures pertaining about the food contaminants problems are pointed out and discussed.
A total of eight strains of lactic acid bacteria were isolated from water kefir grains and assessed for their in vitro α-glucosidase inhibitory activity. Lactobacillus mali K8 demonstrated significantly higher inhibition as compared to the other strains, thus was selected for in vitro probiotic potential characterization, antibiotic resistance, hemolytic activity and adaptation to pumpkin fruit puree. L. mali K8 demonstrated tolerance to pH 2.5 and resisted the damaging effects of bile salts, pepsin and pancreatin, comparable to that of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG ATCC 53103 (reference strain). Lack of hemolytic activity and susceptibility to the five standard antibiotics indicated the safety of the K8 strain. This strain showed singular properties to be used as starters in the pumpkin fruit puree fermentation. These preliminary in vitro tests indicated the safety and functionality of the K8 strain and its potential as a probiotic candidate.
Obesity and obesity-related comorbidities have transformed into a global epidemic. The number of people suffering from obesity has increased dramatically within the past few decades. This rise in obesity cannot alone be explained by genetic factors; however, diet, environment, lifestyle, and presence of other diseases undoubtedly contribute towards obesity etiology. Nevertheless, evidence suggests that alterations in the gut microbial diversity and composition have a role to play in energy assimilation, storage, and expenditure. In this review, the impact of gut microbiota composition on metabolic functionalities, and potential therapeutics such as gut microbial modulation to manage obesity and its associated comorbidities are highlighted. Optimistically, an understanding of the gut microbiome could facilitate the innovative clinical strategies to restore the normal gut flora and improve lifestyle-related diseases in the future.
Urea is naturally present in milk, yet urea is added intentionally to increase milk's nitrogen content and shelf life. In this study, a total of 50 Ultra heat treatment (UHT) milk samples were spiked with known urea concentrations (0-5 w/v%). Attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy with principal component analysis (PCA), discriminant analysis (DA), and multiple linear regression (MLR) were used for the discrimination and quantification of urea. The PCA was built using 387 variables with higher FL > 0.75 from the first PCA with cumulative variability (90.036%). Subsequently, the DA model was built using the same variables from PCA and demonstrated the good distinction between unadulterated and adulterated milk, with a correct classification rate of 98% for cross-validation. The MLR model used 48 variables with p-value < 0.05 from the DA model and gave R2 values greater than 0.90, with RMSE and MSE below 1 for cross-validation and prediction. The DA and MLR models were then validated externally using a test dataset, which shows 100% correct classification, and the t-test result (p > 0.05) indicated that the MLR could determine the percentage of urea in UHT milk within the permission limit (70 mg/mL). In short, the wavenumbers 1626.63, 1601.98, and 1585.5534 cm-1 are suitable as fingerprint regions for detecting urea in UHT milk.
Pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo) is well known for its health and nutritional benefits and is recommended for daily consumption. This is the first report on optimization and development of fermented pumpkin-based water kefir beverage. Optimum pumpkin puree and brown sugar concentrations were found at 22.28 and 9.07% w/v, respectively, were made into a pumpkin-based beverage and fermented with water kefir grains for 24 h at 32 °C. The optimized fermented pumpkin-based water kefir beverage was found to be non-alcoholic, achieved good overall acceptability and high Lactobacillus, acetic acid bacteria and yeast cell viability of approximately 1012, 109 and 109 CFU mL-1, respectively. Overall, the optimized product attained superb technological characteristics and has the potential for industrial exploitation as a refreshing water kefir drink.
Demands for high nutritional value-added food products and plant-based proteins have increased over the last decade, in line with the growth of the human population and consumer health awareness. The quality of the plant-based proteins depends on their digestibility, amino acid content, and residues of non-nutritive compounds, such as phenolic compounds, anti-nutritional compounds, antioxidants, and saponins. The presence of these non-nutritive compounds could have detrimental effects on the quality of the proteins. One of the solutions to address these shortcomings of plant-based proteins is fermentation, whereby enzymes that present naturally in microorganisms used during fermentation are responsible for the cleavage of the bonds between proteins and non-nutritive compounds. This mechanism has pronounced effects on the non-nutritive compounds, resulting in the enhancement of protein digestibility and functional properties of plant-based proteins. We assert that the types of plant-based proteins and microorganisms used during fermentation must be carefully addressed to truly enhance the quality, functional properties, and health functionalities of plant-based proteins.Supplemental data for this article is available online at here. show.