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Topic Review
Food Informatics
Food Informatics is the collection, preparation, analysis, and smart use of data from agriculture, the food supply chain, food processing, retail, and smart (consumer) health for knowledge extraction to conduct an intelligent analysis and reveal optimizations to be applied to food production, food consumption, for food security, and the end of life of food products.
  • 2.3K
  • 10 Dec 2021
Topic Review
Precooling and Cold Storage for Fruits and Vegetables
Cold chain systems, such as cold storages, are crucial to minimizing postharvest losses of fresh fruits and vegetables. Cold storage alone cannot prevent crop losses, but should be considered as one component that needs to be integrated into a cold chain network from the point of harvest to the point of purchase by the consumer. Cold chains are still in their infancy in developing countries due to the lack of basic infrastructure and management skills needed to support the development of integrated cold chain systems.
  • 2.3K
  • 08 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Halāl Salami
The quality assessment and authentication of ḥalāl products are issues raising a growing interest in European Community Countries (France, Sweden, Germany, Greece, Spain, Italy), in Switzerland, in Russia and other countries in the world (Asia, the UK, South and North America). Considering that top producers of ḥalāl products (including meat) are countries where Muslims are a minority, future research should take into consideration ḥalāl standards, immigration and integration of qualified Muslim workers.
  • 2.3K
  • 16 Aug 2020
Topic Review
Grape Seed Oil
Grape seed extract has demonstrated many activities in disease prevention, such as antioxidant effects, which make it a potential source of nutraceuticals. Grape seed is a remarkable winery industry by-product due to the bioactivity of its constituents. Methods for recovery of oil from grape seeds have evolved to improve both the quantity and quality of the yield. Both the lipophilic and hydrophilic chemicals present in the oil of V. vinifera L. make this wine by-product a source of natural nutraceuticals. Food and non-food industries are becoming novel targets of oil obtained from grape seeds given its various properties.
  • 2.3K
  • 24 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Proteins/Enzymes from Animal Sources
Animal proteins are good sources of protein for human, due to the composition of necessary amino acids. The quality of food depends significantly on the properties of protein inside, especially the gelation, transportation, and antimicrobial properties. Interestingly, various kinds of molecules co-exist with proteins in foodstuff, and the interactions between these can significantly affect the food quality.
  • 2.2K
  • 29 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Peumo (Cryptocarya alba), a Native Fruit of Chile
The peumo (Cryptocarya alba) is a native fruit from central Chile that belongs to the Lauraceae family. To characterize the development and the potential health benefits of this edible fruit, quality and physiological parameters, along with antioxidant capacity, were evaluated during three clearly defined developmental stages of the fruit in two seasons. 
  • 2.2K
  • 10 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Non-Thermal Food Processing and Preservation
Non-thermal food processing refers to methods where the food materials receive microbiological inactivation without the direct application of heat. Such technologies, largely combined with hurdle technology to replace those conventional thermal food processing ones, are increasingly viewed as either emerging, novel, or new food processing methods. Such novel technologies have included pulsed electric fields (PEF), high-pressure processing (HPP), ozone treatment, pulsed light, non-thermal plasma/cold plasma (NTP), and ultrasound technology. The technologies can be grouped into two major groups: physical processes (pulse electric field, high-pressure processing, ultraviolet radiation, pulsed light, ultrasound, and ionizing radiation) and chemical processes (ozone treatment, and cold plasma).
  • 2.2K
  • 23 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Biomedical Effects of Graviola
A member of the Annonaceae (Custard-apple family), Annona muricata, commonly known as soursop, graviola, paw-paw, or “guanabana”, is a tree native to Central America and West Indies that is abundant at altitudes lower than 900 m above sea level.
  • 2.2K
  • 03 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Chemical Composition of Kombucha
Kombucha is a fermented sweetened tea with a mixed fermenting culture of yeast and acetic acid bacteria. The proponents of kombucha consumption tout the varied health benefits it can provide. The final kombucha flavor and composition is a function of both the initial tea used and the fermentation process.
  • 2.2K
  • 29 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Anthocyanins
Anthocyanins are biologically active water-soluble plant pigments that are responsible for blue, purple, and red colors in various plant parts—especially in fruits and blooms. Anthocyanins have attracted attention as natural food colorants to be used in yogurts, juices, marmalades, and bakery products. Numerous studies have also indicated the beneficial health effects of anthocyanins and their metabolites on humans, including free-radical scavenging and antioxidant activity.
  • 2.2K
  • 23 Sep 2020
Topic Review
Sulfur Compounds in the Whisky Production Process
Whisky is produced through malting, mashing, fermentation, distillation, and maturation. During these processes, several sulfur compounds are formed and/or reduced in quantity. To date, alkyl sulfides, thiols, methylthio group compounds, thiophenes, thiazoles, dithiapentane derivatives, and furfuryl compounds have been detected in the final spirit. Distillers might be able to control quality better if the pathways and contributions of these chemicals were known; currently, however, only some of them have been identified, while others remain to be revealed.
  • 2.1K
  • 11 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Nitrate-Rich Diet Therapy
Beetroot is a remarkable vegetable, as its rich nitrate and bioactive compound contents ameliorate cardiovascular and metabolic functions by boosting nitric oxide synthesis and regulating gene expressions or modulating proteins and enzyme activities involved in these cellular processes. Dietary nitrate provides a physiological substrate for nitric oxide production, which promotes vasodilatation, increases blood flow and lowers blood pressure. 
  • 2.1K
  • 11 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Phenolic Compounds and Its Linkage
Medicinal plants, along with cereals, fruits, herbs, and vegetables, are the main sources of phenolic compounds, of which nearly 10,000 have been reported in nature to date. They are secondary metabolites produced by plants to protect them from abiotic factors (e.g., drought, extreme temperatures, floods, heavy metals, pH, radiation, salinity, and soils) and biotic factors, such as animals and pathogens attack.
  • 2.1K
  • 29 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Edible Coatings
Edible coatings have been intensively developed and studied because of their capacity to improve the quality, shelf life, safety, and functionality of the treated products. Edible coatings can be applied through different techniques, like dipping, spraying, or coating, in order to control moisture transfer, gas exchange, or oxidative processes. Furthermore, some functional ingredients can be incorporated into an edible matrix and applied on the surface of foods, thus enhancing safety or even nutritional and sensory attributes. In the case of coated fruits and vegetables, their quality parameters, such as color, firmness, microbial load, decay ratio, weight loss, sensorial attributes, and nutritional parameters, are very specific to the type of products and their storage conditions should be carefully monitored.
  • 2.1K
  • 06 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy
Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) has been firstly introduced and proposed for analytical applications almost immediately after the invention of the laser in 1960. Since then, it has been proposed and today is widely used as an alternative analytical method for numerous applications. The operating principle of LIBS is quite simple and is based on the interaction of a powerful enough laser beam, focused usually on or in a sample, inducing a dielectric breakdown of the material, thus resulting in plasma formation consisting of excited and non-excited atoms and molecules, fragments of molecular species, electrons and ions, and emitting characteristic radiations, whose spectroscopic analysis can in principle provide the elemental composition fingerprint of the material. The required instrumentation consisting basically of a laser source, and a spectrometer/monochromator equipped with the appropriate light detector (nowadays being almost exclusively some CCD or ICCD type detector) is relatively simple and economically affordable, while significant progresses have been achieved to small size and/or portable equipment, facilitating largely the in situ operation.
  • 2.1K
  • 31 Aug 2021
Topic Review
DNA-Based Methods in Identification of Fish Species
Various methods, differing in their principle and detected target molecules, can be used for fish species identification and adulteration detection. Parvalbumin detection has been preferred, but this is quite demanding compared to other food allergens because of its high biochemical and immunological variability among fish species and differing thermostability. This in itself sidelines the use of some types of methods, e.g., proteomic ones, and favors DNA-based methods, whose target, DNA, is not destroyed by the processing. Using DNA analysis, for example, a common form of adulteration—replacing the species (a more expensive one with a cheaper one)—can be detected. Additionally, DNA-based methods have the potential to detect the consumer being misled about the fish’s origin, another common type of adulteration. This is even more relevant, since genetically modified (GM) fish can be bought on the world market. Even though GM organisms do not pose a threat to public health and their quality is no different, consumers should be informed about the content of GM products, and because the public can be skeptical about GM products, sellers may want to hide this information and deliberately deceive the consumer.
  • 2.1K
  • 20 Feb 2023
Topic Review
The Toxic Impact of Honey Adulteration
Honey is characterized as a natural and raw foodstuff that can be consumed not only as a sweetener but also as medicine due to its therapeutic impact on human health. It is prone to adulterants caused by humans that manipulate the quality of honey. Honey adulterants are any substances that are added to the pure honey. 
  • 2.1K
  • 09 Jan 2023
Topic Review
Applicability of Essential Oils in Food Products
Essential oils (EOs) are extracted from plants and exhibit antimicrobial (antibacterial and antifungal) activity; thus, they are used in food products to prolong the shelf-life of foods by limiting the growth or survival of microorganisms. In vitro studies have shown that EOs are effective against foodborne bacteria, such as Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., and Staphylococcus aureus. The growing interest in essential oils and their constituents as alternatives to synthetic preservatives has been extensively exploited in recent years, along with techniques to facilitate the implementation of their application in the food industry. 
  • 2.0K
  • 20 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Glycerol
Glycerol (1,2,3-propanetriol) is a viscous odorless and colorless liquid, with a syrupy sweet flavor that may derive from both renewable and fossil sources
  • 2.0K
  • 06 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is responsible for a large part of many health benefits associated with Mediterranean diet as it is a fundamental ingredient of this diet. The peculiarities of this golden highly valued product are in part due to the requirements that must be met to achieve this title, namely, it has to be obtained using exclusively mechanical procedures, its free acidity cannot be greater than 0.8%, it must not show sensory defects and it has to possess a fruity taste. All these characteristics are key factors to EVOO quality, thus the chemical composition of these many health-promoting compounds, such as unsaturated fatty acids (which are also the major compounds, especially oleic acid), as well as minor components such as tocopherols or phenolic compounds (which behave as natural antioxidants) must be preserved. Due to the presence of all these compounds, the daily consumption of EVOO entails health benefits such as cardioprotective, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor properties or acting as regulators of the intestinal microbiota, among others. Taking all together, conserving EVOO chemical composition is essential to preserve its properties, so it is worth to control certain factors during storage like exposure to light, temperature, oxygen presence or the chosen packaging material, to maintain its quality and extend its shelf-life until its consumption.
  • 2.0K
  • 05 Nov 2020
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