It is with great pleasure and a sense of fulfillment to state that we have successfully brought out two volumes of our journal “International Journal of Food and Fermentation Technology” during 2011 and 2012, catering to the needs of food scientists, R and D workers, and the academician in the

field. The inaugural issue of the journal was released by the honourable Vice-chancellor of Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan (India) Dr K. R. Dhiman on 26th June 2012 in a function held in the University to mark the beginning of the ICAR sponsored training on ‘’Advance in Fruit and Vegetable Processing and Preservation” with me as a Course Director.

Fermentation has been used as a means of improving the shelf-life and adding quality to food for more than 6000 years. Earlier, the transformation of basic food materials into fermented foods was considered as a mystery. Probably, the first fermentation was discovered accidently when salt was added to food materials which caused the selection of some harmless microorganisms that could ferment the raw material to give nutritious and acceptable food. Since that time, it has been practiced to improve both preservation and

organoleptic characteristics of the food. In the world, there are large varieties of fermented foods and beverages with traditional, religious and cultural value. The diversity of such fermented products is derived from the heterogeneity of traditions prevalent in the world, cultural preference, geographical origin and the staple or by-products used in the fermentation. In many instances it is likely that the methods of production were unknown and came out by chance and passed down by cultural and traditional values to the subsequent generations.

Microencapsulation is mainly concerned with encapsulation. which is the process of forming a continuous thin coating around encapsulant (solid, liquid, gas). The active ingredients may be a food additive, medicine, biocide, adhesive or any other specialty material. Different methods of encapsulation

design the wall to permit controlled release of core material at specific time and place. The first microencapsulation technique was coacervation which was developed and patented by National Cash Register Company in U.S. in 1950. Microencapsulation started from 1950 in the research of pressure sensitive coatings for the manufacture of carbon less copying paper. Microcapsules can be described as micron-size packages, composed of a polymer wall (coat or shell), and an active ingredient referred to as core or nucleus. This technique is applie not only to protect the core material (flavour,

enzyme, bacteria, and drugs) from light, air, moisture and heat but also change or modify the physical property and flow ability of core material. Microencapsulation includes various techniques like co acervation, co crystallization, molecular inclusion, spray drying, spray cooling, chilling, extrusion, fluidized bed drying etc. Microencapsulation sector is growing at @10% annually. Microencapsulation finds applications in different field like pharmaceuticals, microbiology, dairy, bakery and meat industry etc. Extensive ongoing research in microencapsulation is also boosting the popularity of

microencapsulated products.

Patulin (4-hydroxy-4H-furo [3,2c] pyran-2[6H]-one), a mycotoxin, is a secondary metabolite produced by a number of fungi, primarily Penicillium and Aspergillus species common to fruit and vegetable based products. Most notably apple is of major concern from food safety considerations. Patulin 1st discovered as an antibiotic but later on scientific community realised its negative health effects. It is classified as a group-3 carcinogen as there is no evidence of its carcinogenicity in humans but based on a long-term investigation in rats, the World Health Organization (WHO) has set a tolerable weekly intake of 7 ppb (µg/Kg) body weight. The maximum limit of patulin in foods is restricted to 50 ppb in many countries of the world. Conventional analytical detection methods involve chromatographic analyses, such as HPLC, GC and more recently techniques such as LC/MS and GC/MS. The risk associated with the patulin necessitates its control and ultimately removal from the food products. It has been detected in several apple products viz., apple juice, apple puree, apple wine, apple cider and

baby foods. The quantities range from 0.5 to 732.8 µg/L. Effort to understand the basic chemical and biological nature of patulin as well as interaction with the other food components are being made. It may occur in apples during harvest and postharvest stages. The principal risk arises when unfit/ rotten fruit is used for the production of juices and other processed products. Process stages and conditions of process may effect concentration of patulin. Nature of processing such as fermentation, heat treatment and clarification applications or additional steps of production line such as the use of

binding material can help in removing patulin from products or at least reduce its concentration employing low cost technology.

Studies undertaken to prepare arils-in-syrup product from wild pomegranate and its quality evaluation during storage are reported here. Out of ten combinations of arils, syrup and TSS of syrup the product

with 40 per cent arils and 60 per cent syrup of 750B was adjudged to be the best on the basis of its sensory and some physico-chemical characteristics like colour, titratable acidity, ascorbic acid. It could safely be stored for a period of six months under both the ambient and refrigerated storage

conditions without much changes in various quality characteristics. However, Sugars increased from 36.77 to 41.52% ,ascorbic acid decreased from 8.34 to 4.99mg/100g, anthocyanins decreased from 8.09 to 3.15 mg/100g, phenols decreased from 32.91 to 25.75% during storage. Changes in the quality characteristics of the product were slower in refrigerated storage conditions than ambient. Both the packaging materials viz., PET and glass jars were found suitable, with comparatively less changes occurring in glass jar under refrigerated conditions.

Brewer’s spent grain (BSG), a brewery waste was used as a substrate for cellulase production employing a laboratory isolate of Aspergillus sp.SS-25 under solid state fermentation as well as for cellulosic ethanol production. The cultural parameters and media components were statistically optimized for enhancing the cellulase yields employing Plackett-Burman design model. A near-optimum medium formulation for maximum cellulase production by the fungus was determined that increased the CMCase, FPase and β-glucosidase yields by 3.1, 3.6 and 2.1 folds, respectively. Predicted results showed that supplementing malt spent grain with 20% (w/w) wheat bran, 2% each of potato peels, peptone, soyabean meal, tryptone, malt extract, 0.14% NH₄SO₄, 0.002% CoCl₂, 0.0006% FeSO4, 0.1% MnCl₂, 0.1% NaNO₃, 0.03% urea, 0.03% NH₄Cl, maintaining 70% moisture content and incubation at 30^oC for 6 days induced maximum production of all the components of cellulase system yielding 295, 90 and 80 IU/g respectively for CMCase, FPase and β-glucosidase against the predicted yields of 289,

94 and 82 IU/g dry solids. The enzyme preparation worked well in degrading the cellulose fraction in steam pretreated BSG into glucose revealing 75% cellulose conversion efficiency by way of yielding 134 mg glucose/g of BSG. The fermentation efficiency of glucose was found to be 91% producing 78µl

ethanol/g of BSG.

Different levels of insoluble solids (ISS) from apple juice were added to the apple juice must along with wine yeast strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and pectinolytic enzymes to study their effect on sensory quality of wine. The flavour profile of the apple wine of different treatments by quantitative

descriptive analysis (QDA) showed that the wine without ISS was rated better in most of the flavour characteristics studied than those with ISS. Addition of insoluble solids imparted flavour quality characteristics of the wine which are not considered desirable. Out of various wine yeast strains, W

and USD 595 performed better than UCD 505 and UCD 522. The wines without ISS were perceived having highest apple aroma, least cooked vegetables aroma, lower sweetness, lesser bitterness and lower higher alcoholic flavour. Both the addition of wine yeast strains and enzymes improved the flavour profile of the wine and from this point of view, wine made from presettled juice possessed improved flavour characteristics of the wine. Application of PCA weekly separated the wines fermented

with or without insoluble solids. The flavour profile did show some interactions between insoluble solids, yeast strains and the enzymes which modified the flavour attributes of the resultant wine.

Mung bean warrian were prepared by blending black gram flour with mung bean flour. These are relished equally along with other types of warrian around the world export potential of these products has been marred by microbial spoilage during transportation and storage. The growth of proteolytic bacteria, effect of packaging materials and storage conditions were studied in mung bean flour blended warrian over the year and compared with control traditional black gram flour warrian. The results revealed more biochemical degradation of the product in the third quarter of the year in (rainy, hot and humid weather) when proteolytic count was the highest. As compared to the control samples, the pH (4.2), reducing sugar (8.5 mg g-1) and total proteins (22.4 %) were reduced highly in the third quarter

while values for total solids (18.5%), soluble proteins (35.5 mg g-1), free amino acids (45.2 ìg g-1) and proteinase activity (7.4 IU g-1) were increased. Out of the different packaging materials (paper, low density polythene (LDPE), tin containers, glass containers, aluminium laminates, and PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) jars employed Aluminium (Al) laminates (0.035 – 0.096%) and PET jars showed negligible moisture pick up (0.033 – 0.091%) from the environment while the paper packages picked up the highest moisture (8.2 – 13.9%). The proteolytic count showed similar trend with moisture pick up, highest in paper packages (4.25 – 4.75 Log10 CFU) and lowest in Al laminates and PET jars (3.90 – 3.95 Log10 CFU).The study showed that proteolytic bacteria in mung bean flour blended warrian grow

better in hot and humid conditions resulting in the flavor changes in the product. PET jars and Aluminium laminates were suitable the best packaging and storage material for mung bean flour blended warrian.

Angiotensin-I converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory peptides known for regulating blood pressure are formed in foods from proteins due to hydrolysis occurring in vitro in processes such as fermentation as well as in vivo due to digestion in the gut. Idli is a cereal-legume based fermented snack food

widely consumed in southern India. In the present work ACE inhibitor potential of fermented idli batter was estimated for the first time. Various factors prevailing during idli batter fermentation such as time of fermentation, proportion of rice and black gram dhal used in preparation of batter, temperature of fermentation, addition of an extrinsic protease and refrigerated storage of batter were found to have an effect on ACE inhibition. On addition of 344 U of extrinsic protease per gram of batter, IC50 value was

reduced by more than tenfold to 0.480 mg of protein/ml signifying the formation of more and/ or more potent ACE inhibitory peptides.

Juice blending is one of the best methods to improve nutritional quality of the juice besides enhancement of sensory quality. The Concord grape juice was blended with kokum extract with different combinations as T1 (grape juice), T2 (0.2 per cent blended), T3 (0.4 per cent blended) and T4 (0.6 per cent blended). The blending resulted in significant increment of total monomeric anthocyanin, total phenols, colour intensity, anti-oxidant activity and acidity in blended juice. Maximum increase in phenolic, anthocyanins, colour intensity, anti-oxidant activity and acidity took place in T4 while minimum was registered in blending of grape juice with 0.2 per cent of kokum extract in comparison to the control (T1). Minimum loss of anthocyanins was recorded in T2 when compared to the control (T1) among all the treatments during cold storage of 4 months. The highest overall acceptability (maximum mean score) was noted in T3 (7.8) followed by T4 (7.6) were found most acceptable in maintaining the sensory characteristics compared with others. Hence, T2 treatment found more acceptable and stable product than other treatments.

Freeze dried (FD) functional carrot muskmelon juice powder meeting the recommended daily allowance requirement of ascorbic acid and β-carotene was developed. Carrot and muskmelon juice proportion was standardized using factorial design and sensory evaluation as response. The standardized product was freeze dried and subjected for storage at ambient temperature conditions (30±2 ⁰C). Physicochemical and microbiological quality attributes have been evaluated initially and during storage. The degradation patterns of ascorbic acid and β-carotene, microbial quality, sensory and color values

were used for establishing the shelf life stability of the product. Effect of storage on retention of ascorbic acid and β-carotene clearly established the stability of the product till 6 months of storage. Significant variation (p<0.05) in ascorbic acid, β-carotene and sensory attributes were observed

beyond 6 months of storage. Water activity (aw) of the product was found to be 0.190 and adsorption and desorption studies revealed a Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) monolayer value of 2.414g/100g.

The book entitled “Practical Teachings in Microbiology”authored by G.S. Kocher,Punjab Agricultural University is the third volume of revised practical manual in its series. The manual has been designed to cater the needs of students who aspire to have a sound practical hand along with all the necessary details lying behind the techniques used in microbiology. Even very minor details have been documented with care and with precise explanation in this book.

The book is an edited book and has described the process of fermentation thread base. It has discribed the process of fermentation as the oldest methods of food preservation and drying but fermentation gives food a variety of sensory characteristics flavour, tastes, textures besides nutritional and therapeutic values. The first chapter has defined the fermentation process and

traced the historical developments very clearly and precisely. The art of fermentation originated in the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, and the Far East. As early as 4000 and 3000 BC, fermented bread and beer were known in Pharaonic Egypt and Babylonia. The Rigveda (ca.1500BC), have mentioned that the fermentation technology started to develop after observations of fermentative changes in fruits and juices. The authors have amply discussed the various historical developments in fermentations .The pioneering work of Louis Pasteur, Ellie Metchnikoff, Hans von Euler etc on fermentation technology has been highlighted appropriately.