Tea is the most common beverage consumed after water. It is brewed from the leaves of Camellia sinensis (family: Theaceae). Different types of tea manufactured are: oolong, green, black and Ilex tea depending on the post-harvest treatment and palatability of a particular region. Being rich in natural antioxidants, tea is reported to be effective against colon, oesophageal, and lung cancers, as well as urinary stone, dental caries, etc. Tea found to be anticariogenic, anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogenic, anti-oxidant can be used as an effective preventive agent. Healthy Foods’ containing active scavengers of free radicals are very popular nowadays. The chiefly chemical components of green tea include polyphenols, caffeine and amino acids. Tea also contains flavonoids compounds reported to have anti-oxidant properties having many beneficial effects. It is widely accepted that phenolic compounds of certain foods have potential health benefits. Tea is linked to beneficial effects on human health with the polyphenols as the responsible constituents. India is one of the largest tea-producing, exporting and consuming country. The present review focuses on the production, composition and the beneficial effects of tea consumption on human health.

A meat analog, also called a meat substitute, mock meat, faux meat or imitation meat, approximates certain aesthetic qualities and chemical characteristics of specific types of meat. The consumption of vegetable proteins in food products has been increasing over the years because of animal diseases, global shortage of animal protein, strong demand for wholesome and religious (halal) food, and economic reasons. A meat-based diet requires a significantly greater amount of environmental resources per calorie compared to a more grain-based diet i.e. 2 to 15 kg plant foods are needed to produce 1 kg of meat. Developing new food products that are attractive to the consumers is a challenge. However, it is even more

complex when these new foods are meant as a substitute for products that are highly appreciated and accepted, like meat. This challenge was accepted to develop new sustainable meat substitutes to reduce the negative environmental impact of industrial-scale meat production for human consumption. Happily there is an increasing importance of legume and oilseed proteins in the manufacturing of various functional food products due to their high-protein contents. However, the greatest obstacle to utilize these legumes and oilseeds is the presence of antinutrients, though these can successfully removed or inactivated by employing certain processing methods. Legumes and oilseeds provide well-balanced amino acid profiles when consumed with cereals. Soybean proteins, wheat gluten, cottonseed proteins, and other plant proteins

have been used for preparation of meat anlogues successfully. Texturized vegetable proteins can substitute meat products while providing an economical, functional and high-protein food ingredient or can be consumed directly as a meat analogues. Meat analogues are successful because of their healthy image (cholesterol free), meat-like texture, and low cost. Mycoprotein a meat analog is fungal in origin and is used as a high-protein, low-fat, good texture and health-promoting food ingredient. Texturized vegetable proteins and a number of mycoprotein based products are accepted as analogues food. These are some constrains also in the production and consumption of meat analogues. Further research however is required to optimize molecular, nutritional, and functional properties of alternative protein sources to meat and to spread out the current knowledge to encourage the beneficial effects of alternative protein sources, as outlined in this review.

Non-thermal pulsed light treatments were given to orange juice for inactivating the Escherichia coli while retaining the quality characteristics. A laboratory model Pulsed Light Treatment chamber was designed. To evaluate, the different process parameters were selected viz., number of flashes (120,180 and 240 flashes), depth of the juice layer (5, 10, 15 and 20 mm) shelf height (5, 10 and 15 cm) and an inoculation level (107cfu/ml). E.coli inactivation of the cells increased when the number of pulses were increased. Higher reduction of bacteria (5.385 log reduction) and fungi (4.14 log reduction) were achieved with a thin layer of juice (5mm) and minimum shelf-height from the lamp (5cm). Quality Characteristics such as pH, TSS and colour value were not affected significantly after the Pulsed treatment however, colour of the orange juice had minor change (20 per cent) when applied with higher number of 240 flashes. The results obtained suggest that pulsed light treatment technology could become an alternative preservation method for orange juice. 

Microbiological and biochemical characterization of experimentally produced Sura- an alcoholic beverage produced and consumed by people in Lug valley of Kullu district (Himachal Pradesh) is reported here. Sura is a fermented alcoholic beverage prepared in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh, India. Peculiarity of this beverage is that no specific inoculum is used its preparation. An additive dheli (36 herbs) is added after 10 days of natural fermentation. The identification of the predominant microflora in this traditional fermented beverage revealed that Lactobacillus plantarum, Pediococcus pentosaceus and Enterococcus pentosaceus were the main fermenting lactic acid bacteria and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Saccharomyces fibuligera and Pichia kudriavzevii were the major yeasts involved in its fermentation. During Sura fermentation protein

content increased from 6.36% (w/w) to 12.8% (w/w), while total carbohydrates decreased from 60% (w/w) to 11% (w/w), starch from 55.3% (w/w) to 16.32% (w/w). Reducing sugars, amylaseand protease activity increased with the progress in fermentation. Increase in the level of B vitamins (B12 and B3) was quite significant from the initial levels. The methanolic extract of dheli showed an antioxidant activity of 26%, thus proving the efficacy of sura as a potential functional beverage. 

The research was conducted to develop a unique product - non vegetarian wafer based on prawns. Prawns are fresh water crustaceans which are deep fried with starch and other ingredients. The product was made as an extruded snack product having very high protein content in different shapes like shell, twisters. Different process parameters were studied and it was found that ideal temperature of the extruder was optimized as 120-135°C at centre. Optimum oven speed and temperature were 30 rpm and 90-95°C respectivily while 210°C was the optimum temperature for 8-10 seconds. Along with the process and the product formulation, a flavor which complemented the taste of the sea food and enhances the product acceptability has also been developed. Some additives were identified which could enhance the palatability of productby making it crispy and non-sticky. As the taste and aroma of prawns were very strong, seasoning was chosen in such a way that the after-taste of prawns was supressed.

Natural pigments are an important alternative to potentially harmful synthetic dyes used as colourant in food. The feasibility of soybean meal as a substrate for production of food bio-colour by Monascus purpureus (MTCC 410) in solidstate fermentation was investigated to optimize the fermentation conditions. The results showed that the highest yield of red, orange, yellow and total bio-colour were 29.36 Units/g dms at 500 nm, 23.06 Units/g dms at 475 nm, 9.80 OD Units/g dms at 375 nm and 62.22 OD Units/ g dms respectively achieved with soybean meal at optimized process parameters that

include 65% (w/v) initial moisture content, 0.3-0.4 mm particle size, temperature 30°C, pH 6, inoculation with 3% spore suspension of 6 days old culture and an incubation period of 9 days. The yield of bio-colours indicated that soybean meal has good potentiality to be used as a substrate for the production of food bio-colours through solid state fermentation.

The quality characteristics of selected black gram varieties viz., T9, VBN 5, CO 6, ADT 3 and VBN 7 were evaluated for their suitability to prepare idli. The foaming stability and foaming capacity was found to be maximum in VBN 5 and T9. The arabinogalactan was also found to be high in VBN 5 (80.9 mg/g) and T9 (73.6 mg/g). The physico-chemical properties of idli batter for the selected varieties were evaluated. Maximum rise in volume was recorded in VBN 5 and ADT 3 (163 ml) followed by T9 (161 ml). The bulk density was found to be lower in VBN 5 (0.81 w/v) and T9 (0.88 w/v) which is an

indication good quality of idli. Idli prepared using 5 black gram varieties were analysed for physico-chemical and microbial load. The texture profile viz., springiness, cohesiveness, chewiness and gumminess was evaluated for VBN 5, T9 and VBN 7 respectively. The protein content was higher in idli prepared from T9 (26.8/100 g) compared to VBN5 (24.00 g/100g). Among the selected varieties, T9 and VBN5 had good mucilaginous content, texture, and microstructure and was found to be the most suitable for idli preparation.

Great interest has recently been focused on the development of cereal based probiotic foods, since comparatively less work is available on cereal based probiotics. An attempt was made to develop such kind of probiotic food mixture which can be utilized to prepare different kind of food products which suits the Indian palate. Probiotic food mixes were developed using locally available ingredients such as Italian millet flour, wheat flour, soya flour, skimmed milk powder, roasted bengal gram dal powder in the proportion 30:40:11:3:15. Probiotic cultures i.e., single probiotic organism Sporolacto bacillus and mixed culture with the combination of Streptococcus faecalis, Clostridium butyricum, Bacillus mesentericus and Lactobacillus organisms were dehydrated using different dehydration techniques. Freeze drying provided higher survival rate of probiotic organisms i.e., 7.46 × 107 log CFU and 6.16 × 107 log CFU mixed probiotic cultures over spray drying. Moisture, protein, fat, crude fibre, carbohydrate, energy, ash, calcium, phosphorus, iron and zinc content of the developed composite probiotic functional mix were 11 g, 18.10 g, 5.70 g, 3.47 g, 58.77 g, 359 Kcal, 3.19 g, 107.10 mg, 343.22 mg, 5.66 mg and 2.03 mg per 100 g, respectively. Tannin, phytic acid, polyphenol and in-vitro protein digestibly were 111.50 mg, 3.1 mg,

120 mg and 55.3 per cent /100 g in the mix.Nutrient and non nutrient contents were the same in all the three mixes, since the ingredients used were the same except for probiotic culture powders. pH decreased and acidity percentage increased over a period of 60 days storage period in the mixes developed.

Indian horse chestnut is a good source of starch but contains toxic compounds such as saponins which make it a bitter and unsuitable for consumption. Studies were undertaken to remove the saponins content from the horse chestnut mass by following pre-treatments including traditional techniques. Nuts after dehulling were crushed/grated into a mass which was treated with various treatments. Various pretreatments like soaking, blanching, cooking, pressure cooking were standardized individually. Then, best selected treatments were further evaluated on the basis of maximum removal of saponins content and sensory characteristics. Treatment having minimum saponins content and higher sensory characteristics scores was selected for making the flour.

Osmotic dehydration of button mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) slices carried out done by dipping them in brine of different concentrations of salt (10%, 20% and 30%), mass ratios (1/10 and 1/25 w/w) solution at a temperature of 60°C, and duration of 30 minutes. With respect to water loss (WL) and salt gain (SG), with the increase in concentration of salt, the water loss increased and the solid gain decreased. The quality of dehydrated slices were evaluated on the basis of moisture per cent, non-enzymatic browning, rehydration ratio and colour values. The lowest moisture content (6.3%) and non-enzymatic browning (0.37) and highest rehydration ratio of 2.68 respectively was observed in treatment T6 (containing salt 30g and mushroom to solution ratio of 1:25) nad thus, was the best.

In the view of evidently proven medicinal benefits of Aloe vera and Mentha arvensis and growing consumer interest in functional foods, aloe and mint were chosen for the production of a functional beverage in the form of wine. The fermentation of exogenously cane sugar supplemented mixture of aloe gel and mint extract, yielded a pale yellowish wine with an ethanol content of 9.5% (v/v). The wine could be considered to be quite health promoting in terms of its total phenolic content, which was 1785 mg GAE/L. LC-MS studies of the same showed the presence of many bio-active compounds including aloin, myricentin, luteolin, quercitin. Value-addition of wine was done by adding the probiotic strain Lactobacillus sporogenes. The probiotic supplemented wine when evaluated against common food borne pathogens, proved to be an effective anti-bacterial therapy. Aloe-Mentha wine thus, can be a promising candidate of the expanding range of functional beverages.

Bitter gourd (Momordica charantia)—a member of the cucurbitaceae family, and a popular vegetable among gourds is known as bitter melon, bitter gourd, balsam pear and karela. It has bitter taste and is known to possess many medicinal properties including those for the cure of diabetes caused by insulin deficiency or resistance. Attempts were made to prepare a low alcoholic beverage from bitter gourd and apple by standardizing the concentration of apple juice, DAHP and inoculum size by applying central composite design (CCD) of RSM. On the basis of physico-chemical and sensory characteristics, a run having 40% apple juice, 0.15 % DAHP and 2.5% inoculum level were rated as the best. It has the highest TSS, rate of fermentation, ethanol, reducing and, total sugars and total phenols. With the addition of 0.15% DAHP

as a nitrogen sources, bitter gourd based wine had the highest total soluble solid (TSS), titratable acidity, ethanol, total and reducing sugar content and lowest volatile acidity and higher alcohols. Different concentrations of yest innoculum used did not significantly influenced most of the physic-chemical characteristics. Must inoculated with 2.5% Saccharomyces cerevisiae var ellipsoideus used for the preparation of bitter gourd based wine had the highest fermentability and ethanol content. However, the product being low alcoholic, need pasteurization at 62oC for 20 min. keeping a head-space of 2.5 cm in a glass bottle. Bitter gourd beverage so prepared holds promise as a medicinal drink as bitter gourd is known to be

antidiabetic. 

Drying of mackerel was conducted using solar biomass hybrid tunnel dryer (S-BHTD) and open sun drying (OSD) at air temperatures 32.4-57.7oC, relative humidity of 23.9-85.8% and air flow rate 0.20-0.6 ms-1. Solar radiation ranged between 287-898 Wm-2 during the experimentation. During the night time, drying was carried out by combusting biomass. The fresh mackerel dried in experimental dryer and in open sun drying achieved the final moisture content <17% (w.b.). The drying time required in S-BHTD was 21 h. The overall drying efficiency of the solar-biomass hybrid tunnel dryer was estimated to be about 5.42 during fish drying. S-BHTD significantly influenced the biochemical properties of dried mackerel. Mackerel dried by using S-BHTD showed very high corresponding coefficients of determination, where all R2 were greater than 0.85, except histamine value. In experimental dryer, microbial growth was not found except TPC (<30 cfu/g) which was within the acceptable limit. Contour plots of dried mackerel in S-BHTD dryers also showed that for all the sensory attributes examined, panelists preferred more the fish dried with S-BHTD than OSD. The optimum points for all sensory attributes of dried mackerel evaluated at temperatures ranged from 45-55 oC for 20-30 h. Biochemical, microbial analysis and sensory evaluation showed that the dried mackerel remained acceptable after 120 days of storage at ambient temperature. The data showed that the drying in S-BHTD resulted in high quality dried mackerel. The study suggests that the experimental dryer could be used successfully to produce high quality dry fish

Out of traditional cuisines of Kashmir baked foods are very popular. One of the major product of this ingenuity is Kulcha, which over time has evolved and established as an important traditional bakery product. The product was prepared after fortifying with 5, 10, 15, 20% buck wheat flour and was stored for 50 days to ascertain the changes in nutritional composition and storage stability. The formulation was done by two methods with HACCP and without HACCP. The highest moisture (3.76%) and total sugar (13.41%) was shown by the flour combination of wheat: buck wheat; 100:0 at 50 days of storage whereas, the highest protein (9.41%), fat (23.97%) and fiber (6.75%) was observed in flour combination of

wheat: buck wheat; 80:20 at 0 days of storage. However the highest fungal count of 3.920 log cfu/gm was recorded in flour combination (wheat: buck wheat; 100:0) at 50 days of storage in product prepared without HACCP.

The present study was undertaken to assess the effect of processing into jam and nectar on phytochemical characteristics, in vitro antioxidant activity viz. reducing power, iron chelating activity, DPPH, ABTS, nitric oxide, superoxide and hydrogen peroxide radical scavenging assays of figure Ficus carica L. fruit. Figure pulp extracts exhibited significantly higher antioxidant activity than fig jam and fig nectar extracts. Total phenolics however to decreased by 10 and 55 %,

flavonoids by 98 and 45%, anthocyanins by 79 and 33% and tannins by 83 and 77% in fig jam and fig nectar, respectively, when compared with the fig pulp. However, in vivo studies to determine the antioxidant potential of the fruit need to conducted before it can be recommended as nutritional substitutes.

Nata de coco is a natural dietary fibre food product obtained by static fermentation of any sugar rich substrate using Gluconacetobacter xylinum. Nata producing microorganism has been isolated from sugarcane juice and was used to produce nata. The yield of nata was about 250 gL-1 in coconut water medium. G. xylinum (sju-1) produced more quantity of nata with thickness accounting to 13 mm and 15 mm in HS medium and mature coconut water medium, respectively. The water holding capacity, hardness and crude fibre content of nata produced from coconut water medium were found to be 87.14%, 41 N and 11.25g respectively. The developed nata was formulated successfully in sugar syrup base using natural colorant obtained from beet root pigment. It could be concluded that the mature coconut water can very well be exploited for the development of nata-a value added fibre food, using G. xylinum (sju-1). 

In this study, the influence of air temperature on thin layer drying of different pre-treated (Baking, Steam boiling and boiling) tender palm shoots has been reported. Drying experiments were performed in a tray dryer at temperatures of 50°C, 60°C and 70°C. Results showed that drying takes place in falling rate period. The experimental moisture loss data were fitted to the selected semi-theoretical and empirical thin-layer drying models. The mathematical models were compared according to the three statistical parameters such as the coefficient of determination (R2), reduced chi-square (χ2) and root mean square error (RMSE). Except Wang and Singh model all the remaining models gave the best fitting results. The effective diffusivity coefficient of moisture transfer varied from 2.19 to 4.21×10-8 m2/s for all the pre-treated

samples over the temperature range, while the activation energy values varied from 11.4816 to 30.2131 kJ/mol for all the pre-treated samples.

The effect of extrusion conditions, including feed moisture content (14–20%), screw speed (300-500 rpm), and barrel temperature (120-180ºC) on the functional properties (water absorption index (WAI), and water solubility index (WSI), fat absorption capacity (FAC) and foaming capacity) and sensory properties (color, appearance, flavor, overall acceptability and textural characteristics) of an expanded sunflower snack was investigated. Extruded snacks were prepared by substituting maize flour with developed texturized flour of sunflower at 0-40% levels. Protein content increased to 13.83% in snacks prepared with 10% texturized sunflower meal as compared to the control i.e., 7.55%. Fibre content increased while

protein digestibility improved with increased level of incorporation of texturized defatted sunflower flour in extruded snacks making. Increasing feed moisture content results in extrudates with lower expansion, lower WAI, higher WSI, higher hardness and lower sensory acceptability. Increasing screw speed caused slight reduction of density and hardness of sunflower extrudate. Feed moisture had positive while screw speed and barrel temperature had negative influence on WAI. Negative coefficient of linear terms of moisture and screw speed indicated that WSI decreased with increase in these variables. Higher moisture content in extrusion process could diminish protein denaturation which lowered WSI values.

The vegetables namely mustard leaves, spinach, bathua, radish leaves, amaranthus, carrots and pumpkin were analyzed for their β-carotene content in the raw and in the cooked form using traditional cooking methods. Spinach, Amaranthus, mustard leaves, fenugreek leaves, carrots and pumpkin had β-carotene content as 5.80, 4.28, 5.85, 2.75, 5.21 and 0.89 mg/100g, respectively on fresh weight basis whereas in the pressure cooked form, the β-carotene content of the above said vegetables was 4.84, 3.62, 5.42, 2.23, 4.14 and 0.68 mg/100g, respectively. Cooking resulted in 7.2-24.3 % losses

being minimum in mustard and maximum in pumpkin. The bathua leaves, fenugreek leaves, radish leaves and maize flour had β-carotene as 2.49, 2.75, 3.98 and 0.09 mg/100g, respectively on fresh weight basis. The β-carotene content of commonly consumed vegetables decreased significantly (p<0.01) on pressure cooking. The vegetables cooked in the form of traditional Punjabi recipes i.e. mustard saag had β-carotene 32 mg/100 g, spinach + paneer vegetable had 47.3 mg/100 g, whereas potato fenugreek and carrot, potato+ peas had β-carotene as 0.39 and 37.6 mg/100g, respectively. The increase in the β-carotene content of cooked vegetables using traditional methods might be due to the addition of other ingredients like bathua leaves, maize flour, tomatoes, paneer, potatoes and peas etc. Thus, these traditional recipes could be a potential the contributor to daily requirement of β-carotene and should be made use of.

Thermovinification damages the hypodermal cell membranes and helps in releasing the anthocyanins from the tissues. The wine from jamun fruits was prepared using thermovinification, where the fruits were crushed and heated to a temperature between 60-80°C for 20-30 min. The wine was prepared with three different musts viz., juice, juice+skin and juice+skin+seeds. Various physico-chemical and sensory qualities of the wine were studied for a period of six months at two months interval to know the effect of thermovinification and different must of jamun. The alcohol content of jamun fruit wine was found maximum in the treatment involving Thermovinification – Pulp + Skin at fresh, 3 and 6 months after ageing. Significantly highest phenol content of 415.49 and 458.51 mg/L was recorded in the treatment viz., (Thermovinification – Juice) at 3 and 6 months of maturation. The thermovinified must of pulp+skin yielded organoleptically acceptable wine.