Please find the Table of Contents for the Volume 6 Issue Number 2, December 2016

Editorial for the December Issue, 2016

Conceptual Editorial by S.K. Patyal, Principal Scientist, Department of Entomology, Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry,Nauni, Solan (HP), India

In this forum, we invite academicians, the educators the researcher's students and the public to open up their mind, express their views and send these to the editor-in-Chief which would be published as letters to the editor. Of course, no fee would be charged for the publication of the letter to the editor.

The influence of different osmotic dehydration methods on morphological and nutritional attributes of plums and berries has been reviewed and presented in this review. Several researches have been done for retention of bioactive compounds varying osmotic conventionally drying solution, brix, critical moisture content, drying temperature, drying time and methodology of osmotic dehydration process. Osmotic dehydration is a counter flow process which results in solids gain or impregnation, enhancing the textural and rheological properties of plum and related fruits. Osmotically dehydrated plums require less drying time than which results into improved overall quality. Reviews suggested that various osmotic agents with low molecular weight lead to higher water loss. Osmotic dehydration improves the overall quality of plums and berries as compared to the conventional drying methods.

Fresh vegetables have a very short shelf-life since these are subjected to physiological and rapid microbial spoilage and in some cases contamination by pathogens also. Processing or modification of raw foods by using food processing methods and techniques is needed to meet the challenges of food security and safety, nutrition demand and availability of food. Fermentation is one of the important methods of preservation of vegetables. It is one of the oldest means of food preservation and reduces the risk of food borne diseases and food spoilage. Sauerkraut is a traditional fermented vegetable product and is prepared by the fermenting salted cabbage by naturally occurring lactic acid bacteria. Kimchi is another such products made by lactic fermentation of radish and other vegetables. Carrot when fermented similarly gives ‘kangi’, a beverage very popular in several parts of India. In this review is focussed on the lactic acid fermentation of vegetables.

Custard apple is a delicious and commercially important fruit with pleasant flavor, mild aroma, sweet taste, good nutritional and medicinal values. However, the pre-harvest, post-harvest and processing and value addition practices have not been sufficiently developed. The pre-harvest practices like mulching, irrigation nutrition supplement and bio-fertilizers application play an important role on the development and shelf-life of fruits. The fruit has a short self-life due to high respiration and ethylene production. The temperature, type of packaging and chemical application have effect on storage life, however very low temperature storage is not recommended due to chilling injury. The shelf-life of custard apple fruit can be enhanced upto 12 days in modified atmosphere storage at 10°C, whereas pulp can be stored for six months with potassium meta-bisulphite. A number of value added products like ready-to-serve beverages, fermented beverage, ice cream, squash, and toffee can be prepared to exploit the nutritional potential and adding a new flavor/taste in the market. This review attempts to outline some of the important findings on pre-harvest practices, post-harvest, processing value addition and storage of this fruits.

The present investigation was undertaken with the objective of funding out the physicochemical and microbial quality of spiced fish sauce made from the fresh water Catla catla fish for a period of 60 days storage. The spiced fish sauce was prepared by anaerobic fermentation for about 2 months and evaluated different physico-chemical for characteristics such as moisture, fat, protein carbohydrate, salt, total ash, pH and TSS were examined at an interval of 15 days. The microbial study of fish sauce during study showed that the TPC (Total Plate Count) and yeast and mold count were gradually decreased from that the fresh of 5.4 × 104 cfu/ml 4.3 × 103 cfu/ml and from fresh (3.1 × 103 cfu/ml) (2.0 × 102 cfu/ml), respectively during 60 days. The lactic acid bacteria count was progressively increased during storage (fresh day (2.9 × 103 cfu/ml) (4.1 × 103 cfu/ml)) during 60 days. Further, objectionable colony of Coliform and Salmonella was detected during the whole storage. The microbial counts were within the specified standards for the consumption of the fishy food products. However, the organoleptic evaluation of the fish sauce during storage showed that the highest score for overall acceptability was recorded for 60 days (8.6) and followed by 45 days (8.5) and 30 days (8.3). It can be concluded that the prepared fish sauce can be stored for 60 days with good physiochemical and sensory quality storage quality and acceptability.

Development of ready to eat mint coriander sauce’ with objectives to standardize the method of preparation, preservation and shelf-life of the sauce is reported here. Mint, coriander, other ingredients and the prepared sauce were analyzed for their physicochemical, phytochemical and sensory characteristics. It was observed that solids were separated, so guar gum and CMC were added in the combination of 0.3%+0.3% and homogenization was carried out at 7400 RPM for 7-8 minutes at 20°C to improve the consistency. The samples were stored in five batches i.e. control, preserved with KMS, preserved with sodium benzoate, preserved with combination of KMS+ sodium benzoate and thermal processed sauce for a storage interval of four months. The results observed that the control sample retained shelf life of 30 days while the samples preserved with sodium benzoate remaining for acceptable quality for four months.

De-fatted soy cereal bar (DSCB) was prepared by substituting different proportions of defatted soy flour viz., 100:0(T0), 90:10 (T1), 80:20 (T2) 70:30 (T3), 60:40 (T4), 50:50 (T5), 40:50 (T6) with basic meal. Sensory evaluation was done for different treatments. T2 was highly acceptable from all the other treatments and was analyzed for proximate composition viz., moisture, protein, fat, fiber, ash, carbohydrate, energy, in-vitro protein digestibility (IVPD), total calcium and iron, in-vitro calcium and iron bioavailability and shelf-life. Protein content was significantly higher in DSCB compared to the control (CCB). IVPD, total Ca and Fe, in-vitro Ca and Fe bioavailability of DSCB was found to be significantly higher than the CCB. Storage studies showed that the DSCB and CCB were found stable and highly acceptable at the end of the storage period of three months in HDPE polypouches by vaccum packaging at ambient temperature (23-44oC). DSCB were developed to supply the public nutritious food alternatives with good nutrition combinations and good protein quality in cereal-legume complementation.

Cyclodextrin glycosyltransferase (CGTase) catalyzes the formation of Cyclodextrins from starch by an intramolecular transglycosylation reaction. In the present study, the CGTase enzyme was produced from Bacillus macerans NCIM 2131, using shake flask fermentation. Soluble starch and yeast extract were screened as the best carbon and nitrogen source at an individual factor level for enhancing CGTase activity. Similarly, ferrous ion and arginine were found to activate CGTase production in comparison to various other trace metals and amino acids tested. The synergistic effect of individual parameters of CGTase activity and process optimization of cultural condition was performed by response surface methodology (RSM). The optimized media comprised 24 g/L soluble starch; 32.5 g/L ferrous ion, and 15.0 g/L arginine with CGTase activity of 24.23 IU/mL. The final CGTase activity was very close to the predicted value of 24.82 IU/mL with 97.0% validation. Shake flask optimized conditions were further scaled up to 7.5 L fermenter (working volume: 3.0 L) which gave 2.6 folds (64.3 IU/mL) increase in enzyme activity. The enzyme was partially purified by ammonium sulfate precipitation and scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) was used to study the qualitative properties of produced enzyme.

The present investigation was carried out with the objective to find out the effect of different treatments on preservation of strawberry pulp at ambient and low storage temperature condition. The samples were pasteurized at 100°C for 15 minutes (T1), preserved with sodium benzoate 250 ppm (T2) and sodium benzoate 500 ppm (T3). The respective samples were stored for two months at room (25±5°C) and low (7±2°C) temperature conditions and various physic-chemical characteristics were recorded at three days interval. The total soluble solids, ascorbic acid and anthocyanin decreased and acidity increased in the stored pulp at room temperature and finally spoiled completely on 18th day of storage. However, in TSS, in acidity increased and ascorbic acid and anthocyanin decreased at low temperature upto 60 days of storage. Among the treatments, sodium benzoate @ 500 ppm was found to be the most effective which maintained the qualitative characteristics of preserved pulp at low (7±2°C) temperature condition up to the 60 days of storage.

Efforts were made to develop Tikhur based Gulabjamun with the addition of Tikhur flour viz, 10% (T2), 20% (T3) and 30% (T4) by replacing 10% maida (T1) especially to consume during fastening and it has been reported that Gulabjamun prepared with the addition of 30% Tikhur flour obtained highest acceptability (score 9.0 on 9-point Hedonic scale). Tikhur flour used for Gulabjamun preparation contains 15.0 % moisture, 0.20% fat, 1.60% protein, 82.30 % carbohydrate and 0.90% ash. The fresh product T4 (30%) had 26.14% moisture, 23.52 % fat, 16.98 % protein, 47.82 % carbohydrate, 6.10 % ash and 73.86% total solids. During the storage period at room temperature, there was a consistent increase in free fatty acid and peroxide value in all the samples due to hydrolytic and oxidative rancidity while though these changes were slower in T4 sample compared to T2 and T3. It is also concluded that Tikhur flour based Gulabjamun of treatment T4 (30% Tikhur flour) was the best having the cost of ` 15,680/- /100 Kg which is lower than control (T1).

Salt preconditioning provides an alternate to very high gravity fermentation for increasing osmotolerance and thermotolerance of yeast. In the current study, a fermenting yeast strain (Saccharomyces cerevisiae MTCC 11815) was sequentially preconditioned at 4% (w/v) NaCl in a synthetic medium and optimized using RSM on the basis of osmotolerance and thermotolerance for maximum ethanol production. A maximum ethanol of 12.53% (v/v) was observed at a temperature of 35ºC with high residual Brix of 17 °B from initial 39 °B. Further, ethanol fermentation carried out between 20 to 30 °B revealed 24 °B as optimum with an ethanol production of 12.4 % (v/v) and residual brix of 3.5 °B. Validation studies on sugarcane juice as well as on molasses (10L) recorded the optimized fermentation parameters (Brix 24°B, Inoculum size 7.5% (v/v) and DAHP 0.3% (w/v)) with ethanol production of 12.4% (v/v) on sugar cane juice and 10.6% (v/v) on molasses having fermentation efficiencies of 86.10% and 81.20% by pre-conditioned S.cerevisiae MTCC 11815 cells.

During the sweet orange juice extraction process a large quantity of peel is produced which is a waste. At present, peel is used for animal feeds and as a source of dietary fibres due to their high fibre content. It could an interesting source of dietary fibre for food also. Efforts were made to investigate the effect of four drying methods (open yard sun drying, solar tunnel drying, hot air drying and dehumidified air drying) and three grinding methods (hammer mill grinding at ambient temperature, with water cooling and with liquid nitrogen cooling) on functional properties of sweet orange peel powder are reported here. Among all combinations of treatments, dehumidified air drying and hammer mill with LN2 grinded powder showed the highest specific volume, lowest bulk density and apparent density due to good hydration properties with highest swelling capacity, water retention capacity, water holding capacity and oil holding capacity. It concluded that powder can be rich source of dietary fibres.

For production of mango powder, the mango pulp treated with different foaming agents such as glycerol-mono-stearate (T1), methyl cellulose (T2) and egg albumen (T3) were chosen for the processing of ready to use mango powder. Mango powders was prepared for the processing of fruit powder based ice creams and standardized using various levels of fruit powders (10-40%) with other ingredients. The ice creams prepared by incorporation of mango powders (10, 20, 30, and 40) were tested for consumer acceptability. The ice cream prepared by incorporation of mango fruit powder at 20% replacement was superior followed by 30% and 40% replacement in all foaming agents treated mango powders. Hence the 20% incorporation level of fruit powder was selected for preparing of ice creams. The mango powder incorporated ice creams were stored in freezing condition for 8 days. Physical properties of ice cream like volume, freezing time and temperature, surface, texture, crystal formation, melting time and viscosity were observed during storage period. The chemical characteristics and organoleptic evaluation, were also studied during storage. Based on all quality parameters, glycerol-mono-stearate (T1) treated mango powder incorporated ice cream was best followed by methyl cellulose (T2) treated and egg albumen (T3) treated ice creams.

Fibre rich cookies were prepared by substituting refined wheat flour with beetroot pomace powder (BPP) at 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25% and evaluated for its physical properties, chemical composition, textural properties and sensory characteristics. The thickness of the cookies increased whereas the diameter, spread ratio and spread factor decreased with the increase in BPP in flour blend except for the cookies with 5 % BPP which showed contrary results. The moisture, crude fibre, protein and ash increased but carbohydrates decreased with the increase in the level of incorporation of BPP. The fat content of the cookies showed no pronounced variation. The hardness of the cookies increased with increase in the level of incorporation of BPP in the flour blends except for the cookies with 5% BPP that showed lower value as compared to the control sample. Incorporation of BPP however, showed detrimental effect on appearance of cookies by imparting it dark colour; texture score decreased with the increase in the level of incorporation. Cookies with 10 % BPP were found to be the most acceptable due to better taste and flavour.

Mulberry (Morus alba L.) is one of the underutilized fruit which is a rich source of antioxidants like phenols, besides its appealing taste and strong aroma. Investigations were conducted to develop jelly and its quality evaluation during storage is reported here. Different combinations of juice (40, 45, 50 and 55 %) and sugar (45 and 50 %) were tried to standardize proper combination for jelly. The jelly prepared by following the best selected recipe was packed in glass and PET jars and stored for six months under ambient and refrigerated temperature conditions. Jelly could be safely stored for a period of six months under both the conditions without much change in various quality characteristics. Different quality characteristics like TSS (oB), reducing sugars (%), total sugars (%) and pH of jelly increased from 66.00 to 66.56, 48.21 to 51.42, 63.08 to 63.46, 3.56 to 3.62 while other chemical characteristics like titratable acidity (%), ascorbic acid (mg/100 g), anthocyanins (mg/100 g), total phenols (mg/100 g), pectin (%) decreased from 0.75 to 0.67, 5.83 to 4.11, 9.00 to 6.71, 72.18 to 69.13, 1.06 to 0.88 and sensory characteristics scores of colour, texture, taste, aroma, overall acceptability score from 7.50 to 7.02, 7.83 to 7.27, 8.19 to 7.92, 8.00 to 7.55, 7.90 to 7.40, respectively during refrigerated storage. However, the changes in the quality characteristics of jelly were slower in refrigerated storage conditions as compared to ambient conditions during six months of storage period the quality of the product was retained better in glass jars than PET jars under refrigerated storage condition.

Bitter gourd fruit (Momordica charantia L.) contains many nutraceutical compounds and possess antioxidant and hypoglycemic activity but, its utilization in foods products has not received much attention. Efforts were made to prepare antioxidant rich palatable bitter gourd based functional squash by blending bitter gourd juice with kiwi fruit (Actinidia deliciosa) juice in different ratios viz. 90:10, 80:20, 70:30, 60:40 and 50:50 using different levels of fruit part (25, 30 and 35%) and TSS (40 and 45oB) separately. Among different combinations, the squash prepared using 30% blended juice of treatment T32 (80% bitter gourd juice+20% kiwi juice) with 45oB TSS recorded highest sensory scores. The developed products were analyzed for their bio-chemical, antioxidant potential and sensory quality characteristics at different storage intervals (0,3 and 6 months). The bitter gourd- kiwi blended squash contained 44.83oB TSS, 1.25% acidity and 37.54% total sugars. Blending has increased ascorbic acid content (33%) and total phenolics (24%) of the blended beverage over bitter gourd squash. The products exhibited only slight changes in their physico-chemical, nutritional and sensory characteristics during storage, yet were shelf-stable and remained acceptable up to a period of six months. The high antioxidant potential (68.29%) of the developed product compared to the control sample revealed its health benefits.

The relationship among total solids content, textural and sensory parameters of dahi was investigated and reported here. The total solids (TS) content of fresh skim milk was adjusted to 9, 12, 15, 18, 21 and 24% using spray dried-skim milk powder. Dahi was prepared from these milks with adjusted TS and were chilled to 5oC. Firmness, consistency and viscosity index of dahi samples, measured by texture analyzer, showed a general increasing trend with increasing %TS in milk. Sensory scores were the highest at 15% TS. The TS content, texture and sensory quality were interdependent and instrumental texture parameters highly influenced the sensory scores. By univariate analysis, sensory score showed a linear relation with consistency and firmness exhibiting low RMS values. Relationships were much better with multivariate analysis as indicated by multiple regression involving consistency, firmness, viscosity index and their products indicating that the sensory acceptance of dahi is dependent on more than one textural parameter.

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is the third largest carbohydrate food source in the tropical region, after rice and corn. Cassava is considered as a food security crop which can be left in the ground for extended periods of up to two years, until required. Cassava was procured from the Department of Vegetable Science, Punjab Agricultural University. Starch was extracted from cassava by peeling, chopping, grinding with water for 5 minutes, filtration, decantation and drying at 55oC for one hour. Percentage of starch obtained was 25%. Flour was prepared from cassava by peeling, grating, drying in hot air oven at 55oC for 24 hrs and then, milling. Percentage of flour obtained was 40% while that of flour after extraction of starch was 12 %. Different blends were prepared with wheat flour, soy flour, cassava flour in the ratio of 90:5:5, 85:5:10, 75:10:15 and 70:10:20, respectively and their baking quality for preparation of cookies was evaluated. The blend with wheat flour, soy flour, cassava flour in the ratio of 85:5:10 was found to be the best with regard to baking and sensory quality. It was concluded that cassava can be utilized in the form of flour in bakery products, as a replacement of wheat flour in gluten free diets and for starch, as the demand of starch for various food and non-food purposes is increasing.

Conventional hot air method of cashew kernel conditioning is time consuming besides other limitations, hence rapid infrared conditioning was tried as an alternative conditioning method. Comparative study of different temperature levels of infrared conditioning was carried to determine the effects on quality parameters of cashew kernel conditioning before peeling were compared with hot air conditioned kernels. Second level of infrared conditioning i.e., 160 °C for 8 minutes was found to the best conditioning treatment out of all infrared heating levels tried, yielding kernel quality comparable to conventional hot air conditioning. Moisture removal during infrared conditioning was analyzed using different established drying models. Page model was found to fit well in all three selected infrared conditioning levels. Diffusion coefficients during infrared and hot air conditioning were found to be 1.40×10-08 and 9.00×10-10 m2/s respectively.

Gums are polysaccharide compounds having many medicinal and food uses. The tapping and extraction of gum was carried out with the trees of desired diameter at different tapping height from ground level. 4-7 cm wise cut treated with different concentration of H2SO4. After collection and purification of the gum, the different quality parameters and their optimum value in the gum sample were determined such as moisture content 15.31 %, wb, ash content 1.89 %, volatile matter content 65.78 %, pH 4.44, protein content 16.54 mg/g, tannin content 0.0032 mg/g, methoxyl content 1.37 %, major elemental contents in ppm like copper 67.02, ferrous 1247.90, manganese 95.39 and zinc 94.97 when tree diameter was more than 20 cm and tapping height either more than 80 cm or less than 40cm from ground level. Treating the tapped portion with different concentration of H2SO4 did not show significant effect.

Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) has shown a great potential for the extraction and isolation of phytochemicals from various food samples as it minimizes sample handling, provides fairly clean Process extracts, SC-CO2 is the fluid most commonly used in SFE with several advantages. Supercritical fluid extraction was carried out at selected SC-CO2 pressures (100, 150 and 200 bar) and temperatures (40, 50 and 60 °C). The concentrations of food phyto-chemicals viz., total phenols, total flavonoids, total carotenoids, total sterols and total tocopherols from Moringa oleifera. Lam seed kernels were found to be 41.82 to 44.71 mg GAE/g, 14.82 to 18.25 mg RE/g, 15.45 to 17.06 ppm, 892.05 to 984.17 ppm, 80.27 to 92.26 ppm were highest at 200 bar pressure and 50 °C temperature. All of these parameters were significantly (p<0.01) affected by SC-CO2 conditions. With increasing in pressure from 100 to 200 bar, the extraction of phyto-chemicals increased, in case of temperature up to 50 °C phyto-chemicals extraction increased, further increasing in temperature from 50 to 60 °C there will be a decrees in phyto-chemical concentration. Extraction yield of phyto-chemical constituents found 35.26 % in a SFE, which is more than the conventional soxhlet extraction technique (17.12 %). Therefore, phyto-chemical constituents present in the Moringa oleifera. Lam seed kernels could be efficiently extracted by using SC-CO2 with standardized process conditions.

Yoghurt was prepared from fresh cow and buffalo milk with standardized fat content of 4% , 5% and 6%; SNF 10%, 11% and 12% along with 2% starter culture of Streptococcus salivarious subsp. thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbruechii subsp. bulgaricus in the ratio of 1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 2:1 and 3:1; at 2 temperature levels of 39°C and 42°C for 6 hours. The acidity of yoghurt was higher in samples with higher levels of solid. Protein lactic and ash contents increased as the SNF contents increased in milk. The yoghurt based diet was fed to experimented albino rate. The levels of S. thermophilus and L. bulgaricus (3:1) acidity increased and pH were decreased in yoghurt. The levels of cholesterol decreased (P<0.01) from 61.59-50.80 mg/100 ml of blood when the levels of yoghurt increased and the triglycerides decreased (89.0 to 83.0 mg /100ml) as the levels of yoghurt increased (10 % - 30%) in the diet. The concentration of phospholipids in the blood increased (P<0.01) 27.27% in 10% yoghurt fed group and 13.64% to 27.27% in yoghurt fed group than the control.

The study was conducted to determine physico-chemical characteristics and sensory qualities of sorghum-finger millet papad. Papads were prepared from different sorghum varieties by incorporating finger millet flour and analyzed for physical, chemical and sensory qualities. Parbhani Moti sorghum variety was selected among five sorghum varities based on sensory evaluation of papads. Finger millet flour was added to Parbhani Moti sorghum variety based papad as 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50% with other ingredients. The results revealed that Sorghum-finger millet papad prepared with 40% finger millet flour had moisture range of 9 to 9.25%, proteins 8.39 to 12.64%, fat 0.88 to 1.05 %, ash 0.54 to 1.27% and total carbohydrates 76.77 to 80.21% respectively.

Bioactive yoghurt an innovative functional dairy food refers to the incorporation of bioactive components from Aloe vera to promote better health. The process parameters like incubation temperature, percentage of total solids, starter culture and bioactive component were optimized based on the incubation time and quality of the developed bioactive yoghurt. The optimized process parameters were Incubation time, Incubation temperature 4 hours (43°C), Total Solids (23 %), Aloe vera (1%) and (2%) Starter cultures (L.lactis : L.acidophilus). Quality parameters such as hardness, firmness, cohesiveness, consistency and the index of viscosity of bioactive yoghurt were found to be 10.5 g, 69.97 g, -17.29 g, 366.29 g mm, -5.89 g mm, respectively. pH and the titratable acidity were found to be 4.59 and 0.96 %, respectively. The microbial analysis revealed that the bioactive yoghurt had a shelf life of 12 days under refrigerated condition (8±2˚C) with overall acceptability score of 7.

Paneer has a very low shelf-life. Hurdles like spices, pH, water activity, temperature, redox potential, packaging etc. can be used to enhance the shelf-life of paneer. Present study was conducted to investigate the effect of low pH on sensory, textural, microbial quality and shelf-life of paneer. The paneer block was dipped in 0.50 percent citric acid solution for 12 hours which, as expected, reduced the pH of the sample from 5.61 to 5.23. Dipping of paneer resulted in increase of hardness, gumminess and chewiness from 1088, 889 and 849 g to 1160, 933 and 881 g, respectively while springiness decreased from 0.955 to 0.943. Standard Plate Count (SPC) of control paneer increased from 26,000 to 2,96,000 cfu/g on 8th day whereas the figure for treated paneer was 2,40,000 cfu/g. Yeast and mould count in control paneer increased from 27 to 290 cfu/g and for treated paneer from 14 to 127 cfu/g on 8th day of storage at refrigeration temperature. The body and texture, flavor and overall acceptability scores of dipped samples were lower than those of control while color and appearance score of treated paneer was higher than the control paneer. Reduced pH did not enhance the shelf-life of paneer at ambient temperature while it extended from 6 to 12 days at refrigeration (7±1°C) temperature.

Bacteriocins are the metabolites produced by lactic acid bacteria having antimicrobial activity thus, with a tremendous potential as a biopreservative agent for processed food. In this study, bacteriocinogenic LAB were isolated from the fermented food, “Idli”. Morphological and biochemical analyses of these isolates were done by the traditional methods. The isolates (10) were able to produce bacteriocin whose antibacterial activity was analyzed by agar well diffusion assay test against indicator organisms. The antibacterial protein (bacteriocin) was characterized based on the sensitivity to heat, pH, chloroform, NaCl and incubation time. It was observed that 1% NaCl enhanced the bacteriocin production of all the bacteriocin positive isolates. The bacteriocins produced by the lactic acid bacteria isolated in this work could act as a good source to inhibit the growth of spoilage bacteria and foodborne pathogens.

Tomato slices pre-treated with 4% potassium metabisulphite (KMS) and dried by hot air drying at 58˚C and freeze drying at 0.008 m Bar vacuum were assessed for phytonutrient quality. Freeze drying was found to retain better antioxidant activity and phytonutrients in tomato slices compared to the hot air dried tomato slices. Sulphur dioxide exerted beneficial effect (antioxidative) on retention of phytonutrients during hot air drying but had negligible effect during freeze drying. Total carotenoids in pretreated hot air dried tomato slices were 17.49% higher than control samples whereas in case of freeze drying, carotenoids were 3.01% higher in control samples than pretreated samples Rehydration ratio was the highest in pretreated freeze dried tomato slices (6.69) compared to pretreated hot air dried tomato slices (5.77). Maximum nutrients were retained by KMS treated slices during storage.

An attempt was made to study the effect of lime treatment, packaging materials and storage periods on biochemical qualities of CO1 and HQPM 7 maize varieties flour. The flours were treated with calcium hydroxide, packed in the two packaging materials viz., polyethylene bags (P1) and metalized polyester polypropylene laminated bags (P2) and its biochemical qualities were determined at 15 days storage intervals of 90 days storage. It was found that an increase in moisture content was noticed during storage but it was lesser in the lime treated flour compared to the untreated maize flour of both varieties. In P2 package, moisture content was significantly lower in compared to P1. The free fatty acid and peroxide value increased on storage but the changes were minimum in samples packaged in P2. Biochemical qualities of maize flour showed that lime treated maize flour can be stored for a longer period compared to untreated maize flour in the both the varieties.

Experiments were conducted to extend the shelf-life of fresh fenugreek in different forms (leaves and bunch), using different packaging material viz. polypropylene, cling film, paper with an unpacked control sample. The packed fresh fenugreek was stored under refrigerated conditions (temperature 6 ± 1°C and RH 95±2%) and were analyzed at regular intervals for their quality attribute i.e. β-carotene, physiological loss in weight (PLW), chlorophyll content, colour change and sensory attributes. It was observed that packaging material had significant effect on of PLW, chlorophyll content, visual appearance and water accumulation. Polypropylene package and bunch form of sample were the best for enhancement of shelf-life of fenugreek up to 7 weeks. Lower PLW was observed to be 2.11 and 2.85% of initial weight in polypropylene material for leaves and bunch, respectively. Chlorophyll content decreased as much as by 91% for leaf and 90% for bunch wrt fresh (220mg/100g) in polypropylene packaging. It was observed that packaging of fenugreek in polypropylene package in bunch form resulted in best maintenance of chlorophyll, colour, weight loss, aroma and visual appearance. Overall it can be concluded that the fresh fenugreek in the form of bunch can be stored safely upto 48 days when packed in polypropylene package and stored under refrigerated conditions.

The mungbean seeds were soaked (overnight), germinated (for 24 hrs) and heated at (80°C) for 15 min. The germinated seeds were dried in a tray drier at 40-45oC for about 12 hrs till the desired moisture content was obtained and then converted into flour. The flour was blended with refined wheat flour in different ratios for the preparation of noodles which were stored under ambient conditions in polypropyelene packs and subjected to physico-chemical evaluation at 30 days interval. Blending of mungbean flour produced noodles rich in moisture, protein, fibre, ash with reduced amount of fat content. The mungbean flour could be incorporated upto 15% level in the refined wheat flour having good functional properties. The noodles were found to be acceptable by the sensory panelists

The study was conducted to develop formulations of Aloe vera blend by mixing it with ginger, sweet lime and amla. Varied ratio of the Aloe vera:ginger:sweetlime:amla in the formulated drinks (40:5:40:15), (50:5:30:15) and (60:5:20:15) were used for F1, F2 and F3 respectively. The products were subjected to standard physico-chemical, sensory and microbial analysis and accordingly, F3 was found to be the most preferred variant with respect to the sensory quality. The Aloe vera RTS blends prepared were found to be good source of Vitamin C besides other nutritional parameters. The storage stability studies carried out showed that the physico-chemical and the sensory quality of the RTS blends were acceptable up to 60 days of storage. Microbial analysis of the RTS during storage period up to 60 days revelead that it was free from any spoilage.

The aims of this study was to determine the effects of temperature and yeast count on the fermentation kinetics and chemical properties of guava fruits were determined for its suitability to produce low alcoholic beverage. The fermentation conditions were optimized by varying temperature at 22,27 and 32°C and the yeast concentration of 1,2 and 3%. The increase in temperature and yeast count, sugar level was deceased. However, at low temperature (22°C±2°C) and yeast concentration (1%) the sugars were not completely utilized during fermentation At high temperature of 32°C ±2°C, the alcohol yield was highest (6.02%) relative to the low temperature of 22°C±2°C that gave the lowest yield (2.60%), the yeast count of 3% and fermentation temperature of 32°C±2°C gave the optimal characteristics for guava low alcoholic beverage.

Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) juice which contains high amount of sugar was used as a raw material and an attempt was made to prepare sugarcane wine blended with content fruits viz. watermelon (Citrullus lanatus Thunb.). Among the prrparation of sugarcane blended with watermelon juice, the concentration of 1:1 (v/v) maintained at total soluble solids (TSS) 30.3 °Brix, temperature 26 °C and pH 4.5 during fermentation, was found to be the best as it produced wine of alcohol percentage (9.6%), TSS (14.2 °Brix), titrable acidity (0.92%) and total reducing sugar (11.98%) with good flavour, colour and overall acceptability. Changes during maturation were also documented. Therefore, maturation storage yields high quality wine.

Book Review  by Prof. R.S. Singh, Carbohydrate and Protein Biotechnology Laboratory, Department of Biotechnology, Punjabi University, Patiala, India

Book Review By Prof. V.K. Joshi, Visiting Professor, Shoolini University, Former Prof & Head, FST, Nauni, Solan (HP) India, Member of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India