Phytochemicals are naturally occurring chemical compounds found in plants that provide health benefits for humans. Generally the phytochemicals are produced as a result of various metabolic reactions in the plants. They play an important role in protecting plants from environmental hazards such as stress, drought and pathogenic attack etc. They also contribute to plant colour, aroma and flavour. Phytochemicals are broadly described as polyphenols, flavonoids, isoflavonoids, anthocyanidins, phytoestrogens, terpenoids, carotenoids, limonoids, phytosterols, glucosinolates and fibers. Majority of foods, such as whole grains, beans, fruits, vegetables and herbs contain varied types and amounts of phytochemicals. Among these, fruits and vegetables contribute to the significant sources of phytochemicals. Phytochemicals have tremendous impact on the health care system and may provide medical health benefits including the prevention and treatment of diseases and physiological disorders. Foods containing these phytochemicals are known as functional foods which play an increasingly important role in the treatment of various chronic diseases. Hence, phytochemicals are potentially involved as protective compounds for a number of chronic diseases and also used as good health food.

The Indian Himalayan Region includes six Indian states from Jammu and Kashmir to Uttarakhand in the Western Himalayas and Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and parts of west Bengal in the Eastern. Due to diverse agroclimatic conditions in these regions, various indigenous fermented foods are prepared. These traditionally prepared fermented foods have been consumed through ancient times. The fermented foods prepared in these regions enrich human diets through development of diverse flavours, aromas and textures in these foods. The fermentation carried out in these products enriches the food substrate with proteins, essential amino acids, essential fatty acids and vitamins. These products also serve as a source of income to the local people and its maximum consumption is considered to be good for health and acts as a remedy for various ailments. In different regions various substrates ranging from cereals, soyabeans, vegetables, meat, fish, bamboo shoots, milk etc are used for the development of traditional fermented foods. The people in these areas also have their traditional starter cultures for the fermentation of raw material. Hence, in the present review different fermented products along with their production technology and starter cultures have been discussed. Further, it would would also help the researchers for future refinement of the traditional technologies used by the people of these regions.

Vacuum impregnation (VI) is an improved osmotic dehydration technology emerging in food industry for the development of high quality and nutritionally rich food products. The VI technology helps to rapidly impregnate animal or plant tissue pore spaces with required external solution producing a product with improved qualities and better shelf-life with minimal changes in nutritional and sensory properties. This paper provides a general review of the principles, mechanisms of VI technology and different external and internal factors affecting the treatment on foods. Different applications of VI such as calorie densification, food salting, fortification, pre drying and freezing etc. are also discussed. The VI has considerable potential to be employed in the food industry. Yet, technological problems like precise control and maintenance of process conditions need to be solved in order to achieve better impregnation and treatment homogeneity.

In recent past years, a lot of research work has been done to develop innovative films and coatings for packaging of fruits and vegetables which improve their qualitative parameters during storage. Recently, researchers are focusing to design films and coatings based on biodegradable materials which would serve as covering to the food and reduce the hazards caused by use of plastics and by degrading biologically. The objectives behind the preparation of packaging such films and coatings is to reduce the loss of moisture, migration of gases and to extend the shelf life of the fruits and vegetables. This paper not only reviews introduction and need of coating but also provide the knowledge about types of coating on different fruits and vegetables. The main focus on the review is on the coating of fruits and vegetables based on natural sources.

The effect of microwave and Infrared roasting methods on the physico-chemical and antioxidant properties of peanuts (Arachis hypogaea) were studied and the results were compared with conventional roasting methods. Roasting by all the three methods significantly affected the moisture, total protein and total fat contents. Protein and fat contents increased significantly (p≤0.05) with the significant (p≤0.05) decrease in moisture content. However, roasting by all the methods did not cause any significant change in the mineral contents. Chemical changes like PV, FFA and TBA increased significantly (p≤0.05) more during conventional roasting in comparison to the microwave and IR roasting of peanuts. Total phenols, total flavonoids and antioxidant activity were found significantly (p≤0.05) higher in peanut skin as compared to their kernel part, and roasting enhanced them significantly though the increase in absolute term was small. Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) decreased significantly (p≤0.05) with the concomitant increase in their saturated fatty acid (SFA) contents but the observation was more true in peanuts treated by conventional roasting methods. Between microwave and IR roasting, the above changes were found almost insignificant.

The present study on production of honey powder using spray drying technology was carried out and the selected physico-chemical properties of spray dried honey powder was estimated at different inlet air temperatures of 180, 190 and 200 °C and tricalcium phosphate concentrations of 1.25, 1.50 and 1.75% were chosen as independent variables to produce the spray dried honey powder. The values with respect to the fructose, glucose, total solids, water activity and hygroscopicity were 18.20, 20.18, 96.72, 0.10 and 10.92 per cent, respectively.

Cereals i.e. wheat, rice, oat, maize and sorghum were fermented by using GRAS fungal strain A. awamori to study the effect of fermentation on upgradation of phenolic level of cereals. Significant (P < 0.05) increase in phenolics, flavonoids, DDPH (2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) and ABTS (2, 2-azinobis-3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) diammonium salt radical scavenging potential of all the fermented cereals was observed mainly on 4th and 5th day of incubation. Increased levels of polyphenols and antioxidants after fermentation was observed maximum in O. sativa and T. aestivum followed by S. bicolor > A. sativa > Z. mays which was mainly due to high enzymatic activities as observed during their fermentation. A positive correlation was obtained between total phenolic and flavonoids content with antioxidant activity while linear correlation obtained between total phenolic and flavonoid contents with enzymatic activities,justified the role of α-amylase, xylanase and β-glucosidase enzymes in release of polyphenols and antioxidants during solid state fermentation (SSF).

Linseed (Linum usitatissimum) is a highly nutritious oilseed with exceptionally high contents of α-linolenic acid (ALA), dietary fiber, good quality protein and phyto-estrogens. It is the richest known vegetable source of omega-3 fatty acid and various minerals. But it also contains anti-nutritional factors like phenolics, tannins and cyanogenic glycosides that are known to inhibit the activity of digestive enzymes and interfere with availability of nutrients especially minerals like calcium and iron. Hence, an attempt was made to reduce anti-nutrients by different processes like soaking, roasting, fermentation etc. Lactic acid bacterial strains were isolated from linseed, screened and isolate LAB-3 was selected based on high titrable acid production (0.08%), desired sour-sweet taste and good flavor after fermentation. Probiotic cultures viz., Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bacillus mesentericus and Saccharomyces boulardii; wine yeast Saccharomyces ellipsoideus and lactic acid bacterial isolate LAB-3 were used in fermentation of linseed beverage. The quantity of anti-nutritional factors viz., total phenolics, tannins and cyanogenic glycosides were estimated. Significant reductions in total phenolics and tannins were observed in L. acidophilus and isolate LAB-3 treatments. Fermented beverage had 58% reduced phenolics and 66% reduced tannins compared to raw seed (control). This significant reduction in phenolics and tannins were observed with lactic acid bacteria than yeasts. The highest per cent reduction in cyanogenic glycosides was observed with L. acidophilus inoculation (66% followed by isolate LAB-3 (65%) and B. mesentericus (58%). The observed antinutritional factors reduction ability may be due to enzymes like linamarase and β-glucosidase production by tested microorganisms. It is concluded that, microbial intervention can be exploited very conveniently to reduce the anti-nutrients contents and to improve nutritional quality of linseed.

Sugar free biscuit were developed by fortifing with fenugreek seed powder and with sugar replaced with natural sweetener stevia. The functional component of fenugreek seed powder is trigonelline which is helpful in the production of insulin. In the present research work, 31 trials were performed by taking four factors viz; skimmed milk powder (SMP), stevia, butter, and fenugreek seed powder and the responses were analysed by RSM for optimization of developed sugar free biscuits. The ingredients used to prepare sugar free biscuits were 0.5 g to 6.5g SMP, 0.5g to 5.5 g stevia, 10 to 50 g butter and fenugreek seed powder 0.5 to 6.5%. Taking into account, these four factors optimization was done by RSM. The optimized parameters for developed sugar free biscuits includes SMP (1.7727 %), Stevia (4.3485 %), butter (37.8788 %) and fenugreek seed powder (0.5 %).After optimization of sugar free biscuit, diameter, thickness and spread ratio was recorded as 5.04 cm, 0.82 cm, and 4.92 cm, respectively. The final optimized product contained carbohydrate (76.75 %), protein (5.90 %), fat (14.85), ash (~ 1%), moisture (4%) and crude fibre (1.5 %).

Maize (Zea mays) is a major cereal crop for human nutrition worldwide with its high content of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, some of the important vitamins and minerals. However, in spite of several important uses, maize has an inbuilt drawback of being deficient in two essential amino acids, viz., lysine and tryptophan. To overcome this, the breeding scientist mutated the opaque-2 (o2) gene in normal maize and made grain proteins in the endosperm nearly twice as nutritious as those found in normal maize. These mutations, which derive their names from soft, floury/opaque endosperm, alter the amino acid profile and composition of maize endosperm protein and result in two-fold increase in the levels of lysine and tryptophan in comparison with the normal genotypes which is called as Quality Protein Maize (QPM). Effective utilization of QPM in diversified way, by conversion into a variety of products for use as infant foods, health foods/ mixes, convenience foods specialty foods and emergency ration can achieve the food and nutritional security of our country. Hence, the present study was undertaken to develop nutritious recipes based on QPM maize as flour and suji (semolina) by supplementing with pulses. Quality protein maize (QPM) was substituted in different proportions in traditional foods (Idli, Dosa, Pittu and Adai), convenience foods (Papad and Noodles), bakery foods (Cookies and Bread) and snack foods (Vada and pakoda) were organoleptically evaluated using 9 point hedonic scale and also estimated their nutrient composition. All the products scored maximum acceptability and their nutrients content were higher compared to the native maize based products. Thus, their introduction could contributes food and nutritional security by meeting energy and protein needs of consumer.

The development of delayed bitterness in citrus products is a major problem to citrus producers and juice processors worldwide due to limonin and naringin, the bitter components, thereby affecting its consumer acceptability. The present study was carried out on fermentative production of debittered kinnow (Citrus reticulate Blanco) beverage using inducible enzymes naringinase, limonin dehydrogenase and α-L-rhamnosidase producing fermentative yeast Clavispora lusitaniae. The two process optimized are: bioprocess for low alcoholic naturally carbonated beverage and debittering of juice by partially purified enzymes. The physico-chemical characteristics of freshly prepared beverage were; TSS 13.00±0.20 °B, acidity 0.14±0.03%, pH 3.40±0.10, Brix acid ratio 92.85±0.00, limonin 6.90±0.10 ppm, naringin 443.00±10.00 ppm, total sugars 12.90±0.30%, reducing sugars 2.42±0.20 and ascorbic acid 27.80±1.00 mg/100 mL. The significant reduction of limonin and naringin content observed in T11 (beverage) during storage was 42.53% and 45.82%, respectively

The aim of the present study was to determine the acceptance level of biscuits made with maida: wheat in the ratio of (100:0, 50:50, 0:100) incorporated with dried carrot powder through sensory and physio-chemical evaluation (weight, diameter, thickness, spread ratio, moisture, ash, carbohydrate, fat, proteins). The butter, egg and sugar mixture were mixed after which flours, baking powder were rubbed uniformly. The dough was then, shaped and baked on a greased tray at 160°C for 10 to 15 minutes. The biscuit produced were analysed for proximate composition using standard AOAC methods. Physical and chemical analysis of cookies was in accordance with sensory analysis. On consumption of 100g cookies with maida and wheat per day gives around 11% recommended daily allowance of Vitamin A. Fortifying food with vitamin A could help in meeting the RDA of vitamin A especially and thus, could serve as a supplement to kids.

The aim of this study was to develop energy bars by incorporating popped amaranth seeds. The control was prepared using puffed rice whereas the other bars were formulated with puffed rice and popped amaranth in different proportions (65%:35%, 45%:55%, 25%:75%). The samples were subjected to proximate analysis, mineral analysis, microbial analysis, and sensory evaluation and shelf-life studies. It was revealed that as the proportion of amaranth increased in the samples, the protein, crude fiber, iron, and phosphorus and calcium contents increased whereas the fat and carbohydrate contents decreased. Microbial analysis showed that the microbial load was within the acceptable limits for a period of 3 months. Based on the sensory evaluation, the sample with 55% popped amaranth was the best.