Chandrasekar Venkitasamy

Novel Umami Ingredients: Umami Peptides and Their Taste

Umami substances are very important for food seasoning and healthy eating. In addition to monosodium glutamate and some nucleotides, recent investigations have revealed that several peptides also exhibit umami taste. In recent years, 52 peptides have been reported to show umami taste, including 24 dipeptides, 16 tripeptides, 5 octapeptides, 2 pentapeptides, 2 hexapeptides, 1 tetrapeptide, 1 heptapeptide, and 1 undecapeptide. Twenty of these peptides have been examined for the present of umami taste. In this review, we have listed these umami peptides based on their category, source, taste, and threshold concentration. The evidence for peptides showing umami taste, the umami taste receptors on the human tongue, and the peptides whose umami taste is controversial are also discussed.

Extraction Kinetics and Properties of Proanthocyanidins from Pomegranate Peel

Abstract With an objective of developing a safe and efficient method to extract proanthocyanidins products from pomegranate peel for use in nutraceuticals or as food additives, the effects of extraction parameters on the production efficiency, product properties, and extraction kinetics were systematically studied. The results showed that both extraction temperature and water–material ratio had significant effects on the proanthocyanidins content, but the yield was significantly affected only by temperature. The moderate temperature and water–material ratio were beneficial to maintain high proanthocyanidins scavenging activity and good product quality. The second-order extraction and Arrhenius kinetic models were developed and successfully used to predict the proanthocyanidins yield for given conditions tested. Extraction temperature of 60°C, water–material ratio of 30:1 g g−1, and time of 10 min are recommended for proanthocyanidins extraction from pomegranate peel, which corresponded to the highest yield of 40.6 mg g−1 and content of 89.1 mg g−1 having a scavenging activity of 31.5 g g−1, and an attractive reddish yellow color.

Drying and decontamination of raw pistachios with sequential infrared drying, tempering and hot air drying

Pistachio nuts have been associated with outbreaks of foodborne disease and the industry has been impacted by numerous product recalls due to contamination with Salmonella enterica. The current hot air drying of pistachios has low energy efficiency and drying rates, and also does not guarantee the microbial safety of products. In the study described herein, dehulled and water-sorted pistachios with a moisture content (MC) of 38.14% (wet basis) were dried in a sequential infrared and hot air (SIRHA) drier to <9% MC. The decontamination efficacy was assessed by inoculating pistachios with Enterococcus faecium, a surrogate of Salmonella enterica used for quality control in the almond industry. Drying with IR alone saved 105min (34.4%) of drying time compared with hot air drying. SIRHA drying of pistachios for 2h with infrared (IR) heat followed by tempering at a product temperature of 70°C for 2h and then by hot air drying shortened the drying time by 40min (9.1%) compared with drying by hot air only. This SIRHA method also reduced the E. faecium cell population by 6.1-logCFU/g kernel and 5.41-logCFU/g shell of pistachios. The free fatty acid contents of SIRHA dried pistachios were on par with that of hot air dried samples. Despite significant differences in peroxide values (PV) of pistachio kernels dried with the SIRHA method compared with hot air drying at 70°C, the PV were within the permissible limit of 5Meq/kg for edible oils. Our findings demonstrate the efficacy of SIRHA drying in achieving simultaneous drying and decontamination of pistachios.

Optimization of culturing conditions of recombined Escherichia coli to produce umami octopeptide-containing protein

Using synthesized peptides to verify the taste of natural peptides was probably the leading cause for tasting disputes regarding umami peptides. A novel method was developed to prepare the natural peptide which could be used to verify the taste of umami peptide. A controversial octopeptide was selected and gene engineering was used to structure its Escherichia coli. expressing vector. A response surface method was adopted to optimize the expression conditions of the recombinant protein. The results of SDS-PAGE for the recombinant protein indicated that the recombinant expression system was successfully structured. The fitting results of the response surface experiment showed that the OD600 value was the key factor which influenced the expression of the recombinant protein. The optimal culturing process conditions predicted with the fitting model were an OD600 value of 0.5, an IPTG concentration of 0.6mM, a culturing temperature of 28.75°C and a culturing time of 5h.

Effect of pulsed light on activity and structural changes of horseradish peroxidase

The objective of this research was to investigate the effects of pulsed light on the activity and structure of horseradish peroxidase in buffer solution. Enzyme residual activities were measured. Surface topography, secondary, and tertiary structures of horseradish peroxidase were determined using atomic force microscopy (AFM), Raman spectroscopy, and fluorescence spectroscopy, respectively. Results showed that a complete inactivation of horseradish peroxidase was achieved by application of 10 pulses of pulsed light treatment at an intensity of 500J/pulse. The AFM analysis revealed that the aggregation of enzyme protein increased and surface roughness decreased with the increase in the treatment time. Fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy analysis exhibited that pulsed light destroyed the tertiary and secondary protein structures. The β-sheet composition was decreased while β-turn and random coils were increased. Pulsed light could effectively inactivate horseradish peroxidase by destroying the secondary and tertiary structures of protein in the active center of the enzyme.

Influence of infrared drying on storage characteristics of brown rice

The aim of this study was to improve storage characteristics of brown rice by using infrared radiation drying (IRD) through comparison with hot air drying (HAD) and ambient air drying (AAD). After heating by IR from 20 °C to 60 °C within 58 s, 2.17 percentage points moisture of rough rice (initial moisture content is 25.0 ± 0.2% in dry basis) were removed without adverse effect on germination capacity of husked brown rice. Compared with AAD, IRD slowed down the increase in yellowness, water uptake and volume expansion ratio of brown rice by 47.9%, 41.0% and 37.9% after four months of storage, and decreased the temperature range and enthalpy of gelatinization, the peak and breakdown viscosities. These changes might due to the higher stabilization effect of IRD on the microstructure and thermal properties of proteins and starch granules than AAD. IRD is an effective method to improve storage stability of brown rice.

Infrared Processing of Foods

Infrared (IR) processing of foods has been gaining popularity over conventional processing in several unit operations, including drying, peeling, baking, roasting, blanching, pasteurization, sterilization, disinfection, disinfestation, cooking, and popping of corn. It has shown advantages over conventional processing depending upon applications by virtue of its improved uniform heating, reduced heating time, minimal product quality loss, absence of solute migration in food materials, simple and compact equipment design, significant energy saving, and clean and safe products. This article covers an exhaustive discussion on the mechanism of IR heating of foods and advances made in applications of IR heating on different food processing operations. The IR heating technologies which are commercially available are also reported. The needs for improved product quality, safety, and energy and processing efficiency are expected to drive the industrialization of IR technologies in food and agricultural processing.

Preparation of umami octopeptide with recombined Escherichia coli: Feasibility and challenges

ABSTRACT The taste of umami peptide H-Lys-Gly-Asp-Glu-Glu-Ser-Leu-Ala-OH (LGAGGSLA) is controversial. One possible reason for this controversy is the use of chemically synthesized LGAGGSLA to confirm its taste. To explore other ways to further confirm the flavor of LGAGGSLA, we developed a new strategy to prepare a bio-source peptide by adopting a gene engineering method to express LGAGGSLA in recombinant Escherichia coli. In our previous work, we structured the LGAGGSLA recombinant expression system and optimized the culturing conditions for preparing a fusion protein. However, the fusion protein was not cleaved by enterokinase to obtain LGAGGSLA. Because the cleavage conditions of commercial enterokinase were not specific and recombinant engineered bacteria had the potential to be used in industrial processes, in this addendum, we calculated the mass and volume yields of key processing steps in the preparation of LGAGGSLA, and established a model of cleavage conditions with the cleavage ratio of LGAGGSLA. When the LGAGGSLA was confirmed to show umami taste, it is considered as a new umami or umami enhancer. The gene information of LGAGGSLA should have a great potential in the development of new flavor product and food product containing high umami flavor.

Extending Shelf Life of Brown Rice Using Infrared Heating

The consumption of brown rice has been increasing due to its higher nutrition value, nutty flavor, and rich texture compared to white rice. At the same time, there is a strong demand in storing rice as brown rice instead of rough rice for saving space and energy before milling. However, the short shelf life of brown rice has been a significant concern. The effective and economic way to extend the shelf life of brown rice is to inactivate the lipase enzyme to minimize the lipid oxidation, which cannot be achieved by currently used hot air drying. Infrared (IR) drying has been reported that it effectively inactivated the lipase enzymes during rough rice drying. This chapter summarizes the mechanism of IR heating, IR emitter types, advantages of IR drying and investigations performed on IR drying of rough rice and parboiled rice, and its influence on the milling yield, quality, and storage characteristics of rough rice, brown rice, and rice bran. The IR drying resulted in high drying rate, good milling quality, effective disinfestation and disinfection of rough rice, and improvement in shelf life of both rough and brown rice due to partial lipase inactivation in the bran layer. IR-dried rice can be stored in brown rice form at ambient temperature with even longer shelf life than that of rough rice dried with ambient and hot air. The rice bran from milling of IR-dried rice has sufficient shelf life for further value-added utilization without need for additional stabilizing treatment.

Effect of Irradiation on Quality of Vacuum-Packed Spicy Beef Chops

To develop an alternative pasteurization process for the spicy beef jerky (SBJ), it was treated with irradiation doses of 0, 0.5, 1.5, 3, 4, 6, and 8 kGy and the sensory attributes, texture properties, drip loss, and the protein biological efficiency were studied. The results showed that lightness, drip loss, and off-odor of SBJ increased, while the hardness, chewiness, gumminess, color preference, and taste of SBJ decreased with the increase in irradiation dose. This tendency was obvious as the irradiation dose increased to 6 kGy and 8 kGy. The possible reason for these quality changes might be due to the free radicals produced by irradiation. This speculation is supported by the decrease of the content of capsanthin and the increase of the content of TBARS of SBJ with the increase in irradiation dose. The plate counts of treated SBJ indicated that 4 kGy was suitable for pasteurization of SBJ.