Dragana Plavsic

Antibacterial activity of domestic Balkan donkey milk toward Listeria monocytogenes and Staphylococcus aureus

The aim of this study was to investigate the antibacterial activity of raw milk from Domestic Balkan donkey breed toward Listeria monocytogenes and Staphylococcus aureus. Examination of antibacterial activity was performed in artificially contaminated milk samples by monitoring the changes of count of viable cells of tested bacteria during 8 hours of incubation at 38°C. Lysozyme and fatty acids contents were also determined in donkey milk. The obtained results indicated inhibitory effect of donkey milk toward both tested bacteria. The lysozyme content in the analyzed milk samples was ranged from 0.67 to 3.54 g/L. The most abundant fatty acids with known antibacterial activity toward Gram positive bacteria were linoleic, lauric and oleic acid.

Sugar beet molasses: Properties and applications in osmotic dehydration of fruits and vegetables

Molasses is an important by-product of sugar beet or sugar cane refining industry and it was one of the first sweeteners used in human nutrition. Sugar cane molasses has unique characteristics that can make it suitable for application in food industry, especially in confectionery and bakery products. On the other hand, sugar beet molasses has not had greater application in the human diet, primarily because of its strong smell and taste of the beet, which makes it unattractive for consumption. Since recent investigations showed that sugar beet molasses can be used as a hypertonic solution in osmotic dehydration of different materials of plant and animal origin, the objective of this work was to review recently studied sugar beet molasses in terms of its applications in osmotic dehydrations of fruits and vegetables. Previous studies showed that sugar beet molasses is an excellent medium for osmotic dehydration of fruits and vegetables (apple, carrot, plum, etc.) primarily due to a high content of dry matter (80%, w/w) and specific nutrient content. An important advantage of using sugar beet molasses as a hypertonic solution is an enrichment of the dehydrated material in minerals and vitamins, which penetrate from molasses into the plant tissue. Concentration of sugar beet molasses solution and immersion time had the biggest influence on the process of osmotic dehydration of fruit and vegetables, while the temperature of the solution was the least influential parameter. The effect of immersion time on the kinetics of osmotic dehydration in sugar beet molasses increases with an increase in concentration of hypertonic solution. Fruit and vegetables dehydrated in sugar beet molasses had a higher dry matter content compared to samples treated in sucrose solutions. Besides, application of sugar beet molasses in osmotic dehydration of fruits and vegetables had some other advantages such as lower cost of molasses compared to sugar and its liquid aggregate state. Molasses caused darkening of osmotically treated materials due to transfer of colouring compounds (melanoidins) from molasses solution to plant tissue. The intensity of this darkening depended on immersion time and concentration of molasses solution. An increasing trend in tissue firmness observed in dehydrated samples after 1 h of immersion was proportional to the concentration of molasses solution.

Consumer acceptability of flakes products enriched with functional components

As extruded cereal products occupy an important place in modern nutrition, they also serve as suitable carriers of functional components. Functional components enhance the nutritional composition of extruded product, which may be useful in relieving certain health disorders. Raising consumer awareness about the importance of the nutritional composition of food products for health care has prompted various innovations in the food industry. Nowadays, the food industry is increasingly focused on improving the quality and safety of health products. Food should provide nutrients while preventing certain diseases and improving the physical and mental well-being of consumers. For the purpose of this paper, consumers’ opinions were obtained from a total of 57 inexperienced tasters.

Mycopopulations of grain and flour of wheat, corn and buckwheat

According to the nutritive characteristics, whole grain flour is a high quality product, due to its high vitamin, mineral, and dietary fiber content. However, the cereal grains are susceptible to the series of contamination during the ripening, harvesting, processing and storage. The aim of this work was to determine mold presence in grains and flour of wheat, corn and buckwheat. The determination of total number and identification of isolated genera and species of molds were the subject of this research. All samples were contaminated with the molds. The total number of molds per 100 cereal grains was between 60 cfu (wheat) and 120 cfu (buckwheat). The total number of molds in the samples of flour ranged from 6.0x10 cfu/g in white wheat flour to 5.0 x10 cfu/g in buckwheat whole grain flour (DG18 medium). Eight fungal genera (Alternaria, Aspergillus, Cladosporium, Chrysonilia, Fusarium, Penicillium, Rhizopus and Scopulariopsis) and fifteen species were isolated. The largest number of species of molds was isolated from the genus Aspergillus. About 66.7% of isolated fungi belonged to potentially toxigenic species. The results pointed out the necessity of grain surface treatment, preceding the milling of grains in wheat, corn and whole grain buckwheat flour production.

Soy Bran Separation Process for Application of Product in the Food Industry

Change of lifestyle, also as contemporary dietary habits of people, requires innovations in the food processing technology and implementation of new ingredients. Fat replacers are well known as ingredients which has been used in the production of low energy products. Furthermore, in the combination with sugar substitutes it is possible to obtain serious energy reduction, while the sensorial properties remains unaffected. A certain lightweight fractions of soy bran separation and milling process could be applied as fat replacers in the food industry, especially in cookie production. Soy bran milled fractions with dietary fibers content (cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, inulin, pentosans etc.) have been selected for this work. Technological process of soy bran separation and milling starts with a cleaning of the external part of the soy grain, further it is necessary to adjust the moisture content for the efficient mechanical grinding process. New age milling and separation equipment (air separator, cascade classifier, dryer, hammer mill, roller mill) was used for the purposes of experiment. Results obtained with the analyze of microbiological and chemical properties of soy products, along with a probe sieving analysis, indicates a strong potential for use as fat substitutes in bakery, cookie and confectionery production.