H. Ruiz-Espinosa

Drying of Food Products Shaped as Longitudinal Sections of Solid and Annular Cylinders: Modeling and Simulation

A mass transfer model was proposed to describe the moisture evolution during drying of longitudinal sections of solid and annular cylinder-shaped food products. The dimensionless form of the model was numerically solved under the resulting combinations of two geometrical parameters (inner radius and angular cuts) to produce longitudinal sections of solid and annular cylinders. In addition, average drying curves were calculated from the volume integration of local moisture values. A mixed theoretical and numerical approach was used to develop the dimension similarity between the studied geometries and a simpler flat slab-shaped product in order to obtain an approximate analytical solution to the original, non-steady-state mass transfer problem, while an exact solution was also developed to highlight problem complexity. In order to validate actual results during water diffusivity estimation, potatoes were chosen as the food model, as this product can be easily shaped into either studied or traditional geometry with known solution. Different cuts (parallelepiped and longitudinal sections of both solid and annular cylinders) were obtained and air-dried (80°C, 2.5 m/s). In this regard, a simple method to estimate diffusion coefficients in 2D or 3D geometries is also presented. Under the described experimental conditions, water diffusivities for each geometry were estimated in the narrow range of 1.27–1.52 × 10−9 m2/s, demonstrating the applicability of the proposed approach to solve mass transfer problems in products described by geometries lacking simple analytical solutions.

Applications of nanomaterials in functional fortified dairy products: benefits and implications for human health

Abstract Nanotechnology applications in food-related fields have dramatically increased over the past few years. From nanoscale food components designed to exhibit unique functionalities to self assembled nanostructures capable of delivering flavors, drugs, or specific nutrients to the site of action, nanotechnology represents a new approach for developing added-value food products according to current consumer trends. As diseases related to nutritional deficiencies have escalated globally forcing health-conscious consumers to find efficient ways to prevent them, nanotechnology may provide a new array of tools for creating fortified or enriched products with improved digestibility and higher quality from the nutritional, sensory and functional standpoints. Arguably, dairy foods constitute the most important food category in terms of nutritional claims and occupy a significant and growing market space among functional and fortified foods. In this chapter, both the use of nanomaterials in milk by-products (cheese, yogurt, among others) and the application of emergent technologies, which may be scaled for industrial production, in dairy matrices for creating nanostructures are reviewed and discussed, stressing their potential benefits while addressing the concerns of consumers about the lack of information regarding long term use.

Phenolic Compounds: A Good Choice Against Chronic Degenerative Diseases

Abstract Phenolic compounds are a group of metabolites derived from the secondary pathways of plants. Polyphenols comprise flavonoids, phenolic acids, tannins, lignans, and coumarins, compounds naturally found in fruits, vegetables, cereals, roots, and leaves among other plant products. In this sense, recent works suggest the potential health benefits of phenolic compounds as antioxidants against oxidative stress diseases. In the last few decades, the chronic degenerative diseases, such as atherosclerosis, hypertension, types of cancers, diabetes mellitus, and obesity among others, have increased. In this regard, several evidences suggest that many of these disorders are related to the consumption of processed foods; fortunately, the tendency is changing to consume raw or unprocessed foods. Therefore, the aim of this chapter is to present an extended revision of the properties of phenolic compounds produced in plants and their effects against several chronic degenerative diseases. Besides the continuously consumption of the phenolic compounds can improve the human health or help in the prevention of different illnesses.

Chemical, physical and sensory properties of Vienna sausages formulated with a starfruit dietary fiber concentrate

The use of a starfruit dietary fiber concentrate (SDFC) as a novel ingredient in Vienna sausages was investigated. A constrained mixture design was followed to evaluate the effect of different proportions of SDFC (0–10%), pork meat (0–100%) and turkey meat (0–100%) on the shear force, shrinkage, color, residual nitrite, moisture and polyphenol contents of sausages. Moreover, a chemical, physical and sensory characterization of the optimized formulations was performed. The cubic model equations demonstrated that the SDFC in mixture with pork or turkey meat had a reducing effect on nitrites, moisture, shear force and shrinkage, while there was an increase on the polyphenol concentration as the increase of SDFC proportion in the formulations. The optimization resulted in Vienna-type sausages formulated with a ternary mixture of pork/turkey meat and high SDFC proportion (7.4–8.4%). These products had high total dietary fiber content (11.04–17.79%) and antioxidant polyphenols, low residual nitrite content, shrinkage and red color. They presented good taste, color and texture attributes, and were sensory acceptable. This study demonstrated that enrichment of Vienna-type sausages with SDFC in mixture with pork/turkey meat is a way to obtain potential functional meat products with high antioxidant dietary fiber content, reduced in nitrites, and good physical and sensory properties.