Henry A Váquiro

Fish viscera protein hydrolysates: Production, potential applications and functional and bioactive properties

The aquaculture and fishery chain is an important part of the economy of many countries around the world; in recent years it has experienced significant growth that generates more and more quantities of waste, which are mostly discarded, impacting the environment, despite having a useful chemical composition in various industrial sectors. This article presents a review of the agroindustrial potential of fish wastes, especially viscera, as a source for obtaining native protein and hydrolysates, explaining their production process, chemical composition and functional and bioactive properties that are important to the agricultural, cosmetic, pharmaceutical, food and nutraceutical industry.

Characterization of chitosan edible films obtained with various polymer concentrations and drying temperatures

Chitosan is a promising material that could be used for the development of edible coatings and films on an industrial level because of its film-forming, biodegradable, non-toxic, and antimicrobial characteristics. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of the polymer concentration (0.5%, 1.0%, and 1.5%) and drying temperature (2°C, 25°C, and 40°C) on the physicochemical, mechanical, and thermal properties of chitosan edible films. Chitosan edible films were successfully produced using various processing conditions. The use of lower drying temperatures had a positive effect on certain properties of the films, such as the moisture content (MC), solubility (S), water vapor permeability (WVP), and optical properties. However, the use of greater drying temperatures (40°C), combined with a higher chitosan concentration, enhanced certain properties of the films, such as the tensile strength (TS), swelling power (SP), and greenness value, while diminishing their luminosity. The chitosan films developed in this study showed many desirable characteristics, which may enable their future use as packaging for food products.

Fuzzy logic application to drying kinetics modelling

Abstract A Ficks model that includes a Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy model to estimate the effective diffusivity was analyzed. The modelling of drying kinetics on mango trough this diffusional-fuzzy model was compared with the theoretical Ficks model and the empirical Peleg and Weibull models. The identification and validation was performed from experimental drying curves of ripe mango slices (Mangifera indica L. cv. Tommy Atkins) at constant air velocity (4 m/s) and different drying temperatures (40, 50, 60 and 70 °C). The fuzzy sets for the antecedent of Takagi-Sugeno system were identified by the Gustafson-Kessel clustering algorithm and approximated by membership functions of piecewise exponential form. On identification and validation, the diffusional-fuzzy model showed best results than the Ficks model, whereas it showed little difference with the Weibull and Peleg models. The diffusional-fuzzy model keeps the interpretability of Ficks model, improves the process simulation and avoids phenomenon and property considerations which require additional experimental and modelling work.

Effects of temperature, starch concentration, and plasticizer concentration on the physical properties of ulluco (Ullucus tuberosus Caldas)-based edible films

Ulluco starch could be a promising renewable source for the production of biodegradable or edible films, as an alternative to plastic. This would mitigate the negative impact of plastics on the environment. The aim of this work was to study the effect of the starch concentration (SC), glycerol concentration (GC), and drying temperature (T) of ulluco starch-based films on their physical properties using stepwise regression (SR) and artificial neural network (ANN) approaches. The physical properties, such as the solubility (S), water vapour permeability (WVP), tensile strength (TS), elongation at break (EB), and transparency, of the edible films were satisfactory. The feed-forward and cascade-forward neural networks satisfactorily modelled the effect of the SC, GC, and T on the mechanical, optical, and water-affinity properties (WAP) of the edible films. ANN approach showed better results than SR in all the properties and ANN models were used in the sensitivity analysis and optimization. The global sensitivity analysis showed that the GC had the greatest influence on the physical properties. A desirability function-based optimization including WVP, EB and OP showed comparable values between experimental and estimated data. Based on the results of this study, the use of ulluco starch for the preparation of edible films has enormous potential for the replacement of non-biodegradable plastic packaging.

Optimization of Intermittent Hot Air Drying of Mango (Mangifera Indica L.)

Intermittent drying is an alternative technology to continuous drying that improves the product quality as result of diminishing the average material temperature and the heating time. In this study, the application of the intermittent drying technology to mango drying (Mangifera indica L.) was analyzed and optimized. To formulate the optimization problem, an objective function was proposed in order to improve the product quality and decrease the energy consumption. To quantify the objective function, a mathematical model for a cubic shape was formulated and validated, considering diffusional mass and heat transfer with non-negligible external resistances.