Saghir Ahmad

Health Benefits and Application of Prebiotics in Foods

Prebiotics are supplements or foods that contain nondigestible food ingredients that selectively stimulate the favourable growth and/or enhance the activities of indigenous probiotic bacteria. Prebiotic therapies have been found to cure gut related diseases such as constipation relief, suppression of diarrhoea, reduction of the risks of osteoporosis, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease associated with dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, obesity, and possibly type 2 diabetes. Fast life style of humans has changed the regular diets which were sufficiently enriched with fibers needed for proper gut work. Prebiotics are special fibers having selective fermenting ingredients that are needed by microbiota of human gut. Human colon is one of the body’s most metabolically active organs because of the presence of microbiota. Lot of work has been done to overcome the problems related to the market foods having low fibre. Thus, this review will focus on the health benefits of prebiotics and their application in foods.

Malnutrition: Causes and Strategies

Malnutrition is estimated to contribute to more than one third of all child deaths, although it is rarely listed as the direct cause. At the global level, a science and technology initiative is required to solve the listed problems such as increasing food prices, economic recession, increased competition for natural resources and climate change. Diseases like cancer, HIV/AIDS, oral health and chronic renal failure also breakdown the nutritional status. Bio fortification, probiotic foods and food processing strategies have shown the potential to overcome the malnutrition. A recently developed home based treatment for severe acute malnutrition is recovering the lives of hundreds of thousands of children a year. Ready-to-use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) has changed radically the treatment of severe malnutrition – providing foods that are safe to use at home and ensure quick weight gain in severely malnourished children. This review of the literature throws light on the causes of malnutrition and some important strategies like bio fortification, therapeutic diets, prebiotic foods and food processing to overcome malnutrition.

Effect of Incorporation of whey Protein Concentrate on Quality Characteristic of Buffalo Meat Emulsion Sausage

Incorporation of whey protein concentrate (WPC) at a level of 1, 2, 3 and 4% in buffalo meat was investigated for production, quality characteristic of emulsion sausage (ES). Quality of emulsion sausage was evaluated in terms physicochemical characteristics like moisture content, pH, protein content, water holding capacity (WHC), Extract release volume (ERV), microbiological characteristics like total plat count (TPC) and Yeast and mold count, and sensory characteristic including instrumental colour measurement. It was found that moisture content, protein content, ERV and WHC were significantly (P<0.05) increased in emulsion sausage as result of incorporation of 1-4% of WPC. Addition of 1-2% WPC decreased the pH. However 3-4% addition of WPC caused no change in pH and it remained comparable the pH of the control sample. TPC of ES was found in range of 6.23-6.37 log cfu/g. Emulsion sausage incorporated with whey protein concentrate was acceptable to the panelist. The numerical value of ‘L’ for the samples in fresh condition found in the range of 29.50%- 33.25%. Thus sample had 33.25 % of maximum lightness as compared to 66.75% darkness. The sample of fresh emulsion sausages was greyish brown colour in appearance.

Influence of Life Style, Nutrition and Obesity on Immune Response: A GlobalIssue

A considerable percentage of world’s population is facing the problems of overweight and obesity that affect growing children, adolescents and young adult human beings. This ultimately cause several types of non-communicable diseases viz., cardiovascular diseases, type II diabetes, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, infertility, several types of cancers etc. Besides causing the noncommunicable diseases, obesity impairs the immune function also. There is a strong correlation between obesity and immune response and that’s why the obese individuals always get suffered the common viral and bacterial diseases. Overweight and obesity are the concerning issues of our society which is linked with the food habits. Beside the high fat diet, lack of physical work is also a major reason for suffering with overweight and obesity. A greater percentage of world population that suffer with overweight and obesity linked to non-vegetarian population of the world and these are at higher risk of non-communicable diseases. Perhaps the most favourable reason behind the saga is the consumption of comparatively more saturated fat in the diet. These are purely preventable diseases. So precautionary measures may be taken to prevent the diseases by the replacement or reduction of animal or saturated fat in processed food products without affecting the quality of the products. It can otherwise be explained that obesity is the outcome of high energy diet, over-dieting and lack of proper physical exercise.

Studies on physicochemical properties of cooked buffalo meat sausage as influenced by incorporation of carrot powder during refrigerated storage.

The studies were conducted for the development, quality evaluation and shelf life of cooked buffalo meat sausage samples prepared with different levels of fat (20-30%) and carrot powder (0-5%). The research work was designed by response surface methodology and therefore the range of two independent parameters viz. fat (20-30%) and carrot powder (0-5%) was selected. The quality of sausage samples was evaluated on the basis of physicochemical characteristics like, moisture content, ash content, fat content, protein content, pH value, and TBA number. The samples were packed in combination film and stored under refrigerated condition (0oC) and for shelf life studies quality and analysis of sausage samples was carried out after every five days till the end of shelf life. The moisture content in the samples was observed in the range of 61.14 to 62.35% in fresh condition and it observed less decrement in the moisture content in samples having zero or low amount of carrot powder comparatively with the samples having higher amount of carrot powder during the refrigeration storage period. The ash content was observed in the range of 1.9 to 2.3% in fresh condition and slight increment in ash content was observed due to reduction in the moisture content during storage. Similarly fat content was found 14.12 to 16.67% in fresh condition, while an increase in fat content was found in sausage samples during refrigerated storage (0oC). It was due to the decrease in the moisture content of sausage samples. The protein content of all sausage samples was found in the range of 18.37 to 18.70% in fresh condition. The increase in protein content was found due to similar reason of decrease in moisture content. The pH values of the sausage samples were found in the range of 6.132 - 6.412 in fresh condition and it was found that sausage sample having 21.46% fat content and 4.27% carrot powder had lowest decrement in the pH. The sausage samples found spoiled at TBA no. ≥ 0.20 and shelf life cooked buffalo meat sausage found of Twenty-one days under refrigerated condition.

Application of Membrane Technology in Food Processing

Membrane technology has gained momentum in food processing and other areas like desalination, separation, and concentration of enzyme treatment of processed water to remove bacteria and contaminants in the last 30 years. The important techniques of membrane technology include reverse osmosis (RO, hyperfiltration), ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF), microfiltration (MF), ion exchange, electrodialysis, and evaporation. The major advantages of the technology are—very little change in nutrition quality, the energy used in reverse osmosis or ultrafiltration is efficiently utilized as there is no phase change and the concentration of the food solution is established by applying high pressure to reverse the direction of the flow. As compared to reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration technique is used to separate the low molecular weight solutes like salts monosaccharides and aroma compounds. In reverse osmosis the pressure applied is 5–10 times that used in ultrafiltration (4,000–8,000 × 103 Pa) is there necessary to overcome this (the term reverse osmosis). Some of the applications of this membrane technology are concentration and purification of fruit juices, enzymes, fermented liquors, and vegetable oils. The milk for example can be converted to many fractions namely whey protein solution, casein solution, protein standardized milk, milk protein concentrate, all types of casein (α, β, γ), caseinate, phophocasein, etc. using technologies of membrane filtration viz. reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration, diafiltration, microfiltration, and electrodialysis. These technologies differ in application selecting the pore size of the membrane suitable for the molecules to be separated and their molecular weight.

Food Processing: Strategies for Quality Assessment, A Broad Perspective

Food processing is very important in many economies around the world. Food processing may be carried out in the home or by community groups or as cottage industries or more formal commercial formulations with respective sites having increasing levels of sophistication and capital requirements. The aim of the food processing is to ensure microbiological and chemical safety of foods, adequate nutrient content and bioavailability, and acceptability to the consumer and caregiver with regard to sensory properties and ease of preparation. Processing may have either beneficial or harmful effects on these different properties of food, so each of these factors must be taken into account in the design and preparation of complementary foods.

Waste utilization of apple pomace as a source of functional ingredient in buffalo meat sausage

Abstract Apple pomace was analyzed for its proximate analysis which showed protein content of 4.50% and total dietary fiber of 62.67%. Its functional properties were also carried out which showed high water- and oil-holding capacity of 3.89 gH2O g−1 Solid and 1.92 ml g−1, respectively. Its antimicrobial activity was also found against S. aureus, P. aeruginosa, and L. monocytogenes. Further, it has shown lower in vitro glucose retardation index. Buffalo meat sausages incorporated with apple pomace powder showed high cooking yield and emulsion stability of 94.46% and 74.70, respectively, as compared to control sausage. Additionally, the dietary fiber content got enhanced with the incorporation of apple pomace powder as expected.

Advancements in Post-harvest Management of Fruits and Vegetables

Horticultural crops like fruits and vegetables play significant role in food and nutritional security of world population. Being rich source of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients and adding to diversified qualities of food, their optimum use in food is ever recommended. However, seasonality and perishability are two major problems in their utilization while their demand as fresh, safe and minimally processed or value-added product has been continuously increasing. In most of developing and underdeveloped countries, there is considerable gap between production and net availability of fruits and vegetables. This gap is mainly due to high postharvest losses during production to consumption supply chain. Though the post-harvest losses vary from fruit to fruit/vegetable to vegetable, their varieties, storage conditions, quality attribute, etc., in general 20–40 % of total production of fruits/vegetables in developing countries like India is reported to be lost during various stages of supply chain. Due to their highly perishable qualities, as high as 80–90 % water content, soft texture, susceptibility to bruising, rotting, high transpiration and respiration rate, etc., the shelf-life of these products is limited whereas demand for such fresh, primary processed and value-added products, i.e. in all forms, goes on increasing due to growth in population. In this reference adoption of improved and simple post-harvest management techniques including cleaning/washing, grading, pretreatment, preservation, on-farm storage, coating, minimal processing, drying/dehydration, packaging, etc., have proved their utility and effectivity in reduction of losses. Reduction in post-harvest harvest losses has several advantages leading to enhanced availability of nutritionally important products without bringing additional area under cultivation, reduction in pollution arising from rotting of fruits/vegetables, availability of nutrient-rich variety of diversified products including ready to serve/ready to use products, enhanced agro-industrial growth with opportunities of additional income and employment generation and export of surplus quality products, etc.

Pesticides and Veterinary Drugs Residues in Conventional Meat: A Food Safety Issue

In the current scenario the most of people are well aware with health issues. Food safety is generally related with the quality of food i.e. whether the food product is standardised as according to national or international norms set by the statutory organisations. People can compromise with the nutritive values of food but not with their safety aspects. The meat and meat products carry the burden of harmful agents according to the production methods. Now-a-days the feedlot animals are being reared either through the natural farming (organic farming) or conventional farming method. Those methods produce safe and healthier meat because there is no use of harmful chemical agents’ viz., pesticides, herbicides, hormones, growth promoters, veterinary drugs and etc. On the other hand, in the conventional farming, all these chemical agents are used to enhance animal growth. Several chemical agents like pesticides and veterinary drugs residues may cause harmful health implications viz., teratogenicity, carcinogenicity, hypersensitivity reactions, gut bacterial resistance, toxicity and many more health problems in human beings. It is the thrust of today to replace the conventional meat with the organic meat to check the use of harmful chemical agents for a healthy social life.