Whey acerola-flavoured drink submitted ohmic heating processing: Is there an optimal combination of the operational parameters?

Ohmic pasteurization of probiotic chocolate dairy desserts and its quality attributes

The study evaluated the effects of conventional pasteurization and ohmic heating (OH) at different electric fields (12, 16, 20, or 24 V/cm-1) on probiotic chocolate dairy desserts' physicochemical, microbiological, sensory properties and volatile profiles. Both treatments were analyzed for parameters such as pH, syneresis, cream stability index, rheology, bioactive compounds (total phenolics and antioxidant capacity), and probiotic viability (Lactobacillus acidophilus LA-05) over a 28-day storage period. Ohmic heating at higher electric fields (20 and 24 V/cm-1) showed comparable results to pasteurization for most parameters, with non-significant differences or even higher values for some. Sensory analysis revealed that pasteurized samples were more associated with "creamy" and "firm" textures. In contrast, OH-treated samples were linked to lumps and fluidity, particularly in OH24 and OH16, respectively. Volatile compounds such as propanal and ethyl propanoate were detected across treatments, with ethyl acetate unique to OH24. The results suggest that OH, especially at higher electric fields, is a promising technology for processing probiotic dairy desserts, offering similar or enhanced qualities compared to conventional pasteurization. These findings provide insights into the potential for OH to be routinely applied in functional dairy product production.

Comparison of energy consumption, color, ascorbic acid and carotenoid degradation in guava (Psidium guajava) pulp during conventional and ohmic heating

This study aimed to compare the effect of ohmic and conventional heat treatments on red guava pulp, evaluating the effects on pulp color, degradation kinetics of ascorbic acid and carotenoids, together with the thermal efficiency of both treatments. Samples were heated by conventional heating (water bath) and ohmic heating (platinum electrodes) using alternating voltage of 21.2 V/m and average frequency of 60 Hz at temperatures of 60, 70 and 80 °C for 110 min. In general, the ascorbic acid degradation followed a first order kinetics, for both heat treatments, the pulp color showed no significant variation (p < 0.05) according to the type and time of heating applied, whereas the carotenoid content was favored by ohmic heating, at the two lowest temperatures tested. As for the heat transfer process, the ohmic treatment showed an average thermal efficiency of 40.93%, while the conventional heating, 2.62%, proving to be a promising emerging technology for processing viscous foods with suspended particles like fruit pulps.

Ohmic Heating Extraction at Different Times, Temperatures, Voltages, and Frequencies: A New Energy-Saving Technique for Pineapple Core Valorization

Pineapple core is considered a processing by-product. This study proposed and evaluated an ohmic heating extraction-based valorization platform to obtain value-added bioactive compounds from pineapple core and studied the effects of four important processing parameters. In this sense, a Taguchi design (L16(4)4) was used to assess the effects of temperature (70, 80, 90, and 100 °C), time (15, 30, 45, and 60 min), voltage (110, 160, 210, and 260 V), and frequency (60, 340, 620, and 900 Hz) on heating rate, come-up time, energy consumption, system performance efficiency, total phenolic compounds (TPC), DPPH, and ABTS. Finally, a side-by-side comparison of optimized ohmic heating (OOH) and conventional extraction was performed, and chemical composition was compared by ultra-performance liquid chromatography equipped with photodiode array detection-mass (UPLC-DAD-ESI-MS-MS). According to the results, increasing temperatures enhanced system performance efficiency but negatively affected TPC and antioxidant values above 90 ℃. Similarly, prolonging the extraction (>30 min) decreased TPC. Further, increasing voltage (from 110 to 260 V) shortened the come-up time (from 35.75 to 5.16 min) and increased the heating rate (from 2.71 to 18.80 °C/min−1). The optimal conditions were 30 min of extraction at 80 °C, 160 V, and 900 Hz. Verification of the optimal conditions revealed that OOH yielded an extract with valuable bioactive compounds and saved 50% of the time and 80% of energy compared to the conventional treatment. The UPLC-DAD-ESI-MS-MS showed that there were similarities between the chemical profiles of the extracts obtained by conventional and OOH methods, while the concentration of major compounds varied depending on the extraction method. This information can help achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs) by maximizing the yield and minimizing energy and time consumption.

Photosensitized oxidation of cholesterol and altered oxysterol levels in sour cream: Effects of addition of cucumber pickles

The aim of this research was to examine whether sour cream (18% fat) is an exogenous source of oxysterols and whether it is possible to improve its antioxidative properties and to modulate cholesterol transformation by adding cucumber. To determine whether cucumber modifies the properties of sour cream, fresh cucumber or cucumber pickle (pH 3.3; 1.5% lactic acid) was added in an amount of 20%. The sour cream samples were then stored under light (450 lx, 590 cd, 120 lm) for 3 wk. After storage, the addition of the cucumber pickle increased total mesophilic aerobic bacteria from 7.5 to 9.3 log cfu/g and increased the l-lactic acid content from 6.1 to 9.7 g/L. The total conjugated linoleic acid content in sour cream with cucumber pickle also increased to 4.5 mg/g fat after storage, whereas the cholesterol content decreased to 3.44 g/kg fat. Importantly, with the addition of cucumber pickle, the total content of cholesterol oxidization products (COP) did not change after storage (1.7 mg/kg fat). By contrast, the total COP content in the control sour cream sample increased from 1.7 to 7.3 mg/kg fat over 3 wk of storage. The dominant COP before and after storage was 7β-hydroxycholesterol. Thus, despite exposure to light, adding cucumber pickle to sour cream modulates cholesterol transformation and effectively inhibits the formation of oxysterols.

Effect of Supercritical Extract from Black Poplar and Basket Willow on the Quality of Natural and Probiotic Drinkable Yogurt

Yogurt is a fermented milk drink produced by Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus delbrüeckii ssp. bulgaricus, or Lactobacillus rhamnosus, which can be enriched with polyphenolic compounds to enhance its antioxidant properties. Supercritical (scCO2/H2O) extracts obtained from the mixture of bark and wood of black poplar (Populus nigra) and basket willow (Salix viminalis) are the source of bioactive compounds. The aim of the study was to assess the effect of supercritical extracts from the P. nigra and S. viminalis on the fermentation, quality, and bioactive properties of drinkable natural and probiotic yogurts. The incorporation of scCO2/H2O extracts at a dose of 0.01% (w/v) into milk for the production of natural and probiotic yogurts increases their functional properties by enhancing the antioxidant activity without causing negative effects on the physicochemical and organoleptic properties of products. The antioxidant activity of yogurt with scCO2/H2O extract from P. nigra and S. viminalis was higher than control yogurts by 1.3-13.2% and 4.4-37.5%, respectively. The addition of a supercritical S. viminalis extract reduced the time of natural and probiotic yogurt fermentation. Natural and probiotic yogurt with scCO2/H2O extracts added was characterised by a bacterial population size of over 7 log cfu/g, and the microflora was active throughout the cold storage period. FTIR analysis confirmed the presence of scCO2/H2O extracts from P. nigra or S. viminalis in both types of yogurt. A secondary structure analysis confirmed interactions between compounds of scCO2/H2O extract from P. nigra and S. viminalis extract with milk proteins. These interactions affect the compounds' structural and functional properties by changing, e.g., their digestibility and antioxidant properties.

Consumer-perception, nutritional, and functional studies of a yogurt with restructured elderberry juice

We investigated the effects of supplementation of yogurt with elderberry juice (Sambucus nigra L.), in both natural and restructured forms, on certain technological, physicochemical, sensory, and health-promoting properties of yogurt, including antioxidant activity and inhibition of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE), α-amylase, and α-glucosidase activity. Consumer acceptance of the yogurt-juice products was assessed. Gel-strength restructured elderberry juice retained a spherical shape and most of the juice, despite decreasing in mass from 57.2 to 50.9 g during storage. As a result, yogurt supplemented with 10 and 25% restructured elderberry juice appeared to be more desirable from a sensory and technological perspective than yogurt with natural juice. Yogurt supplemented with restructured elderberry juice had a high water-holding capacity (94.4-96.4%), exhibited no spontaneous whey syneresis, and maintained a dense consistency (up to 5,626 g). Consumer penalty analysis of the just-about-right diagnostic attributes indicated that the flavor of these yogurts may not be sufficiently refreshing. High correlation was demonstrated between ACE inhibition, ABTS, α-amylase, and α-glucosidase in yogurt supplemented with restructured juice. An in vitro gastrointestinal simulation estimated bioaccessibility of antioxidants to be in the range of 62 to 66%. This model fermented yogurt supplemented with restructured elderberry juice is a novel dairy-juice beverage that represents a new approach for the development of functional fruit yogurt beverages.

Processing raspberry-flavored whey drink using ohmic heating: Physical, thermal and microstructural considerations

The effect of ohmic heating processing (10, 100, 1000 Hz - 25 V;45, 60, 80 V - 60 Hz until 65 °C-30 min) on physical (color, rheology, particle size diameter), thermal (differential scanning calorimetry, DSC), physicochemical (time domain nuclear magnetic resonance, TD-NMR) and microstructural (optical microscopy) properties of raspberry-flavored whey drink was investigated. The samples were submitted to an ohmic system and conventional pasteurization (65 °C-30 min). Both processing led to increases in the color parameters (C*, h* and ∆E*) in the first 30 min. For the treatments, 10 Hz-25 V and 1000 Hz-25 V, more viscous, and consequently increased D[4,3] and D[3,2] values were observed, and similar results were obtained for the DSC behavior. The microstructure confirmed aggregation of cell structure in those configurations (10 Hz and 1000 Hz-25 V). OH, parameters for both ohmic configurations have an impact in all the evaluated parameters for raspberry-flavored whey drink, which can be interesting for the dairy industry.

Guava flavored whey-beverage processed by cold plasma: Physical characteristics, thermal behavior and microstructure

The present study aimed to compare the physicochemical (pH), physical (rheology parameters and particle size), microstructure (optical microscopy) and thermal properties (differential scanning calorimetry) of guava flavored whey-beverages submitted to cold plama technology in different processing time (5, 10, and 15 min) and gas flow (10, 20, and 30 mL min^-1) conditions with a conventional pasteurized product. Whey beverages treated by cold plasma presented higher pH values, lower consistency and lower viscosity, and a flow behavior index similar to Newtonian fluids. Milder cold plasma conditions resulted in whey beverages with higher pH, lower viscosity and consistency, and similar particle distribution and microstructure compared to the pasteurized product. In contrast, more severe processing conditions resulted in a higher particle surface area ([D 3,2]) and smaller particles (~10 μM), due to the decrease in the number of larger particles (1000 μM), cell rupture, the formation of cell fragments, and higher viscosity and consistency. The treatments did not affect the thermal properties (enthalpy and bound water) of any sample.