The effect of hawthorn berries ripeness on the physicochemical, structural and functional properties of hawthorn pectin (HP) and its potential in sweet cherry preservation were investigated. With the advanced ripeness of hawthorn berries, the galacturonic acid (GalA) content decreased from 59.70 mol% to 52.16 mol%, the molecular weight (Mw) reduced from 368.6 kDa to 284.3 kDa, the microstructure exhibited variable appearance from thick lamella towards porous cross-linked fragment, emulsifying activity and emulsions stability, antioxidant activities, α-amylase and pancreatic lipid inhibitory capacities significantly increased. The heated emulsion stored for 30 d presented higher creaming index and more ordered oil droplets compared to the unheated emulsion. With the extended berries ripeness, the firmness of HP gels remarkably decreased from 225.69 g to 73.39 g, while the springiness increased from 0.78 to 1.16, HP exhibited a superior inhibitory effect in water loss, browning, softening, and bacterial infection in sweet cherries preservation.

In this study, a new composite with combination of chitosan oligosaccharide (COS) and zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs), termed Chitosan Oligosaccharide-Zinc Oxide Nanocomposites (COS-ZnO NC), was designed to enhance the quality of tomato fruits during postharvest storage. SEM analysis showed a uniform distribution of COS-ZnO NC films on tomato surfaces, indicating high biocompatibility, while the FTIR spectrum confirmed the interaction of COS and ZnO NPs via hydrogen bonds. The COS-ZnO NC exerts positive effects on post-harvest quality of tomato fruits, including significantly reduced water loss, fewer skin wrinkles, increased sugar-acid ratio, and enhanced vitamin C and carotenoids accumulation. Furthermore, COS-ZnO NC induces transcription of carotenoid biosynthesis genes and promotes carotenoids storage in the chromoplast. These results suggest that the COS-ZnO NC film can significantly improve the quality traits of tomato fruits, and therefore is potential in post-harvest storage of tomato fruits.

In this study, the thermal and drying characteristics of a thin layer food sample were investigated. An indirect type, simple, efficient, and economically feasible solar dryer was fabricated and used for food preservation. However, a dynamic model of a fabricated solar dryer was also presented to gain a better insight into the drying and thermal actions. This model consists of thermal modeling of the drying chamber, solar collector, and solar-dried food sample. The law of conservation of energy was applied to evaluate the temperature at different sections of the solar dryer with respect to drying time. All listed model equations were solved in the MATLAB environment. This study helps to examine the influence of solar radiation on the collector plate temperature, drying chamber temperature, food sample temperature, and performance parameters such as thermal efficiency with respect to drying time. Model data was found in good agreement with experimental data within a 4% error. It is concluded that the drying of food material is affected by air temperature, the collector temperature, mode of heat transfer, and material characteristics such as dimension and mass of the food sample.

This research aims to investigate the potential of utilizing pomegranate peel powder (PPP) as a natural preservative in muffin preparation. Pomegranate peel is a rich source of bioactive compounds, including phenolics, flavonoids, and tannins, which possess high antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. The In-Vitro antifungal activity of pomegranate peel powder (8% PPP), potassium sorbate (0.1% PS) and calcium propionate (0.5% CP) was assessed against Penicillium sp. and Aspergillus sp. using poison food technique. The PPP showed the anti-fungal activity by delaying the growth of microorganism on media plate similar to the PS and CP. The effect of utilization of PPP on quality characteristics of muffins were compared with the muffins with chemical preservatives (0.1% PS and 0.5% CP). The viscosity and specific gravity of batter significantly increased from 7.98 to 11.87 Pa s and 1.089-1.398 respectively on addition of 8% PPP. The optical microscopic structure of PPP added batter revealed the decrease in the number of air cells from 24 to 12 with radius range of 6.42-72.72 μm and area range of 511.03-15,383.17 µm2. The functional properties of flour with PPP had higher water absorption capacity, foaming stability, emulsification activity and emulsion stability than others. The addition of PPP significantly increase the weight (32.83 g), and decrease the height (31.3 mm), volume (61.43 cm3), specific volume (1.67 cm3/g) and baking loss (10.19%). The 418.36% increase in fibre content, 14.46% and 18.46% decrease in carbohydrates and energy value was observed in muffin with 8% PPP as compared to control respectively. The total phenols was increased from 0.92 to 12.5 mg GAE/100 g, total tannin from 0.2 to 8.27 mg GAE/100 g, In-vitro antioxidant activity by DPPH from 6.97 to 29.34% and In-vitro antioxidant activity by FRAP from 0.497 to 2.934 mg AAE/100 g in muffins added with 8% PPP. The muffin with PPP was softer than control and muffin with 0.1% PS. The addition of PPP resulted to improve in muffin texture but taste slightly bitter. During the storage of muffins at room temperature (27-30 °C), the moisture content of muffin with PPP was reduced from 17.04 to 13.23% which was higher than the rest of the treatments. Similarly, the hardness of sample with PPP was higher than the sample with 0.5% CP, but lowers than control and sample with 0.1% PS throughout the storage period. The results suggest that pomegranate peel powder can be successfully used as a natural preservative in place of chemical preservatives in muffins, to extend the shelf life. This study provides the opportunity to use PPP as functional ingredient and natural preservative in different bakery products.

Drying is a widely recognized process that reduces the need for storage and shipping weight, keeps free water out of the product, and prolongs its shelf life. An infrared dryer was designed to dry apples under different drying conditions. Apple slices of 6-, 4-, and 2-mm thicknesses were dried at intensities 0.130, 0.225, and 0.341 W/cm2 and airflow 1.0, 0.5, and 1.5 m/s. The dehydrating period was prolonged with higher airflow and shortened with higher infrared intensity (IR). The shortest dehydrating period was verified by 190 min at 0.341 W/cm2, 0.5 m/s under 2 mm thickness. Increasing the sample thickness from 2 to 4 mm and then to 6 mm resulted in an 84% and 192% increase in drying time, respectively. Dehydrated apples had water activity values ranging from 0.30 to 0.40. The shrinkage ratio increased with an increase in infrared radiation intensity. However, it decreased with an increase in air velocity, while the rehydration ratio decreased with an increase in radiation intensity and increased with an increase in air velocity. Regarding total color change, apple slice thickness was a major factor. The effective diffusivities varied between 2.6 and 9.0 𝗑10-10 m2/s under different drying conditions. The dehydrating curves of apples were best described by the model developed by Midilli et al.

The study involves the preparation and characterization of crosslinked-carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) films using varying amounts of citric acid (CA) within the range 5 %-20 %, w/w, relative to the dry weight of CMC. Through techniques such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, carbonyl content analysis, and gel fraction measurements, the successful crosslinking between CMC and CA is confirmed. The investigation includes an analysis of chemical structure, physical and optical characteristics, swelling behavior, water vapor transmission rate, moisture content, and surface morphologies. The water resistance of the cross-linked CMC films exhibited a significant improvement when compared to the non-crosslinked CMC film. The findings indicated that films crosslinked with 10 % CA demonstrated favorable properties for application as edible coatings. These transparent films, ideal for packaging, prove effective in preserving the quality and sensory attributes of fresh bananas, including color retention, minimized weight loss, slowed ripening through inhibiting amyloplast degradation, and enhanced firmness during storage.

Chitosan has been extensively explored in food coatings. Still, its practical application is largely hampered by its conventional wet processing in acetic acid, whose residuals negatively impact food quality and safety. Here, we propose a new method to formulate chitosan coatings for food applications by avoiding organic acid processing and validate them on a cheese model. The procedure entails modifying a previously reported process based on HCl chitosan treatment and neutralising the resulting gel. The obtained chitosan is solubilised in water using carbonic acid that forms in situ by dissolving carbon dioxide gas. The reversibility of water carbonation allows for easy removal of carbonic acid residues, resulting in acid-free chitosan films and coatings. The performance of the coating was tested against state-of-the-art chitosan-based and polymeric coatings. We preliminarily characterised the films\' properties (water stability, barrier, and optical properties). Then, we assessed the performance of the coating on Provolone cheese as a food model (mass transfer and texture profiles over 14 days). The work demonstrated the advantage of the proposed approach in solving some main issues of food quality and safety, paving the way for an effective application of chitosan in future food contact applications.

In this study, Lallemantia royleana mucilage (LRM) based edible coating containing 1.5 × 108 and 3 × 109 CFU/mL Lacticaseibacillus casei XN18 (Lbc1.5 and Lbc3) was designed to improve the quality and shelf-life of fresh pistachio. The fresh pistachios were coated with LRM + Lbc and their physicochemical, microbial, and sensory properties were evaluated after 1-, 5-, 15-, 25-, and 35-day storage at 4 °C. By the end of storage day, in comparison to control, the presence of probiotic isolate in the edible coating (particularly LRM + Lbc3) led to a marked decrease in fungal growth (3.1 vs. 5.8 Log CFU/g), weight loss (6.7 vs. 8.1%), and fat oxidation (0.19 vs. 0.98 meq O2/kg), and preserved total chlorophylls (8.1 vs. 5.85 mg/kg) and phenols (31.5 vs. 20.32 mg GAE/100 g), and antioxidant activity (38.95 vs. 15.18%) of samples during storage period. Furthermore, LRM + Lbc3-coated samples had a probiotic number above the recommended level (6.85-9.29 log CFU/g) throughout storage. The pistachios coated with probiotic-enriched edible coatings were greatly accepted by panelists. In the next section, Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) was used for predicting some parameters including: weight loss, TSS, Fat content, PV, Soluble carbohydrate content, Viability, Total phenolic compounds, Antioxidant activity, Mold and yeast, Total chlorophylls, Total carotenoids, Color, Odor and Overall acceptance. The results indicated that, there is a good agreement between the actual and predicted data by GPR model and it can be used for similar situation to decrease the cost of laboratory tests and increase the respond of analysis.

Dates are highly perishable fruits, and maintaining their quality during storage is crucial. The current study aims to investigate the impact of storage conditions on the quality of dates (Khalas and Sukary cultivars) at the Tamer stage and predict their quality attributes during storage using artificial neural networks (ANN). The studied storage conditions were the modified atmosphere packing (MAP) gases (CO2, O2, and N), packaging materials, storage temperature, and storage time, and the evaluated quality attributes were moisture content, firmness, color parameters (L*, a*, b*, and ∆E), pH, water activity, total soluble solids, and microbial contamination. The findings demonstrated that the storage conditions significantly impacted (p < 0.05) the quality of the two stored date cultivars. The use of MAP with 20% CO2 + 80% N had a high potential to decrease the rate of color transformation and microbial growth of dates stored at 4 °C for both stored date cultivars. The developed ANN models efficiently predicted the quality changes of stored dates closely aligned with observed values under the different storage conditions, as evidenced by low Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) values. In addition, the reliability of the developed ANN models was further affirmed by the linear regression between predicted and measured values, which closely follow the 1:1 line, with R2 values ranging from 0.766 to 0.980, the ANN models demonstrate accurate estimating of fruit quality attributes. The study\'s findings contribute to food quality and supply chain management through the identification of optimal storage conditions and predicting the fruit quality during storage under different atmosphere conditions, thereby minimizing food waste and enhancing food safety.

This study focused into vacuum freeze dryer technology for increasing food shelf life in a drying food technology. The determinants of energy consumption increase as the energy density of food production and storage increases. Reducing the amount of energy used for drying, freezing, chilling, refrigeration, and air conditioning is becoming more important. The objective of this study was to extend food\'s shelf life utilizing creative and novel technical approaches, such as vacuum freeze-drying\'s energy-efficient process. Despite being a part of this investigation, the vacuum freeze drier was created using environmentally benign energy sources. To minimize the carbon footprint of food preservation, it is essential to use eco-friendly energy sources in chilling storage. According to the first law of thermodynamics, the energy efficiency at 1 atm pressure and 25 [°C] temperature (neglecting potential and kinetic energies) in the dead state is calculated under thermal equilibrium conditions. In this study, the energy efficiency was shown according to 5 different scenarios. The results of energy efficiencies are as follows: η1 is from 14.3 to 21.4%, η2 is from 20.7 to 31.0%, η3 is from 27.3 to 40.9%, η4 is from 32.1 to 48.1%, and η5 is from 34.6 to 51.9%, respectively. This analysis demonstrates that the energy efficiency improved from 12 to 18 h. In this study, optimizations with scenarios were employed considering vacuum freeze-drying technology in the plant with sustainable energy sources can considerably improve food shelf life while limiting our environmental impact.