The immune system is affected by the dietary products humans intake. Immune system regulation by nutrition has uses in the clinical context, but it can also benefit healthy populations by delaying or preventing the emergence of immune-mediated chronic illnesses. In this study, the purpose was to describe and compare the modulator effects on the immune system of the routine ingestion of fresh vs. pasteurized yogurt. A unicentral, prospective, randomized, double-blind, parallel group 8-week nutritional study was carried out comparing the ingestion of 125 g of the products in healthy adults three times a day. A complete battery of in vitro tests on the activity of the immune system, processes and phenomena was performed. Exclusive immune-modulatory effects of fresh yogurt with respect to base line were found in terms of increased systemic IgM (primary immune responses), increased synthesis of IFN-gamma upon stimulation (Th1) and increased peripheral T cells (mainly \"naive\" CD4s). In the three interventions, we observed an increased phagocytic activity and burst test in granulocytes, together with increased secretion of IL-6, IL-1 β and IL-8 (pro-inflammatory) and increased CD16 expression (FcR favoring phagocytosis) in granulocytes. Overall, it is concluded that regardless of bacteria being alive or thermally inactivated, yogurt has common effects on the innate system, but the presence of live bacteria is necessary to achieve a potentiating effect on the specific immune response.

Table olives are one of the most known fruit consumed as fermented food, being a fundamental component of the Mediterranean diet. Their production and consumption continue to increase globally and represent an important economic source for the producing countries. One of the most stimulating challenges for the future is the modernization of olive fermentation process. Besides the demand for more reproducible and safer production methods that could be able to reduce product losses and potential risks, producers and consumers are increasingly attracted by the final product characteristics and properties on human health. In this study, the contribution of microbial starters to table olives was fully described in terms of specific enzymatic and microbiological profiles, nutrient components, fermentation-derived compounds, and content of bioactive compounds. The use of microbial starters from different sources was tested considering their technological features and potential ability to improve the functional traits of fermented black table olives. For each fermentation assay, the effects of controlled temperature (kept at 20 °C constantly) versus not controlled environmental conditions (oscillating between 7 and 17 °C), as well as the consequences of the pasteurization treatment were tested on the final products. Starter-driven fermentation strategies seemed to increase both total phenolic content and total antioxidant activity. Herein, among all the tested microbial starters, we provide data indicating that two bacterial strains (Leuconostoc mesenteroides KT 5-1 and Lactiplantibacillus plantarum BC T3-35), and two yeast strains (Saccharomyces cerevisiae 10A and Debaryomyces hansenii A15-44) were the better ones related to enzyme activities, total phenolic content and antioxidant activity. We also demonstrated that the fermentation of black table olives under not controlled environmental temperature conditions was more promising than the controlled level of 20 °C constantly in terms of technological and functional properties considered in this study. Moreover, we confirmed that the pasteurization process had a role in enhancing the levels of antioxidant compounds.

In commercially available honey, the application of a heat treatment to prevent spoilage can potentially compromise its beneficial properties and quality, and these effects worsen with extended storage. The high-pressure processing (HPP) of honey is being explored, but its long-term impact on honey quality has not been characterised yet. This study evaluated the effects of HPP and thermal processing on the microbial load, physicochemical quality (i.e., hydroxymethylfurfural content and diastase activity), and antioxidant capacity of honey after treatment and following extended storage (6, 12, and 24 months) at 20 °C. Pasteurization (78 °C/6 min) effectively eliminated the microorganisms in honey but compromised its physicochemical quality and antioxidant activity. HPP initially showed sublethal inactivation, but storage accelerated the decrease in yeasts/moulds and aerobic mesophiles in honey (being <1 log CFU/g after 24 months of storage) compared to unprocessed honey and honey thermally treated under mild conditions (55 °C/15 min). The physicochemical characteristics of the quality of HPP-treated honey and raw unprocessed honey did change after long-term storage (24 months) but remained within regulatory standards. In conclusion, HPP emerged as a more suitable and safe preservation method for Apis mellifera honey, with a minimal risk of a loss of antioxidant activity compared to traditional industrial honey pasteurization.

BACKGROUND: Heat treatments of dairy, including pasteurization and ultra-high temperature (UHT) processing, alter milk macromolecular structures, and ultimately affect digestion. In vitro, animal, and human studies show faster nutrient release or circulating appearance after consuming UHT milk (UHT-M) compared with pasteurized milk (PAST-M), with a faster gastric emptying (GE) rate proposed as a possible mechanism.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the impact of milk heat treatment on GE as a mechanism of faster nutrient appearance in blood. We hypothesized that GE and circulating nutrient delivery following consumption would be faster for UHT-M than PAST-M.
METHODS: In this double-blind randomized controlled cross-over trial, healthy female (n = 20; 27.3 ± 1.4 y, mean ± SD) habitual dairy consumers, consumed 500 mL of either homogenized bovine UHT-M or PAST-M (1340 compared with 1320 kJ). Gastric content volume (GCV) emptying half-time (T50) was assessed over 3 h by magnetic resonance imaging subjective digestive symptoms, plasma amino acid, lipid and B vitamin concentrations, and gastric myoelectrical activity were measured over 5 h.
RESULTS: Although GCV T50 did not differ (102 ± 7 min compared with 89 ± 8 min, mean ± SEM, UHT-M and PAST-M, respectively; P = 0.051), GCV time to emptying 25% of the volume was 31% longer following UHT-M compared with PAST-M (42 ± 2 compared with 32 ± 4 min, P = 0.004). Although GCV remained larger for a longer duration following UHT-M (treatment × time interaction, P = 0.002), plasma essential amino acid AUC was greater following UHT-M than PAST-M (55,324 ± 3809 compared with 36,598 ± 5673 μmol·min·L-1, P = 0.006). Heat treatment did not impact gastric myoelectrical activity, plasma appetite hormone markers or subjective appetite scores.
CONCLUSIONS: Contrary to expectations, GE was slower with UHT-M, yet, as anticipated, aminoacidemia was greater. The larger GCV following UHT-M suggests that gastric volume may poorly predict circulating nutrient appearance from complex food matrices. Dairy heat treatment may be an effective tool to modify nutrient release by impacting digestion kinetics.
BACKGROUND: www.anzctr.org.au (ACTRN12620000172909).

BACKGROUND: Human milk fat analog emulsion (HMFAE) is an emulsion that mimics the composition and structure of human milk (HM) fat globules. The application of HMFAE in infant formula requires a series of milk powder processing steps, such as pasteurization and spray drying. However, the effect of milk powder processing on fat digestion of HMFAE is still unclear. In this study, the influence of pasteurization and spray drying on the lipolysis behavior of HMFAE was studied and compared with HM using a simulated infant in vitro digestion model.
RESULTS: Pasteurization and spray drying increased the flocculation and aggregation of lipid droplets in HMFAE during digestion. Spray drying destroyed the lipid droplet structure of HMFAE, and partial milk fat globule membrane-covered lipid droplets turned into protein-covered lipid droplets, which aggravated lipid-protein aggregation during gastric digestion and hindered fat digestion in the small intestine. The final lipolysis degree was in the order HM (64.55%) > HMFAE (63.41%) > pasteurized HMFAE (61.75%) > spray-dried HMFAE (60.57%). After complete gastrointestinal digestion, there were no significant differences in free fatty acid and sn-2 monoacylglycerol profile among the HMFAE, pasteurized HMFAE, and spray-dried HMFAE.
CONCLUSIONS: Milk powder processing can reduce lipolysis by altering the lipid droplet structure of HMFAE and the degree of lipid droplet aggregation during digestion. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.

OBJECTIVE: Donated human milk is the best possible alternative when mother\'s own milk is not available. The aim of this study is to investigate whether there are differences in the milk donation volumes and microbiological quality of donated milk depending on human milk donors (HMDs) characteristics.
METHODS: We analyzed data on the HMDs who donated milk in the first three years of work of human milk bank (HMB) - November 2019 to January 2023. The data on the volume of donated milk in L and suitable microbiological quality assessed by the number and isolated species of bacteria were collected from questionnaires filled out by HMDs and documentation administered by HMB employees and are presented using descriptive and comparative statistics.
RESULTS: Two hundred HMDs were included in this study. The majority of them are between 26 and 35 years of age, reside in capital city or the surrounding county, have given birth to a full-term child vaginally, and express surplus milk through a breast pump. Donor mothers of preterm born infants (14.5 %) donated greater quantities, there is statistically significant difference in the median of volume of milk donated (9.6 vs. 6.4, p=0.026). Milk expressed manually shows better results in microbiological quality (median percentage 100 vs. 82 vs. 100, p=0.040), while by comparing other characteristics of the donors, no difference was found between the groups.
CONCLUSIONS: It is important to be aware of the characteristics of previous HMDs in order to direct the HMB future promotional and educational activities.

Pasteurization is a vital process to destroy harmful enzymes. This process is very critical to obtain quality tomato paste. In this study, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has been used to design a shell and tube heat exchanger on an industrial scale and to simulate heat transfer in order to visualize this process and present it to the industry. In this research, a three-dimensional CFD model was simulated using ANSYS FLUENT commercial software. Also, using the Herschel-Bulkley model, the behavior of viscosity in the pasteurization process of tomato paste has been explained. In this stage of the production line, the tomato paste enters a shell and tube heat exchanger at 65 °C and reaches 80 °C at the outlet. Compared with the experimental data, the output temperature of tomato paste predicted by CFD simulation reached 79 °C. In addition, thermophysical properties of tomato paste were measured, and these exact values were used for simulation. Also, the evaluation of this heat exchanger with three hot water inlet mass flow rates has been done in order to provide the results to the factory to avoid spending more energy. And the simulation results showed that the output temperature of tomato paste at three different mass flow rates did not change less than the mass flow rates measured in the factory, and also the output visualizations from this research can be suitable for presenting to the industry and benefiting from them.

High-temperature short-time (HTST) pasteurization (72-75 °C, 15 s) is an alternative treatment to traditional Holder pasteurization (HoP) (62ºC, 30 min) for donor milk. HTST pasteurization guarantees the milk\'s microbiological safety and retains more of its biologically and nutritionally active compounds, but the cost of implementing this technology for a human milk bank is unknown.
A cost-minimization study was carried out on the facilities of a regional human milk bank in a public hospital. Total production costs (fixed plus variables) were quantified using HTST pasteurization and HoP in three hypothetical scenarios: (1) costs of the first 10 L of pasteurized milk in a newly opened milk bank; (2) costs of the first 10 L of pasteurized milk in an active milk bank; and (3) costs using the maximum production capacity of both technologies in the first two years of operation. The following costs were analyzed: health care professionals, equipment and software, external services, and consumables.
In scenario 1, the total production costs were € 228,097.00 for the HTST method versus € 154,064.00 for the HoP method. In scenario 2, these costs were similar (€ 6,594.00 for HTST pasteurization versus € 5,912.00 for HoP). The cost of healthcare professionals was reduced by more than half when pasteurization was carried out by the HTST method versus the Holder method (€ 84.00 and € 191.00, respectively). In scenario 3, the unit cost of milk pasteurized by the HTST method decreased from the first to the second year by 43.5%, while for the HoP method, it decreased by 30%.
HTST pasteurization requires a high initial investment in equipment; however, it provides a significant minimization of production costs in the long term, pasteurizes large quantities of donor milk per working day and achieves a more efficient management of the time of the health care professionals in charge of the bank\'s operation compared to HoP.

Osteosarcoma is a common primary malignancy of the bone. Osteosarcoma prognosis improves tremendously when chemotherapy is given in adjunct to surgical intervention. Limb reconstruction with sterilized autologous bone graft stabilized by orthopaedics implants has become a choice of treatment, but the biomechanical property of the bone treated with such sterilization method is a point of concern as a graft with inferior biomechanical property might lead to graft failure. This study compares the biomechanical properties of the bones treated with cryotherapy using liquid nitrogen and pasteurization in the form of four-point bending compression tests. Six sheep tibia bones were used for each group of treatment with one control group where no treatment was given. In the four-point bending test, osteotomy was performed at the tibia; the proximal tibia was treated with liquid nitrogen and pasteurization respectively. The treated bone is then reconstructed with the corresponding distal bone with locking plate and screws (Jiangsu Trauhiu Medical Instrument Co. Ltd., Changzhou, China). The four-point bending test was performed with an Electropulse® E3000 universal testing machine (Instron®, High Wycombe, United Kingdom) and results in the form of maximum compressive load, stress, and strain were collected. Photographic analysis of the fracture location and pattern were documented and analysed. We found that both methods of sterilization did not alter the biomechanical properties of the treated bone to the extent of statistical significance in comparison with the control group. However, other factors such as histological changes post treatment, equipment availability, and long-term outcome must be considered.

Human milk (HM) is the best feeding option for preterm infants; however, when mother\'s own milk (MOM) is not available, pasteurized donor human milk (DHM) is the best alternative. In this study, we profiled DHM microbiota (19 samples) using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and compared its compositional features with the MOM microbiota (14 samples) from mothers who delivered prematurely (PT-MOM). As a secondary study aim, we assessed the specific effect of pasteurization on the characteristics of the DHM microbiota. DHM showed significantly higher alpha diversity and significant segregation from PT-MOM. Compositionally, the PT-MOM microbiota had a significantly higher proportion of Staphylococcus than DHM, with Streptococcus tending to be and Pseudomonas being significantly overrepresented in DHM compared with the PT-MOM samples. Furthermore, pasteurization affected the HM microbiota structure, with a trend towards greater biodiversity and some compositional differences following pasteurization. This pilot study provided further evidence on the HM microbial ecosystem, demonstrating that the DHM microbiota differs from the PT-MOM microbiota, possibly due to inherent differences between HM donors and mothers delivering prematurely, and that pasteurization per se impacts the HM microbiota. Knowledge about HM microbiota needs to be acquired by investigating the effect of DHM processing to develop strategies aimed at improving DHM quality while guaranteeing its microbiological safety.