This study evaluated Refractance Window Drying (RWD) as a novel method to concentrate native whey for the production of a bifunctional ingredient rich in galactooligosaccharides (GOS) and functional whey proteins. Native whey was concentrated under various RWD conditions (40-80 degrees C; 2 and 3.4 mm thicknesses) and compared to vacuum concentration in terms of color, alpha-amino group content, foaming properties, drying kinetics, and GOS synthesis capacity.Drying kinetics were modeled using Fick's second law and anomalous diffusion models. RWD significantly reduced drying time, with effective diffusivity ranging from 4.01 & times; 10-10 to 1.65 & times; 10-8 m2/s. A transition from super-diffusive to Fickian behavior was observed between 60 degrees C and 70 degrees C, likely due to protein denaturation. Color and foaming were best preserved at 40-60 degrees C, indicating minimal protein glycation. At 70 degrees C, optimal performance was observed, balancing shorter drying time, alpha-amino group retention, and functional stability. GOS synthesis using Aspergillus oryzae beta-galactosidase was enhanced in RWDconcentrated whey, achieving higher yields (up to 27%) and faster lactose conversion than in commercial formulations. The absence of additives in RW whey improved lactose availability for enzymatic conversion. These findings position RWD as an efficient and gentle technology for producing multifunctional dairy ingredients suitable for functional foods, infant nutrition, and nutraceuticals.

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of simulated oral processing on the gastrointestinal bioaccessibility of bioactive compounds from refractance window-dried (RW) blueberry pulp powder in a model food. The blueberry pulp was dehydrated at three temperatures (80, 90, and 95 degrees C), and the retention of total phenolic content (TPC), total anthocyanin content (TAC) and antioxidant capacity (AC) were evaluated. The dehydrated pulp was formulated into a model food and subjected to mechanical fragmentation (10 and 20 compression cycles) to simulate oral processing. Particle size distributions were characterized using the Rosin-Rammler model. Then, in vitro gastrointestinal digestion was performed following the INFOGEST protocol. The results showed that drying at 80 degrees C struck a balance between preserving bioactive compounds and process efficiency, retaining 10.64 mg GAE/g dry matter, 5.82 mg C3G/g dry matter, and 36.25 mu mol TEAC/g dry basis. The in vitro digestion revealed that a smaller particle size increased the release of bioactive compounds during the gastric phase. However, in the intestinal phase, the bioaccessibility of TPC decreased, while TAC and AC increased. These findings demonstrate that particle size is a critical determinant of digestive behavior and that RW is a suitable technology to maximize the functionality of blueberry-based ingredients.

The increasing demand for functional foods with added health benefits has driven the development of innovative food products. This study aimed to develop a functional snack made from Granny Smith apples enriched with hydrolyzed collagen using impregnation technologies, including vacuum impregnation (VI), ultrasound (US), and moderate electric field (MEF), and pretreatment with CO2 laser microperforations (MPs) combined with drying methods, including conventional drying (CD) and refractance window drying (RW). The collagen content increased significantly across treatments, with MP-I achieving the highest retention (79.86 g/100 g db). Compared with VI-CD (3.8 mg GAE/g db), MP-RW drying resulted in more total polyphenols (up to 7.2 mg GAE/g db), which was attributed to its shorter drying time (55 min vs. 160 min). The RW treatments also better-preserved color quality, with higher a* (red tones) and b* (yellow tones) values, especially in the MP-RW and US-RW treatments, highlighting their advantages in maintaining visual appeal. Texture analysis revealed that RW drying produced slices with reduced hardness and increased crispness, with MP-RW resulting in the highest sensory crispness score (8.3). In vitro digestion demonstrated that the (VI) treatment resulted in the highest degree of collagen bioaccessibility (~90%), underscoring the effectiveness of this method in improving nutrient delivery compared with the 65% MP, ~70% US, and ~74% methods. The ~90% bioaccessibility is particularly noteworthy, as it indicates that a significant portion of the impregnated collagen remains available for absorption, reinforcing the potential of VI as a strategy for developing functional foods with enhanced nutritional benefits.

Drying is a widely used technique for food preservation and is continuously advancing to enhance efficiency and product quality. This study focused on developing a hybrid system that merges refractance window technology with vacuum drying (VRW). Apple pomace was dried using refractance window (RW) at 65, 75, and 85 degrees C under atmospheric pressure, VRW at the same temperatures, under vacuum pressure of 0.15, 0.25, and 0.45 bar, and using freeze-drying (FD) as a quality standard. The drying time, water activity, moisture content, particle size distribution, total soluble solids, color, polyphenol content, antioxidant activity, and dietary fiber content were measured. These results indicate that VRW reduced the drying time by 25 % compared with that of RW at 0.45 bar. RW and VRW showed similar results for water activity, moisture content, particle size distribution, and total soluble solids. Color analysis showed that overall VRW drying resulted in darkening; however, VRW at 85 degrees C and 0.45 bar achieved a color closer to freeze-drying. The highest polyphenol content was obtained with VRW at 65 degrees C and 0.45 bar, showing values comparable to those of FD, whereas RW yielded lower results. However, both RW and VRW exhibited antioxidant activities comparable to those obtained after FD.

Dietary calcium intake below the recommended levels is widespread worldwide. Therefore, there is an urgent need to identify and implement new sources of this nutrient. Fish bones are rich in calcium and bioactive peptides and can be used as ingredients for the manufacture of functional foods or to improve the technological properties of food. Thus, fish bones may be an interesting alternative to traditional sources of calcium, such as dairy products. This review analyzes the available information on processes related to the derivation of calcium from fish bones, including solubilization of hydroxyapatite, reduction of particle size to nanometer range, and addition of calcium-chelating peptides. These processes are highly relevant for obtaining ingredients with a high calcium content, high availability, and adequate sensory properties when added to foods. Thus, fish bone powder has immense potential as a source of bioavailable calcium for food fortification. In addition to the biological and technological considerations, the use of a usually discarded part of fish as a source of bioactive ingredients not only represents an advantage in terms of contributing to waste reduction in food processing but also provides an economic reward.

The objective of this study was to develop a dried apple snack enriched with probiotics, evaluate its viability using Refractance Window (RWTM) drying, and compare it with conventional hot air drying (CD) and freeze-drying (FD). Apple slices were impregnated with Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus and dried at 45 °C using RWTM and CD and FD. Total polyphenol content (TPC), color (∆E*), texture, and viable cell count were measured, and samples were stored for 28 days at 4 °C. Vacuum impregnation allowed for a probiotic inoculation of 8.53 log CFU/gdb. Retention values of 6.30, 6.67, and 7.20 log CFU/gdb were observed for CD, RWTM, and FD, respectively; the population in CD, RWTM remained while FD showed a decrease of one order of magnitude during storage. Comparing RWTM with FD, ∆E* was not significantly different (p < 0.05) and RWTM presented lower hardness values and higher crispness than FD, but the RWTM-dried apple slices had the highest TPC retention (41.3%). Microstructural analysis showed that RWTM produced a smoother surface, facilitating uniform moisture diffusion and lower mass transfer resistance. The effective moisture diffusion coefficient was higher in RWTM than in CD, resulting in shorter drying times. As a consequence, RWTM produced dried apple snacks enriched with probiotics, with color and TPC retention comparable to FD.

The amount of by-products/waste in the fish industry is roughly 50%. Fish bones could be used to produce nanoparticles, which may have potential use in the food industry as a novel calcium source and at the same time, contribute to reduce waste production. The objective of this study was to evaluate the bioavailability of nano-size salmon fish bone particles compared to micro-size salmon fish bone particles, and calcium carbonate. The study was carried out in 21-28-day-old C57BL/6 male mice fed for 21 days with the experimental diets. The groups were as follows: CaCO3 0.5% Ca (CN 0.5); CaCO3 1.0% Ca (CN 1.0); salmon fish bone (SFB) microparticles 0.5% Ca (MP 0.5); SFB microparticles 1.0% Ca (MP 1.0); SFB nanoparticles 0.5% Ca (NP 0.5); and SFB nanoparticles 1.0% Ca (NP 1.0). Calcium bioavailability, defined as the percent calcium in femur showed an increasing trend from CN 0.5 to NP 1.0 group. According to ANCOVA, the greatest Ca content was observed in the NP 1.0 group compared with all groups but NP 0.5. In conclusion, in a murine model, salmon fish bone nanoparticles present higher calcium bioavailability than salmon fish bone microparticles, and both, in turn, have better bioavailability than calcium carbonate.

In the Chilean population, calcium consumption is deficient. Therefore, several strategies have been implemented to increase calcium intake, such as consuming dairy products and supplements. In this study, an ingredient composed of bone flour (BF) and protein hydrolysate (PH) obtained from salmon frame was used as an innovative source of calcium. The objective was to evaluate the effect of the incorporation of BF and PH in a 1:1 ratio (providing two calcium concentrations to the nuggets, 75 and 125 mg/100 g) on calcium content and sensory attributes of salmon nuggets submitted to baking or shallow frying. Proximal chemical analyses, fatty acid composition, calcium content, and sensory evaluation (acceptability and check-all-that-apply test) were tested in the nuggets. The incorporation of BF/PH (1:1) in both concentrations increased the calcium content of salmon nuggets being higher for the 125 mg/100 g. On the other hand, no negative effects were observed on sensory properties where all samples showed good overall acceptability for baked and fried nuggets. Therefore, the incorporation of BF/PH (1:1) into salmon nuggets enhances the nutritional quality of these products by providing a higher calcium content without significantly affecting their sensory properties.

Freeze-drying (FD) processing preserves foods by combining the most effective traditional technologies. FD conserves the structure, shape, freshness, nutritional/bioactive value, color, and aroma at levels similar to or better than those of refrigerated and frozen foods while delivering the shelf-stable convenience of canned/hot-air-dehydrated foods. The mass transfer rate is the essential factor that can slow down the FD process, resulting in an excessive primary drying time and high energy consumption. The objective of this study was to reduce the FD processing time using CO2 laser technology to improve product competitiveness in the preservation of whole strawberries. The research process consisted of the selection and characterization of fresh strawberries, followed by preparation, pre-treatment, freeze-drying, a primary drying time assessment, and a quality comparison. Experiments were carried out using strawberries without micro-perforation and with five and eight micro-perforations. Quality parameters were determined for fresh, frozen/thawed, and freeze-dried/rehydrated strawberries. It was found that the primary drying time can be significantly reduced by 20% (95% CI) from 26.7 h for non-perforated fruits to 22.3 h when five micro-perforations are made on each strawberry. The quality parameters used to evaluate the strawberries did not show significant differences when comparing frozen/thawed fruits with freeze-dried/rehydrated fruits. The experiments conducted in this study showed that freeze-drying may efficiently compete with freezing technology when processing whole strawberries.

In this study, we present a fractional factorial design approach for exploring the effects and interactions of key synthesis and electrochemical transfer parameters on the roughness and wettability of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) coatings, due to their essential role in biofilm formation. The studied parameters for the synthesis process include precursor mass, growth time, and substrate conditioning, whereas for the transfer process, applied voltage and aqueous medium concentration were studied. Through this polynomial model, we confirmed the strong influence of precursor mass and medium concentration parameters on h-BN surface roughness and its resulting antibiofilm properties.

This research studied the use of CO2 LASER microperforation as a pretreatment for the refractive window (RW) drying of apple slices with respect to total polyphenol content (TPC), antioxidant capacity, color ΔE, and product stability under accelerated storage. For this purpose, the processing variables assessed were pore size (200–600 µm), pore density (9–25 pores/cm2), and drying temperature (70–90 °C). As baseline criteria, a comparison with respect to the control without microperforations and samples subjected to conventional tunnel and lyophilization were also considered. The increase in the pore size from 200 to 600 µm resulted in shorter drying times (≤40 min), minimal change in color (ΔE) and loss of TPC, while DPPH was negatively affected by the combined effect of the pore density and the drying temperature. In general, the use of RW with CO2 resulted in apples of higher quality than those obtained in conventional drying and comparable to those obtained through the use of freeze-drying. Finally, during accelerated storage, quality attributes decreased significantly for samples dried at 90 °C regardless of whether microperforations were used, suggesting that a compromise between drying temperature and pore size must be weighed to reduce processing time and to avoid further quality losses during storage.

The enzymatic hydrolysis of proteins is hindered by product inhibition during batch reactor operation. Thus, withdrawing reaction products has been proposed to increase the reaction efficiency. The sequential batch strategy was evaluated for the hydrolysis of salmon frame proteins by subtilisin to improve the efficiency of the process. After one hydrolysis batch the soluble phase was withdrawn, and the remaining solids were further hydrolyzed in the absence of the inhibition products. The operation of two sequential batches were compared to a one-stage batch operated for 2 h with 13 AU subtilisin per kg of salmon frame at 55 degree celsius. The one-stage batch yielded 27% nitrogen recovery after 2 h of reaction. The sequential batch operation yielded 22% and 24% nitrogen recovery in the first and second batch, respectively, resulting in a total of 46%. The second batch yielded 21% when operated without protease addition, resulting in a total yield of 42%. Different distributions of the operating time and protease dose between the first and second batch were tested. The sequential batch strategy resulted in a higher productivity and lower operating costs for the enzymatic hydrolysis of salmon frame proteins, representing significant progress in byproducts valorization and circular economy.

Moisture transport during food drying can be phenomenologically described by Fick’s second law and by the so-called anomalous diffusion model. However, in the literature, many studies have shown the extensive use of empirical/semiempirical models (EMs/SEMs) to adjust experimental data for the drying of thin-layer foods. This research aims to perform a critical analysis of the most commonly used EMs/SEMs and compare them with Fick’s second law and an anomalous diffusion model using two different sets of hot-air drying data. Two waste byproducts from the food industry, spent coffee grounds and passion fruit peels, were selected for analysis. The selected EMs/SEMs were found to be mathematically interrelated (i.e., some are a subset of others), and their appropriateness was incorrectly justified mainly by their statistical goodness-of-fit. As shown, it is highly recommended that researchers start analyzing drying data with phenomenological models. The extensive use of EMs and SEMs can be replaced by the anomalous diffusion model, which has a high capacity to adjust empirical data and a sound phenomenological description of the process.

Mathematical modeling of furan formation can be a powerful tool for the design and optimization of thermal processes for furan minimization under real operation conditions. This research aimed to develop a simple mathematical model based on the dependence of furan kinetic formation on temperature to estimate the furan concentration using the temperature-time profiles measured at the surface and at the center in thermally processed food using carrots as a model food but also that can be extended to furan prediction in real system. The furan prediction model was developed by coupling kinetic and Arrhenius models and validated by the thermal profiles obtained from retorting jarred carrots at different temperatures. The results showed that the furan concentration fit first-order kinetics (R-2-values > 0.960), showing a dependence on temperature. The furan concentration in the retorted carrot varied between 8.54 +/- 0.33 ng of furan/g of carrot and 19.46 +/- 0.98 ng of furan/g of carrot depending on the process temperature. The furan prediction model compared with the experimentally quantified model presented an error between -6.95% and +11.21%. The simple furan prediction model developed in this study provides an adequate approximation of the furan concentration at the end of the thermal food processing but more importantly, the model could be used by the food processor to predict furan concentration in a real system, and as a tool to optimize the thermal sterilization process to minimize furan concentrations under real operation conditions.

Model Dermatology ( https://modelderm.com ; Build2021) is a publicly testable neural network that can classify 184 skin disorders. We aimed to investigate whether our algorithm can classify clinical images of an Internet community along with tertiary care center datasets. Consecutive images from an Internet skin cancer community (‘RD’ dataset, 1,282 images posted between 25 January 2020 to 30 July 2021; https://reddit.com/r/melanoma ) were analyzed retrospectively, along with hospital datasets (Edinburgh dataset, 1,300 images; SNU dataset, 2,101 images; TeleDerm dataset, 340 consecutive images). The algorithm’s performance was equivalent to that of dermatologists in the curated clinical datasets (Edinburgh and SNU datasets). However, its performance deteriorated in the RD and TeleDerm datasets because of insufficient image quality and the presence of out-of-distribution disorders, respectively. For the RD dataset, the algorithm’s Top-1/3 accuracy (39.2%/67.2%) and AUC (0.800) were equivalent to that of general physicians (36.8%/52.9%). It was more accurate than that of the laypersons using random Internet searches (19.2%/24.4%). The Top-1/3 accuracy was affected by inadequate image quality (adequate = 43.2%/71.3% versus inadequate = 32.9%/60.8%), whereas participant performance did not deteriorate (adequate = 35.8%/52.7% vs. inadequate = 38.4%/53.3%). In this report, the algorithm performance was significantly affected by the change of the intended settings, which implies that AI algorithms at dermatologist-level, in-distribution setting, may not be able to show the same level of performance in with out-of-distribution settings.

In this chapter, material balance and its importance in the field of food science/engineering have been discussed. To do this, first, material balance is explained in detail using mass, i.e., mass flows and not volumetric flows. It must be remembered that masses are additive, but volumes are not always additive. Then, we provide a brief explanation of what is a process and state that the chapter focuses on continuous material balance problems under steady-state conditions. The core of the chapter details a proposed strategy to solve simple and complex material balance problems. We developed a five-step procedure, which is explained and then applied in examples. The chapter concludes with 3 solved problems and then proposes 24 problems, each one with the corresponding answer.

Osmotic dehydration (OD) typically requires a long processing time, so the incorporation of CO2-laser microperforations could reduce it. The aims of this study were 1) to explore the potential acceleration of the OD process coupled with CO2-laser microperforations and 2) to mathematically evaluate the diffusion process through a complementary error function (erfc). Apple slices pretreated with two micropore sizes and two configurations were immersed in a solution of 45. Brix at 40 degrees C for 10 h. The total solid content in the apple slices was measured. A model based on erfc was used to determine the effective diffusion coefficient (D-eff). The results showed a significant increase in D-eff for microperforated samples, especially for those with the largest pores compared with control (R-2 > 0.92). Additionally, pores were able to reduce the processing time by up to 63% for big pores (600 mu m) and between 22% and 45% for small pores (23 mu m).

Chicken meat marination has become a fundamental process in the poultry industry since it provides a product with better sensory attributes. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of CO2 laser microperforation coupled with vacuum impregnation treatment on the marination processing time of chicken breasts and to mathematically analyze the marinade diffusion process using Fick's second law and an anomalous diffusion model. Cylindrical cuts of unmarinated chicken meat were CO2-laser microperforated with pores of 228 mu m and marinated under vacuum pressure (15 kPa) with NaCl (3% wt/wt) and sodium tripolyphosphate (1% wt/wt) during 60 hr at 6 degrees C. The chicken:brine ratio was 1:11 wt/wt. Mass gain, moisture content, and salt concentration were determined over time; furthermore, effective diffusion coefficient (D-eff) was obtained using Fick's second law and anomalous diffusion models. Marinade diffusion into chicken cuts was favored by microperforation combined with vacuum pulses, reduction processing time in 34%. The D-eff ranged between 1.46 x 10(-10) and 2.08 x 10(-10)m(2)/s for Fick's second law and between 2.27 x 10(-10) and 4.23 x 10(-10)m(2)/s(alpha) for anomalous diffusion model, with alpha-values close to 1. In conclusion, the results showed no significant difference between the models, which was attributed to the homogeneity of the chicken tissue. Practical Applications Chicken meat marination has become a fundamental process in the poultry industry since it provides a product with better sensory attributes and shelf life than unmarinated chicken meat. Nevertheless, marination is a process that requires a long processing time to obtain a specified salt content in the meat. In this sense, laser microperforation of the meat is a treatment that when coupled with vacuum impregnation, can accelerate the marinating process of poultry meat. When simultaneously applying both technologies, the processing time was reduced by 6 hr compared with the control (almost 34%), which will allow a significant increase in plant productivity.

The rehydration process has been traditionally modeled by Fick's second law; however, due to the poor goodness of fit, empirical models such as Peleg's and Weibull models have been implemented. The aim of this work was to demonstrate that the anomalous diffusion model based on fractional calculus can be used to model rehydration process and simultaneously provide a phenomenological understanding of the process. The food matrices assessed were aloe vera, apple, Chilean papaya, and bell peppers rehydrated at 20, 40, and 60 degrees C. The results showed that the anomalous diffusion model was not only able to improve the goodness of fit of rehydration data (R-2 >.99), but also that D-eff can be used under different temperatures given the goodness of fit of the Arrhenius model (R-2 >.88) compared with empirical and Fick's models. Finally, an anomalous diffusion model based on fractional calculus can be successfully used to model the rehydration process in food materials. Practical Applications The novelty of this research is based on the implementation of the anomalous diffusion model that has the simplicity and accuracy of empirical models (e.g., Peleg's model) but with the advantage of a physical interpretation and predictive capacity. Furthermore, although the anomalous model has already been successfully tested in the dehydration process, this is the first time that it has been validated in a rehydration process. Due to the predictive capacity of the anomalous under different operation conditions, the food industry not only could estimate processing time with high accuracy, but also optimize the rehydration process.

The interaction of biofilms with metallic surfaces produces two biologically induced degradation processes of materials: microbial induced corrosion and bioleaching. Both phenomena affect most metallic materials, but in the case of noble metals such as gold, which is inert to corrosion, metallophilic bacteria can cause its direct or in direct dissolution. When this process is controlled, it can be used for hydrometallurgical applications, such as the recovery of precious metals from electronic waste. However, the presence of unwanted bioleaching-producing bacteria can be detrimental to metallic materials in specific environments. In this work, we propose the use of single-layer graphene as a protective coating to reduce Au bioleaching by Cupriavidus metallidurans, a strain adapted to metal contaminated environments and capable of dissolving Au. By means of Scanning Tunneling Microscopy, we demonstrate that graphene coatings are an effective barrier to prevent the complex interactions responsible for Au dissolution. This behavior can be understood in terms of graphene pore size, which creates an impermeable barrier that prevents the pass of Au-complexing ligands produced by C.metallidurans through graphene coating. In addition, changes in surface energy and electrostatic interaction are presumably reducing bacterial adhesion to graphene-coated Au surfaces. Our findings provide a novel approach to reduce the deterioration of metallic materials in devices in environments where biofilms have been found to cause unwanted bioleaching.