Ozonated water is reported to be effective in reducing the microbial load in foods such as fruits, vegetables, and grains. Ozonated water may be an effective alternative to chlorinated water in treating durum wheat before milling. Therefore, durum wheat was washed with ozonated water and analyzed for yeast and mold count (YMC) and aerobic plate count (APC). A system for producing and monitoring ozonated water was developed. The effect of water quality (tap, distilled, and ultra-pure), temperature (7, 15, and 25 degrees C), and pH (2, 4, and 6.5) was evaluated on the following: steady-state dissolved ozone concentration, ozone decay constant, half-life, mass transfer coefficient, equilibrium ozone concentration, and solubility ratio. The study of these parameters was important to attain a stable, high dissolved ozone concentration at the outset of washing and to have information for system improvement and scale-up. A 1% acetic acid solution (pH 2) at 15 degrees C resulted in high dissolved ozone concentration (21.8 mg/L) and long half-life (9.2 min). Subsequently, wheat was washed with 5 wash water types: distilled water, ozonated water (16.5 mg/L), chlorinated water (700 mg/L), acetic acid solution (1%), and acetic acid + ozonated water (1%, 20.5 mg/L). The treated samples were analyzed for YMC and APC. The acetic acid + ozonated water treatment was the most effective, with a reduction of 4.1 and 3.2 log(10) colony forming units/g in YMC and APC, respectively. Though ozonated water was not very effective alone, it was useful in combination with acetic acid.

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Durum wheat grain from the field is naturally contaminated with bacteria, yeast, and mold. The reduction in aerobic plate count (APC) and yeast and mold count (YMC) is often necessary before processing wheat. Gaseous ozone, ozonated water, and acetic acid solution are nontraditional antimicrobial agents for grains and are safe for humans and the environment. Better disinfection may be possible by applying antimicrobial agents to grain in a fluidized state. Fluidization increases the exposure of grain surfaces, resulting in uniform and quick contact of grain with antimicrobial agents. Therefore, a fluidized bed was developed with automated spraying system (to spray treatment waters), and a port for gaseous ozone injection. The pressures and velocities within the fluidized bed system were measured to characterize the system. The treatments used on fluidized grain were: distilled water (control), gaseous ozone (6 ppm), ozonated water (23 mg/L), gaseous ozone + ozonated water (6 ppm, 23 mg/L), acetic acid solution (0.5%), acetic acid + ozonated water (0.5%, 26 mg/L), and gaseous ozone + acetic acid + ozonated water (6 ppm, 0.5%, 26 mg/L). The last of these treatments was most effective with 1.7 and 3.3 log reduction in APC and YMC, respectively. This combined treatment can be used to replace the chlorinated water that industry uses during tempering of grain. Ozonated water alone resulted in a 0.3 log reduction in both APC and YMC. Gaseous ozone alone did not cause a significant reduction in APC and YMC.

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The study was conducted to formulate cookies with and without partial replacement of wheat flour (W) with sweet potato (SP) and quinoa flour (Q) blends. Sweet potato flour and quinoa flour were blended in equal proportion and then incorporated at the levels of 20, 40 and 60% by replacing wheat flour to prepare cookies. The cookies formulations were: CI(Control, 100W), CII (80W+10Q+10SP), CIII (60W+20Q+20SP) and CIV (40W+30Q+30SP).The three flour types and the prepared cookies were accessed for their nutritional properties. The prepared cookies were also evaluated for their physical parameters and sensory characteristics. The nutritional profile of cookies increased with increased level of addition of sweet potato and quinoa flour. The protein, fat, fibre and ash content of cookies prepared with 60% replacement of wheat flour with sweet potato and quinoa flour blend were found to be29.3, 71.6, 51.8 and 108.3% respectively, higher than those of control cookies. The spread ratio and the thickness of cookies decreased with the addition of blended flour of sweet potato and quinoa. All the cookies were found acceptable on the hedonic scale in terms of appearance, colour, texture, flavour, taste and overall acceptability. The CII cookies were most preferred by the sensory panel with overall acceptability score of 7.8, only next to control cookies (CI) with a score of 8.

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The present study was undertaken to correlate surface electromyography variables acquired during chewing of different Indian sweets with the instrumental texture parameters and their sensory attributes. Firstly, a comparison of acquired absolute EMG variables with the relative EMG variables was conducted. The results revealed that the relative EMG mastication parameters can effectively distinguish different textured food products by eliminating the subject variance. Then, the two different recordings of masticatory parameters in an EMG session for human subjects were correlated to investigate the reproducibility of chewing patterns. The correlation coefficients were found to be statistically significant (p less than 0.05) indicating highly reproducible chewing behaviour within a session for human subjects. Finally, acquired surface EMG variables were clustered into six representative variables using dendrograms. The principal component analysis conducted for these representative variables could explain 76% of cumulative proportion of variance. The scores of first principal component correlated significantly with instrumental and sensory hardness and sensory stickiness, while scores of second component correlated with sensory stickiness.