Background Fresh-cut fruits and vegetables have gained much more attention worldwide in the past decades. Due to the increased awareness of consumers in sensorial and nutritional qualities of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables, as well as the serious concerns towards public health caused by foodborne outbreaks owing to inappropriate handling or preservation of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables, fresh-cut industry is in urgent need of new and improved technologies for shelf life extension.

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This study suggests that RF heating for pasteurization of edible mushrooms has promising prospects. Evaluation of RF heating on the taste and nutritional characteristics of edible mushrooms is needed in future work. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.

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Radio frequency (RF) was applied to heat Cordyceps militaris for the purpose of quality evaluation and microorganism control. RF heating caused gradual temperature increases ranging from 59.6 to 63.8°C, resulting in good heating uniformity and uniform temperature distribution. Compared with conventional high pressure steam (HPS), RF heating resulted in significant (p < .05) higher total phenolic, flavonoids, and cordycepin contents of C. militaris. In addition to higher reduction of total aerobic bacteria counts, bitterness taste value increased from 2.35 (unpasteurized) to 4.79 (HPS). Umami value significantly decreased from 13.58 (unpasteurized sample) to 12.13 (HPS treated sample). Nuclear magnetic resonance analysis showed that 20 min of RF significantly reduced the loss of water mobility than HPS. Principal component analysis of taste characteristics indicated distinct differences between RF and HPS treated samples. Hierarchical clustering analysis also revealed higher similarity between RF heated samples and the unpasteurized one. Practical applications Cordyceps militaris is an edible and medicinal mushroom with high nutritional quality. Results of the present study indicate that radio frequency (RF) contributed to higher umami taste, higher retention of bioactive compounds, and higher water mobility of C. militaris. Therefore, this process can be used to develop a promising alternative to conventional thermal method for the processing of C. militaris. It is highly possible that RF could be applied to healthy food industries.

Background Dark spots may affect the appearance of fresh noodles during storage, even when made from flour with low ash content. The effect of flour bran content on the degree of dark spot formation in fresh wet noodle sheets (FWNS) is investigated to explain this phenomenon. Results Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) observation revealed that the wheat bran particles were responsible for the formation of dark spots on FWNS, with each bran particle core generating a single dark spot. In wheat flours with low ash content, the number of wheat bran particles causing dark spot formation on FWNS was limited, and these particles were not visible to the naked eye until their size exceeded approximately 50 μm. Tropolone, a polyphenol oxidase inhibitor (PubChem CID: 24900578) and dry heating treatment, which inactivates polyphenol oxidase, was found to inhibit or reduce the formation of dark spots. Conclusion Based on these findings, it can be concluded that bran particles, rich in polyphenol oxidase, play a key role in dark spot formation. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.