No abstract

This study showed that nanoencapsulation by electrospinning is an effective way to stabilize carotenoids, which is promising for their use in food processing. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.

Electrospinning of zein from its solution with a non-toxic solvent is not easy. It certainly requires understanding the effects of critical parameters during electrospinning. In this paper, the first aim was to understand how the morphology and diameters of fibers produced from zein solutions were affected by solvent type used in solution and process parameters (flow-rate, voltage, and distance) by using Taguchi's orthogonal design. For this purpose, the optimum levels of factors were determined as follows: 12 kV of voltage, 15 µL/min of flow rate, 10 cm of distance, and acetic acid as solvent in order to obtain the thinnest, bead-free nanofiber. Secondly, this combination was further validated by conducting a confirmatory experiment using five different zein concentrations to study the effect of concentration. The mean diameters of fibers with 24 % zein concentrations were found as similar to the optimum conditions estimated, proving the applicability of Taguchi's method for electrospinning optimization.

No abstract

Several active components naturally available in plants are strongly considered as good antioxidants to retard the lipid oxidation. Response surface methodology was used to investigate the effects of frying temperature (150-180°C) and concentration of four plant-based active components (60-350 mg/kg oil); curcumin, cinnamaldehyde, thymol and carvacrol on oxidative stability of corn and palm oils. According to induction time values, the stability of oils drastically decreased with increasing temperature. Curcumin and cinnamaldehyde showed no significant effect (p>0.05) on both oils. Carvacrol significantly increased induction times of corn and palm oils, but thymol was effective in palm oil only (p<0.05). An actual frying experiment was carried out with only corn oil to confirm efficiency of carvacrol. The free fatty acid (%), peroxide value (meq/kg), para-anisidine, and total polar component values (%) of the fresh oil were 0.080, 2.55, 2.85, and 7.5, respectively. These values changed to 0.144, 1.47, 12.01, 10.0, respectively for the control oil; 0.138, 2.27, 11.49, 10.0 for BHT-added oil; 0.132, 1.42, 5.66, 9.5 for carvacrol-added oil after 30 frying cycles. Therefore, carvacrol could be considered as a good alternative to BHT for preservation of oils at frying temperatures.

No abstract

This study aimed the encapsulation of tomato peel extract (TPE) into zein and gelatin fibers via electrospinning to investigate their effect on the physicochemical and antioxidant properties of yogurt during storage at 4°C. The yogurt samples enriched with TPE had closer characteristics to control sample in terms of acidity, pH, syneresis, and viscosity parameters. The incorporation of TPE‐loaded fibers resulted in increasing of free radical scavenging activity of yogurt by 40%–60%. The yogurts enriched with TPE‐loaded fibers were redder, darker, and more yellow than control yogurt. Practical applications This study shows that the TPE‐loaded zein and gelatin fibers can serve as a functional additive in yoghurt, especially for improving its antioxidant and color properties. Therefore, it has the potential to fill the blank in the related literature and can provide a basis for further studies and it will be contributed to the utilization of nanofibers in food science and technology, particularly for encapsulation to protect and controlled release of active components. It will also contribute to the production of water‐soluble carotenoids by nanoencapsulation via electrospinning and use them in an aqueous food matrix. However, future toxicological studies are required to establish the potential adverse effects of nanotechnology on human health.