 Natural textile fibres dominate freshwater and atmospheric fibre populations  Environmental concentrations, of textile fibres vary greatly through time and space  Upstream textile fibre concentrations can exceed that of the Marne River in Paris  Atmospheric deposition is a potential source of textile fibres in remote locations  Atmospheric deposition of textile fibres is not correlated to precipitation

The potential of blackcurrant pomace as a raw material for the extraction of dietary fibre was evaluated using two pomaces one sourced from the UK and one from Poland.A fractionation protocol was designed to isolate and subsequently quantify the soluble and insoluble dietary fibre fractions. Blackcurrant pomace and isolated pectins, hemicelluloses and celluloses were assessed by means of sugar compositional analysis, spectroscopy, size exclusion chromatography and dilute solution viscometry. The blackcurrant pomaces presented considerable amounts of dietary fibre with soluble fibre ranging from 25-30% w/w and insoluble dietary fibre accounting for about 47% w/w for both pomaces. Blackcurrant pomaces differed in the amount of extracted pectins with an almost two times higher pectin yield obtained from blackcurrant pomace sourced from Poland. The hemicellulosic polysaccharide content was 15% w/w whereas the amount of cellulosic fraction varied from 14-17% w/w. Pectins isolated from both blackcurrant pomaces were LM pectins with a degree of esterification in the range of 11-38%. The work has identified that dietary fibres obtained from blackcurrant pomace had desirable ratio of insoluble to soluble fibre and are a potential new source of dietary fibre.

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The incorporation of probiotics and bioactive compounds, via plasticised thin-layered hydrocolloids, within food products has recently shown potential to functionalise and improve the health credentials of processed food. In this study, choice of polymer and the inclusion of whey protein isolate was evaluated for their ability to stabalise live probiotic organisms. Edible films based on low (LSA) and high (HSA) viscosity sodium alginate, low esterified amidated pectin (PEC), kappa-carrageenan/locust bean gum (κ-CAR/LBG) and gelatine (GEL) in the presence or absence of whey protein concentrate (WPC) were shown to be feasible carriers for the delivery of L. rhamnosus GG. Losses of L. rhamnosus GG throughout the drying process ranged from 0.87 to 3.06 log CFU/g for the systems without WPC, losses were significantly reduced to 0 to 1.17 log CFU/g in the presence of WPC. Storage stability (over 25d) of L. rhamnosus GG at both tested temperatures (4 and 25 °C), in descending order, was κ-CAR/LBG > HSA > GEL > LSA = PEC. In addition, supplementation of film forming agents with WPC led to a 1.8- to 6.5-fold increase in shelf-life at 4 °C (calculated on the WHO/FAO minimum requirements of 6 logCFU/g), and 1.6–4.3-fold increase at 25 °C. Furthermore probiotic films based on HSA/WPC and κ-CAR/LBG/WPC blends had both acceptable mechanical and barrier properties.

A comprehensive study of the isothermal crystallization kinetics of tripalmitin-tristearin mixtures was carried out using DSC, with data fitted to the Avrami equation. Polymorphs were identified by subsequent melting of samples in the differential scanning calorimeter, with additional confirmatory information obtained from wide-angle X-ray diffraction. It was found that α-, β′-, and β-forms require small (<1.0°C), moderate (3.5-8.5°C), and large (9.0-13.0°C) amounts of subcooling below their respective polymorph melting temperatures for nucleation to occur. Concurrent crystallization of β and β′ polymorphs was not observed. The β polymorphs exhibited sharper heat flow exotherms than β′, due to the higher crystallization driving forces experienced. Analysis of apparent induction times shows that the activation free energy of nucleation for the β-form is significantly higher than for the β′-form. Samples rich in either species crystallized faster (both shorter apparent induction times and sharper peaks) than samples with equivalent compositions. Driving-force arguments do not fully explain this behavior, strongly suggesting that mass transfer resistances (greatest for equivalent compositions) have a significant effect on kinetics. Multiple crystallization events were observed for 50-80% tristearin samples between 56 and 60°C and were attributed to a demixing of tripalmitin-rich and tristearin-rich β phases, in line with established phase diagrams.The phase behavior and crystallization kinetics of TG have been extensively studied (1), and these studies have generally concentrated on either single TG or natural fats. Natural fats are complex multicomponent mixtures of TG and other minor components, and their crystallization behavior is poorly understood in comparison with well-defined systems of pure TG. A better understanding is required. One approach to the behavior of real fats is to build up an understanding of the interactions between individual TG components. A number of workers have studied the equilibrium phase behavior of mixed TG, and this has resulted in the publication of phase diagrams for a number of binary and ternary systems (2,3). Much rarer, however, are studies where the crystallization kinetics of mixed systems are examined (4,5). This paper seeks to study such behavior in tripalmitin-tristearin binary mixtures.The polymorphic and phase behavior as well as the crystallization kinetics of pure tripalmitin and tristearin has been reported previously in the literature (6-10). However, relatively few studies have been performed on blends of tripalmitin and tristearin, although a phase diagram is well established (11-13). In this work, the isothermal crystallization and subsequent melting of tripalmitin-tristearin mixtures covering the whole composition range were studied using DSC. This technique is able to provide accurate and reproducible kinetic data and also yields information on the identity of the resulting polymorphs by a subsequent melting of the crystallized material, which can be compared wi...

Plastic pollution represents one of the most salient indicators of society's impact on the environment. The microplastic component of this is ubiquitous, however, microplastic studies are seldom representative of the locations they sample. Over 12 months we explored spatiotemporal variation in microplastic prevalence across a freshwater system and in atmospheric deposition within its catchment, in one of the most temporally comprehensive studies of microplastic pollution. Microplastics were quantified in low concentrations (max 0.4 particles L -1 ) at all freshwater sites, including upstream of urban areas, and on rivers that do not receive wastewater treatment plant effluent. Extrapolated microplastic abundances at each site varied by up to 8 orders of magnitude over the course of the sampling campaign, suggesting that microplastic surveys that do not account for temporal variability misrepresent microplastic prevalence. Whilst we do not wish to underplay the potential impacts of microplastic particles in the environment, we argue that microplastic pollution needs to be placed in a more critical context, including assessment of temporal variability, to appropriately inform legislators and consumers. CapsuleThe main findings of this research are the extent to which freshwater microplastic concentrations are shown to vary with time, and the influence of this on flux calculations.

Probiotic incorporation in edible films and coatings has been shown recently to be an efficient strategy for the delivery of probiotics in foods. In the present work, the impact of the compositional, physicochemical and structural properties of binary starch-protein edible films on Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG viability and stability was evaluated. Native rice and corn starch, as well as bovine skin gelatine, sodium caseinate and soy protein concentrate were used for the fabrication of the probiotic edible films. Starch and protein type both impacted the structural, mechanical, optical and thermal properties of the films, and the process loss of L. rhamnosus GG during evaporation-dehydration was significantly lower in the presence of proteins (0.91–1.07 log CFU/g) compared to solely starch based systems (1.71 log CFU/g). A synergistic action between rice starch and proteins was detected when monitoring the viability of L. rhamnosus GG over four weeks at fridge and room temperature conditions. In particular, a 3- to 7-fold increase in the viability of L. rhamnosus GG was observed in the presence of proteins, with sodium caseinate – rice starch based films offering the most enhanced stability. The film's shelf-life (as calculated using the FAO/WHO (2011) basis of 6 log viable CFU/g) ranged between 27-96 and 15–24 days for systems stored at fridge or room temperature conditions respectively.

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