Location: Healthy Processed Foods Research
2017 Annual Report
Objectives
The goal of this research is to continue the investigation, development and commercialization of several new infrared (IR) and ultraviolet (UV) based processing technologies including infrared drying, dry blanching, sequential infrared (IR) dry-blanching/dehydration and hot air-drying (SIRDBHAD), and
combined IR and UV disinfection, and IR dry-peeling of specialty crops. Further goals of this research are to use new process technologies including microwave, solar thermal, vacuum forming, casting, extrusion, pasteurization, and homogenization, alone or in combination, to add value to specialty crops. Specific objectives are listed below:
Objective 1: Enable new, efficient and sustainable commercial infrared and ultraviolet based methods for processing specialty crops to improve food quality, value and safety.
Sub-objective 1.1 Investigate and commercially demonstrate an energy efficient drying technology for producing high quality nuts.
Sub-objective 1.2 Investigate, demonstrate, and commercialize a novel IR technology for producing healthy crispy snacks.
Sub-objective 1.3 Develop IR heating and ultraviolet (UV) technology for improved drying efficiency and safety of nuts.
Sub-objective 1.4 Develop sustainable IR peeling technologies for fruits and vegetables.
Objective 2: Enable economical, input-efficient and sustainable commercial microwave and solar thermal methods for processing specialty crops while improving product quality and value.
Sub-objective 2.1. Develop microwave systems for drying and extracting high-value compounds from specialty crops and their co-products.
Sub-objective 2.2 Develop a medium-scale solar thermal cabinet dryer with the capability to operate 24 hours a day during specialty crop harvest periods.
Sub-objective 2.3 Develop solar thermal alternatives for heat-intensive specialty crop processing unit operations beyond cabinet drying.
Objective 3: Enable novel, value-added commercial forming, casting and extrusion methods for processing fruits, vegetables and legumes with improved food safety and nutrition.
Sub-objective 3.1 Develop vacuum forming technologies that can be implemented to increase utilization and consumption of specialty crops and their co-products in a variety of nutritious and value-added forms.
Sub-objective 3.2 Apply the tools of nanoscience to the casting of edible films to improve safety, extend shelf-life and improve quality.
Sub-objective 3.3 Develop healthy and sensory enhanced, ready-to-eat extruded healthy foods from legumes, specialty crops, cereals, fruits and vegetables and their fractions.
Objective 4: Enable new, commercial methods of pasteurizing legumes and specialty crop-based beverages and yogurts, for improved flavor, bioactives and shelf life.
Approach
The research and development of new processing technologies can add value to
specialty crops through the development of new foods containing up to 100%
specialty crop based ingredients with enhanced healthfulness, convenience, and overall consumer appeal. Increased consumption of nutritious fruit, vegetable, nut, and legume based foods will improve the American diet and reduce the prevalence of obesity in our nation. This research will also improve profitability for U.S. growers and processors by increasing demand for specialty crops and by developing new value added products with high potential for export. Development of sustainable processing technologies which result in energy and water savings is another benefit of this research. Food safety will also be improved. Infrared, ultraviolet, microwave, solar thermal, forming, casting, extrusion, pasteurization and high pressure homogenization processing technologies will be explored, alone and in combination, to form novel value added food systems. Ultimately, effects of processing on final product properties will be characterized and processing methodologies optimized to maximize final product quality, safety, nutritional value, and sensory properties. An extensive network of collaborators from universities, research institutes in other countries, commodity organizations, medical research labs and the food industry, as well as sizable grants from Federal and State agencies and industry groups, will be used to support and insure a high degree of impact resulting from the research proposed in this project plan. Scientific impact will ultimately be achieved through scientific publications, patents, new mathematical models and transference of these technologies into commercialization.
Progress Report
We made significant progress on all aspects of Objective 1. We completed the commercialization project of the infrared drying technology for walnuts. With financial support from California Energy Commission and University of California, Davis (“Demonstration and Commercial Implementation of Energy Efficient Drying for Walnuts”), the infrared drying system was built, installed, tested, and optimized. The product quality was also investigated and compared with the product from the traditional hot air drying method. The drying system has a capacity of 10-15 tons per hour and achieved goals of the project. Meanwhile, the commercial-scale sequential infrared dry-blanching and hot air drying system was built, installed and optimized with the financial support of a commercial partner and the California Energy Commission (2030-41000-064-09R, “Commercial Demonstration of Innovative Energy Efficient Infrared Processing of Healthy Fruit and Vegetable Snacks”). Various fruit and vegetable based crispy healthy snacks were produced. The performance of the system has been quantified. For infrared peeling, it was found that adding flame heating before infrared heating can significantly reduce the overall heating time needed for peeling tomato, which further improved the throughput of the process compared to infrared heating alone. The effectiveness of infrared heating on reducing drying time of pistachios and improving food safety was studied. The results showed the infrared heating technology has great potential for drying and improving food safety of pistachios.
This year, we made significant progress on our solar thermal food processing research. Under a grant from the California Department of Food and Agriculture, we developed and constructed a pilot-scale novel solar thermal drum dryer; we demonstrated this dryer’s capability to dry fruit and vegetable purees and pomaces using 100% thermal energy derived from sunlight.
Research on applications of nanoscience to edible films continued and research on blow spun nanofibers under a USDA, National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) grant (2030-41000-064-04I, “Blow Spinning of Agricultural-Based Nanofibers for Value-Added Agricultural Applications”) has been completed. In addition, progress was made on adding value to mushroom waste through a Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund grant (2030-41000-064-07R, “Waste to Worth: Active Antimicrobial and Health-Beneficial Food Coating from Byproducts of Mushroom Industry”). Finally research on legume-based snacks and beverages progressed. Effects of particle size on flavor and functionality of legume-based flours were studied.
Accomplishments
1. Commercialization of novel infrared drying process for fruit and vegetable snacks. Food processing is an important industry worth $50 billion annually and is the third largest industrial energy user in California. The sequential infrared dry-blanching and hot air drying (SIRDBHAD) technology developed by researchers in Albany, California was licensed by a private company. Crispy, healthy fruit and vegetable snacks were produced at a commercial scale through the support of the California Energy Commission. The project commercially demonstrated the SIRDBHAD technology for the production of healthy crispy snacks from vegetables and fruits, including carrots, kales, bell peppers, squashes, pears and apples. This demonstration showed the benefits and viability of the new technology on a commercial scale, both in energy savings and reduction in environmental pollution, while at the same time producing new healthy snacks with desirable texture and flavor at an affordable cost. These snacks will improve human health while saving energy and water.
2. Fruit and vegetable materials quick-dried using 100% solar-derived heat. Sun drying is an ancient and widespread food preservation technique, but the process takes several days and can result in quality loss. ARS researchers in Albany, California - along with collaborators at the University of California, Merced – have brought sun drying into the 21st Century by constructing and demonstrating a solar thermal drum dryer that can dry pumpable fruit and vegetable materials (purees and certain co-products) in four minutes or less. The dryer derives 100% of its thermal energy from sunlight; the sunlight is concentrated on a heat-transfer fluid that is pumped through the interior of the drum dryer, whose surface temperature can reach up to 132 degrees Celsius. The dryer is a technology that allows fruit and vegetable processors to quickly dry and stabilize their fluid products for use after the busy harvest season when these materials are being generated, using 100% renewable energy for the thermal component of the process. The researchers determined the optimal solar thermal drum drying conditions for preserving the quality of carrot pomace, prune pomace, tomato pomace, and strawberry puree, and they predict that other pumpable fruit/vegetable materials would be good candidates for drying using this technology.
3. Nutritionally enhanced extruded snacks. The global snack market will be worth more than $400 billion by 2018. ARS researchers in Albany, California, developed novel extruded snack products from legume and special brewer’s yeast autolysate extract sources with unique nutraceutical properties. These snacks were shown to reduce cholesterol, glycemic levels, and obesity in animal models. These new healthy snack products open up tremendous marketing opportunities that cross over between snack foods, breakfast-type bars and nutraceuticals. They also present a way to reduce the $950 billion in annual healthcare expenditures for diet-related health conditions for Americans and increase demand for legumes, benefiting U.S. growers and processors.
Review Publications
Yin, Z., Venkitasmy, C., Pan, Z., Wang, X., Liu, W. 2017. Novel umami ingredients: umami peptides and their taste. Journal of Food Science. 82:16–23. doi:10.1111/1750-3841.13576.
Friedman, M. 2016. Mushroom polysaccharides: chemistry and antiobesity, antidiabetes, anticancer, and antibiotic properties in cells, rodents, and humans. Foods. 5(4):80. doi:10.3390/foods5040080.
Shao, D., Wang, Y., Huang, Q., Shi, J., Yang, H., Pan, Z., Zhao, H., Xu, X. 2016. Cholesterol-lowering effects and mechanisms in view of bile acid pathway of resveratrol and resveratrol-glucuronides. Journal of Food Science. 81:H2841-H2848. doi:10.1111/1750-3841.13528.
Liu, F., Chiou, B., Avena Bustillos, R.D., Zhang, Y., Li, Y., McHugh, T.H., Zhong, F. 2016. Study of combined effects of glycerol and transglutaminase on properties of gelatin films. Food Hydrocolloids. 65:1-9. doi:10/1016/j.foodhyd.2016.10.004.
Venkitasamy, C., Brandl, M., Wang, B., McHugh, T.H., Pan, Z. 2017. Drying and decontamination of pistachios with sequential infrared drying, tempering and hot air drying. International Journal of Food Microbiology. 246:85-91. doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2017.02.005.
Pan, Z., Hamed, M. 2016. Application of induction heating in food processing and cooking: A Review. Food Engineering Reviews. 9(2):82-90. doi:10.1007/s12393-016-9156-0.
Zhang, Y., Wei, X., Lu, Z., Pan, Z., Gou, X., Venkitasamy, C. 2017. Optimization of culturing conditions of recombined Escherichia coli to produce umami octopeptide-containing protein. Journal of Food Chemistry. 227:78–84. doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2017.01.096.
Wang, T., Khir, R., Pan, Z., Yuan, Q. 2016. Simultaneous rough rice drying and rice bran stabilization using infrared radiation heating. LWT - Food Science and Technology. 78:281-288. doi:10.1016/j.lwt.2016.12.041.
Nam, W., Kim, S., Nam, S., Friedman, M. 2017. Antioxidative and anti-inflammatory activities of the natural food colorant purpurin and related anthraquinones in chemical and cell assays. Molecules. 22(2):265. doi:10.3390/molecules22020265.
Joshi, K., Parks, P., Friedman, M., Ravishankar, S. 2016. The impact of plant-based antimicrobials on sensory properties of organic leafy greens. Food and Nutrition Sciences. 7(10):906-919. doi:10.4236/fns.2016.710090.
Choi, S., Kozukue, N., Kim, H., Friedman, M. 2016. Analysis of protein amino acids, non-protein amino acids and metabolites, dietary protein, glucose, fructose, sucrose, phenolic, and flavonoid content and antioxidative properties of potato tubers, peels, and cortexes (pulps). Journal of Food Composition and Analysis. 50(1):77-87. doi:10.1016/j.jfca.2016.05.011.
Liu, F., Avena-Bustillos, R.D., Chiou, B., Li, Y., Ma, Y., Williams, T.G., Wood, D.F., McHugh, T.H., Zhong, F. 2016. Controlled-release of tea polyphenol from gelatin films incorporated with different ratios of free/nanoencapsulated tea polyphenols into fatty food simulants. Food Hydrocolloids Journal. 62:212-221. doi:10.1016/j.foodhyd.2016.08.004.
Bilbao-Sainz, C., Chiou, B., Williams, T.G., Wood, D.F., Du, W., Sedej, I., Ban, Z., Rodov, V., Poverenov, E., Vinokur, Y., McHugh, T.H. 2017. Vitamin D-fortified chitosan films from mushroom waste. Carbohydrate Polymers. 167(2017):97-104. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2017.03.010.
Wang, X., Atungulu, G.G., Gebreil, R., Gao, Z., Pan, Z., Wilson, S.A., Olatunde, G., Slaughter, D. 2016. Sorting in-shell walnuts using near infrared spectroscopy for improved drying efficiency and product quality. International Agricultural Engineering Journal. 26(1):165-172.
Wang, B., Zhang, Y., Venkitasamy, C., Wu, B., Pan, Z., Ma, H. 2017. Effect of pulsed light on activity and structural changes of horseradish peroxidase. Journal of Food Chemistry. 234:20-25. doi: 10.1016/jfoodchem.2017.04.149.
Choi, S., Kozukue, N., Friedman, M. 2016. Composition and antioxidative and cancer cell inhibiting activities of Jujube fruits and seeds (Ziziphus jujuba) cultivated in Korea. In: Liu, D., Ye, X., Jiang, Y., editors. Chinese Dates: A Traditional Functional Food. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group. p. 99-114.
Morales, P., Barros, L., Dias, M.I., Santos-Buelga, C., Ferreira, I.C., Ramirez Asquieri, E., Berrios, J.D. 2016. Non-fermented and fermented Jabuticaba (Myrciaria cauliflora Mart.) pomaces of as valuable sources of functional ingredients. Journal of Food Chemistry. 208:220-227. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2016.04.011.
Do Evangelho, J.A., Berrios, J.D., Pinto, V.Z., Dias-Atunes, M., Levien-Vanier, N., Zavareze, E. 2016. Antioxidant activity of black bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) protein hydrolysates. Journal of Food Science and Technology. 36(1):23-27. doi: oi.org/10.1590/1678-457X.0047.
Vanier-Levine, N., Vanadevam, V., Bruni, G.P., Ferreira, C.D., Pinto, V.Z., Da Rosa Zavareze, E., Elias, M.C., Berrios, J.D. 2016. Extrusion of starches from different sources and amylose contents: effect on extrudate structure and molecular changes in amylose and amylopectin. Journal of Food Science. 81(12):E2932-E2938.
Pan, Z., Hamed, M., Li, X., Khir, R., Atungulu, G., Zhao, L., Kuson, P., McHugh, T.H., Zhang, R. 2016. Demonstration tests of infrared peeling system with electrical emitters for tomatoes. Transactions of the ASABE. 59(4):985-994. doi: 10.13031/trans.59.11728.
Young, J.E., Pan, Z., Teh, H., Menon, V., Modereger, B., Pesek, J.H., Matyska, M.T., Dao, L.T., Takeoka, G.R. 2017. Phenolic composition of pomegranate peel extracts using an LC-MS approach with silica hydride columns. Journal of Separation Science. 40(7)1449-1456. doi:10.1002/jssc.201601310.
Chen, J., Duan, W., Ren, X., Wang, C., Pan, Z., Diao, X., Shen, Q. 2016. Effect of foxtail millet protein hydrolysates on lowering blood pressure in spontaneously hypertensive rats. European Journal of Nutrition. 2016:1-10. doi:10.1007/s00394-016-1252-7.
Albertos, I., Martín-Diana, A., Jaime, I., Avena Bustillos, R.D., Mchugh, T.H., Rico, D. 2017. Antioxidant effect of olive leaf powder on fresh Atlantic horse mackerel (Trachurus trachurus) minced muscle. Journal of Food Processing and Preservation. 42:e13397. https://doi.org/10.1111/jfpp.13397.
Daudt, R.M., Sinrod, A., Avena-Bustillos, R.D., I.C., Külkamp-Guerreiro, I., McHugh, T.H. 2017. Development of edible films based on Brazilian pine seed (Araucaria angustifolia) flour reinforced with husk powder. Food Hydrocolloids. 71(2017):60-67. doi: 10.1016/j.foodhyd.2017.04.033.
Liu, F., Avena-Bustillos, R.D., Bilbao-Sainz, C., Woods, R., Chiou, B., Wood, D.F., Williams, T.G., Yokoyama, W.H., Glenn, G.M., McHugh, T.H., Zhong, F. 2017. Solution blow spinning of food-grade gelatin nanofibers. Journal of Food Science. 82(6):1402-1411. doi: 10.1111/1750-3841.13710.
Liu, F., Avena-Bustillos, R.D., Woods, R., Chiou, B., Williams, T.G., Wood, D.F., Bilbao-Sainz, C., Yokoyama, W.H., Glenn, G.M., McHugh, T.H., Zhong, F. 2016. Preparation of zein fibers using solution blow spinning method. Journal of Food Science. 81(12):N3015-N3025. doi: 10.1111/1750-3841.13537.
Friedman, M., Kozukue, N., Kim, H., Choi, S., Mizuno, M. 2017. Glycoalkaloid, phenolic, and flavonoid content and antioxidative activities of conventional nonorganic and organic potato peel powders from commercial gold, red, and Russet potatoes. Journal of Food Composition and Analysis. 62:69-75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfca.2017.04.019.
Liu, J., Kanetake, S., Wu, Y., Tam, C.C., Cheng, L.W., Land, K.M., Friedman, M. 2016. Anti-protozoal effects of the tomato tetrasaccharide glycoalkaloid tomatine and the aglycone tomatidine on mucosal trichomonads. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 64:8806-8810. doi: 10.1021/acs.jafc.6b04030.
Dominguez-Martinez, B.M., Martinez-Flores, H., Berrios, J.D., Otoni, C.G., Wood, D.F., Velazquez, G. 2016. Physical characterization of biodegradable films based on chitosan, polyvinyl alcohol and Opuntia mucilage. Journal of Polymers and the Environment. 25(3):683-691.
Kim, S., Lee, S., Nam, S., Friedman, M. 2017. Turmeric bioprocessed with mycelia from the shiitake culinary-medicinal mushroom lentinus edodes (agaricomycetes) protects mice against salmonellosis. International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms. 19(4):363-376. doi: 10.1615/IntJMedMushrooms.v19.i4.70.
