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ARS Home » Southeast Area » New Orleans, Louisiana » Southern Regional Research Center » Food Processing and Sensory Quality Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #363312
Research Project: Reducing Peanut and Tree Nut Allergy

Location: Food Processing and Sensory Quality Research

Title: Cold plasma processing effect on cashew cuts composition and allergenicity

Author
item FILHO, ELENILSON - Universidade Federal Do Ceara (UFC)
item SILVA, LORENA - Embrapa
item FILHO, FRANCISCO - Embrapa
item RODRIGUES, SUELI - Universidade Federal Do Ceara (UFC)
item FERNANDES, FABIANO - Universidade Federal Do Ceara (UFC)
item GALLO, MARIA - Universidade Federal Do Ceara (UFC)
item Mattison, Chris
item DE BRITO, EDY - Embrapa

Submitted to: Food Research International
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/15/2019
Publication Date: 8/19/2019
Citation: Filho, E.G., Silva, L.A., Filho, F., Rodrigues, S., Fernandes, F.A., Gallo, M., Mattison, C.P., De Brito, E.S. 2019. Cold plasma processing effect on cashew cuts composition and allergenicity. Food Research International. 125:108621. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2019.108621.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2019.108621

Interpretive Summary: Cashew nuts (Anacardium occidentale, L.) are considered an important nutritional supplement while providing a pleasant taste and flavor. Cashew nuts are classified as an allergenic food, and can be responsible for serious immune reactions in sensitized or allergic individuals. Cashew nuts contain antioxidant capacity from phenolic components, primarily from anacardic acids (monoene, diene, and triene constituents) and cardol. Food processing by cold plasma irradiation is an emergent technology for food treatment, especially for temperature sensitive products, which has shown no significate negative effect on foods composition. Cold plasma is partially ionized gas comprised of ions, electrons, ultraviolet photons, and reactive neutral ions such as radicals, excited and ground-state molecules. Cashew nuts were processed by low-pressure plasma, using glow discharge plasma. Plasma processing did not detrimentally alter anacardic acid or fatty acid content, but decreased sucrose content. Plasma processing of cashew nuts did not significantly alter either rabbit anti-cashew or human cashew allergic IgE binding.

Technical Abstract: The study investigated the influence of atmospheric plasma processing on cashew nut composition and allergenicity. Cashew nuts were processed by low-pressure plasma, using glow discharge plasma. Anacardic acids and allergens were quantified by HPLC and immunoassay, respectively. Additionally, the overall composition was evaluated by 1H qNMR. Increases in amounts of anacardic acids (15:1, 15:2, and 15:3) and fatty acids (oleic, linoleic, palmitic and stearic) were detected after all process conditions, with 70.92% of total variance captured using 2 LVs. On the other hand, the amount of sucrose decreased after all processing conditions, from 33 to 18 mg.g-1 of nut. The total amount of anacardic acids increased from 0.7 to 1.2 µg.mg-1 of nut. The major change was observed for anacardic acid (C15:3) with an increase from 0.2 to 0.55 µg/mg of nut for the samples treated with a flow of 10 mL.min-1 and 30 min of processing. Among the treatments, 10 min of plasma processing at flow rate of 30 mL.min-1 of synthetic air followed by 20 min at flow rate 5.8 mL.min-1 allowed the least effect on nut composition as a whole. Plasma processing of cashew nuts did not affect binding of either the rabbit anti-cashew or human cashew allergic IgE binding.