Engineering for food safety and quality - VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
501	5010	2020	100%

Progress 10/01/10 to 09/30/15

Outputs
Target Audience:Food industry professionals and consumers. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Several graduate students benefited from the project: Kevin Richter worked on immobilizing antimicrobial enzymes to biodegradable packaging, and Steve Nimitz worked on developing alternate methods for pathogen inactivation in low moisture foods.B studentspresented their findingsat national and international meetings. Lauren Bowman studied various inoculation methods and Hande Kaya-Celiker published a review article on nutrient delivery through nanomaterials. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results have been presented at national and international meetings and several manuscripts are underway for journal publications. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Experiments were conducted to identify appropriate inoculation procedures for validation of pathogen inactivation in low moisture foods (especially spices). The results indicated that bacterial cells inoculated as biofilm survived longer with minimal population reduction for 28 days. In addition, the inoculation methods were compared for both the pathogen (Salmonella Tennessee) and its surrogate bacteria for their survival ability in low moisture foods. Alternative methods to inactive pathogens in low moisture foods were developed using far infrared (FIR) and ethanol vapor. The short duration high temperature treatment by FIR resulted in 3 to 5 logs reduction in Salmonella Tennessee and showed increased efficiency with longer treatment times with a maximum reduction of 5 log CFU/g in paprika at 24 seconds. Increased FIR treatment times resulted in detrimental color changes in the product. Ethanol Vapor reduced Salmonella by 3 logs within 120 seconds for both paprika and black pepper, but affected the spice quality significantly. Experiments were also conducted to study the feasibility of incorporating/immobilizing antimicrobial enzymes to biodegradable packaging. Corn Zein with different types of plasticizers (glutaraldehyde and glyoxal) were used to bind the enzyme to the packaging film. The effect of concentration of glutaraldehyde and glyoxal on the controlled release of the enzyme was studied.Antimicrobial activity in the constructed zein films are also tested against selected pathogens (Salmonella Newport and Listeria monocytogenes). Developed zein based film is tested against inoculated tomatoes to determine the efficacy of the films in reducing the pathogen population. The film was able to reduce Listeria monocytogenes population by three logs but was unable to reduce the population of Salmonella Newport.

Publications

Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Briggs, N. R. Williams, M. Ponder, L. Bowman, P. Mallikarjunan. 2014. Salmonella Biofilm Formation on Peppercorns and Polystyrene. Presented at International Association for Food Protection. August 2014. Indianapolis, IN.
Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2012 Citation: Kaya-Celiker, H. and P. Mallikarjunan. 2012. Better Nutrients and Therapeutics Delivery in Food Through Nanotechnology. Food Engineering Reviews 4(2): 114-123.
Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2012 Citation: Richter, K. 2012. Effect of concentration of glutaraldehyde and glyoxal on binding lysozyme to zein based films to control foodborne pathogens in tomatoes. MS Thesis, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, pp 84.
Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Brookmire, L., Mallikarjunan, P., Jahncke, M. and Grisso, R. (2013). Optimum Cooking Conditions for Shrimp and Atlantic Salmon. Journal of Food Science. 78: S303S313.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Briggs, N. R.C. Williams, M. Ponder, P. Mallikarjunan. 2015. Ethanol Vapor to Inactivate Salmonella on Peppercorns. Presented at the International Association for Food Protection. July 26, 2015, Portland, OR.
Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2012 Citation: Sahu, J. K. and P. Mallikarjunan, 2012. Modeling of particle size distribution of heat assisted high-pressure treated reconstituted cow milk: Effect of high pressure, pressurization time and heat treatment temperature. LWT - Food Science and Technology. 48(2):255260.

Progress 10/01/13 to 09/30/14

Outputs
Target Audience: Food industry andconsumers. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Trained a graduate student on evaluating the inoculation methods and another student in developing alternative treatments for low moisture foods. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Conference presentation. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Mathematical model development of survival and inactivation of pathogenic bacteria in low moisture foods will be carried out.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Experiments were conducted to understand the mechanism of survival of pathogenic bacteria in low moisture foods, like spices. The effect of physiological cell state (planktonic or biofilm) at the time of inoculation on the recoverability and stability were comparedfor Salmonella Tennessee on wholeblack peppercorn.The results indicated that the cells inoculated asbiofilm survived longer with minimal population reduction for28 days. Identification of inoculation method is very critical for development of validation protocols for low moisturefoods.

Publications

Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2014 Citation: Bowman, L., M. Ponder, P. Mallikarjunan and R.C. Williams, 2014. Effect of inoculation method on the survival of Salmonella Tennessee from whole black peppercorn. IAFP Annual Meeting

Progress 10/01/12 to 09/30/13

Outputs
Target Audience: Food industry, consumers and academia. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Ms. Andrea Smith from West Virginia University presented at two conferences about osmatic dehydration. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? The results from the studies have been disseminated through conference presentations. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? 1. Develop mathematical models for risk assessment of pathogen inactivation in dry spices and develop procedures to validate pathogen inactives in dry spices. 2. Multistate collaborative proposal development for high pressure processing, sustainability in food processing and microwave assisted extraction will be carried out.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? This reporting period, project work included the objectives 1a and 1b. Two novel treatments were evaluated for reduction of Salmonella enterica Tennessee: far infrared radiation (FIR), a short time – high temperature treatment, and pasteurization with ethanol vapor (EV). Both treatments were effective in reducing levels of Salmonella Tennessee between 3-5 logs. FIR treatment showed increased efficacy at longer treatment times with a maximum reduction of 5 log CFU/g in paprika at 24 seconds. EV reduced Salmonella Tennessee by 3 log CFU/g within 120s when applied to inoculated paprika and black pepper without detrimentally affecting spice quality. However, the samples receiving FIR treatments suffered reductions in volatile content and color changes to the spices. High levels (up to 1% w/w) of residual ethanol were also detected on samples treated for 300s. Both treatment showed similar results when comparing efficacy; however, based on the magnitude of change in volatile content associated with FIR being significantly greater than those samples receiving EV, FIR treatment requires additional work to use with dried, ground paprika, black pepper, or sage. As a multistate effort, pulsed vacuum osmatic dehydration method was developed for drying blue berries along with researchers from West Virginia University. Preliminary results indicate a higher retention of sugars in the dehydrated product, however, the product had higher water activity than desired for increased shelf life. Further work is underway to optimize the process conditions.

Publications

Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: Nimitz, S. 2013. Application of far infrared radiation and ethanol vapor as alternative treatment methods for reduction of Salmonella enterica Tennessee in dried, ground spices. MS Thesis, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA. pp 101.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Sivanandan, L., A. Smith, P. Mallikarjunan, B. Kenney. 2013. Challenges and opportunities in the use and industrial application of food dehydration pretreatments. ASABE Paper #131620228, Presented at the Annual International Meeting of ASABE, July 21-24, Kanas City, MO.

Progress 10/01/11 to 09/30/12

Outputs
OUTPUTS: Research activities include the development of a novel processing method to reduce the pathogen load in spices. The selected spices (pepper, paprika and sage) were treated either by ethanol vapor or by using far infrared radiation. Based on the quality parameters (color and volatine profiles), the treatment times were limited to 3 minutes for ethanol treatment and 20 seconds for far infrared radiation. This resulted in 2 to 3 log reductions in Salmonella in the spices. Effective pathogen reduction was observed using the ethanol treatment, however, the residual ethanol volatiles in the product might have to be considered. The far infrared radiation treatment needs further refinement to increase the pathogen reduction without compromising the quality attributes. The other multistate activity this year included the conference of food engineering (as an outreach activity of NC-1023). PARTICIPANTS: Stephen Nimitz, Jr., Graduate Student, Biological Systems Engineering, Monica Ponder, Collaborator, Food Science and Technology Department, Robert C. Williams, Collaborator, Food Science and Technology Department, Greg E. Welbaum, Collaborator, Horticulture Department TARGET AUDIENCES: The project will benefit spice manufacturers, food processing industries, food import traders and consumers. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.

Impacts
The novel treatment method developed has a huge potential for reducing pathogen loads in spices instead of using either gamma irradiation or chemical fumigation. The studies indicate that the pathogen reductions of up to 3-log can be achieved by these treatments and provides promising potential to develop multiple hurdle technologies to reduce the pathogen loads by 5 logs.

Publications

S.C. Nimitz, Jr., P.K. Mallikarjunan, M. Ponder, G.E. Welbaum & R.C. Williams, 2012. Application of Far Infrared Radiation for Reduction of Pathogens in Spices, Book of Abstracts, Eleventh Conference of Food Engineering, April 1-4, Leesburg, VA. [Program Details are at: http://www.cpe.vt.edu/cofe/details.html]
S.C. Nimitz, Jr., P.K. Mallikarjunan, M. Ponder, G.E. Welbaum & R.C. Williams, 2012. Application of Ethanol Vapor for Reduction of Pathogens in Spices. Paper No. 121337649. Annual International Meeting of American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, July 29-Aug 1, Dallas TX.

Progress 10/01/10 to 09/30/11

Outputs
OUTPUTS: Research work included the study of incorporating antimicrobial enzymes into biodegradable packaging materials; development of treatment methods to inactivate pathogens in selected spices; and rapid detection of pathogen contamination in low moisture food products (e.g. peanut butter). The incorporation of lysozymes in corn zein films resulted in the reduction of gram positive bacteria and resulted in a 3 log reduction in Listeria spp. Further research work is under progress to study the effect of packaging materials incorporated with the antimicrobial enzymes on tomatoes and melons. Spices treated either with far infrared radiation or ethanol vapor resulted in the reduction of pathogen contamination by 5 log reductions. Optimum process conditions have to be established by considering the quality changes to the spices. The detection of Salmonella Tennesse in peanut paste using Fourier transformation infrared spectrascopy can detect bacterial contamination at levels of concentration above 10,000 CFU/g. The results from the study are being presented at the International meetings and journal manuscripts are under development. PARTICIPANTS: Rob Williams, Associate Professor, Food Science & Technology Department; Kevin Richter, Graduate Student, Biological Systems Engineering Department; Stephen Nimitz, Graduate Student, Biological Systems Engineering Department; Monica Ponder, Assistant Professor, Food Science & Technology Department; and Greg Welbaum, Professor, Horticulture Department TARGET AUDIENCES: Food industry PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.

Impacts
The research work by the participating experiment station (VA) focusing on several objectives of the multistate project will result in improved technologies such as biodegradable packaging material incorporated with antimicrobial enzymes that will help develop novel packaging solutions for delivering fresh produce; methods to inactivate pathogens from spices and rapid detection methods to detect pathogen contamination in a variety of food products. The outputs will impact the food processing industry by providing alternative methods to extend shelf life and reduce pathogenic bateria in selected food products.

Publications

No publications reported this period

Progress 10/01/09 to 09/30/10

Outputs
OUTPUTS: Projects were completed this year to address all objectives. The cooking procedures (boiling, pan frying and baking) of selected seafood products (salmon and shrimp) were evaluated for inactivation of Salmonella sp. and each cooking procedure was modeled to describe heat transfer. The inactivation kinetics were evaluated using Bieglow, Weibull and Fermi models for all the cooking procedures. Quality kinetics models for texture, color and juiciness were developed. Based on the model predictions, safe cooking procedures were developed and further tested to acheive 5 log reduction in Salmonella. The FDA approved cooking procedures were found to be adequate for a 3 log reduction in Salmonella. Further work is underway to evaluate the sensory quality of selected seafood products. PARTICIPANTS: Michael Jahncke, Lauren Brookmire, and Nihat Yavuz TARGET AUDIENCES: Food industry, consumers, seafood processors PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: No significant modifications for this reporting period.

Impacts
Mathematical models to describe various cooking methods (boiling, baking, pan frying) have been developed and the models can be used by food industry product and process developers and federal agencies to predict temperature history in the cooked seafood products. The temperature history can be used to evaluate the inactivation of Salmonella and estimate the quality parameters and thus develop safe cooking procedures with high quality retention in the cooked seafood products. There does not exist a valid cooking procedure that will reduce the pathogen level to safe conditions for common consumers to practice at their homes. National Fisheries Institute is spearheading an effort to develop a safe procedure and the results from this study will help them come up with guidelines for proper cooking procedures to be adopted by home consumers.

Publications

N. Yavuz., and P. K. Mallikarjunan, 2010. Effects of Frying Conditions on the Quality of Breaded Vegetables, ASABE Paper Number 1008635, Presented at the Annual International Meeting of ASABE, June 20-23, Pittsburg, PA
L.M. Brookmire, P.K. Mallikarjunan, M. Jahncke, 2010. Evaluation of Models Describing Thermal Inactivation of a Salmonella Cocktail in Salmon and Shrimp, ASABE Paper Number 1000008, Presented at the Annual International Meeting of ASABE, June 20-23, Pittsburg, PA
L.M. Brookmire, 2010. Optimization of the Quality and Safety of Cooked Seafood Products. Masters Thesis, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Progress 10/01/08 to 09/30/09

Outputs
OUTPUTS: The study resulted in a computational modeling system to describe structural changes in beef undergoing high hydrodynamic (shockwave) pressure processing. The model was deveoped using the finite element method. Shock waves were modeled as non-linear and linear propagating waves. The non-linear model indicated no deformation response, whereas the linear model indicated realistic deformation response assuming transverse isotropy of the beef loin. Methods were also developed to evaluate elastic coefficients of beef muscle as a transvese isotropic material and correlate them with objective texure measurements. The study correlated small- and large-strain measurements using elastic coefficients of the stiffness matrix as small-strain measures. Results of the study indicated very high correlation between elastic coefficients c11, c22, and c44 with TPA cohesiveness (r greater than 0.9) and springiness (r greater than 0.85). PARTICIPANTS: Anand Lakshmikanth, Graduate Student; Jitu Patel, USDA-ARS Beltsville, MD; Morse Solomon, USDA-ARS Beltsville, MD TARGET AUDIENCES: Food industry PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.

Impacts
Implementation of the computational model will allow the industry to identify optimum process conditions to enhance beef tenderness and microbial inactivation using shock wave based tenderization. High hydrostatic pressure is gaining importance in the food industry and the developed computationl models will allow the industry to cut cost and increase process efficiecy through identification optimum process conditions.

Publications

Lakshmikanth, A. 2009. Non-destructive evaluation and mathematical modeling of beef loins subjected to high hydrodynamic pressure treatment. Ph.D. Dissertation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA.

Progress 10/01/07 to 09/30/08

Outputs
OUTPUTS: Experiments were conducted to address objectives A, B and D. For objective A, mercury contamination in fish was evaluated using Fourier transformation infrared spectrascopy (FTIR). Fish with different levels of mercury contamination were obtained from NOAA Mississippi facility for analysis in Attenuated Total Reflectance mode. The results showed that the specific shifts in absorbence from wave numbers 2852 to 2850 and 1462 to 1472 are associated with methyl mercury in the sample. Another project was initiated to develop electronic nose based evaluation of oxidation in fish oil. Three different types of electronic nose systems were considered for the study: conducting polymers, a quartz crystal microbalance and surface acoustic wave based systems. The results suggest that the electronic nose was successful in discriminating levels of oxidation in fish oil with an overall prediction accuracy of 86%. Of all the three systems, surface acoustic wave based system performed better compared to the other two systems. For objective B, mathematical modeling of oxidation kinetics of omega-3 rich lipids incorporated in cheese was developed. The model followed auto-catalytic reaction kinetics and using antioxidants (both synthetic and natural) extended the stability of the omega-3 lipids in cheese for three weeks. The optimum combination was 3% algal oil with 110ppm mixed tocopherols. For objective D, finite element based models were developed to study the impact of hydrodynamic pressure generated from shock waves on beef textural qualities. The constitutive mechanistic model was found to represent the beef under high pressure very well. Of the 5 constituent parameters, only 2 (elastic modulus in the transverse plane and the Poisson's ratio in the transverse plane) could be established due to presence of unknowns in calculating the other three. Further work is in progress to experimentally determine remaining constitutive parameters and explore other EOS equations. The research findings were disseminated through conference presentations at the annual meeting of American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. Efforts are underway to publish the data in referred journals. PARTICIPANTS: Kumar Mallikarjunan, Principal Investigator Michael Jahncke, Collaborator Zhiyou Wen, Collaborator Margaret Orders, Graduate Student Yamuna Devarajan, Graduate Student Anand Lakshmikanth, Graduate Student TARGET AUDIENCES: Food industry Seafood industry PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.

Impacts
A successful development of a FTIR method will provide effective determination of the contamination levels (both mercury and pathogenic bacteria) in a rapid non-destructive way. This will remove the contaminated fish products entering the market, and the seafood industry can claim additional economic gains by promoting mercury free and pathogen free fish products where consumers are willing to pay additional amount to procure healthy products. Understanding the reaction kinetics of oxidation in poly unsaturated lipids will allow the industry to formulate the product for an effective delivery of beneficial lipids without a loss in quality and bioavailability of such lipids. Approximately 0.1g DHA may be consumed from a 28g serving of this cheese. Approximately 10 servings of this cheese are equivalent to DHA consumed from a 3 oz serving of fish. Modeling the structural changes in biological materials (especially food products) under applied pressure conditions is a challenge due to difficulty describing the changes in the product and experimental evaluation is often inconclusive. Well established mathematical model based on constitutive properties will provide researchers methods to optimize high pressure processes.

Publications

Devarajan, Y.S., P. Mallikarjunan, and T. Ballard. 2008. Discrimination of oxidation levels in fish oil using an electronic nose. Presented at the annual meeting of ASABE, Providence, RI.
Order, M.E., P. Mallikarjunan, Z. Wen, and S.E. Duncan, 2008. Controlling oxidation in omega-3 rich dairy products using natural antioxidants. Paper No. 084367, Presented at the ASABE Annual Meeting, Providence, RI June 29-July 2.
Lakshmikanth, A., P. Mallikarjunan, R. Kapania and M. Solomon. 2008. Modeling high hydrodynamic pressure processing beef using finite element method. Paper No. 084333, Presented at the ASABE Annual Meeting, Providence, RI June 29-July 2.

Progress 10/01/06 to 09/30/07

Outputs
OUTPUTS: The high pressure processing imparts small-strain changes in the beef resulting in large-strain textural behavior in a cooked sample. It is therefore important to find correlations between the small-strain behaviors in raw muscle to large-strain changes in cooked meat samples. Experiments were conducted using stress-relaxation and creep analysis to obtain small-strain changes and warner-bratzler shear and textural profile analysis were used to obtain large-strain changes. In addition, samples were subjected to ageing under refrigerated conditions for seven days to study their textural changes. Overall the time-constant from stress-relaxation was correlated well with cohesiveness, chewiness and springiness (r more than 0.8). However, hardness had a poor correlation with the time constant values (r=0.4). In another study, the effect of antioxidants (TBHQ or BHT) on the lipids from algae Schizochytrium limacinum SR-21 was studied using an accelerated storage study. The lipids were stored in a 63 C oven for zero, one, or two days to simulate storage at room temperature for zero, one, or two weeks. Among TBHQ and BHT, TBHQ performed significantly better in reducing oxidation of algal lipids. The kinetics of degradation of DHA after incorporated into a dairy product (mozzarella cheese) was fitted to an auto catalytic model. The reaction rate constant was found to be independent of the DHA concentration. The results were disseminated through conference presentations at the national meetings of professional societies. PARTICIPANTS: Morse Solomon, USDA-ARS Beltsville; Jitu Patel, USDA-ARS Beltsville; Zhiyou Wen, Biological Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech; Susan Duncan, Food Science & Technology, Virginia Tech; Anand Lakshmikanth, Doctoral Student, Virginia Tech; Margaret Orders, Graduate Student, Virginia Tech TARGET AUDIENCES: Beef producers, USDA, consumers, biodiesel producers, and dairy processing industry

Impacts
We have developed methods to evaluate textural changes in cooked beef based on the changes in the raw muscle imparted either by processing such as high pressure treatment or by ageing. This will allow researchers to develop predictive models to describe beef tenderness and will lead to development of tender beef products for consumption. Recent findings on health benefits from consuming polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) rich foods, especially omega-3, has increased consumer demand for such products. Lack of these fatty acids in diets creates a growing need to find additional PUFA sources. The results of the research on lipids from sea algae will provide food scientists and nutritionists with alternate sources of omega-3 fatty acids with higher oxidative stability that can be incorporated into various food products, including diary products. This will lead to variety of food products with omega-3 rich lipids for consumption.

Publications

Lakshmikanth, A., Mallikarjunan, P., and Solomon, M. 2007. Correlating small-strain behavior with large-strain measurements to describe beef tenderness. Presented at the ASABE Annual Meeting, Minneapolis, MN.
Orders, M.E., Mallikarjunan, P., Wen, Z. and Duncan, S.E. 2007. Effect of antioxidants on the oxidation of fatty acids from Schizochytrium limacinum SR-21. Presented at the IFT Annual Meeting and Food Expo, Chicago, IL.
Orders, M.E., Mallikarjunan, P., Wen, Z. and Duncan, S.E. 2007. Fate of omega-3 fatty acids in dairy products. Presented at the ASABE Annual Meeting, Minneapolis, MN.

Progress 10/01/05 to 09/30/06

Outputs
Non-destructive testing methods were developed to identify old maids in corn, maturity in grapes and quality of wines. To characterizing the popping capability and identifying old maids, ultrasonic parameters were measured on corn kernels subjected to different moisture contents and different types of kernel damage. The kernels were popped in a batch of 50 kernels using a microwave oven and a special sample holder. A decision matrix was developed based on the experiments conducted on individual kernels and was implemented in classifying the kernels. Kernels having attenuation lower than 1.32 dB/mm and ultrasonic velocities lower than 53.8 m/s failed to pop. Use of these cut off values and decision matrix resulted in a prediction accuracy of 93 percent. Results from analytical procedures, currently used for maturity evaluation, were compared with results from grape headspace analysis via a hand-held e-nose system. Cabernet Sauvignon (V. vinifera L.) samples, collected at weeks 18 and 20 post-bloom, were analyzed for weight, pH, Brix, titrateble acidity, total phenols, color intensity, color hue, total anthocynins, phenol-free glycosides (PFGG) and total glycosides (TGG). The e-nose was able to pick the difference between the three groups with 100 percent accuracy. The wine-grapes were treated using ethanol (0 percent, 5 percent and 10 percent) during bloom period for enhancing the ripening potential. Juices obtained from Cabernet Sauvignon (V. vinifera L.) were analyzed for pH, Brix, titrateble acidity, total phenols, color intensity, color hue, total anthocynins, phenol-free glycosides (PFGG) and total glycosides (TGG). The volatiles from wine samples prepared from the samples were analyzed using headspace solid-phase micro-extraction and gas chromatography, and a quartz-microbalance based electronic nose system. In addition, wines were evaluated 5-months post fermentation using an untrained sensory panel and using triangle difference testing. The analytical measurements and sensory analysis showed no differences in wine quality among control and treated samples. However both volatile analysis found significant differences among the wine samples. Towards developing a novel frying method, a modified deep-fat pressure fryer was used with compressed air, nitrogen or vacuum as the pressurizing medium in frying breaded fish sticks. The product qualities were compared. Fish sticks were fried for 240s at three temperatures (150 C, 175 C, 190 C) and two pressures (163 kPa, 184 kPa). Overall, the quality of products fried using nitrogen and air were not found to be significantly different (p less than 0.05) from each other. These products were both more tender and lower in oil content than steam-fried fish sticks. The only area where vacuum-frying had a significant effect, when compared to pressure-fried and atmospherically-fried fish sticks, was in juiciness. Vacuum-frying created significantly juicier fish sticks than the other two frying methods. In addition, vacuum-fried fish sticks were tenderer than atmospherically-fried fish sticks.

Impacts
The use of ultrasonic parameters to characterize old maid problem in popcorn have significant advantage to the corn processor by providing the consumer a quality product in which all the corn will pop without leaving any un-popped popcorn. The experiments using modified frying methods (pressurized using nitrogen gas or vacuum) produced quality fried products that are tender and juicier than conventionally steam-pressure fried fish sticks but have lower fat content. Thus, consumers would feel better consuming a low-fat fried product. The seafood industry, restuarants and food service establishments can increase their revenue in selling a product that is healthier than the present product offerings and also see economic benefit from extending the fry life of oils and fats.

Publications

Pathange, L., P. Mallikarjunan, R. Marini, S. O'Keefe and D. Vaughan. 2005. Non-destructive evaluation of apple maturity using an electronic nose system - A statistical approach. Journal of Food Engineering 77(4): 1018-1023.
Innawong, B., P. Mallikarjunan, J. Marcy and J. Cundiff. 2006. Pressure Conditions and Quality of Chicken Nuggets Fried Under Gaseous Nitrogen Atmosphere. Journal of Food Processing and Preservation 30: 231-245.
Ballard, T. and P. Mallikarjunan. 2006. The Effect of Edible Film Coatings and Pressure Frying using Nitrogen Gas on the Crispness of Breaded Fried Chicken Nuggets. Journal of Food Science 71(3): S259-S264.
Koo, J., Jahncke, M.L. Reno, P. W., Hu, X. and P. Mallikarjunan, 2006. Inactivation of Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Vibrio vulnificus in Phosphate-Buffered Saline and in Inoculated Whole Oysters by High-Pressure Processing. Journal of Food Protection 69 (3): 596-601.