Author: Food Research Lab

Plant phytochemicals have long been known to defend plants from viruses, bacteria, fungus, and herbivores, but it was only recently discovered that they are also important in protecting humans from disease. Humans consume a large...

Microemulsions are amphiphile aided thermodynamically stable oil in water (o/w) or water in oil (w/o) dispersions. They have stability for long duration. Normally, an oil-water interface has high interfacial energy so that the free energy of formation of...

Probiotic bacteria are used in production of functional foods and pharmaceutical products. They play an important role in promoting and maintaining human health. In order, to produce health benefits probiotic strains should be present in a viable form at...

Traditional food packaging is primarily developed to provide mechanical support and to isolate foods from external influences, such as microorganisms, moisture, oxygen, odors, dusts, and mechanical forces. However, contamination could occur throughout the whole food industry...

Encapsulation is defined as the technology of packaging solids, liquids or gaseous materials in matrices (encapsulants) that can sustain and possibly release their contents under specific conditions. Encapsulation can have multiple purposes, the first of which is...

Spray-drying is the most commonly used encapsulation technique for food products. The spray-drying technique is based on the transformation of a fluid into dry powder by spraying the liquid in a drying gas stream. First, the liquid is...

Gluten proteins play a key role in determining the unique baking quality of wheat by conferring water absorption capacity, cohesivity, viscosity and elasticity on dough. Gluten proteins can be divided into two main fractions according to their solubility...

Lactic acid esters of monoglyceride is called lactylated monoglyceride in which lactic acid is bound with monoglyceride. Its foaming ability is stronger than its emulsifying ability. It is used in shortening for cakes, desserts and foaming for cream...

Starch-degrading enzymes can also be classified based on their action pattern as exo-acting, endo-acting, or debranching. Exo-acting, or saccharifying, amylases degrade amylose and amylopectin by successive removal of sugar units from the nonreducing chain ends. Endoacting, or liquefying,...

Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) has been applied in the food industry for over 90 years to extend shelf life and maintain quality and safety of fresh and fresh-cut food products. Recently, MAP has experienced a rapid development...