Food Science Commons^™

Transfer Of Listeria Monocytogenes From Stainless Steel And High Density Polethylyene To Cold Smoked Salmon And Listeria Monocytogenes Biofilm Cohesive Energy Investigation, Fujia Zhang

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Listeria monocytogenes is a major concern for the food industry. It is one of the major agents causing listeriosis. The objective of the first part of this study is to evaluate the effect of hydration level on attached listeria monocytogenes on stainless steel/High density polyethylene transferred to food products. Attached cells were prepared on stainless steel/High density polyethylene. Transfer experiments were conducted from inoculated surface material slides to cold smoked salmon fillets. This experiment was repeated 6 times. The results were analyzed with an analysis of variance by SAS. The differences between the different RH% and surface conditions were not …

A Multidisciplinary Approach To Food Safety Evaluation: Hummus Spoilage And Microbial Analysis Of Kitchen Surfaces In Residential Child Care Institutions (Rcci) In Massachusetts, U.S.A., Elsina E. Hagan

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Food borne illnesses continues to be a public health challenge in the United States (U.S.); an estimated 9.4 million incident cases occurred in 2011. In view of this challenge we conducted two food safety studies; 1) related to product formulation (hummus spoilage challenge study) and 2) evaluating the microbial safety of domestic kitchen surfaces in Residential Child Care Institutions (RCCI pilot study).

Hummus is of Mediterranean origin but is currently eaten globally. This challenge study evaluates a variety of industrial hummus formulations (four in total, differing in pH and/or addition of a preservative (natamycin). Two batches were setup: batch 1; …

Vitamin D Levels And Risk Of Dyslipidemia Among Us Children With Diabetes And Obesity, Elsina E. Hagan

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Dyslipidemia is increasing among U.S. children, and the prevalence is highest among children with diabetes and obesity. Recently, vitamin D deficiency has been suggested as a possible dietary risk factor for dyslipidemia. Despite the high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency amongst children, virtually no studies have evaluated the association between vitamin D and dyslipidemia among children. We evaluated the vitamin D and dyslipidemia relationship among 240 children and adolescents aged 2 through 21 years who were outpatients of a pediatric endocrinology unit at a large tertiary care facility in Western Massachusetts from April 2008 to April 2010. Eligible children were …

Edible Nanoemulsions: Fabrication, Properties, And Functional Performance, D. Julian Mcclements

D. Julian McClements

There is increasing interest within the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries in utilizing edible nanoemulsions to encapsulate, protect and deliver lipophilic functional components, such as oil-soluble flavors, vitamins, preservatives, nutraceuticals, and drugs. There are a number of potential advantages of using nanoemulsions rather than conventional emulsions for this purpose: they can greatly increase the bioavailability of lipophilic substances; they scatter light weakly and so can be incorporated into optically transparent products; they can be used to modulate the product texture; and they have a high stability to particle aggregation and gravitational separation. On the other hand, there may also be …

Structured Biopolymer-Based Delivery Systems For Encapsulation, Protection, And Release Of Lipophilic Compounds, Alison Matalanis, Owen Griffith Jones, D. Julian Mcclements

D. Julian McClements

Food-grade biopolymers, such as proteins and polysaccharides, can be used to create a diverse range of delivery systems suitable for encapsulating, protecting, and delivering lipophilic functional components, such as ω-3 rich oils, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), oil-soluble vitamins, flavors, colors, and nutraceuticals. This article provides an overview of a number of different approaches that can be used to create structured delivery systems based on biopolymers, including molecular complexation, coacervation, thermodynamic incompatibility, moulding, and extrusion methods. These delivery systems can be produced from food-grade ingredients using simple processing operations (e.g., mixing, homogenizing, and thermal processing). The structure, production, performance, and potential …

Nanoporous Polymer Ring Resonators For Biosensing, Julie M. Goddard, M. Mancuso, D. Erikson

Julie M. Goddard

Optically resonant devices are promising as label-free biomolecular sensors due to their ability to concentrate electromagnetic energy into small mode volumes and their capacity for multiplexed detection. A fundamental limitation of current optical biosensor technology is that the biomolecular interactions are limited to the surface of the resonant device, while the highest intensity of electromagnetic energy is trapped within the core. In this paper, we present nanoporous polymer optofluidic devices consisting of ring resonators coupled to bus waveguides. We report a 40% increase in polymer device sensitivity attributed to the addition of core energy- bioanalyte interactions.

Anti-Diabetic Potentials Of Phenolic Enriched Chilean Potato And Select Herbs Of Apiaceae And Lamiaceae Families, Fahad Saleem

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

The incidence of diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases is increasing at a worrisome rate globally. Diabetes mellitus is known to occur due to high blood glucose levels, caused by defects in insulin levels. Adult on-set type II diabetes, which is closely associated with obesity, is reported to be 90-95% of all diabetic cases and linked to diet and lifestyle factors. A large population of the developed and developing countries is now being effected by this epidemic. Natural sources of phenolic antioxidants and inhibitors of digestive enzymes from food sources have potential for low cost dietary management of type II diabetes. …

Development Of Structured Delivery Systems Using Nanolaminated Biopolymer Layers, Young-Hee Cho

Open Access Dissertations

The objectives of this study were to carry out research to better understand of the formation, stability and properties of multilayer emulsions containing nano-laminated biopolymer coatings, and to utilize this information to develop food-grade delivery systems. The effect of various preparation parameters on the formation and stability of multilayer emulsions was investigated: droplet concentration; mean droplet diameter; droplet charge; biopolymer concentration. β-lactoglobulin (β-Lg) stabilized emulsions (0.5 – 10 wt% oil) containing different pectin concentrations (0 to 0.5 wt%) were prepared at pH 7 (where lipid droplets and pectin molecules were both anionic) and pH 3.5 (where lipid droplets were cationic …

Fabrication Of Protein-Polysaccharide Particulates Through Thermal Treatment Of Associative Complexes, Owen Griffith Jones

Open Access Dissertations

Mixed solutions of β-lactoglobulin and anionic polysaccharides, specifically pectin, were formed into associative complexes through pH reduction from neutral conditions. Thermal treatment of these associative complexes was investigated as a function of biopolymer composition, heating conditions, pH, and ionic strength. Thermal treatment of β-lactoglobulin-pectin complexes at pH 4.5 – 5.0 was found to create protein-based particulates of consistent and narrow size distribution (diameter ~ 150 – 400 nm). These particulates were relatively stable to further pH adjustment and to high levels of salt (200 NaCl). Particle characteristics were maintained after re-suspending them in aqueous solutions after they have been either …

Levels, Enterotoxigenicity, Growth And Physical Characterisitcs Of B. Cereus From U.S Retail Rice, Chandrakant R. Ankolekar

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Bacillus cereus is a ubiquitously found foodborne pathogen that is frequently associated with two types of illness: emesis and diarrhea. Two heat labile enterotoxins have been associated with the diarrheal syndrome whereas a heat stable acid stable peptide toxin has been associated with the emetic syndrome. In the U.S, B. cereus is responsible for 1-2% of the total outbreaks from bacteria. Although there are reports of isolation and characterization of this pathogen from various food stuffs all around the world, there are no reports on the levels, toxin producing ability, or growth characteristics from U.S retail rice. Considering that rice …

A Multiplexed Optofluidic Biomolecular Sensor For Low Mass Detection, Julie M. Goddard, S. Mandal, D. Erikson

Julie M. Goddard

Optical techniques have proven to be well suited for in situ biomolecular sensing because they enable high fidelity measurements in aqueous environments, are minimally affected by background solution pH or ionic strength, and facilitate label-free detection. Recently, there has been significant interest in developing new classes of optically resonant biosensors possessing very high quality-factors. This high quality-factor enables them to resolve the presence of very small amounts of bound mass and leads to very low limits of detection. A drawback of these devices is that the majority of the resonant electromagnetic energy is confined within the solid light-guiding structure thus …

Synergistic Actions Of Atorvastatin With Γ-Tocotrienol And Celecoxib Against Human Colon Cancer Ht29 And Hct116 Cells, Hang Xiao, Z. Yang, H. Jin, D. Tsang, P. Koo, C.S. Yang

Hang Xiao

The synergistic actions of atorvastatin (ATST) with gamma-tocotrienol (gamma-TT) and celecoxib (CXIB) were studied in human colon cancer cell lines HT29 and HCT116. The synergistic inhibition of cell growth by ATST and gamma-TT was demonstrated by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and isobologram analysis. delta-TT exhibited a similar inhibitory action when combined with ATST. Mevalonate and geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate eliminated most of the growth inhibitory effect of ATST, but only marginally decreased that of gamma-TT; whereas farnesyl pyrophosphate and squalene exhibited little effect on the inhibitory action of ATST and gamma-TT, indicating protein geranylgeranylation, but not farnesylation are involved in the inhibition …

Optically Resonant Nanophotonic Devices For Label-Free Biomolecular Detection, Julie M. Goddard, S. Mandal, D. Erickson

Julie M. Goddard

Optical devices, such as surface plasmonresonance chips and waveguide-based Mach–Zehnder interferometers, have long been successfully used as label-free biomolecular sensors. Recently, however, there has been increased interest in developing new approaches to biomolecular detection that can improve on the limit of detection, specificity, and multiplexibility of these early devices and address emerging challenges in pathogen detection, disease diagnosis, and drug discovery. As we describe in this chapter, planar optically resonant nanophotonic devices (such as ring resonators, whispering gallery modes, and photonic crystal cavities) are one method that shows promise in significantly advancing the technology. Here we first provide a short …

Bioconjugation Techniques For Microfluidic Biosensors, Julie M. Goddard, D. Erickson

Julie M. Goddard

We have evaluated five bioconjugation chemistries for immobilizing DNA onto silicon substrates for microfluidic biosensing applications. Conjugation by organosilanes is compared with linkage by carbonyldiimidazole (CDI) activation of silanol groups and utilization of dendrimers. Chemistries were compared in terms of immobilization and hybridization density, stability under microfluidic flow-induced shear stress, and stability after extended storage in aqueous solutions. Conjugation by dendrimer tether provided the greatest hybridization efficiency; however, conjugation by aminosilane treated with glutaraldehyde yielded the greatest immobilization and hybridization densities, as well as enhanced stability to both shear stress and extended storage in an aqueous environment. Direct linkage by …

A Biosensor Assay For The Detection Of Mycobacterium Avium Subsp. Paratuberculosis In Fecal Samples, V. Kumanan, Sam R. Nugen, A.J. Baeumner, Y.F. Chang

Sam R. Nugen

A simple, membrane-strip-based lateral-flow (LF) biosensor assay and a high-throughput microtiter plate assay have been combined with a reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for the detection of a small number (ten) of viable Mycobacterium (M.) avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) cells in fecal samples. The assays are based on the identification of the RNA of the IS900 element of MAP. For the assay, RNA was extracted from fecal samples spiked with a known quantity of (101 to 106) MAP cells and amplified using RT-PCR and identified by the LF biosensor and the microtiter plate assay. While the LF biosensor assay …

Local Chef Inspires Healthy And Economical Cooking -- In A Flash, Madeleine K. Charney

Madeleine K. Charney

Local chef, Leslie Cerier, offers thought-provoking workshops about eating whole foods.

Local Chef Inspires Healthy And Economical Cooking -- In A Flash, Madeleine K. Charney

University Libraries Publication Series

Local chef, Leslie Cerier, offers thought-provoking workshops about eating whole foods.

Impact Of Chemical And Physical Properties On The Ability Of Antioxidants To Inhibit Lipid Oxidation In Foods, Jean Alamed

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Lipid oxidation is a major problem in foods resulting in alteration of texture, appearance, off flavors, aroma and decreased nutritional quality. The ability of compounds to inhibit lipid oxidation in foods is dependent on both physical and chemical properties. The effects of heating (50-90°C), ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), and calcium on the oxidative and physical stability of salmon oil-in-water emlusions were investigated in the first study. Oil-in-water emulsions were prepared with 2% salmon oil, stabilized by 0.2% Brij 35 at pH 7. Above 2.5 μM, EDTA dramatically decreased lipid oxidation in all samples. Addition of calcium to emulsions containing 7.5 μM …

Cancer Prevention By Tea And Tea Polyphenols, Hang Xiao, C.S. Yang, J. Ju, G. Lu, X. Hao, S. Sang, J. Lambert

Hang Xiao

The inhibition of tumorigenesis by tea extracts and tea polyphenols has been demonstrated in different animal models, including those for cancer of the skin, lung, oral cavity, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, colon, bladder, liver, pancrease, prostate, and mammary glands. Caffeine is also active in inhibition of tumorigenesis on the skin, lung, and perhaps other organs. In spite of many in vitro and in vivo studies, the molecular mechanisms for the cancer preventive actions of these compounds are not clearly known. The relationship between tea consumption and cancer risk has not been conclusively, and the relationship may become more clear if …

Colloidal Particles As Antimicrobial Carrier Systems, Dustin W. Carnahan

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

The objective of this thesis is to develop a method by which antimicrobials are delivered into a food product as a concentrated dose to the specific area in which the microorganism is growing without interference from the food matrix. More specifically, we plan to achieve this by delivering the antimicrobials nisin and lysozyme attached to nanoparticles and emulsion droplets. We hypothesize that (a) the attachment to a delivery vessel may increase the local concentration of the antimicrobial in the vicinity of the bacterial pathogens and (b) that the size and charge of the nanoparticle following attachment of the antimicrobials will …