Food Chemistry Commons^™

Evaluating The Impact Of Region, Vintage, And Carbon Dioxide-Based Winemaking Techniques On Wine Quality Of Mediterranean Varietals, Coleman R. Imrisek

Master's Theses

Changing Vitis vinifera ripening patterns as a result of increasing climate variability has provided challenges against the production of wines with a balanced sensory profile, with adequate acidity, color, aroma, and texture. This thesis aimed to evaluate the ripening patterns and wine profiles of potentially climate-adaptive Mediterranean varietals in two different California Central Coast climates. Additionally, different carbon-dioxide based winemaking techniques were also assessed. Viognier and Grenache Noir grapes were sourced from the warmer, diurnal Paso Robles AVA and the cooler, marine Santa Maria AVA during the 2024 and 2025 growing seasons, with Syrah and Grenache Blanc grapes being only …

The Effects Of Maceration And Enzymes On The Chemical Characteristics Of Hard Apple Cider, Manou De Pelsmaeker

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of maceration and pectinase enzymes on the base chemical, polyphenolic, and volatile characteristics of cider. The apples (Fuji) were milled and macerated for 0, 4, 12, 24, or 36 hours, both with and without an enzymatic pectinase addition. While base chemical characteristics such as sugar content and ABV were unaffected, the acidity of cider was influenced maceration and enzymes. Extended maceration time resulted in lower concentrations of malic acid, and enzymes resulted in a lower pH compared to the control. Polyphenols were extracted during maceration time, resulting in higher concentrations …

Red Raspberries Attenuate Blood Glucose Spike Of A High Glycemic Load Breakfast Cereal, Dante J. Martin

Master's Theses

Blood glucose (BG) spikes increase chronic disease risk in those with and without diabetes. The fiber and phytonutrient content of fruit, such as raspberries has the potential to attenuate the BG spike of a high glycemic load (HGL) meal. We examined the effect of red raspberries (RRs) on the BG spike when added to a HGL meal. In this randomized cross-over trial, 16 university students were given breakfast cereal and almond milk (control), the control breakfast with 140g added RRs, and the control breakfast with sugar equivalent to the sugar content of the RRs (50% sugar increase from control). Meals …

Cofermentation, Post-Alcoholic, And Post-Malolactic Fermentation Blending Of Malbec, Merlot And Petite Sirah Wines, Armando Arturo Vega-Osorno

Master's Theses

A two-year study was conducted to assess the effects of cofermentation on red wine varietals. During the winemaking process, wines can be made from two or more varieties by picking, crushing and fermenting them together, a practice known as cofermentation. They can also be blended either after the completion of alcoholic fermentation or after malolactic fermentation. In the first year of the study, two grape varieties, Merlot (Mer), and Malbec (Mal) were cofermented. On the second year, a third varietal, Petite Sirah (PS) was also studied. Cofermented wines containing every possible binomial combination of the varietals was made and one …

The Effects Of Cofermentation Of Cider And Apple Pomace On Cider Attributes, Abigail D. Affonso

Master's Theses

Phenolics are critical to the sensory attributes and health benefits of hard cider due to their contribution to the flavor, mouthfeel, and antioxidant activity. With the increase in demand for cider, the use of dessert apple varieties has become more common leaving ciders lacking in phenolics. However, a promising method to increase their phenolic content is through maceration with apple pomace. This study evaluated the effect maceration with apple pomace during cider fermentation on the extraction of phenolic compounds, as well as its effect on the sensory properties of the final product. For this study, ciders were fermented with 0% …

Value-Added Opportunities For Tomato And Peach Seeds, Valerie Michelle Lavenburg

Master's Theses

The food industry is increasingly concerned with operational sustainability and food waste reduction. In the United States, the tomato industry was worth $1 billion in 2020, and tomatoes are currently ranked second as the most consumed vegetable after potatoes. Tomato processors have striven to valorize pomace by-products, which contain seeds with valuable compounds such as 45% fiber, 30% oil, and 26% protein. The U.S. peach industry, which was worth $599 million in 2017, is also looking for alternative ways to utilize their seeds, made up of 52% oil. Both tomato and peach seeds are rich in bioactive compounds such as …

Insects As A Sustainable Food Ingredient – Utilization Of Carrot Pomace, Identification Of Early Adopters, And Evaluation Of Mealworm Acceptability, Dominic Rovai

Master's Theses

Insects have been proposed as a sustainable alternative to livestock to help feed the growing population. Edible insects such as mealworms require less land and resources and can utilize food by-products to grow. While insects are consumed by over 2 billion people worldwide, they are not widely accepted in developed countries like the United States because of their unfamiliarity and the perception of disgust associated with entomophagy. The objectives of this research are to 1) grow mealworms using carrot pomace and determine an optimum diet for growth and nutritional composition, 2) identify and classify early adopters of insects, and propose …

The Effects Of Wort Oxygenation Scenarios On Fermentation Performance, Volatile Flavor Compound Development, And Flavor Stability In High Gravity Brewing, Ben Jabson

Master's Theses

High gravity (HG) brewing has become the most used strategy for maximizing fermenter productivity in commercial brewing. While HG brewing has many benefits, the additional stress placed on the yeast due to the higher concentration of fermentable sugars in the wort can negatively impact fermentation performance and flavor compound formation. A proper dissolved oxygen (DO) level is vital to guarantee adequate yeast performance during HG fermentations. Dissolved oxygen is vital to yeast viability throughout the fermentation process, as yeast requires oxygen to synthesize vital cell membrane components needed for continued anaerobic growth and cell division. Previous research has demonstrated the …

Valorization Of Carrot Processing Waste, Alexandra M. Duval

Master's Theses

Commercial carrot processors produce up to 175,000 tons of carrot waste annually. Carrot Mash (CM) is the term referring to the waste by-product of peeled baby carrot processing. Transportation of carrot processing waste is expensive due to its high- water content (approx. 83-95%). High in bioactive compounds (carotenoids) and dietary fibers, it is expected that its conversion into a value-added by-product is of interest to the carrot processing industry. Hemicellulose-rich plant materials have proven to be a source of oligosaccharides, which are known for their beneficial prebiotic activity. The objectives of this research were to: 1) determine the effect of …

Saponin Removal From Quinoa By Abrasion Processing, Luke Lundberg

Master's Theses

Quinoa is coated with a thin layer of saponins, glycosylated triterpenoids, that produce a bitter flavor when consumed. The average saponin content in commercial varietals from Bolivia average around 2.7% saponins and organoleptic testing shows the threshold for noticing a bitter flavor is below 0.12% (Medina-Meza et al., 2016). Current industrial processing methods use a combination of abrasion and turbulent water flow to remove saponin. This study will address the following research question: How will grain-to-grain and grain-to-surface abrasion affect the processing time to remove saponin from quinoa? In particular, can effective saponin removal be achieved in less than 10 …

Seasonal Variation Of Milk In Central Valley California And The Association Of Milk Variation With The Composition And Texture Of Low Mositure Part Skim Mozzarella, Vaideki Jai

Master's Theses

The chemical composition of milk (specifically casein, fat, and calcium) is known to affect the quality and functional properties of Mozzarella cheese. Therefore, concentrations of total nitrogen, casein nitrogen, non-casein nitrogen, non-protein nitrogen, true nitrogen, casein nitrogen to total nitrogen ratio, casein nitrogen to true nitrogen ratio, fat, total calcium, total solids, somatic cells, and pH were measured in silo milk samples collected weekly over 18-months from a large dairy plant in Central Valley, California from July 2008 to December 2009 to verify changes and correlate to low moisture part skim Mozzarella (LMPS) characteristics. LMPS mozzarella cheese from the same …

Effect Of Ph And Temperature On The Binding Interactions Of Caffeine And Chlorogenic Acid With Sodium Caseinate, Emily S. Kong

Master's Theses

Coffee is a popular and well-loved beverage consumed worldwide by millions of people every day. While most patrons of coffee do so because of its unique and satisfying taste, consumers may be unaware of the potential beneficial health effects it also imparts. The antioxidants found in green coffee beans collectively known as chlorogenic acids (CGA) and caffeine are two of the most abundant bioactive compounds present in coffee. Both these bioactive compounds have been implicated in many studies to impart a wide range of health benefits, from reducing the risk of Type 2 diabetes, to their use as aides in …

Effect Of Post Manufacture Thermal Dip Treatment On Proteolysis Of Commercial String Cheese During Storage, Melissa Karen Hsu

Master's Theses

String cheese, a Mozzarella cheese, has the unique ability to string in fibrous strands when pulled apart. Graders judge string cheese by its stringy texture; samples with copious amounts of string are awarded high ratings. But just as the texture of natural cheeses softens with time, the stringy texture of string cheese can diminish with age too.

Age related softening in cheese is due primarily to an important biochemical event known as proteolysis, which is attributed to inherent milk proteinases, residual coagulant activity, and enzymes from the lysis of starter culture microorganisms. It is hypothesized that a post manufacture heat …

Using Stable Isotope Analysis Of Zooplankton To Document Trophic And Biogeochemical Changes In The San Francisco Estuary, Steven C. Westbrook, Julien Moderan

STAR Program Research Presentations

Zooplankton represent a vital link between phytoplankton and fish, like the endangered Delta Smelt. Human interferences (nitrates from waste water, flow alteration, invasive species introduction…) have altered the structure of the San Francisco Estuary (SFE) ecosystem. We use stable isotope analysis to improve our knowledge of the planktonic food web in the SFE and gain insights into its evolution over the past decades. We use the ratios of certain isotopes (Nitrogen, Carbon, Sulfur, etc.) in different species of zooplankton to tell us what it is feeding on as well as the trophic level it feeds in. My research focused on …

Strawberry Growth, Yield, Fruit Nutrition, And Control Of Verticillium Wilt With Pre-Plant Soil Fumigants, Ozone, And Biological Control, Justin J. Scurich

Master's Theses

Verticillium wilt is a widespread soilborne disease of strawberry historically controlled by soil fumigation with methyl bromide (MB). MB was banned by the United Nations in 1995 and will be completely phased out by 2015. Research has concentrated on alternative methods of disease control without finding a single alternative able to replace MB in widespread disease control and yield increase. For the current study, strawberries were greenhouse grown in container pots filled with soil from both infested and non-infested areas of a commercial strawberry field in Watsonville, CA. Treatments included pre-plant soil fumigation with commercially available formulations of methyl bromide, …

Effects Of Milk Processing On The Milk Fat Globule Membrane Constituents, Xiomara E. Elías-Argote

Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

Effects of Milk Processing on the Milk Fat Globule Membrane Constituents

Xiomara E. Elías-Argote

The milk fat globule membrane (MFGM) is avidly studied by many groups of scientists around the world due to its unprecedented nutritional and functional properties; however, limited research has been performed on the effects of milk processing on the chemical changes of the MFGM. Thus, this study highlights the changes that lipids and proteins undergo from the time milk leaves cow’s udders. Cooling (4 °C) was included along with subsequent pasteurization by different traditional thermal processes and cold pasteurization by pulse light ultra violet treatment. …

Controlling The Mineral Content Of Sweet Whey Powder In An Industrial Setting, Matthew W. Sawyer

Dairy Science

The objective of this project was to reduce the final ash content of sweet whey powder. The data for this project was collected over a two-week period, from July 13th to July 27th 2010 in a dairy plant in the Mid-West of the United States. The data is composed of particle size test, ash test, and pH test. The conclusions of this study are that multiple pre-heat treatment tank changes contribute to mineral content by requiring more buffering than usual. The low pH of this pre-heat liquid forces a need for more buffering. Particle segregation may play a role in …

Development And Validation Of A Light Weight, Energy Dense, Ready To Eat (Rte) Bar, Jacob Wilhelm-Maria Heick

Master's Theses

DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF A LIGHT WEIGHT, ENERGY DENSE, READY TO EAT (RTE) BAR

Jacob Wilhelm-Maria Heick

Providing additional calories in the form of an RTE bar to endurance athletes will increase performance and muscle re-synthesis, reduce muscle breakdown, and shorten recovery time. An RTE bar containing a blend of dairy proteins and carbohydrates will create a product with superior functionality, including bioactive and immunity enhancing properties from dairy derived ingredients. The protein will provide benefits in the form of easily digestible calories, essential amino acids and physical satiate.

A formulation was developed and optimized, resulting in a final product …