Conference papers

Development Of New Functional Food Applications Of Edible Irish Seaweed

Sabrina Cox — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 05:08:27 PST

Antioxidant And Antimicrobial Activity From Six Species Of Edible Irish Seaweeds

Sabrina Cox — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 04:51:44 PST

Apple Pomace as a Potential Ingredient for the Development of New Functional Foods

Sofia F. Reis et al. — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 07:45:20 PDT

Apple pomace (AP) is the main by-product of cider industry being mainly composed of carbohydrates and dietary fibre, small amounts of protein, fat and ash. In addition AP is also a good source of phytochemicals such as phenolic acids and flavonoids making AP a valuable source of antioxidants. The common applications of this by-product are the direct disposal to soil in a landfill and for pectin recovery usage. These applications are not sufficient to drain the several tonnes produced every year and studies to valorise the AP for other purposes have gained momentum. AP due to its chemical composition, rich in fibre with significant amounts of antioxidants, can be incorporated in human food-chain thus generating new potential functional foods. Extruded snacks and baked scones were incorporated with increasing levels (0-30%) of AP. The incorporation of AP from the chemical and nutritional analysis was successful with 20% addition in extruded snacks and 30% addition in baked scones. At these levels of incorporation fibre content, phenolic content and antioxidant capacity (DPPH radical scavenging activity, FRAP and β-carotene/linoleic acid system) increased when compared to the products with no AP incorporation. Chlorogenic acid and quercetin were the major phenolic compounds of AP incorporated extruded and baked products. Feruloylquinic acid, isorhamnetin/rhamnetin, phloretin, luteolin and rutin were also present in the AP based products. The AP incorporated baked products also showed the presence of catechin/epicatechin and phloridzin. Nevertheless, compounds other than phenolics affected the antioxidant activities of AP incorporated extruded and baked products probably products resulting from Maillard reaction. These data suggest that AP from a chemical and nutritional point of view can be successfully incorporated in extruded and baked products conferring fibre and antioxidant properties to the final products.

Effect of Solvents on the Extractability of Phenolic Constituents and their Antioxidant Capacity from Irish Seaweed

Gaurav Rajauria et al. — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 01:26:14 PDT

Seaweeds are being used for human consumption in the Orient and help them live longer with low levels of hypertension, cancer and other ailments. The study aimed at extraction of principle constituents using a wide range of solvents and their mixtures on the basis of polarity, from Irish brown seaweeds namely Himanthalia elongata, Laminaria saccharina and Laminaria digitata. All the extracts were screened for total phenolic content (TPC) and their potential antioxidant capacity, using 2, 2´-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay. Among all the solvents tested, 60% methanolic extract and equi-volume mixture of chloroform, diethyl ether and n-hexane (Mix 4) extract exhibited the highest TPC which were in the range of 46.6 ± 2.8 to 156.0 ± 2.4 and 52.7 ± 1.9 to 128.2 ± 1.6 mg gallic acid equivalent/g respectively, among all the seaweed. Interestingly, the same extracts showed the highest antioxidant capacity wherein the value of FRAP ranged from 4.9 ± 0.13 to 11.7 ± 0.23 and 8.3 ± 0.23 to 26.3 ± 0.30 mg trolox equivalent/g, respectively, in all the seaweed studied. Results concluded that different solvents extract different amount of phenolic antioxidant compounds from seaweed. Thus, seaweed can be considered as potential source of natural antioxidants for food and pharmaceuticals purposes.

Bioactive Potential of Marine and Terrestrial Vegetables: A Comparative Study

Amit Jaiswal et al. — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 01:23:09 PDT

Polyphenols are extensively used in food, beverage, pharmaceuticals and nutraceutical industry for their positive effects on human health. Present study was designed to estimate the differences in polyphenols level and antioxidant capacity between marine and terrestrial vegetables. Considerable variations in the total phenolic content (TPC) and total flavonoid content (TFC) were observed, which ranges from 20.4 to 140.2 mg GAE/g of extracts (dw) for TPC and 15.4 to 50.4 mg QE/g of extracts (dw) for TFC. Furthermore, antioxidant capacity was confirmed by all the extracts. Results showed that marine vegetables had significantly higher polyphenols content and antioxidant property compared to terrestrial counterparts.

Response Surface Methodology Approach for the Optimization of LAB Fermentation Using Vegetable Based Substrate

Amit Jaiswal et al. — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 01:21:03 PDT

In the present studies, an attempt was made to optimize the conditions for the lactic acid bacteria (LAB) fermentation using Irish York cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata alba subvar. conica) as a substrate. Prior to fermentation with Lactobacillus plantarum, York cabbage was blanched at 95°C for 12 min to inactivate surface microflora. To achieve an optimal fermentation condition which would result in higher release of phytochemicals and antioxidant capacity in the broth, Box-Behnken design integrating a desirability approach was used. The optimized factors (fermentation time 36h, solid/liquid ratio 0.25 g/ml and agitation rate 100 rpm) were used for fermenting York cabbage. Results showed that there was ≈5 log cfu/ml increment in bacterial growth after fermentation; whereas lactic acid production reached up to 4.97 mg/ml. Fermentation retains 95-98% and 90-95% of total phenolic content (TPC) and antioxidant (AO) capacity, respectively. On contrary, none of the glucosinolates were observed in the York cabbage broth while Isothiocyanates content almost doubled after fermentation.

Work Placement Blogs to Harness Diverse Learning Experiences and Foster a Community of Practice

Julie Dunne — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 09:11:34 PST

Students on work placement will have very different experiences from each other, however they are generally not connected to their peers, but working with professionals under the guidance of a college tutor. Therefore during placement they are not formally supported by peers and cannot learn from the diverse range of activities their peers will experience. An active learning community and a sense of connectedness to others are critical to real learning (LaPointe, 2008), while learning through participation in a community of practice involves sharing experiences and discovering how to improve by regularly interacting with peers (Wenger, 2002). The aim of this project was to introduce a blog assessment for pharmacy technician students to encourage reflection on performance and the development of a community of practice, which together are important steps towards lifelong learning. Benefits of embedding online discussion forums include engaging students in collaborative learning, encouraging deeper analysis and critical thinking (McNamara, 2009), and recently the use of blogs as reflective tools for students on placement has been utilised (Wolf, 2010).

This presentation describes the implementation of online work placement blogs to allow work placement experiences to be shared with the whole class. Feedback mechanisms are discussed, along with assessment strategies which actively promoted student interaction with their peers. This ensured that all students had the potential to learn: from each other’s experiences, from tutor feedback on peer blogs and from the process of peer review.

Pedagogical evaluation was through an anonymous multiple choice questionnaire (N=33) and results suggest a very positive response to blogs for learning generally, and particularly for learning through sharing diverse experiences.

Putting the Student in Charge: Adding Value to the Food Chemistry Laboratory Through Student Generated Experiments, Integration of Transferable Skills and Peer and Audio Feedback

Julie Dunne — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 08:21:32 PST

This paper describes the implementation of an alternative laboratory practical for a group of third year BSc Nutraceuticals students. The main objectives were to prepare students for the more independent final year research project; to incorporate innovative approaches to feedback; and to integrate key employability skills into the curriculum. These were achieved through building the skills required to ultimately allow students working in groups to research, design and run a laboratory for their class. The project involved innovative approaches to feedback, including weekly feedback sessions, report checklists and audio feedback podcasts. The feedback has been particularly well received, and there is evidence that it will be reusable and will ‘feed-forward’ to other modules. The author, and the students in general, believe the group are more prepared for final year research projects and work placement owing to the redesign of the laboratory assessment.

Integrating Formative Feedback into Individual and Group Assessments in a First Year Organic Chemistry Module

Barry Ryan et al. — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 02:37:56 PST

It is common for science undergraduates, particularly first year students, to remark that they do not receive appropriate support in their transition from second level to third level education; particularly in effective scientific laboratory report writing, new subject area preparedness and technical ‘know-how’ [1]. This is compounded by the insufficient, or inappropriate, feedback offered to students in these problem areas. The pedagogical emphasis often focuses on quantity rather than quality; both in report writing and content delivered. This publication describes an assessment methodology redesign to, firstly, incorporate on-line formative feedback and; secondly, to introduce one-to-one and one-to-group lab report feedback in a first year organic chemistry module to specifically target the problem areas aforementioned.

Enhancing the Learning Experience: Learning for the Unknown Future

Barry Ryan — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 02:37:55 PST

In this presentation the effects of an altered teaching methodology, in which the "student as producer" approach was adopted, are outlined. Currently, many students exist as knowledge consumers; however, Neary and Winn (2009) have suggested the positive effect on students learning through the inclusion of research-like activities at the core of the undergraduate curriculum; the students act as "producers" of knowledge.

Hyperspectral Imaging for the Detection of Microbial Spoilage of Mushrooms

Edurne Gaston et al. — Mon, 30 May 2011 09:58:54 PDT

Brown blotch, caused by pathogenic Pseudomonas tolaasii, is the most problematic bacterial disease in Agaricus bisporus mushrooms; it reduces their consumer appeal in the market place, thus generating important economical losses worldwide. The mushroom industry is in need of fast and accurate evaluation methodologies to ensure that only high quality produce reaches the market. Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) is a non-destructive technique that combines imaging and spectroscopy to obtain spatial and spectral information from an object. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential of Vis-NIR HSI to identify microbiological damage in mushrooms and to discriminate it from mechanical damage. Hyperspectral images of mushrooms subjected to i) no treatment, ii) microbiological spoilage and iii) mechanical damage were taken during storage and spectra representing each of the classes were selected. Partial least squares- discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) was carried out in two steps: i) discrimination between undamaged and damaged mushrooms and ii) discrimination between damage sources (i.e. microbiological or mechanical). The models were applied at a pixel level and a decision tree was used to classify mushrooms into one of the aforementioned classes. A correct classification of >95% was achieved. This was the first reported study to employ HSI for the detection of damage of bacterial origin in horticultural products. The industry could incorporate the knowledge gained in this study towards the development of a HSI sensor to detect and classify mushroom damage of microbial and mechanical origin, enabling the rapid and automated identification of mushrooms of reduced marketability.