Electroencephalography (EEG) is the most common method to access brain information. Techniques to monitor and extract brain signal characteristics in farm animals are not as developed as those for humans and laboratory animals. The objective of this study was to develop a noninvasive method for monitoring brain signals in cattle, allowing the animals to move freely, and to characterize these signals. Brain signals from six Holstein heifers that could move freely in a paddock compartment were acquired. The control group consisted of the same number of bovines, contained in a climatic chamber (restrained group). In the second step, the signals were characterized by Power Spectral Density, Short-Time Fourier Transform, and Lempel–Ziv complexity. The preliminary results revealed an optimal electrode position, referred to as POS2, which is located at the center of the frontal region of the ...

This study aimed to evaluate the incorporation of peach palm (PP) pulp and peel flours as substitutes for animal fat (25 and 50% substitution) in beef-based burgers. Incorporation of PP flours reduced hardness, springiness, cohesiveness, chewiness, fat, cooking losses, and diameter reduction. Burgers made with PP peel flour stood out for having low values of lipid oxidation in the two levels of fat substitution (0.14–0.23 malondialdehyde/kg) (p < 0.05). PP fruit has the potential to be utilized as a new ingredient in burgers, but future studies are needed regarding detailed sensory trials and consumer acceptance.

Sweetener type can influence sensory properties and consumer’s acceptance and preference for low-calorie products. An ideal sweetener does not exist, and each sweetener must be used in situations to which it is best suited. Aspartame and sucralose can be good substitutes for sucrose in passion fruit juice. Despite the interest in artificial sweeteners, little is known about how artificial sweeteners are processed in the human brain. Here, we applied the convolutional neural network (CNN) to evaluate brain signals of 11 healthy subjects when they tasted passion fruit juice equivalently sweetened with sucrose (9.4 g/100 g), sucralose (0.01593 g/100 g), or aspartame (0.05477 g/100 g). Electroencephalograms were recorded for two sites in the gustatory cortex (i.e., C3 and C4). Data with artifacts were disregarded, and the artifact-free data were used to feed a Deep Neural Network with tree...

Freezing assisted by pulsed magnetic field (PMF) is an emerging technology that could be used in food preservation. This paper evaluates how PMF-assisted freezing affects the preservation of blueberry and its bioactive compounds. Blueberries were subjected to 8 PMF-assisted freezing treatments: T1 (36.8 mT/30 Hz), T2 (36.8 mT/60 Hz), T3 (36.8 mT/90 Hz), T4 (36.8 mT/20 Hz), T5 (44.7 mT/30 Hz), T6 (44.7 mT/60 Hz), T7 (44.7 mT/90 Hz), and T8 (44.7 mT/120 Hz). In treatment T9 (control), the blueberries were subjected to conventional freezing to −35 °C; T10 represents fresh blueberries. Compared to conventional freezing (T9), PMF-assisted freezing (T1 to T8) gave different parameters of temperature, nucleation time, degree of supercooling, and phase change time. The parameters achieved with T7 evidenced better behavior: smaller crystals were formed, allowing the cellular structure to be pr...

Freshwater algae are considered a very important resource within the food industry due to their high nutritional content and bioactive compounds. This review article aims to address microalgae and macroalgae as alternative/complementary protein sources and explore their potential applications in food products. The main types of freshwater microalgae (including cyanobacteria such as Arthrosporic and green algae such as Chlorella, Scenedesmus, and Haematococcus) are described, their morphology, ecological relevance, and applications (food, nutraceutical, and industrial). Likewise, the extraction and application methods of their components (conventional, ultrasonic, Soxhlet, microwave, CO2 (SFE) are detailed, comparing principles, operating parameters, yields, and benefits for the industry. The proximate and micronutrient composition of each algae (proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, ash, mois...

The impact of temperature and air velocity on the drying of pituca (Colocasia esculenta) sheets was investigated. The samples, 1.5 mm thick, were subjected to a tray dryer at three temperatures (45, 50 and 55 °C) and three air velocities (2.5; 3.0 and 3.5 m/s). After grinding the dried sheets, the physicochemical, microbiological and sensory properties of the pituca flour were analyzed. The findings indicated that the drying curves conformed to the exponential model proposed by Herdenson and Pabis, with a coefficient of determination greater than 96%. The optimum treatment, T9, used a temperature of 55 °C and a speed of 3.5 m/s. It showed a critical moisture of 1.53 g/g dry pituca, an equilibrium moisture of 0.9 g/g dry pituca, and a critical time of 20 minutes. Values for ash, moisture, mesophilic aerobes, molds and yeasts were recorded at 3.37%, 8.04%, 9.90x103 CFU/g, and 2.40x103 ...