Browsing by Author "Ballard, Tameshia Shaunt'a"

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    Application of Edible Coatings in Maintaining Crispness of Breaded Fried Foods
    Ballard, Tameshia Shaunt'a (Virginia Tech, 2003-09-17)
    Crispness is one of the most desirable textural characteristics of breaded fried foods. Consumers often judge the quality of breaded fried foods based on the perceived crispness of the product. Furthermore, today's consumers are showing increasing concern over fat intake. As a result, there is great interest in being able to enhance the crispness and reduce the fat uptake in breaded fried foods without sacrificing other quality attributes. To achieve these goals, modifications to both frying equipment and product formulation have been explored in this study. In this study, two edible film coatings, methylcellulose (MC) and whey protein isolate (WPI) were incorporated into the batter and pre-dust to determine their effect on the crispness of breaded fried chicken nuggets held under a heat lamp for varying time intervals. Crispness was evaluated by both objective (ultrasonic non-destructive evaluation system) and subjective methods. An untrained sensory panel was used to obtain subjective measurements of product crispness. Panelists rated product attributes such as crispness, juiciness, oiliness and flavor on a simple intensity scale. Additionally, panelists rated the liking of the products on a nine-point hedonic scale (1=dislike extremely, 9=like extremely). Two pressure sources (nitrogen gas and steam naturally released from the food material) were used to determine their effects on product crispness, texture, pressed juice, moisture content, fat content and color. Products fried with nitrogen gas as the pressurizing medium produced samples that were comparable to or exceeding the quality of products generated by frying with steam, as it relates to product crispness, texture, pressed juice, moisture content, fat content and color. As related to objective crispness, chicken nuggets fried with nitrogen were significantly crispier (p<0.05) than those fried with steam. Coating type and application also had a significant effect on product crispness. Samples coated with MC in the pre-dust were crispier than samples coated with WPI. However, no significant differences were found in product crispness, juiciness, oiliness or flavor, and overall liking among samples tested by the sensory panel. The results of this study demonstrated that applying an edible film coating to the pre-dust and using nitrogen gas as the pressurizing medium can enhance and maintain the crispness of breaded fried foods.
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    Optimizing the Extraction of Phenolic Antioxidant Compounds from Peanut Skins
    Ballard, Tameshia Shaunt'a (Virginia Tech, 2008-07-08)
    Peanut skins are a low-value byproduct of peanut blanching operations. They have been shown to contain significant levels of phenolic compounds with demonstrated antioxidant properties. The effects of two types of extraction methods: solid-liquid extraction (SLE) and microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) on the recovery of phenolic compounds from peanut skins were investigated. Response surface methodology was used to optimize extraction conditions based on total phenolic content (TPC), ORAC (oxygen radical absorbance capacity) activity and trans-resveratrol content. The protective effect of peanut skin extracts (PSE) against hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂)-induced oxidative stress in human brain microvascular endothelial cells (HBMEC) and the effect of PSE on lipid oxidation in commercial peanut butter were also evaluated. In the SLE method, EtOH was found to be the most efficient extraction solvent followed by MeOH, water and EA. Despite EtOH extracts having a higher TPC, samples extracted with MeOH demonstrated slightly higher ORAC activity. Resveratrol was identified in MeOH extracts but was not found in EtOH, water or EA extracts. In the MAE procedure, the maximum predicted TPC under the optimized conditions was 144 mg phenols/g skins compared to 118 mg/g with SLE. The maximum predicted ORAC activity was 2789 μmol TE/g as opposed to 2149 μmol TE/g with the SLE method. MAE was able to extract more phenolic compounds (with higher antioxidant activity) in a faster time than the SLE procedure. In addition, resveratrol was identified in PSE derived from MAE although at relatively low levels. PSE were found to have some protective effects against oxidative stress in HBMEC. Higher doses of PSE appeared to have a slightly cytotoxic effect. However, the data were highly variable which made it difficult to arrive at any definitive conclusions regarding the potential benefits of PSE in preventing oxidative damage to cells. In the PB experiment, hexanal levels over the storage period were not high enough for the samples to be considered oxidized. However, hexanal values of PB samples treated with PSE were lower than the control throughout storage, which suggests that PSE may provide some protection against oxidation of PB.