APPLICATION OF VIS/NIR SPECTROSCOPYFOR RIPENESS EVALUATIONAND POSTHARVEST QUALITY ANALYSISOF AGRO-FOOD PRODUCTS

Agro-food composition at harvest time is one of the most important factors determining the future quality of final products (e.g. wine from grapes and oil from olives). Quality parameters change in function of different product matrix. Measurement of fruits characteristics that impacts on product quality is a requirement for production improvement. Inspection of fruits during ripening is a critical point in all agri-food production chains. This control is usually performed only on small samples that are not always representative of the whole lot. The importance of this monitoring operation is easy to understand, as it determines the economic value of the entire stock. Traditionally, fruits quality evaluation is achieved by a visual and taste assessment of them and evaluation of the traditional quality parameters such as total soluble solids, acidity and texture. The conventional methods to determine fruits quality parameters are time consuming, require preparation of samples, are often expensive, and generally highlight only one or a few aspects of fruits quality. Therefore, there is a strong need in the modern food industry for a simple, rapid, and easy\u2010to\u2010use method for objectively evaluating the quality of fruits. This kind of tool would enable real\u2010time analyses at the receiving station and would allow the preliminary decision\u2010making about grapes during consignment thank to the rapid analysis of various parameters simultaneously. Since food quality is not an individual attribute but it contains a number of inherent characteristics of the food itself, to measure the optical properties of food products has been one of the most studied non-destructive techniques for the simultaneous detection of different quality parameters. In fact, the light reflected from food contains information about constituents in the inner layers of sample and at foodstuff surface also. To achieve objectives of this work, e.g. ripeness evaluation and postharvest quality characteristics of agro-food products, visible near\u2010infrared (vis/NIR) spectroscopy was chosen. In particular, vis/NIR spectroscopy is a rapid and non-destructive technique requiring minimal sample processing before analysis; coupled with chemometric methods, appears to be one of the most powerful analytical tools for studying food products. Chemometrics is an essential part of vis/NIR spectroscopy in food sector. To extract useful information present in the spectra multivariate analysis was carried out. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used for a qualitative analysis of the data and PLS regression analysis as a technique to obtain quantitative prediction of the parameters of interest. The general aim of this work is to study the application of vis/NIR spectroscopy for ripeness evaluation and postharvest quality analysis of agro-food products. In particular this technology was tested to analyse ripening parameters of olives and grapes before to be processed, or to monitor freshness decay of fresh-cut lettuce and apples during long cold storage in controlled atmosphere. Moreover, the feasibility of a simplified handheld and low-cost optical device, based on measurement and processing of diffuse spectral reflectance at a few appropriately selected wavelengths was proposed. This study was focused on identifying the most significant wavelengths able to discriminate in a quick and simple way (i) directly in the field, the blueberries, the grapes, the olives ready to be harvested, (ii) on-line, for the real time monitoring of trend of craft beer fermentation and to estimate qualitative and quantitative parameters or (iii) during shelf life, freshness levels of fresh-cut Lamb\u2019s lettuce (Valerianella locusta Laterr.). The final aim of this work is to realize a simplified modular optical device (with few selected wavelengths) for single sample, non-destructive, and quick prediction of fruit ripeness degree and quality parameters evaluation. The first prototype of simplified optical device was realized for red grapes study and is characterized by the presence of four LEDs emitting at the wavelengths of interest. LED technology was chosen as illumination source of the sample, and allows obvious advantages in term of simplification and cost reduction. The design of the prototype of the simplified optical device was realised with particular attention to versatility and modularity. The possibility to adjust the light source with a specific choice of wavelengths for LEDs, makes it possible to use the same simplified optical device for many different application. This modular design allows an easy adjustment for different objective and for different kind of food sample matrix

Solvatomorphism of Moxidectin

The solvatomorphism of the anthelmintic drug moxidectin is investigated, and a new solvatomorph with nitromethane is reported. Moreover, the hitherto unknown crystal structures of the solvatomorphs with ethanol and 2-propanol are reported and discussed. The thermal characterization of these solvatomorphs through variable-temperature powder X-ray diffraction analysis (VT-PXRD) is also described, providing new insights into the crystallochemistry of this active pharmaceutical ingredient

Environmental impact of a new concept of food service: A case study for the re-use of naval shipping containers

This study aims to evaluate the environmental sustainability of a new street food format for food service based on the re-use of naval shipping containers and to compare it with the conventional one (street food truck). The environmental impact analysis was performed using the Life Cycle Assessment methodology. The functional unit (FU) was identified in the food service, including three food preparations: a dish of pasta (100 g), one sandwich (150 g) and one portion of fries (200 g). Following a \u201cfrom cradle to gate\u201d approach, the factors studied are: (i) the customization of a shipping container in a street food format, (ii) the construction and use of the cooking appliance, (iii) the logistics, (iv) the cooking phase (including final packaging as food cup). The life cycle of ingredients for food preparations has been neglected due to the variability of the products. The results show that the two higher hotspots are electricity consumed by cooking appliance (35%) and oil used to fry (34%), attributable only to the fries preparation. The third hotspot is imputable to the customized structure, with an average percentage value equal to 15%. Considering the global warming impact category, the customization into a street food format release 1280 kg CO2eq, while the production of a new container or a new street food truck format implies the emission of 12,800 kg CO2eq and 20,900 kg CO2eq respectively. The impact of the customized container (re-used container) weight for 0.04 kg CO2eq/FU, this value increases 11.6 times for a new container street food format, and 17 times for a new street food truck format. Overall, quantifying the environmental damage, the results showed how the re-use of a naval shipping container can be a way to reduce the environmental impact of food preparation, avoiding dismissing or building activity of the structure reducing the impact of the structure of about 95% offering a more sustainable street food services

N-arylbenzamides: extremely simple scaffolds for the development of novel estrogen receptor agonists.

The research of estrogen receptor (ER) ligands has benefited in the last decade from the implementation of combinatorial chemistry. The general pharmacophore has been identified and subsequently a multitude of compounds have been synthesized. Surprisingly, up to now simple amides have not been taken into consideration. Here we show that amides resulting from the condensation of hydroxybenzoic acids with aminophenols result in compounds retaining the pharmacophore structure of an ER ligand with a clear estrogenic activity

Better Water Use Efficiency in Vineyard by Using Visible and Near Infrared Spectroscopy for Grapevine Water Status Monitoring

Optimizing water consumption and improving its quality are considered central issues for the future also in the wine industry which places a significant demand on the world\u2019s water resources. Grapevine growing regions are mostly characterised by water stress conditions due to high evaporative demand and low water availability. In addition to this, recently the global warming has determined an increasingly use of irrigation. Consequently, a high efficiency of water use is required both by scheduling properly the irrigation system and by measuring the use of water. Nowadays irrigation scheduling in vineyards is performed through the measurement of soil moisture status using time consuming systems that are not easy to apply in field, may be affected by cumulative errors, may not be representative because of soil heterogeneity, and these methods increase moreover the irrigation costs. The increasing water shortages are leading to develop new tools to better manage irrigation monitoring and scheduling for high water use efficiency. This results in a need of rapid water status monitoring systems in order to better manage crop and irrigation scheduling for a high water use efficiency. The objective was to predict the water status of grapevine in a rapid and non-destructive way using two portable optical devices (vis/NIR and NIR) for measurements directly on the leaves, in order to evaluate the feasibility of a compact-sized simplified handheld and low-cost optical device, based on a few wavelengths appropriately selected. The specific aims were (1) to obtain essential wavelength variables (EV) based on a variable selection method, correlating the vis/NIR and NIR spectra and the water status; (2) to choose a limited number of informative wavelengths; (3) to compare the prediction performance of the calibration models calibrated on the vis/NIR and NIR spectra and those obtained using only the selected wavelengths. As references, a Scholander pressure chamber was used to measure the water potential (\u3a8). Measurements were made during the night in pre-dawn conditions (pre-dawn leaf water potential, \u3a8plwp) (3.00 to 5.00 hours, solar time). The water potential (\u3a8) was measured immediately after spectral acquisitions. A variable selection methodology (partial least square regression coefficient analysis, PLS-RCA) was proposed to determine a reduction of variables set that are effective in the prediction of \u3a8 related to grapevine water status. Multiple linear regression (MLR) was applied to select the candidate wavelengths in order to validate the prediction ability, compared with the PLS models built using the full vis/NIR and NIR spectra. The overall prediction results of the MLR models were satisfactory. These individual fingerprint wavelengths and simply equations could be used for the design of a simplified LED technology based handheld device which would allow real-time assessment of \u3a8 directly in field. This envisaged device could be employed for the estimation of the three leaf water potentials (pre-dawn leaf water potential, \u3a8plwp; stem water potential, \u3a8swp; leaf water potential, \u3a8lwp), depending on the measurement timing across the day and the leaf sampling methodology. The simplified, low-cost, and easy-to-use device proposed allow to avoid specific chemometric analyses and trained personnel, in order to support or replace the tedious and time consuming conventional techniques in the water status assessment of the vineyard providing information useful for a better management of the irrigation scheduling