A comparative study on different physicochemical properties of fresh and frozen lamb meat

This study described the comparison of different physicochemical parameters between fresh and frozen lamb meat. The pH measurement for fresh and frozen lamb meat did not show a significant difference. CIE L*a*b* (Commission Internationale de l'éclairage) color measurement technique was used and ∆E (distance between 2 colors) was found 5.32. On shrinkage measurement, there were significant differences (p<0.05) between the fresh and frozen meat. Frozen lamb sample showed 26.99% shrinkage compared to the fresh lamb which showed 18.09% shrinkage. The thawing loss did not show any significant difference. For texture analysis force and work were evaluated together for both fresh and frozen samples through Warner Bratzler texture analysis. The values did not show any significant difference. The absolute values of force and work were significantly different (p<0.05). Water binding capacity of the frozen and fresh sample were 56.57% and 59.27%, respectively. The moisture contents of fresh and frozen sample were 73.64% and 72.85%, respectively. Fat contents of fresh and frozen sample were 5.08% and 6.09% respectively. The study concludes that while comparing fresh and frozen lamb, only shrinkage and texture analysis showed significant difference whereas other physicochemical properties showed minor differences

Flexible Screen Printed Aptasensor for Rapid Detection of Furaneol: A Comparison of CNTs and AgNPs Effect on Aptasensor Performance

Furaneol is a widely used flavoring agent, which can be naturally found in different products, such as strawberries or thermally processed foods. This is why it is extremely important to detect furaneol in the food industry using ultra-sensitive, stable, and selective sensors. In this context, electrochemical biosensors are particularly attractive as they provide a cheap and reliable alternative measurement device. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have been extensively investigated as suitable materials to effectively increase the sensitivity of the biosensors. However, a comparison of the performance of biosensors employing CNTs and AgNPs is still missing. Herein, the effect of CNTs and AgNPs on the biosensor performance has been thoughtfully analyzed. Therefore, disposable flexible and screen printed electrochemical aptasensor modified with CNTs (CNT-ME), or AgNPs (AgNP-ME) have been developed. Under optimized conditions, CNT-MEs showed better performance compared to AgNP-ME, yielding a linear range of detection over a dynamic concentration range of 1 fM&ndash;35 &mu;M and 2 pM&ndash;200 nM, respectively, as well as high selectivity towards furaneol. Finally, our aptasensor was tested in a real sample (strawberry) and validated with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), showing that it could find an application in the food industry

Wearable Sensors for Non-Invasive Sport Monitoring: An Overview of the STEX Project

In this work, we present the research carried out within the STEX (“Smart TEXtiles for monitoring muscle activity”) project, aimed at the development of wearable non-invasive sensors for real-time monitoring of m iuscle activity. The project's activities performednvolved the design, fabrication, characterization and validation of two different sensors: (i) piezoresistive textile-based strain sensors for the detection of the breathing rate (BR) and (ii) flexible electrolyte-gated carbon nanotube field-effect transistor (EG-CNTFET)-based sensors for NH+4 detection in sweat. The piezoresistive textile-based strain sensors proved able to follow the chest movements during quiet breathing with a sensitivity of 22±2% , while a preliminary pilot study confirmed the possibility of using them to estimate the breath-by-breath BR during cycling activity. The EG-CNTFET-based NH+4 sensors showed a linear detection range for ammonium from 0.01 to 10 mM in artificial sweat, which covers the entire range of physiological concentrations of interest, with average sensitivities of 0.346 μA/decade and 96.94% coefficient of determination