Product shelf life evaluation of an enriched yogurt drink containing an omega-3 nanoemulsion with enhanced bioavailability

The aim of the present single-blinded sensory evaluation study was to determine whether study participants (n=62) could detect differences when an algae oil nanoemulsion was integrated with a strawberry yogurt and tasted after storage over 2, 9 and 16 days at 4°C. All samples were prepared using breakfast drinking yogurt, natural sweetener and strawberry flavouring. Products were fortified with nanoemulsified high docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) algae oil to give a dose of 632mg DHA/100g yogurt. A full microbial analysis over 23 days established product safety

The composition and oxidative stability of vegetarian omega-3 algal oil nanoemulsions suitable for functional food enrichment

Background: Long chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (LCn3PUFA) nanoemulsion enriched foods offer potential to address habitually low oily fish intakes. Nanoemulsions increase LCn3PUFA bioavailability, but may cause lipid oxidation. This study examined oxidative stability of LCn3PUFA algal oil-in-water nanoemulsions created by ultrasound using natural and synthetic emulsifiers during 5-weeks of storage at 4, 20 and 40°C. Fatty acid composition, droplet size ranges and volatile compounds were analysed. Results: No significant differences were found for fatty acid composition at various temperatures and storage times. Lecithin nanoemulsions had significantly larger droplet size ranges at baseline and during storage regardless of temperatures. While combined Tween 40 and lecithin nanoemulsions had low initial droplet size ranges, there were significant increases at 40°C after 5-weeks storage. Gas chromatograms identified hexanal and propanal as predominant volatile compounds, along with 2-ethylfuran; propan-3-ol; valeraldehyde. The Tween 40 only nanoemulsion sample showed formation of lower concentrations of volatiles compared to lecithin samples. Formation of hexanal and propanal remained stable at lower temperatures although higher concentrations were found in nanoemulsions than bulk oil. The lecithin only sample had formation of higher concentrations of volatiles at increased temperatures despite having significantly larger droplet size ranges than the other samples. Conclusions: Propanal and hexanal were the most prevalent of five volatile compounds detected in bulk oil and lecithin and/or Tween 40 nanoemulsions. Oxidation compounds remained more stable at lower temperatures indicating suitability for enrichment of refrigerated foods. Further research to evaluate the oxidation stability of these systems within food matrices is warranted

Pressurizing Field-Effect Transistors of Few-Layer MoS2 in a Diamond Anvil Cell

Hydrostatic pressure applied using diamond anvil cells (DAC) has been widely explored to modulate physical properties of materials by tuning their lattice degree of freedom. Independently, electrical field is able to tune the electronic degree of freedom of functional materials via, for example, the field-effect transistor (FET) configuration. Combining these two orthogonal approaches would allow discovery of new physical properties and phases going beyond the known phase space. Such experiments are, however, technically challenging and have not been demonstrated. Herein, we report a feasible strategy to prepare and measure FETs in a DAC by lithographically patterning the nanodevices onto the diamond culet. Multiple-terminal FETs were fabricated in the DAC using few-layer MoS2 and BN as the channel semiconductor and dielectric layer, respectively. It is found that the mobility, conductance, carrier concentration, and contact conductance of MoS2 can all be significantly enhanced with pressure. We expect that the approach could enable unprecedented ways to explore new phases and properties of materials under coupled mechano-electrostatic modulation.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure