Effects of ohmic heating on technological properties of whole egg

The aim of this work was to study the effects of different ohmic heating conditions on color, rheology, foaming, and gelling properties of whole egg. Industrial products treated by conventional heat pasteurization and the corresponding raw materials were also evaluated. Ohmic treatments accomplished in a static cell (65.5 \ub0C 73 min, 70 \ub0C 71 min, and 67 \ub0C 74.5 min) increased whole egg apparent viscosity (up to 190%), but also foam overrun (up to 28%) and gel hardness (up to 15%). The performance improvement was confirmed by treatments carried out in a continuous pilot plant (71 \ub0C 70.6 min, 68 \ub0C 71.4 min) and the products resulted stable during storage at 4 \ub0C for 30 days. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that ohmic heating is a suitable alternative to conventional pasteurization. Low temperature treatments are preferable to avoid possible rheological issues due to protein denaturation. Industrial relevance: Whole egg is a protein ingredient with multiple technological properties, used in many foods. Due to safety reasons, food manufacturers often use pasteurized liquid egg products, microbiologically safer and easier to handle with respect to shell eggs. In order to satisfy the required sanitary levels for liquid egg products, thermal pasteurization treatments are needed. However, since egg proteins are very sensitive to high temperatures, attention must be paid to avoid coagulation entailing deleterious effects against egg quality. In this study, different ohmic heating treatments were evaluated as milder alternatives to conventional pasteurization. The lab- and pilot-scale experiments and the subsequent statistical analyses of the obtained results contributed to assess the effects of the different ohmic treatments on technological features (e.g. color, rheology, foaming, and gelling properties) of liquid whole egg. This study demonstrated that ohmic heating is a suitable technology for whole egg treatment, paving the way for new opportunities in order to produce safe food ingredients with improved technological functionalities

An Integrated Theoretical/Experimental Study of Quinolinic-Isoquinolinic Derivatives Acting as Reversible Electrochromes

A series of compounds, featuring an ethenylic bridge and quinoline and isoquinoline end capping units possessing systematically varied substitution patterns, were prepared as molecular materials for electrochromic applications. The different structures were optimized in order to maximize the electrochromic contrast in the visible region, mostly by achieving a completely UV-absorbing oxidized state. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations are exploited in order to rationalize the correlation between the molecular structure, the functional groups' electronic properties, and the electrochemical behavior. It is shown that the molecular planarity (i.e. ring/ring pi conjugation) plays a major role in defining the mechanism of the electrochemical charge transfer reaction, while the substituent's nature has an influence on the LUMO energy. Among the compounds here studied, the (E)-10-methyl-9-(2-(2-methylisoquinolinium1- yl)-vinyl)-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroacri-dinium trifluoromethanesulfonate derivative shows the most interesting properties as an electrochromophore