Search

Chilled pork retains most of its nutrients but is prone to deterioration during the production-to-consumption process. To address this issue this study aimed to develop zein-Arabic gum composite nanoparticles loaded with oregano essential oil (ZAG-OEO) and incorporate them into sodium alginate films to enhance the freshness and shelf life of chilled pork. Sodium alginate, known for its excellent film-forming properties, was selected as the matrix to prepare ZAG-OEO-containing sodium alginate films (SA-ZAG-OEO). The results revealed that the tensile strength and elongation at break of the prepared films were 47.73 ± 2.15 MPa and 6.27 ± 0.21 %, respectively, at a 2.5 % nanoparticle concentration. The water contact angle of the films incorporating nanoparticles reached 81.5 ± 1.95°. The incorporation of nanoparticles enhanced the thermal stability and antibacterial activity of the films. The prepared films were utilized for the storage of chilled pork, and the quality changes were analyzed. The results demonstrate that SA-ZAG-OEO films inhibit microbial growth and lipid oxidation, thereby delaying pork spoilage. This study offers new insights into extending the shelf life of chilled pork and developing advanced meat preservation methods for the future development of the meat industry., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Cross-linked enzyme aggregates (CLEAs) have emerged as an interesting biocatalyst design for enzyme immobilization. However, the commercialization of CLEAs is often hampered by their shortcomings, such as poor-controlled particle size, low activity and sticky characteristic. In order to overcome these drawbacks, five nanoparticles (NPs) (nano-TiO 2 , nano-MgO, nano-Ni, nano-Cu and nano-Fe 3 O 4 ) were used to improve CLEAs activity and structure in this study. Results showed that moderate dosage of nano-TiO 2 addition increased CLEAs activity, and the most increment was 15.2% relative to CLEAs without NPs. This was possibly due to more channels and smaller size particle of CLEAs after nano-TiO 2 addition. Moreover, nano-TiO 2 addition not only decreased fluorescence intensity but also caused the red shift in tryptophan (Trp) and tyrosine (Typ) residues. Nano-TiO 2 addition decreased K m and increased V max of CLEAs. These changes were benefit to the activity and structure of CLEAs. However, addition of other four NPs (nano-MgO, nano-Ni, nano-Cu and nano-Fe 3 O 4 ) did not increase CLEAs activity and even decrease CLEAs activity due to less amorphous cavities and larger or discrete particle size than CLEAs without NPs. In addition, FT-IR results showed that NPs addition increases the content of regular structure of CLEAs, and causes a partial transformation of β-turn into β-sheet. This study showed that it was potential to improve CLEAs performance by nano-TiO 2 addition., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)