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Minor millets are high-energy, nutrient-dense grains essential to a country's nutritional security. Storage pests cause the greatest qualitative and quantitative losses to the stored millets and millet products. Ozone technology was adopted for controlling Tribolium castaneum in the storage of different food grains. In the present study, proso millet was conditioned to different moisture levels of 8, 12, and 16%. It was exposed to ozone to different concentrations of 250, 500, and 750 ppmv with various stages of Tribolium castaneum. The lethal time (LT99) values were found at 268, 475, 160, and 679 mins for adult, pupa, larva, and egg stages of Tribolium castaneum at 750 ppmv and 8% moisture level, respectively. The susceptibility of Tribolium castaneum for ozone disinfestation was found as egg>pupa>adult>larvae. No significant changes were observed between the control and ozone-treated proso millet at 750 ppmv with 8% moisture content in terms of protein, fat, and ash content. FTIR results of ozone-treated proso millet showed that there were significant (p < 0.05) changes in functional compounds. Similarly, no significant changes in the starch granules and protein bodies in ozone-treated proso millet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND Cow ghee is one of the expensive edible fats in the dairy sector. Ghee is often adulterated with low‐priced edible oils, like soybean oil, owing to its high market demand. The existing adulteration detection methods are time‐consuming, requiring sample preparation and expertise in these fields. The possibility of detecting soybean oil adulteration (from 10% to 100%) in pure cow ghee was investigated in this study. The fingerprint information of volatile compounds was collected using a flash gas chromatography electronic nose (FGCEN) instrument. The classification results were studied using the pattern recognition chemometric models principal component analysis (PCA), soft independent modelling of class analogy (SIMCA), and discriminant function analysis (DFA). RESULTS: The most powerful fingerprint odor of all the samples identified from FGCEN analysis was acetaldehyde (Z)‐4‐heptenal, 2‐propanol, ethyl propanoate, and pentan‐2‐one. The odor analysis investigation was accomplished with an average analysis time of 90 s. A clear differentiation of all the samples with an excellent classification accuracy of more than 99% was achieved with the PCA and DFA chemometric methods. However, the results of the SIMCA model showed that SIMCA could only be used to detect ghee adulteration at higher concentration levels (30% to 100%). The validation study shows good agreement between FGCEN and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry methods. CONCLUSION: The methodology demonstrated coupled with PCA and DFA methods for adulteration detection in ghee using FGCEN apparatus has been an efficient and convenient technique. This study explored the capability of the FGCEN instrument to tackle the adulteration problems in ghee. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) is one of the most important secondary storage pests of all types of flour and flour‐based products. The present study focuses on the fragment producing behaviour of T. castaneum in wheat flour during storage and its effect on the quality parameters and defect action level (DAL) of fragments. The US Food and Drug Administration has set a DAL of 75 insect fragments in 50 g of flour. Box–Behnken design was used to optimize the storage conditions (storage period in days and temperature in degrees Celsius) and insect density (numbers) to keep insect fragments below the DAL. RESULTS: Optimization results indicated that the presence of single number of adult of T. castaneum is enough to cross the DAL of insect fragments within a storage period of 21 days at a storage temperature of 30 °C. Insect fragments cause perceptible changes in the quality of wheat flour. When sample attained DAL of T. castaneum fragments in wheat flour,the various quality parameters were analysed in that moisture content of wheat flour was 10.8 ± 0.26%, total colour change was 2.052 (ΔE value), T. castaneum progeny emergence was 19.66 ± 1, uric acid was 1.8 ± 0.16 g kg−1 and microbial count was 7.34 ± 0.5 cfu g−1. CONCLUSIONS: Results from the present study indicate that the presence of even a single adult of stored pest in wheat flour should not be ignored. It is mandatory to determine the threshold level and frequent sampling is required to achieve zero tolerance of stored product insects in food commodities. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Citrus sinensis, Allium sativum, Ocimum basilicum, Mentha spicata, Curcuma longa, Carica papaya, Andrographis paniculata, Azadirachta indica, Cymbopogon citratus and Acorus calamus were compared in the form of extracts of chloroform, hexane and aqueous media for their effectiveness in repelling Tribolium castaneum. Filter paper of 9 cm in diameter was cut into halves. Using a micro‐pipette, each extract was applied to one half of the filter paper. The volume applied was kept constant at 0.6 mL per 30 cm2. The filter paper was dried and reattached leaving a 0.5 cm gap between, in a Petri‐plate. Ten adults of T. castaneum were introduced and the repellency was observed after 30, 60 and 180 min. RESULTS: The aqueous extract of C. papaya exhibited the highest repellency (82–97%) followed by that of garlic bulbs (aqueous extract) with 86.67% repellency. Further, gunny bags were sprayed separately using bottle sprayers with the two most effective extracts at a constant volume of 42 mL per 575 cm2. These treated gunny bags were compared with malathion‐treated gunny bags in the insect management unit. The observations were taken after 2, 8 and 24 h. Papaya leaf extract‐treated gunny bags showed relative repellent activity similar to that of malathion‐treated gunny bags after 24 h of treatment. Thus, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis of aqueous extract of papaya leaves was performed. CONCLUSIONS: It can be concluded that extract of papaya leaves containing 2‐methoxy‐4‐vinylphenol (8.47% peak area) can be used as a repellent biopesticide. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]