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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]

Nutricereal utilization is untapped due to its rapid rancidity by lipolytic hydrolysis of triglycerides during and after milling of grains. The synergistic effect of hot air–assisted radio frequency (HARF) was evaluated on enzyme inactivation by treating pearl millet grains at different processing parameters (10.50 ± 0.50, 12, and 15% moisture levels and 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 min exposure periods) with 180 mm electrode position. HARF (10 kW, 40.68 MHz ± 0.5%) significantly (p <.05) lowered the lipase activity with the increase of HARF exposure time (up to 15 min) for different moisture levels and the maximum lipase inactivation (97.30%) was achieved at 15% moisturized sample processed for 15 min. Based on lipase inactivation and pasting properties, 15 min of exposure period with 5.2 ℃/min heating rate at 15% moisture was identified as optimum condition to obtain maximum reduction (97.3%) of lipase activity with better quality characteristic retention. Novelty impact statement: Rapid off flavors and bitterness development due to hydrolytic rancidity in the pearl millet flour and its products has been the bane of huge postharvest losses. This study revealed that hot air–assisted radio frequency technology can be used as an effective lipase inactivation technique with better quality characteristic retention for commercial application in food industry. No chemical residues are also deliberated to be a significant assistance by this approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]