eChapters

• General considerations

 • Purpose

 • Scope

 • Five pillars of GLP

 • Good laboratory practice principles

• Test facility organization and personnel

 • Quality assurance programme

 • Facilities

 • Apparatus, materials and reagents

 • Test systems

 • Test and reference items

 • Standard operating procedures

 • Performance of the study

Analytical testing provides objective evidence of the composition, safety, physical structure, and sensory quality of ice cream. This chapter introduces the major analytical approaches used in industrial ice cream manufacturing, including chemical, physical, microbiological, and sensory evaluation. Important parameters such as fat, milk solids-not-fat, protein, sugars, ash, acidity, pH, overrun, meltdown, fat destabilization, texture, and product weight are discussed. The chapter explains how different tests support routine quality control, product development, troubleshooting, research, regulatory compliance, and shelf-life studies. It emphasizes that no single analytical parameter can define overall quality. Effective product evaluation requires integrated interpretation of chemical, physical, sensory, microbiological, and storage data.

Synonyms: Pearl's disease, scrofula

It is a chronic insidious contagious disease of man and animals caused by tubercle bacilli characterized by development of tubercles in lung tissue, lymph nodes or other organs resulting in caseation and calcification. The tubercles are frequently located in lungs and lymph nodes. But they may be formed in the liver, spleen, intestine, peritoneum, meninges and long bones. It is a zoonotic disease. Bovine tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis) is considered as the serious epizootics of animals and humans. Bovine species are natural hosts to the disease, but a wide spectrum of domestic and wild animals, as well as man, can be infected. Animals reported as having been infected with M. bovis include North American bison (Bison bison), buffaloes (Syncerus caffer), elk (Cervus elaphus), domestic and wild pigs domestic (Sus scrofa), goats (Capra hircus), camels (Camelus bactrianus), dogs (Canis familiaris), cats (Fells catus), sheep (Ovis aries), possums (Trichosurus vulpecula), badgers (Meles meles), mink (Lutreola vison), ferrets (Putorius furo) and non-human primates. All species are not equally susceptible, and are often grouped into spill-over (end) hosts and maintenance hosts. Cattle and other bovine species are considered the primary and most well-known reservoirs or maintenance hosts. In countries where maintenance hosts are present endemically in the wild, infection from these populations to domestic cattle or other farm animals is difficult to avoid. In Africa, bovine TB primarily affects cattle; however, infection in other farm and domestic animals, such as sheep, goats, pigs, dogs and cats, is not uncommon. Wild ruminants and carnivores are also affected and are the natural reservoirs of the infectious agent in the wild. Man is also susceptible to the disease, the highest risk groups being individuals with concomitant HIV/AIDS infection. In Africa, human TB is widely known to be caused by M. tuberculosis; however, an unknown proportion of cases are due to M. bovis. This infection in humans is underreported as a result of the diagnostic limitations of many laboratories in distinguishing M. bovis from M. tuberculosis. TB is a neglected public health problem and accounts for about 25% of all avoidable adult deaths in developing countries. It is of socio-economic significance, as it can affect international trade in animals and animal products. Many factors account for the failure of developing countries to control and eradicate bovine TB, many of them politico-economic. Added to the high costs of a sustainable testing programme are problems of social unrest due to political instability and ethnic wars, resulting in the displacement of large numbers of human and animal populations; lack of veterinary expertise and communication networks; insufficient collaboration with bordering countries and hence a lack of quarantine; and smuggling of live animals across state boundaries. Scarce human and financial resources are often absorbed by action against the high incidence of other acute and fatal diseases, such as contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, foot and mouth disease, African and classical swine fever and parasitic diseases. The primary sources of infection for humans are consumption of unpasteurised milk and close association between humans and animals. Rural inhabitants and some urban dwellers in Africa still consume unpasteurised and soured milk potentially infected with M. bovis. Milk borne infection is the main cause of non-pulmonary TB in areas where bovine TB is common and uncontrolled.

Introduction

Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus (L).is a cross pollinated vegetable crop. Okra originated near about Ethiopia& its cultivation became widespread in North Africa and the Middle East (Lamont, 1999; Tindal, 1983). Okra is grown commercially in many nations, such as Ethiopia, Cyprus, India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, Iran, Western Africa, Yugoslavia, Myanmar, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Brazil, Southern United States, and Ethiopia (Purseglove, 1987; benjawan et al. 2007; Qhureshi, 2007). It is a widely used, high-valued vegetable crop that is commercially grown for its tender pods during the spring, summer, and kharif seasons. Okra has high moisture content, making it a good source of vitamins, minerals, and mucilage. Okra is cultivated and consumed commercially throughout the year in many different places of India. 

Resistance to diseases in plants may be enhanced by incorporating resistance genes in susceptible cultivars and this disease management strategy is considered to be the most desirable one. But unavailability of reliable sources of resistance and the requirement of long periods for development of cultivars with built-in resistance have limited the usefulness of this approach. Employing genetic engineering techniques for obtaining resistant cultivars appears to hold promise. However, in the light of expression of concern for the long term effects of genetically modified crops and plant products in several countries, the feasibility of exploiting the genetic engineering methods remains a question mark. In this context, the possibility of inducing natural disease resistance (NDR) mechanisms operating in existing cultivars with high yield potential to provide protection to crops and harvested produce against diseases, has attracted the attention of researchers in several countries. This approach does not involve the introduction of any foreign gene into the plant, but it regulates the expression of defense genes in the susceptible plants. Furthermore this approach is as safe as the use of genetically resistant cultivars for the preservation of environment, since the same mechanisms of resistance are activated in plants with either genetic resistance or induced resistance. Intensive research is being carried out to select effective agents that can be used as inducers of resistance in crop plants to contain various diseases, as alternatives to the development of resistant cultivars through conventional breeding and genetic engineering methods

1. Morphology of Bacteria
Structure of Bacteria
Bacteria are very small with a diameter of 0.5 – 1 μm in size. Due to this small size the surface area / volume ratio is very high compared to that of large organisms of similar shape. The large surface area compared to a small volume facilitates easy nourishment of all areas of the cell. So there is no circulatory mechanism to distribute the nutrients and there is little or no cytoplasmic movement within the cell.
i) Shape
Bacteria exhibit three types of morphology;
• Spherical - cocci (coccus) - Greek word kokkos, meaning a berry
• Straight rods - bacilli (bacillus) - Latin word bacillus, meaning a stick
• Helically curved rods -spirilla (spirillum)
Variations in these basic forms are also seen. Eg: cocobacillary, ovoid and filamentous.

INTRODUCTION
Agroforestry is a land use option that increase livelihood security and reduce vulnerability to climate and environmental change. Agro-forestry has many potential, such as to enhance the overall (biomass) productivity, soil fertility improvement, soil conservation, nutrient cycling, micro-climate improvement, carbon sequestration, bio drainage, bio- energy and biofuel etc. There are many agroforestry systems practiced in India from time immemorial, but the potential of home gardens and their socio-economic significance is very well documented.   Home gardens represent land use systems involving deliberate management of multipurpose trees and shrubs in intimate association with annual and perennial agricultural crops  and livestock within the compounds of individual houses (Fernandes and Nair 1986). Home gardens can also be called as Multitier system or Multitier cropping. Home gardens are highly productive, sustainable and very practicable. Food production is primary function of most home gardens on sustenance basis.

There are several types of features and structures of the gardens. The design, material and placement varies from one type of garden to others. However, there are some basic requirements in every type of gardens. Common features and structures of the gardens are described hereunder for providing some basic information.

Boundary

Material and construction of the outer boundary is to be considered depending upon the size and type of garden. Protection, permanency and cost of construction are the main factors. It should be well designed and an architectural show piece co-relating with type and design of the garden. Ornamental creepers are planted along the boundary wall and trained over the same for further beautification purpose.

Introduction 
The increase in the concern over the climatic changes as well as the dwindling fossil fuels reserves have intensified the search for the sustainable energy sources. The algal biofuels garnered the attention because of their fastest growth rates, as well as their capability to grow in a non-arable land, higher lipid content, as well as the capability to absorb the CO2. Therefore, the larger scale implementation of the algal biofuels can face a lot of environmental, economic, as well as the technological challenges which needs further investigations (1). One of the current green energy and renewable alternative answers to the world’s current energy problems is the development of algal biofuel (2). Because algae biofuels are environmentally beneficial, they have been seen as a clean energy source (3). An integrated biorefinery strategy could be applied to bio transform algal biomass into many biofuels, including bioethanol, biobutanol, biogas, biohydrogen, and biodiesel, in order to fulfil the energy requirement. Nonetheless, a lot of an obstacles stand in the way of the development, manufacturing, as well as use of microalgal biomass technology. (4). These problems include the creation of affordable microalgal production systems, efficient microalgal growth systems, effective microalgal harvesting techniques that save energy, effective microalgal extraction methods, and economical and environmentally friendly microalgal conversion procedures. Many microalgal technologies are examined in this chapter, along with their applications, difficulties, case studies, and prospects. (5). Algae are appealing feedstock sources for the manufacturing of biofuels. Algae may be applicable to produce important goods like as nutraceuticals, biodiesel, biogas, as well as bioethanol (6). Biofuels are benign to the environment, renewable, and biodegradable. Algae are very valuable because of their higher lipid content as well as fast development. The largest class of algae, known as chlorophytes, includes both macro- and microalgae and is used in bioremediation, the water treatment, the food production, the medicine, as well as the energy production. We discussed many techniques for planting, harvesting, and processing in this chapter. The selection of high lipidcontaining algae strains, commercial harvesting, high infrastructure, operation, and maintenance expenses, and water evaporation problems seem to be the main obstacles. It will take creative and effective methods to make the manufacturing of algae-based biofuels desirable. Increasing the production of biofuels will contribute to the preservation of natural resources, which will protect the environment (7).

1. Introduction

In the field of sustainable agriculture our main aim to produce high quality, safe and affordable food for ever-increasing worldwide population. Today, global agriculture is at crossroads and this is the consequence of climatic change, increased population pressure and detrimental environmental impacts. Furthermore, agricultural growers and producers have the additional constraints of economic profitability and sustainability. During the last couple of decades excessive amounts of chemicals are used to improve plant health, productivity and for management of plant pathogens, which has disturbed the ecological balance of soil and has led to the depletion of nutrients. Therefore, there has been ever-increasing interest to develop new mechanisms to ensure food security through sustainable crop production system that will supply adequate nutrition without harming the agroecosystem. Plant growth in agricultural soil is influenced by many abiotic and biotic factors. There is a thin layer of soil immediately surrounding plant roots that is an extremely important and active area for root activity and metabolism which is known as rhizosphere.

Introduction

Fish is the cleanest animal, gets bath 24 hrs a day provided water is clean without any toxic material. Perhaps this was the scenario world over 5 decades ago. However, in the last few decades due to industrialisation, modernisation of agriculture and animal husbandry, human health care industry and city developments all have contributed to toxic material to water endangering the fish and the consumer, leave alone clean environment. In recent years, even intensive aquaculture also add several chemicals, pesticides, antibiotics contributing to pollution. Natural water bodies such as rivers, lakes, reservoirs, scoastal/marine waters are ultimate receivers of pollutants which also serve as the source of water for aquaculture. Although pollution control by treatment measures and awareness have improved over the years still there is a long way to achieve the clean water. Effect of toxins in aquaculture has multiple angles, differing from that of toxins on land animal. Fish depends heavily on water for respiration, physiology, reproduction, food and feeding and its very sustenance- as a supporting medium.

Aquaculture is expanding world over growing at 6-8% gradually involving more areas and species contributing a major share to total fish production with gradual decline in capture fisheries from the natural water bodies. Invariably, most of the natural water bodies are polluted with one pollutant or the other in the country. In addition, several pollutants are added to the system by various aquacultural practices. Although large quantity of information is available on aquatic toxicology, toxicology in aquaculture from health point view of fish and the consumer is meager and not focused. Against this background, it is very important to study, understand various toxicants, their mode of action, accumulation and effect on fish and the consumer. Toxicology in aquaculture is incomplete unless it includes or addresses safety of the consumers. Further, poisoning of fish in farms and wild deliberately or otherwise needs forensic studies/approach to address the issues.

Azolla, a fresh water fem is a rich source of nitrogen especially for low land rice farming. It is found in rice paddies in many tropical countries like China, India, Korea, Philippines and Vietnam. The agronomic importance of Azolla lies in its ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen through the symbiotic association with a blue-green alga, Anabaena azolae. The symbiotic association can fix nitrogen proportional to its biomass produced. When Azolla is grown in paddy f ields and subsequently incorporated as green manure, the nitrogen contained within Azolla biomass is mineralized during the process of decomposition.

Azolla is a genus of small aquatic fern comprising 7 living and 25 fossil species, which is globally distributed. It occurs on still water ponds, lakes, swamps, lagoons and paddy fields in both tropical and temperate regions. Because of its rapid growth, high nitrogen percent and its ability to grow in stagnated waters, it has been used as organic manure in Vietnam and China for centuries. Its use in India and other countries is relatively recent. Azollla pinnata is native to India and widely distributed.

Controlled environment agriculture (CEA) refers to methods of cultivating crops in managed environments to optimize resources and increase productivity. CEA systems regulate both the aerial and root environments, ensuring that plants stay within their ideal growth conditions. One popular method within CEA is indoor hydroponic farming, where crops, including fruits and vegetables, are grown without soil.
CEA includes various levels of technology integration to achieve optimal
plant growth, including:
• Low-level Integration: Basic environmental control in open-field production, such as shading and irrigation systems.
• Passive Environmental Controls: Systems for soil-based crop production, such as covering materials and high tunnel structures. • Integrated Sensors and Active Control Systems: Used in greenhouse systems to regulate environmental factors and enhance sunlight.
• Full Indoor Production: The most advanced method, where technology is used to create an ideal environment for plants independent of external conditions.
HYDROPONIC SYSTEMS
In hydroponic systems, plants are either grown with their roots in direct contact with liquid nutrient solutions (often supported by floating rafts or trays) or placed in containers with other types of soilless media like coconut coir, rockwool, or peat mixes. Irrigation delivers all necessary nutrients in these soilless systems. Advantages and Disadvantages
Hydroponic systems offer several benefits, including:
• Year-Round Production: Crops can be grown continuously, even during winter months.

Vegetables have got an important place in agriculture development, human diet and economy of the country. All the developed and developing countries realized the importance of vegetables an essential diet due to medicinal and nutritional value for human health. There is a steady upward trend in vegetable production. China is ranking first in the world and currently produces 237 million tonne of vegetables. India has made a quantum jump in vegetable production securing the second position in the world. The total production of vegetable is more than 91 million tonne in the country. Diseases and pests are the most important factors for low vegetable production. Various fungi, bacteria, viruses, phytoplasmas, nematodes and weeds are responsible for causing diseases in vegetables resulting heavy reduction in yield and quality.

Biology is in the middle of a major paradigm shift driven by computing technology. Due to the impact of information technology, biological sciences have been rapidly becoming much more computational and analytical. Rapid progress in research in the field of genetics and related field combined with the tools provided by modern biotechnology has generated massive volumes of genetic and protein sequence data over last two decades. Compilation, storage, analysis for extraction of information and knowledge from this data becomes a challenging task as usual analytical procedures are not directly applicable to these data sets.
 
Bioinformatics has been defined as a means for analysing, comparing, graphically displaying, modeling, storing, systemising, searching, and ultimately distributing biological information, which includes sequences, structures, functions, and phylogeny. Thus, bioinformatics may be defined as a discipline that generates computational tools, databases, and methods to support genomic and post-genomic research. It comprises the study of DNA structure and function, gene and protein expression, protein production, structure and function, genetic regulatory systems, and clinical applications. Bioinformatics applications need knowledge from computer science, mathematics, statistics, medicine, chemistry and biology.

1    General line of treatment of poisoning in animals

2    Systemic antidotes-dosage and method of treatment large animals

3    Small animals

4    Plant toxins

5    Zoo toxins

INTRODUCTION

Potato production in India has shown a steady increase in the past, presently making the country second largest potato producer in the world. As per the latest available data, during 2018-19, approximately 52.5 million metric tons of potatoes have been produced (NHB, 2019). Increase in production, often resulting in gluts at harvest, has led to several post-harvest problems like storage and proper utilization of the produce. About 90% of the potato crop in the countryis harvested during January-February in the Indo-Gangetic plains comprising the states of Punjab, Haryana, UP, Bihar, West Bengal, MP and Gujarat where the harvest is followed by rising temperatures of hot and dry summer, and further by warm and humid rainy season. Since potato tubers contain about 80% water, under such circumstances, a semi-perishable commodity like potato, cannot be stored for more than 3-4 months without refrigeration because of very high losses due to shrinkage, sprouting and attack by microorganisms.

Therefore, potatoes are mostly stored in refrigerated cold stores maintained between 2-4^oC and 90-95% relative humidity (RH). Low temperature storage has advantages of natural control of sprout growth, low evaporative losses and minimum risk of diseases and pests. These conditions are ideal for storage of seed potato but these cause cold-induced sweetening leading to excessive accumulation of sugars in most of the potato cultivars making them unfit for processing due to browning in chips. Also, such tubers are less preferred for consumption because of sweet taste. Hence, potatoes meant for processing are either stored under non-refrigerated conditions for short term or stored at 10-12^oC with the use of some sprout suppressant like CIPC (isopropyl N-(3chlorophenyl) carbamate) to minimize the accumulation of reducing sugars. The chips produced from such tubers are light in colour.

Potato processing on the other hand is essential to sustain the increasing potato production in the country and to provide proper remuneration to the cultivators. Potatoes can be processed into a variety of products. Potato chips, French fries and dehydrated chips are the most popular processed potato products in the organized and unorganized sectors. The present chapter deals with postharvest management of potatoes in terms of dormancy and sprouting issues and storage technologies for seed, table and processing potatoes. Besides, areas suitable for growing processing potatoes in the country, potato processing scenario in the organized and unorganized sectors are also discussed.

Introduction

Tomato scientifically known as Solanum lycopersicum L. is a widely cultivated and consumed fruit that is often mistaken for a vegetable due to its culinary uses. Belonging to the Solanaceae family, tomatoes are native to western South America with their domestication dating back to ancient civilizations in Mesoamerica. Tomatoes are prized for their vibrant red colour, juicy flesh, and rich, slightly sweet f lavour. They are a versatile ingredient used in a wide range of culinary dishes, from salads and sauces to soups and sandwiches. Tomatoes are a significant source of essential nutrients, including vitamin C, vitamin K, potassium, and folate. Additionally, they contain the antioxidant lycopene, which is believed to have various health benefits.

There are several bacteria which fix atmospheric nitrogen and do not have a symbiotic partner such as a plant. There are conclusive evidences regarding nitrogen gains due to free living bacteria (Dart and Day, 1975) The diazotrophic bacteria have been classified based on the mode of nutrition and oxygen requirement (Alexander, 1977, Knowles, 1977). Free living nitrogen fixing bacteria fix nitrogen in soil and their population in rhizosphere of plants are significantly higher than in non-rhizosphere soils

Although the economic and ecological significance of many of these bacteria have yet to be established, the most promising diazotrophs are Azotobacter, Azospirillum, Beijerinckia and Clostridium. Azotobacter and Beijerinckia are some of the most preponderant, non-symbiotic nitrogen fixing bacteria. Studies on these organisms in Indian soils have been done earlier by Rangaswamy and Sadasivam (1964) Sen and Barooah (1964) and Jagtap and Bhide (1971). Among the free living bacteria, Azotobacter is the most intensively investigated. Several species viz., A. chroococcum, A. vinelandii, A. macrocytogenes, A. agilis and A. insignis were reported but A. chroococcum is the most common specie encountered in arable soils.