eChapters

Probiotics are measured in colony forming units (cfu). CFUs are generally measured in the millions or billions per serving. Probiotics are most commonly beneficial bacteria, but can also be friendly fungal or other organisms, that are typically freeze dried to stabilize them in an inert state during storage and production. Then their continued stability and viability, as measured by CFU counts when cultured, is dependent on limiting their exposure to stimulating environmental conditions such as temperature and moisture. Besides refrigeration, this protection can be done by packaging in glass or by adding freshness packets that helps to absorb and reduce moisture in the package.

Antibiotic Resistance and Gene transfer
 
It is important that probiotic strains should be assessed for their phenotypical antibiotic resistance and potential to transfer resistance gene as otherwise they cannot be used in food (BgVV, 2000; Vankerckhoven et al., 2008). It is vital to do research on characterization of acquired resistance mechanisms and transferability of resistance genes and on methods for determining transferability.

Probiotic Fermented food products
 
An individual requires adequate nutrients like proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals to maintain diet. There has been an explosion of the consumer interest in the role of enhancing the health by some specific foods or physiologically active food components, so called functional foods (Hasler, 1998). The concept of functional foods evolved in the year 1990 in Japan.

The lack of mechanistic understanding of probiotic activity is a major drawback for the prediction of safety of probiotic intervention. The complex gut-associated microbial ecosystem and nutritionally related factors are the most important environmental triggers for the development and modification of chronic degenerative diseases including immune and metabolic pathologies. In fact, the interaction between the gut microbial ecosystem and the host is considered to be a critical factor in overall health or disease. Whether probiotics will exert protective, harmful, immune-stimulating or immune-suppressing effects on a host is dependent on the interaction between the microbial signals, the genetic make-up of the host and the effects by the environment. Many studies have revealed that certain probiotic bacteria stimulate immune cell proliferation and activity as evidenced by the production of cytokines and antibodies, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of the immune response against pathogens. Ng et al. (2009)

4a. Intestinal Disorders
 
History of health claims
 
According to Bottazzi (1983) it was in 76 BC that the Roman historian Plinius recommended the use of fermented milk for treating gastroenteritis. Metchnikoff claimed that the intake of fermented milk containing Lactobacilli reduces the toxin producing bacteria, thereby increasing the longetivity of the host (Metchnikoff, 1908). Tissier (1905) showed that there was an increase in the Bifidobacteria in breast fed-infants, thus claiming that the administration of Bifidobacteria to infants suffering from diarrhea was very beneficial as they supersede the putrefactive bacteria that causes the disease. Intestinal beneficial microfloras are responsible to resist the disease (Bohnhoff et al., 1954).

LAB constitutes a group of gram positive bacteria. They are nonsporulating, nonrespiring but aerotolerant cocci or rods, which produce lactic acid as one of the main fermentation products of carbohydrates, they do not have cytochromes. They belong to the phylum Firmicuttes, class Bacilli and order Lactobacillaceae. The group includes several genera such as Lactobacillus, Lactococcus, Bifidobacterium, Pediococcus, Enterobacter, Corynebacterium, Streptococcus, Leuconostoc etc.

There are potential beneficial medicinal uses of probiotics for which research is limited and only preliminary results are available. Recent research on the molecular biology and genomics of Lactobacillus has focused on the interaction with the immune system, anti-cancer potential, and potential as a biotherapeutic agent in case of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea, traveller‘s diarrhoea, pediatric diarrhoea, inflammatory bowel diseases and irritable bowel syndrome (Ljungh et al., 2009). Studies of some probiotics tested in vitro on human epithelial cell lines have shown that they could block the adhesion of shiga toxin producing E. coli (Sherman et al., 2005). These are claimed to be health promoting and/ or disease preventing beyond the basic function of supplying nutrients. Probiotic foods are emerging as an important category of food supplements. Earlier workers have shown the inhibition of diarrhea caused by E.coli using probiotic lactic acid bacteria and yeast (Yan and Polk, 2006). Ratledge et al. (2002) have studied the biochemistry and molecular biology of lipid accumulation in oleaginous microorganisms.

Newer technologies involve fermentation by specific strains of lactic acid bacteria which bring specific fermentation under controlled conditions to a specific fermented product with enhanced organoleptic, nutritional and therapeutic qualities. Today health is of primary concern. It is important to have nutritionally balanced food with good bacteria. For this, probiotic foods top the list. The functional food concept was initially developed in Japan in 1990‘s as there were many side effects of allopathic medicines. A regulatory system has been initiated by the ministry of health and welfare to approve certain foods to improve health. These are now recognized as Foods for specialized health use (FOSHU). According to American dietic association (ADA) these foods are potential healthful food or food ingredients that may provide health benefits beyond the traditional nutrients. Probiotics are beneficial microorganisms. Probiotic foods as yogurt and sauerkraut are very well known. Fermentation increases the nutrient content and taste with the shelf life.

Quality is an increasingly important factor in the production and marketing of biological products. Consumers are becoming more discerning as their affluence increases, and would be suppliers of products must meet these demands if they are to maintain or increase market share. The term ‘quality’ is one of the most defined terms in use in food industry today. Quality may be defined as ‘The totality of features and characteristics of a product that bear on its ability to satisfy a given need’. The first part, ‘The totality of features and characteristics of a product…..’ concerns objective factors related to the product.  The second part, ‘…… to satisfy a given need’, concerns subjective factors related to user or consumer of goods.

Transportation and distribution of fruits and vegetables are important stages   of post-harvest loss. In India,  transportation of perishable commodities is in the most precarious stage. For local market, the produce is brought either by bullock cart or tractor trollies. The long distance transportation is mainly by rails and trucks, which is very costly. The basic reason for preference to road transportation is that it takes short transit period.

Packaging is an integral part of fruit and vegetable processing. It has  major influence on storage life and on marketability of fresh as well as processed products. Packaging fulfills several functions including containment, facilitating transportation, protection of fruit/vegetable from further damage, protection of environment from contents of package (for example, if the contents are dirty), marketing, product advertising, and stock control.

Minimally processed fruits and vegetables are products that have the attributes of convenience and fresh like quality. Their forms vary widely, depending on nature of unprocessed commodity and how it is normally consumed. In many cases, minimally processed product is raw and cells of tissues are alive, but these characteristics are  not regarded as essential. It is important that products have fresh-like character, regardless of   state of cells.  Minimally processed products for both retail and food service applications have increasingly appeared in market place recently.  In coming years, it is commonly perceived that this industry will have unprecedented growth.

Fermentation was known to mankind from time immemorial. But, development of biochemical principles of  fermentation  was originated by  Lavoisier in France in 1789 by way of analysing chemical composition of  sugar and its fermentation products such as ethanol, carbon dioxide and  acetic acid. Many products are produced by fermentation process. In fermentation, controlled action of selected microorganisms is used to alter  texture of foods, preserve foods by production of acids or alcohol or to produce fine flavours and aromas which increase value of raw materials.

Fruit beverages

Fruit beverages are highly refreshing, thirst quenching, appetizing, easily digestible and nutritionally far superior to synthetic drinks. The fruit beverages includes natural and sweetened juices, squash, syrup, cordial, nectar, Ready to Serve (RTS) beverages, fruit juice concentrate and citrus juice barley water. Fruits most commonly used to prepare beverages are oranges, lime, pineapple, grapes, cashew fruit, mango, jack fruit, apple etc. To prepare fruit beverages select fresh, fully ripe, tart, juicy and seasonal fruits.

The technique of preserving fruit by the use of low temperature dates from the eighteenth century with the first use of ice house in 1750. Later in 1800s commercial cold storages have come up for the storage of perishables like meat, dairy and fruit products.  The main change took place in the cold store in recent years has been the introduction of multi temperature chambers with humidity control for specific products. Cold preservation can be either refrigeration or freezing. Household refrigerators usually run at 4-7^ºC. Chilling or cold storage usually uses a slightly lower temperature on the basis of the food to be refrigerated. In freezing a temperature of -18^ºC or below is used. Chilling will preserve perishable foods for days or weeks and freezing will preserve foods for months or even years.

Drying is the oldest known method of preserving food. Drying or dehydration is removal of majority of water contained in fruit or vegetable. Although preservation is the primary reason for dehydration, it also lowers cost of packaging, storing and transportation by reducing both weight and volume of final product. In addition, dried foods add variety to our diets. In the process of drying, sufficient moisture is removed to protect product  from  spoilage. Processing should be done in such a way that food value, natural flavour and characteristic cooking quality of fresh material are retained after drying.

Processing of fruits  and vegetables into various products which could be preserved for a long time and add to value of product using proper cost effective technology will be a viable tool for improving   economic status of  farmer as well as our country. Modern methods of fruit and vegetable preservation are  broadly classified as follows:

Storage is one of the most important aspects of post harvest handling of fruits and vegetables. The main objective of storage is to extend storage life of fruits and vegetables and increase their period of availability. A substantial quantity of fruits go waste in India due to lack of proper storage facilities. Storage of fruits and vegetables is practiced for various reasons. Proper post harvest handling of fresh horticultural produce helps in extending  period of availability of wide range of  fruits and vegetables round the year, prevention of seasonal market gluts, orderly marketing, better return to grower and  preservation of  nutritional qualities. The   long  term  storage  of  fruits  and  vegetables is expensive and requires high level of technical  knowledge of crop. However, an orderly marketing reduces storage period considerably. 

Various systems were developed to take produce from field to consumer and selection of a particular method depends on several factors, including perishability and value of crop.  One method is to harvest the crop and take it to a packhouse for various unit operations like grading, cleaning, post-grading treatments, and packing for transport and marketing. When deciding upon where to locate a packinghouse, access to field and market point, adequate space for vehicles to enter and leave  packinghouse and ease of access to labor will all be considered.
 
In the simplest packinghouse, produce is delivered in picking containers, immediately after harvest, directly to packers.  Packers then sort, grade, size and pack the produce directly into appropriate transport containers. In this case, each worker must be aware of produce defects, grade and size requirements, and packing methods.

Maturity at harvest is the most important determinant of storage life and final fruit quality. Maturity indices are determined for many fruit, vegetable and floral crops. Harvesting crops at proper maturity allows handlers to begin their work with the best possible quality produce. Produce harvested too early may lack flavour and may not ripen properly, while produce harvested too late may be fibrous or over ripe.
 
Almost all fruits reach their best eating quality when allowed to ripen on the tree or plant (exceptions e.g., pears, avocados, and bananas). In general, fruits become sweeter, more colourful, and softer as they mature. A few fruits are usually picked mature but unripe so that they withstand post harvest handling system when shipped long distances.  Most of  currently used maturity evaluation is based on a compromise between those methods that would ensure the best eating quality and those that provide flexibility in transportation and marketing.  Optimum harvesting stage depends upon type of fruit or vegetable and their final use. Such a division is usually based on their classification according to physiology, environmental conditions, ripening bahaviour and nutritional aspect. Some of the classifications, important for their harvesting and storage are briefed in  subsequent sections.

Structure

Structural unit of edible portion of most fruits and vegetables is the parenchyma cells and makes up bulk of cells. A parenchyma cell is rather thin walled and may be polygonal or cubical in shape.  Walls of parenchyma cells in young plants are composed almost entirely of fibrils of cellulose. In parenchyma cells of plants actively metabolising protoplast portion represents only about 5% of total cell volume. This protoplast is rather film like and is pressed against cell wall by large water filled central vacuole.  Protoplast has inner and outer semi permeable membrane layers between which is confined cytoplasm and its nucleus. 

Fruits and vegetables are very important food commodities. India has become the largest producer of fruits and the second largest producer of vegetables. Though the production of fruits and vegetables make us believe in our strength for self-sufficiency, a significant qualitative and quantitative loss occur in the produce from harvest till consumption.  For self sufficiency and also for processing, export and to meet additional requirements, a lot of emphasis need to be given to reduce post harvest losses, besides increasing  production and productivity of horticultural produces. Processing plays an important role in  conservation and effective utilisation of these perishable commodities. However, only less than 2% of total production of fruits and vegetables are processed.  The new industrial policy has placed this sector in the list of high priority areas.

INTRODUCTION

Food is the basic need of human beings. It gets spoiled primarily due to microorganisms and enzymes. Energy is required for microbial growth and enzymatic reactions. At low temperature, the rate of biochemical reactions is slow resulting in prolonged storage life of food. It must have been observed long back that food could be stored for longer period without deterioration during the winter months. Since then this principle is being used to extend the storage life of foods. A sea change can be observed in development of low temperature preservation technology. It has travelled a long journey to reach this stage; however, a major break through took place in twentieth century. Low temperature technology is of two types; refrigeration and freezing. In refrigeration storage, water is in liquid phase and temperature is maintained above freezing point. In freezing technology, the food is stored below freezing point and water gets converted into ice. The former is short term preservation due to slow growth of microbes and lower enzymatic activity while the later is long time preservation due to inactivation of enzymes during blanching and inhibition of microbial activity due to unavailability of free water and much lower temperature. Low temperature preservation is widely accepted and is of commercially important in food supply chain.

INTRODUCTION

Food being the basic need of all humans and other living organisms, the production and processing of food is a continuous activity with several new procedures and technologies adoption; thereby the quality of food needs an emphasis which also protects the consumers by providing safe and suitable food. The contaminated foods, food borne illness outbreaks though at times referred to poor consumer handling, commitment for provision of safe food to consumers is also a Governments concern. In the recent years, food safety measures through Food Safety programmes and increase in awareness are being followed. The food production in our country is the most promising sector which is the cause for white revolution and green revolution. India ranks first in the world in production of cereals and milk and second largest producers of fruits and vegetables. India stands second in inland fish production. It is second largest exporter of rice and so on. Food processing sector has a great potential which covers a wide spectrum of products encompassing agriculture, horticulture, plantation, animal husbandry and fisheries. But the growth of food processing industries in our country is rather slow. However, to encourage, the government is providing lot of incentives in the recent years.

INTRODUCTION

A food may have three attributes (1) Provide energy and nutrition (2) Give pleasure, i.e., enjoyable aroma, colour, and taste and (3) Health benefits. Functional food has physiological benefits and reduces the risk of chronic disease beyond basic nutrition.

Functional foods, also reported as ‘nutraceuticals’, ‘medical foods’ or ‘designer foods’ in the literature, were first described by Roberfroid (1999) as ‘Food similar in appearance to conventional food that is intended to be consumed as part of a normal diet, but has been modified to subserve physiological roles beyond the provision of simple nutrient requirements’. Examples are iodized salts, vitamin A and vitamin D fortified milk and yoghurt, folic acid enriched bread, soy products, wheat bran and oats products.

INTRODUCTION

Food processing as a technological regime is undergoing a revolutionary change in terms of conception, product and process design and energetics. The conventional approach of a food processor is to develop products with a long shelf-life in user friendly packaging systems. Food processors are usually bothered about sensory attributes and microbiological profiles without much emphasis on the fate of heat labile nutritional and nutraceutical components. The changing consumer perception is slowly but steadily leading towards emergence of novel technologies without depending upon conventional thermal processing. A few years before, non-thermal techniques have emerged for food processing and preservation, but these techniques were restricted to framing of fundamentals with regard to the inactivation of vegetative and reproductive bodies of microbes and the deteriorative enzymes.

INTRODUCTION

Packaging is an important aspect in modern life and in fact the word ‘packaging’ developed a literal value indicating presentation of an issue or material in a comprehensive and compact manner. Food packaging has become a revolutionary trend and plays a dominant role in the promotion of marketing of various fresh and processed food products. The reason could be a number of aspects inclusive of protective, legal and aesthetic elements. The industrial revolution in the late 18th century caused major impact on manufacturing process. Without appropriate packaging no food is acceptable and even in the common household food packaging is being practiced in its own way to render food safety and convenience for various culinary operations. Therefore, food packaging needs to be considered as an essential element of food processing and marketing and it is one of the key areas in food technology making rapid strides in research and development.

INTRODUCTION

For thousands of years fermentation processes were largely natural phenomena exclusively identified with food preservation throughout the world. Fermentations can play a significant role in meeting the ever growing food requirements of world population providing benefits in the form of innovative food products with improved nutritional value and food quality along side better safety. Fermentations can be used to address a large variety of food related problems and in the development of processes to meet the demand for food. In the wake of estimations made by international organizations that global food demand and population would increase by two-fold by the year 2050, much emphasis has been placed over the ways and means to increase food production and preservation.

INTRODUCTION

Fruits and vegetables are historically important constituents of human diet and the growing awareness of consumers about the beneficial effects of these commodities could result in enhancement of global trade involving fresh and processed fruits and vegetables. Emergence of postharvest handling of fresh fruits and vegetables facilitated global trade of these commodities. The developed countries started realizing the export potential of these commodities by development of adequate value addition in terms of pretreatments, shelf life extension and packaging besides grading and other associated packing house operations. However, the trade concerning fresh fruits and vegetables could never come out completely from problems related to pesticidal residues, spoilage, bulkiness of the commodities involving transportation of inedible portions and excessive packaging costs arising out of bulkiness. The other problems associated with fresh produce include mandatory requirement of specific storage temperatures with refrigeration as the primary means of regulation of metabolic rate.

INTRODUCTION

Now-a-days, food products with maximum health benefits and ease in preparation are gaining popularity globally, the reason being changing awareness level about food and dietary habits. Since ages, a number of methods like cooking, baking, drying etc. have been used to thermally process the food materials. Electrical sources of electromagnetic waves are very promising because of advances in nuclear and hydroelectric power as well as ongoing cost rises in traditional forms of fuel, of which there are only restricted reserves. The heating aids include use of wooden fuel, gaseous fuel, electric energy etc.; but the new era of electromagnetic rays had introduced new horizons of food processing by utilizing it in various unit operations (Sakai and Hanzawa 1994). Though, these radiations are gaining popularity in various walks of life; their destructive impact is much dominating. Hence, one should handle these radiations with utmost care as well as comprehensive understanding of the know-how and control over the process.

INTRODUCTION

Radiation processing is a promising technology for improving hygiene and increasing storage and distribution life of food products. Ionizing radiation can be used to bring about beneficial changes in food stuffs (Urbain 1995) and it has been suggested as a method of ensuring safety of meat products (Patterson and Stevenson 1995). Ionizing radiation interacts with an irradiated material by transferring energy to electrons and ionizing molecules by creating positive and negativities (Moseley 1989).

INTRODUCTION

Preservation of food by drying or chemical means as by alcohol or acid fermentation and that by the use of ice is long recorded in history. With the advancement of science and the knowledge governing various unit operations in food processing, these food preservation techniques employing thermal, radiation, or low temperature or a combination of these have only got further refined as regards their viability and commercial applications. Process foods of different genre and cuisine, which include frozen foods too, are increasingly becoming popular the world over for reasons of quality, safety and year round supply of nutritious foods to cater to different niche segments of human society. Increasing health consciousness is buoying those processed foods which are preserved and stabilized using non-thermal technologies as these ensure retention of food nutrients to a better definition. Interest in frozen food also stems from need to deliver safe and nutritious foods with extended shelf-lives.

INTRODUCTION

Drying or dehydration is defined as the removal of moisture from its initial level to a level which renders food materials safe for subsequent storage. It is a simultaneous heat and mass transfer operation in which heat is supplied externally to evaporate moisture and air is forced through the bed to carry away the moisture. Drying is the oldest technique to preserve food materials. Advantages of drying include reduction in water activity, enhancement of shelf life, maintenance of flavor and nutritive value, and reduction in packaging and transportation costs. When the water activity of the dried product is reduced to below 0.6, most microorganisms do not grow and the rates of other deteriorative reactions are substantially reduced.

INTRODUCTION

A mixture is a combination of two or more elements or compounds in any proportion so that the components do not lose their identity. Most materials in our world are mixtures and very few materials are pure substances. Foods are complex mixtures of compounds and the extraction or separation of food components is fundamental for the preparation of ingredients to be used in other processes. Separations usually aim to remove specific components in order to increase the added value of the products, which may be the extracted component, the residue or both. Purposes include cleaning, sorting and grading operations, extraction and purification of fractions such as sugar solutions or vegetable oils, recovery of valuable components such as enzymes or flavour compounds, or removal of undesirable components such as microorganisms, agricultural residues or radionuclides. For example, cooking oils from oilseeds or gelatin from connective tissue; or for retrieval of high value compounds, such as enzymes (e.g. papain from papaya for meat tenderisation or rennet from calf stomachs for cheese making). Other types of separation methods are used to sort foods by separating them into classes based on size, colour or shape and to clean them by separating contaminating materials.

INTRODUCTION

The concept of hurdle technology has been developed as a new way to realize safe, stable, nutritious and economical foods. It employs combination of different preservation techniques to achieve a multi-target, mild but reliable preservation of foods. The application of hurdle technology in food preservation is increasing rapidly worldwide. Over the years, insight into the hurdle effect has been broadened and the application of hurdle technology has been extended. A better understanding of the occurrence and interaction of food preservative factors (hurdles) in foods is the basis for improvements in food preservation. If the hurdles for the microbes are known, the microbiological stability and safety of this food might be optimized by changing the intensity or quality of these hurdles. Using the proper combination of hurdles, it is possible to improve not only the microbial stability and safety but also the sensory and nutritive quality as well as the economical aspects of food. The hurdle concept is also referred to as food preservation by combined methods, combined process, combination preservation or combination processing techniques. The hurdle effect is of fundamental importance for the preservation of foods. The illustration of hurdle effect was first introduced by Leistner in 1978. Based on the understanding of hurdle effects, the concept of hurdle technology was derived (Leistner 1985).

INTRODUCTION

By the turn of the century, consumers have been more demanding, sophisticated and discretionary. They want much safer, higher quality, and more convenient to foods. The food processor need to get the best from their existing processing technology in addition to looking for newer ones. New and alternative food processing methods and/or novel combinations of existing methods are continually being investigated by the industry in pursuit of producing better quality foods more economically. Thermal processing is one of the most important food preservation techniques that was first introduced at the beginning of 1800 and has evolved itself in to one of the most scientific mature food processing techniques of recent times. Both science and technology have gone through tremendous transformation in the last two centuries and today it is the most reliable method to assure food safety and stability. Developments in thermal processing and evolution of non-thermal processing technologies like high pressure processing, pulsed electric field, pulsed light etc. have enhanced the utility of thermal processing principles and increased the awareness of possible alternative processing technologies.

INTRODUCTION

Food processing is necessary for the conversion of raw food products in to finished products with desired textural, sensory and nutritional attributes. This is required to be done mainly due to seasonal production and facilitating non-seasonal availability of different commodities. Stages of processing are primary and secondary. In primary processing raw material is converted into food commodities, while in secondary processing commodities are converted into edible products. Processing is mainly done to convert the products into edible forms, to extend shelf life, availability, accessibility and also to provide variety into the form of value added products. Processing of products destroys inhibitors, microorganisms, retards physico-chemical and biochemical deterioration, maintains good sensory properties, preserves and enhances the nutritive value. Unit operations involve phase changes and sometimes chemical reactions also, which are undesirable as they cause inferior quality of the product (Gekas 1992). Different processes like separation, assembly, preservation and packaging are broader classification for unit operations in food processing (Saravacos and Kostaropoulos 2002).

Food Science is one of the ancient sciences and the genesis originates to the very beginning of human civilization. The advent of food science was associated with practice and observation by humans before establishment of scientific concepts. The ancient man knew that roasting or smoking of meat improves the edible quality and digestibility. As a consequence, he started practicing the same much before the reasons for the same could be established. Many of the modern preservation concepts had their origin in prehistoric period itself as humans could use techniques such as dehydration, fermentation and pickling to their advantage to improve the sensory attributes of the products and also to enhance their shelf life. Humans during the Pre-Neolithic period about 2,50,000 years before used fire for cooking meat. During the Paleolithic period humans not only roasted food but also developed grinding, pounding and drying. During the Mesolithic era, humans were desperate for food and got involved in extensive hunting and fishing. During the same time domestication of animals took place and animal husbandry became a reality (Stewart and Amerine 1982). The Neolithic period made qualitative changes in the food habits of humans and they changed from a food gathering and hunting society to one of food production (Heizer and Elsasser 1980).

Z -distribution : It is a probability density function and a normal distribution that has a mean equal to zero and a standard deviation equal to one and that is used in testing hypotheses about means or proportions of samples drawn from populations whose population standard deviations are known.

Zeatin : Zeatin is a cytokinin C₁₀H₁₃N₅O first isolated from the endosperm of Indian corn.

Yabby : It is one of the burrowing Australian crayfishes (Cherax destructor) that are used for food.

Yakitori : A bite-size marinated pieces of beef, seafood, or chicken on skewers is called yakitori.

Yam : It is edible starchy tuberous root of plants (genus Dioscorea of the family Dioscoreaceae) used as a staple food in tropical areas.

Xanthan / Xanthan gum : It is a polysaccharide that is produced by fermentation of carbohydrates by a gram-negative bacterium (Xanthomonas campestris) and is a thickening and suspending agent used in pharmaceuticals and prepared foods. It is also called xanthan. Xanthan is a stabilizer produced by Xanthomonas compestris. Xanthan is not hydrolysed or degraded by humans.

Wafer : A thin crisp cake, candy, cracker or chips is known as wafer.
 
Waffle : A crisp cake of batter baked in a waffle iron is called waffle

Warner-Bartzler Shear : It is one of the oldest but commonly used devices used to measure the tenderness of meat. It is used to test the quality in the cooked meat.

Vacreation : The pasteurization of the milk or cream under reduced pressure by direct steam is called vacreation.

Vacuum : The state of negative pressure. It is equal to atmospheric pressure minus absolute pressure.

Vacuum cooling : A technique of cooling vegetable (leafy vegetables, asparagus Brussels sprouts) having a high surface to volume ratio rapidly and uniformly by boiling off some of their water at 10C and at low pressure (5 mm of Hg) into a sealed container. The produce is cooled by evaporation of water from the tissue surface and is more rapid than hydro cooling.

U value : U value is a measure of the heat transmission through a building part (wall or window) or through a given thickness of a material (insulation). U values with lower numbers indicate better insulating properties.
 
Ubiquinone : It is one of the groups of lipid soluble quinones that are found especially in mitochondria and have a long isoprenoid side chain, and function in oxidative phosphorylation as electron carrying coenzymes in electron transport.

T A Spoilage : The spoilage of low and medium acid canned foods by Clostridium thermosacharolyticum which breaks sugars and form acid and gas (moisture of H₂ and CO₂) resulted in swelling and in severe cases even bursting of can may occur and the spoiled food usually has a sour odour.

Saccharides : A monosaccharide sugar or combination of sugars is called saccharides.

Saccharification : The process of breaking a complex carbohydrate (starch or cellulose) into its monosaccharide components is called saccharification.

Saccharimeter : A device (polarimeter) used for measuring the amount of sugar in a solution is called saccharimeter. It is also known as saccharometer. It is a hydrometer with a special scale.

R - enamel can : The acid resistant, gold coloured enamel treated can are called R enamel cans. It is used for canning of acidic food which have soluble colouring pigments.
R factor : It is a group of genes present in some bacteria that provide a basis for resistance to antibiotics and can be transferred from cell to cell by conjugation.
R value : R value is a measure of resistance to the flow of heat through a given thickness of a material (insulation) with higher numbers indicating better insulating properties.

Q fever : Q fever is caused by a rickettsia like organism (RLO), a parasitic organism falling between bacteria and viruses. It is a disease that is characterized by high fever, chills, muscular pains, headache, and sometimes pneumonia, that is caused by a rickettsia (Coxiella burnetii) of which domestic animals serve as reservoirs, and that is transmitted to humans especially by inhalation of infective airborne bacteria as in contaminated dust.

Pack inspection : It is similar to continuous inspection except that here inspector(s) may make in-process checks during different processing operations under contract but not required to be present all the times in the plant during operation.

Package : The package means a pre packed box, tin, barrel, pouch or can etc in which food article is packed.

Package store : A store that sells bottled or canned alcoholic beverages for consumption off the premises.

Obesity : A condition characterized by the excessive accumulation and storage of fat in the body. It is a physiological disorder having high body mass index (BMI), which can be expressed as a mathematical formula in which a person’s body weight in kilogram is divided by the square of his or her height in meters.