eChapters

Takes clean, washed and edible fish-50-100 g for each method of cooking. And cook the fish according to the methods given table and record the characteristics of cooked fish.

Poultry meat-50 g for each method
Cook the poultry meat according to the methods given in the table and record the cooking effects

(Ref: 1997-2016 American Meat Science Association)
The methods used for cooking meat can be divided into two groups:
1. Dry heat methods
2. Moist heat methods

In order to assess the quality characteristics of eggs the book reference values were taken for comparison

Ingredients; milk fat (cream)-12%, non-fat milk solids (skim milk powder)-11%, sugar-15%, stabilizer-0.2%, emulsifier-0.2%, flavors-a pinch Basic ice cream preparation: 1. Mix the ingredients 2. Pasteurization 3. Homogenization 4. Ageing (allowing to standby 24 hours at 4.440C) 5. Freezing (the mix is frozen at 5.5560c) 6. The freezing must be quick in order to prevent formation of large crystals. The ice cream is semi solid at this temperature. 7. The ice cream is finally frozen to a hard mass at about -30C.

Physical Properties of milk
Procedure: Collect different types of market milk samples and study the  properties of milk. Boil the milk and note down the properties given in table 1 and record the observations

Procedure: weigh vegetables 20 g (for each variation) Water: add sufficiently
1. Cook the vegetable in water in a pan according to the “cooking time” variations given in the table 1 and note down the color, texture and flavor changes takes place during cooking for each variation and record the observations

1. Clean and wash the pulses, Mix the pulses with water, soak for 1 hour, 3 hours, 6hours, 9hours and overnight.
2. After soaking drain the water wash thoroughly and add fresh water keep it for boiling/cooking.
3. Study the effect of Acid and effect of Alkali on cooking time of pulses.

Leavening agents produce carbon dioxide which helps to give characteristic structure to bread cakes and biscuits etc. In the case of cakes, leavening is produced by air entrapped in the dough due to the presence of egg in the mix. The important groups of leavening agent’s are l. baker’s yeast 2. Chemical leavening agents

The stiffness of starch gels from different starches at 5% concentration was shown in decreasing order of stiffness in the following table. Of the cereal starches corn starch gel was firmest followed by wheat and rice starch gels. Among the roots and tubers starches, potato yielded a ropy paste, arrowroot a soft paste while cassava starch gave viscous fluid.

Milk, commonly referred to as the “ideal food,” is an essential source of nutrition for human consumption. Because of the growing human population and the rising demand for milk and milk products, there is more interest in and concern about the quality and safety of dairy products. Milk comprises chemical substances with various functions in the human body, such as carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and trace elements (vitamins, minerals, etc.) (Guetouache et al., 2014).

The exploration of facts about healthy and nutritious food has increased over the years. The advent of advance scientific tools has elucidated facts regarding the role of diet or nutrients in regulating gene expression (Sales et al., 2014). Various studies based on molecular interactions in food has revealed that many dietary components such as proteins, carbohydrates, fats, minerals, vitamins and phyto-constituents has the tendency to regulate gene expression.

The term nanoscience defines controlling or modifying the shapes and sizes of the materials such that they lie in the range of a nanometre (1 nm = 10^-9 m) scale, typically 1-100 nm (Chavada et al., 2016). The application of these materials and systems by their suitable designing and production is what is known as nanotechnology. Richard Feynman, in 1959, first discussed the possibility of this advanced technology. However, the term was first used by Norio Taniguchi in 1974 (Chavada et al., 2016).

Starch is the most abundant polysaccharide carbohydrate reserve which is available in different parts of plants such as roots, stem, leaves, seeds, flowers, and fruits. It is considered an excellent source of energy and plants utilizes carbon from it for their metabolic activities (Smith, 2001). It is composed of glucose units linked together by glycosidic bonds to form amylose and amylopectin polymeric chains (Abbas et al., 2010).

Enzymes (biological catalyst) can be defined as a substance which initiates or fastens the reaction rate, without being consumed during the reaction. Enzymes function as a catalyst in various biological processes taking place in all life forms. Although enzyme synthesis takes place inside living cells, they can even function as a catalyst in the in vitro processes, which makes it suitable for many industrial applications. For product formation in any chemical reaction, reactants or substrates has to overcome the transition state.

Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is one of the most effective methods for determining the functional groups and potential molecular interactions between membrane chemical molecules. Understanding of (infrared) IR absorption band placements in the spectrum as wave numbers can be used to identify the various chemical constituents (such as aromatic amides) that may not be visible by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.

Biosensors are the next generation detection devices, use biological sensing elements like enzymes, nucleic acids, antibody, cells, organelles, tissues, receptors; have got varied applications in the field of drug discovery, diagnosis, biomedicine, food safety and processing, environmental monitoring, defense and security etc. Microbial biosensors are analytical device that uses naturally occurring or engineered microbial cells as the recognition elements to detect physiological changes in cells with the help of suitable physicochemical transducer.

The last two decades have seen rapid growth and development in the industrial sector as well as urbanization has increased. Due to globalization and mass production of commodities, the situation in the modern world nothing like ever before. Food and dairy industries are also not left out from this massive expansion. Due to changing behavior and food consumption habits too, there has been a surge in the risk of foodborne illness. This has created a problem in terms of public health and sustainability

Thermal heating methods are used from long time to decontaminate the food products from microorganism and therefore increase its shelf life and ultimately make the product safe for human consumption. But these methods diminish the sensory, physicochemical and nutritional properties of food (Barba et al., 2012). Also, the cost of generation of heat in manufacture of food product make the product costlier in thermal processing and also create environmental issue.

Electricity is one of the fundamental phenomena of nature. Electricity or electric current is caused due to the movement of charged particles i.e., electrons. Due to the potential difference between two points in a conductor, electron movement takes place. The potential difference between two points is caused due to the difference in charge density. Electron tends to flow from lower potential to higher potential which causes electricity to flow. In general, the electrons flow from cathode (negative) to anode (positive) but in a wire electricity, electrons flow from anode to cathode when connected to a battery or any electricity source.

High-pressure processing (HPP) is a novel method for non-thermal preservation technique of food that inactivates harmful pathogens and vegetative spoilage microorganisms. HPP is an alternate, non-thermal food processing method, wherein the food is subjected to a very high pressure range from 100 -800 MPa (1MPa = 145.03 Psi or 10 Bar). HPP is also referred as High hydrostatic pressure processing, Ultra high-pressure processing, Hyperbaric processing and Pascalization (Rao et al., 2014).

Milk is considered to be a perfect food which contains almost all the macroand micronutrients required for normal body growth. However, it is highly perishable in nature which poses problem during its storage. It gets spoiled within few hours after milking if not processed or cooled immediately. It can also be a source of several disease causing microbes as it is conducive for the growth of microorganisms.

Abstract

Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary field which plays a major role in various disciplines including drug discovery, pharmacogenomics, proteomics, comparative genomics, microbial genome applications in biotechnology. Food plays a vital role in various processes in body and also helps in controlling various chronic diseases. Food safety and food processing are very crucial factor for human lives. Bioinformatics has been successfully applied in food industry for improving various factors of food such as flavor, taste, allergenicity, probiotics, optimizing the quantitative and compositional parameters for food processing and assessing the food safety. In this chapter, we have given an overview about the role of bioinformatics in food industry.

Abstract

Fermentation in food processing is the process of converting carbohydrates to alcohol or organic acids using microorganisms; yeasts or bacteria under anaerobic conditions. Fermentation usually defines the desirable action of microorganism to enhance food safety by inhibition of pathogens, modify their sensory properties, improve their nutritional value by removing anti-nutritive compounds and by enhancing bioavailability of components. Pulses and Legumes are the major source of dietary nutrients all over the world. Fermentation can be the most simple and economical way of improving their nutritional value, sensory properties and functional qualities. Pulses and legume based fermented food products offer opportunities to include probiotics, prebiotics and fibers in the human diet. In the Indian subcontinent, making use of fermented food and beverages using local food crops and other biological resources is very common, although the nature of the products and the base material varies in different regions. This chapter focuses on some of the indigenous fermented foods produced in the country that have not received the scientific attention they deserve in the last decades. Products produced from different pulses and legumes substrates fermented by lactic acid bacteria, yeast and/or fungi are included.

Abstract

The waste utilization as derivative from different food processing sector has been emerged as the main challengeable problem around the world due to the generation of by-products at large quantities consisting seeds, peels, rags, unused flesh, bran, husk, germ, stalk etc. during various processing chain steps. Though these food by-products are potentially rich source of natural compounds which finds its wide utilization in different industries as affordable, cost-effective, novel ingredient comprising dietary fiber, phytochemicals, antioxidants, pectin, enzymes, organic acids, food additives, essential oils etc. subsequently after extractions, purified fractionation and fermentations methods. These food byproducts also have pharmaceutical and nutraceutical activity. A nutraceutical is like a medicine or food grade product, which not only provides physical benefits and nutritional supplements but also protects against various chronic diseases. This food processing waste utilization should be a topic of interest, by means of two ways, i.e., through waste quantity reduction and increased value-added food products production and also as renewable energy source. The purpose of this study is to highlight the opportunities to utilize food by-products from various food processing industries and to encourage the vital exploitation of the by-products containing large number of bio-active compounds having nutraceutical potential.

Abstract

Water is very essential nutrient and total of only 3% pure water is present on earth. Some natural, anthropogenic and human activities discharge wastes, containing heavy metals into the different water resources and ultimately destroying the ecosystem. Numbers of methods are used for water purification like conventional (includes physical and chemical) and biological. Conventional methods are expensive, generate large quantities of sludge and inefficient at low concentrations of metal. Biological method includes biosorption and bioaccumulation, are ecofriendly and economic and have advantages over conventional methods. Biosorbent material includes microbial biomass, agro-wastes, and industrial by-products are used to treat heavy metal from liquid samples. Actually these biosorbent have number of functional groups on their surfaces which help in binding of metal from aqueous solution. In this article, biosorption of zinc, arsenic and copper are described through lactic acid bacteria that are not harmful, nonsporulating, fastidious, fermentative and generally regarded as safe. Many of these species are probiotic and producing exopolysaccharides and biofilms. It has great resistance to survive in gut environment and efficiency to biosorb metal from gut. It has some significant characteristics that represent a useful tool for decontamination of food and beverages from heavy metals. Biosorption mechanism and factors behind the process make these strains competent of removing these heavy metals.

Abstract

Fruits like orange (citrus sinensis), mango (mangifera indica), banana (musa paradisiaca), guava (psidium guajava) and pomegranate (punica granatum) contain numerous vitamins, minerals, fibre. These fruits also contain phytochemicals, antioxidant and bioactive compounds including alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, saponin, terpenoids, which enhance the nutritional value and reduce the free radicals and oxidative stress in human body. These fruits also show the anti-cancer, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-inflammatory, anti-arthritic, anti-obesity, anti- diabetic, anti-proliferative, anti-hypertensive properties and are very effective against the pathogenic bacteria, which causes the harmful disease in human body. The chapter provides the production data of these fruits in different countries, their bioactive compounds and their utilization in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industries.

Abstract

Fermentation technology holds immense promise in diverse fields. It offers opportunities for sustainable biofuel production, allowing us to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and promote a greener energy sector. In the pharmaceutical industry, fermentation plays a vital role in manufacturing antibiotics, enzymes, vaccines, and therapeutic proteins, paving the way for more efficient and cost-effective production processes. Furthermore, fermentation can be harnessed for waste management and environmental remediation, enabling the transformation of organic waste into valuable biogas. With ongoing advancements, fermentation technology continues to open new avenues for innovation and contribute to a more sustainable and environmentally conscious future. The present chapter compares types of fermentation process as well as gives an insight into various industrial prospects of fermentation technology.

Abstract

Enzyme is a highly efficient catalyst that is produced by active cells. When compared to chemical catalysts; enzymes have a number of benefits, including high specificity, high catalytic efficiency and flexible activity, all of which greatly help to promote their use in the pharmaceutical, chemical, and food sectors. The majority of enzymes such as protease, amylase, lipase and cellulase are relatively unstable and industrial uses are frequently restricted by a lack of long-term operational stability as well as the technically challenging recovery process and ruse of the enzyme. Enzyme immobilization provides an excellent base for increasing enzyme availability to the substrate with higher turnover over a long period of time. Enzyme immobilization are done by several methods and their performance are influenced by many factors. Physical and chemical based immobilization are the most commonly used methods. The matrix immobilizes the enzyme by holding it permanently or temporarily for a short stretch of time. The generally used matrixes for immobilizations includes natural, synthetic polymers and inorganic compounds.Currently, synergistic interactions of biotechnology and nanotechnology are useful for the development of immobilized enzymes. Enzyme immobilization is a commonly used technology in a variety of industries including food, pharmaceuticals, bioremediation, detergents, and textiles due to technical and economical advantages. This chapter focuses on most commonly used immobilized techniques in industry with many recent applications of immobilized enzymes.

Abstract

In biocatalysis, isolated enzymes, enzyme mixtures, immobilized enzymes or microbes (enzymes that are still present within the living cells) are used to perform chemical transformation of organic compounds into novel compounds. Both in academia and across chemical and pharmaceutical industry, biocatalysts are used as isolated preparations or in whole cell format or as recombinant proteins produced in alternate host cells. Biocatalysts catalyze novel small molecule transformations that are usually difficult or impossible using traditional synthetic organic chemistry. Biocatalysts exhibit high chemoselectivity, regioselectivity, diastereoselectivity and enantioselectivity towards their substrates. As a result, the use of biocatalysts during chemoenzymatic synthesis minimizes the issues of unwanted side-reactions such as decomposition, isomerization, racemization and rearrangement. The process of biocatalysis has become an important tool in the synthesis of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and enantiopure compounds. Biocatalysis offers a more sustainable, efficient, and less polluting methods for the production of APIs and advanced pharmaceutical intermediates. Biocatalysts have received tremendous attention in pharmaceutical industry because they typically catalyze reactions under mild conditions, so they do not consume much energy or emit much greenhouse gas. Biocatalysts are currently employed for the development of products in different fields, such as pharmaceuticals or intermediates of their production (e.g., antibiotics, statins, and enantiopure building blocks), fine chemicals (e.g., amino acids and vitamins), and food ingredients (e.g., sweeteners, lipids, and nutraceuticals). However, it would be helpful for the pharmaceutical industry to take advantage of developments in biochemistry, molecular cloning, random and site-directed mutagenesis, advanced tools for enzyme discovery, enzyme-directed evolution, high-throughput laboratory evolution techniques for biocatalyst optimization, immobilization, and fermentation technology to gain access to a new class of biocatalysts (enzymes), cells and other microbes.

Abstract

The natural color of foods is due primarily to carotenoids, anthocyanins, betanin and chlorophylls, either as inherent food constituents or as food or feed additives. These compounds have drawn considerable attention in recent years, not because of their coloring properties, but due to their potential health-promoting effects. Their occurrence and levels in foods, along with the factors that influence the composition, have been widely investigated. Processing effects have been actively studied. In spite of the intense search for plant and microbial sources and efforts to increase yield, few natural food color additives have reached the market. Developing new colors for the food industry is challenging, as colorants need to be compatible with a food flavors, safety, and nutritional value, and which ultimately have a minimal impact on the price of the product. In addition, food colorants should preferably be natural rather than synthetic compounds. Micro-organisms already produce industrially useful natural colorants such as carotenoids and anthocyanins. Microbial food colorants can be produced at scale at relatively low costs. This chapter highlights the significance of color in the food industry, why there is a need to shift to natural food colors compared to synthetic ones and how using microbial pigments as food colorants, instead of colors from other natural sources, is a preferable option.

Abstract

Starch is an important plant-based product and an abundant biomaterial, used worldwide for different purposes in many industrial sectors including food, health, chemical and engineering sector. Starch versatility in industrial applications is largely defined by its physicochemical properties and functionality. Starch in its native form has limited functionality and application but advancements in technological processing have led to the wide-range modification of starch for different purposes. It can be easily degraded by microorganisms hence is a natural source of bioenergy in the form of bioethanol and biohydrogen as well as in the development of biodegradable packaging materials. Various technological interventions can significantly improve the characteristics of native starch and be tailor-made to the specific needs of the packaging and food industry. Native starch can be treated by various methods to modify its characteristics. Modification improves starch paste clarity, viscosity, syneresis and freeze-thaw stability leading to a wide range of food applications. Esterification lowers gelatinization temperature and retrogradation lowers the tendency to form gel and higher paste clarity which shows applications in refrigerated and frozen foods, as emulsion stabilizers and for encapsulation. Cross-linking increases the stability of granules towards swelling, high temperature, high shear, and acidic conditions. Starch-based nano-composite polymers have their application in coating and packaging of food as well as non food commodities. Techniques involving extrusion, casting, spinning, and nanotechnology can be used in the production of films, foams, and nanocomposite materials. Due to the unique characteristics of resistant starch, it is being used as a valuable supplement in the formulation of drugs, pharmaceuticals, various functional foods and in the microencapsulation of probiotics and bioactive compounds.

Abstract

Dietary fibre concentrates (DFC) are the major component of fruit by-products generated during the processing at commercial level. These are the blessings for human gut health along with many other positive health benefits. Fruit by-products are the so-called nuisance for the environment that enfolds numerous positive signs inside. Lignin, cellulose, hemicelluloses, pectin, waxes, mucilage’s, oligosaccharide, gums and many other associated compounds are the part of DFCs. These DFCs when taken in the form of functional ingredient reaches to the colonic microbiota and consequently provides them a healthy growth medium that promotes the cell metabolism upto 67%, enhances the growth of good gut bacteria like Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus. This article enlightens the content of DFCs in various fruit by-products that shows their prebiotic potential.

Abstract

Bioprocessing is much greener than chemical methods, since biocatalysts (enzymes or cells) involved are extremely selective, producing higher product yield with less or no by products, which are basically difficult to separate. Biotechnology can offer both economic and environmental benefits to the chemical industry and thus has great potential to achieve the sustainable production of existing and new products from renewable feedstocks. Fuel and energy production from biomass are major market sector for bioprocessing. They are considered in the manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals, food, food additives, chemicals, and several other products. Generally, a bioprocess involves feedstock pretreatment, fermentation or biocatalysis, and downstream processing for obtaining product and its purification. It is explored for the production of xylitol, fatty alcohol, butanol and biorefinery. Deep understanding of the process is required to create robust control strategy. Based on the requirements, sophisticated instrumentation and complex control laws or simple control law having intricate monitoring system can be selected. Supercritical fluids (SCFs) are advantageous for bioprocessing due to its transport properties, high diffusivity and low viscosity facilitate mass transfer phenomena, variation of pressure and/or temperature are adjusted providing high flexibility in the extraction of metabolites from cells. Microfluidic devices in which small amounts of fluids (10^-9 and 10^-18) are manipulated have emerged for high throughput applications. Automation of the optimization processes is enabled through microtiter plates with simplicity and operate with very small volumes. Therefore, more research is necessary to develop integrated processes that will allow combining one or more techniques to enhance bioprocessing at lower costs.

With recent work it has become clear that bacterial societies are very complex. Gene expression in bacterial communities are heterogenous. The heterogeneous gene expression contributes towards the biofilms in fluctuating environments which needs to be understood.Technique like single-cell analysis can help in the investigation of more complex communities. Recently, Jahid and Ha, (2012) have written a review on microbial biofilms of produce and the future challenges to food safety many outbreaks have been observed involving food- borne pathogens. Therefore, there is an urdent need for the safety of foods especially against microbial attacks and biofilm formation as they cause a risk to public health. Medically, the pathogenic microorganisms form biofilm- associated with the epithelial or endothelial lining which are embedded in the lungs, intestinal or vaginal mucus layer, the teeth or other medical implant surfaces or formed intracellularly (Dewasthale et al., 2018). Teichoic acids are characteristic major components of the cell surface in Gram-positive bacteria.

Ali Demirci et al., (2014) studied the reactors with biofilms which are used to produce many value added products. These include organic acids, alcohols, enzymes, antibiotics, bacteriocins and many more. Many bioreactor designs favor the biofilm formation in a reactor. The biofilm reactors are utilized for fermentation and bioconversion of large amount of biomass. Recently, the biofilm reactors have been applied for production of many value-added products with novel designs. According to Ercan and Demirci (2015) the biofilms can cause both detrimental and beneficial effects in the environment. Biofilms in bioreactors has many advantages due to the membrane fouling which reduces the cost. Higher biomass density can be utilized and the operation is more stable.Biofilm reactors are commercially being utilized for waste water treatment, bench and pilot-scale production of value-added products. In order to run the biofilm reactor at optimum conditions it is important to understand the fundamentals of biofilm formation, the different properties

Acinetobacter baumannii is an opportunistic pathogen giving rise to nosocomial infections causing threat to public health. Studies of biofilm-forming genes was done in A. baumannii isolates by PCR technique. To study the relationships of genes a technique based on PCR sequences along with multilocus sequence typing (MLST) were utilized (Saeed et al., 2020). Goudarzi, Mehdi et al. (2019) studied the genetic diversity and biofilm formation analysis of Staphylococcus aureus causing urinary tract infections in Tehran, Iran. The biofilm forming and adhesion encoding genes were studied along with distribution of different agr and spa types in S. aureus isolates by PCR screening and multiplex PCR. The workers found that the ability to produce biofilm was higher among MRSA strains as compared to MSSA strains. The most prevalent biofilm forming gene was icaD (77.3%), followed by icaA (76%), icaB (57.3%) and icaC (50.7%). Acinetobacter baumannii is a nosocomial pathogen which is commonly present in hospitals and is a causal organism of many diseases. A. baumannii isolates have been known as multidrug-resistant (MDR). For controlling such serious organism only molecular techniques have been found to be effective. 

Joana et al.(2016) have written a critical review on biofilms and have discussed newer methods to study biofilms. These have given a deep knowledge on the physiology, structure and composition of biofilms. More polar amino acids were present in ABPs but QSPs were made up of higher number of neutral amino acids.This helps in recognition. Web application WebLogo help in generating sequence logos (Crooks et al., 2004). The uncharged polar amino acid is present at the first, third and fifth positions.The basis of SVM model is on the amino acid composition of the peptides. The Weka model is based on selected eight inputs which is trained on the NT5 dataset and is accurate, sensitive and specific.Peptide drugs are FDA approved and a total of 242 sequences of biotech peptides/proteins are available at the Drug Bank database. To identify potential anti-biofilm activity for characterization the peptide sequences are submitted on the module of dPABBs. The prediction outcomes are displayed under the ‘Putative ABPs’ section(http://ab-openlab.

According to Fereshteh et al. (2020) microorganisms use biofilm to protect themselves against the harmful effects of the host body immune system and the surrounding environment. This helps them to survive against the anti-microbial agents. Inhibition of bacterial biofilm formation is very time consuming and expensive. Newer computational tools have been found to be a good option to predict the inhibition of biofilm peptides. In a computational prediction tool a large number of peptide sequences can be screened to select the peptides for validation. Vectors are extracted from the peptide primary structure and classification algorithms are carried out which includes SVM, random forest and k-nearest neighbour to evaluate their performance. Using a combination of features, helps in good evaluation. National Institute of Health (NIH) has found out that 80% of bacterial pathogens form biofilms and their multicellular structure makes them resistant to the hosts’ defense systems and traditional antimicrobials than planktonic bacteria. Recently, the use of Antimicrobial peptides

Biofilms are resistant to antibiotics even at high concentrations (Costerton et al., 1999).This could happen when the diffusion of the antibiotic within the biofilm matrix is inefficient and results in slow growth rate of biofilm cells (Davey et al., 2000), there could be the presence of persistent cells and antibiotic-resistant small-colonies (Hogan and Kolter, 2002; Kolenbrander, 2000).Studies have proved that antibiotics can inhibit biofilm formation. An antibiotic azithromycin, is known to inhibit Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm. Biofilm colonies become resistant at higher concentrations of the antibiotics whereas at low concentrations these can be induced (Mah and OToole, 2001). P.aeruginosa is commonly present in the lungs of patients infested with cystic fibrosis. The clinical isolates show resistance to azithromycin (MIC>64 pg/ ml).However, low doses of azithromycin have shown improvement in lung function in patients with cystic fibrosis (Borriello et al., 2004). If antibiotics are given at low concentrations (below the MIC) than it induces biofilm formation in a variety of bacterial species. Sub-MIC concentrations of tobramycin can induce biofilm formation in P. aeruginosa. The use of antibiotics in agriculture, as growth promoters have shown to expose bacteria to low levels of the drugs and has caused havoc (Smith et al., 2002). Rachid et al. 

According to Li and Tian (2012) a pure-culture planktonic growth of bacteria is rarely found in natural environments.There is a physical interaction between the bacterial cells in biofilms (Kolenbrander, 2002; Watnick and Kolter,2000).The bacteria can organize into groups and can form well-organized communities. They also communicate for coordinated activities (Davey and O toole,2000; Watnick et al., 2000; Nadell et al., 2009). Quorum-sensing mechanisms are common in prokaryotic and single-celled eukaryotic organisms like fungi (van Bodman et al, 2008; Sordi and Muhlschlegal, 2009). For any biofilm structure to develop a high level of cell density is important (Kolenbrander et al., 2002; Kuramitsu et al., 2007 and Webb et al., 2003) and also for checking the effect of antibiotics against planktonic organisms in exponential growth phase using MIC and MBC.This can predict the antibiotic efficacy against rapidly dividing bacteria in acute infections. Papanna, Shobharani and Agrawal Renu (2010) studied the interception of quorum sensing signal molecule

The biofilm formation is usually assayed by using Congo Red Agar (CRA) plate test. According to a method developed by Freeman et al., (1989) the isolates are stored in nutrient agar slants and screened for biofilm formation ability using CRA plates. Biofilm forming strains are observed as dark black colonies while others as red colonies on the CRA plates. Recently, the concept of these biofims have changed with new imaging technologies, biochemical methods and molecular ecosystem biology tools. A biofilm structure can be observed in 3-D form to the nano-scale level (Neu and Lawrence, 2015). A lot of studies are being conducted on the physiology of the biofilm cells, the genotypic and phenotypic variation among the biofilm community, as well as the biofilm metabolome, proteome and transcriptome (Raes and Bork, 2008). This will help in the the development of efficient methods to control deleterious biofilms (clinical biofilms, food contaminants, biofouling on industrial equipment and on ship hulls) and to enhance and modulate beneficial ones

Biofilms play an important part in biotechnology, immunology, biofouling and biodeterioration (Fleming and Wingender, 2001; Dunne, 2002). When the pathogenic cells adhere to the surface, it has been found that the transcription of the EPS genes get stimulated (Dunne, 2002). If EPS gene expression are monitored it can provide a good understanding of biofilm phenotypes (Allison and Sutherland, 1997; Helm and Naumann, 1995; Petersen et al., 2005). EPS serves many functions. It also enables the bacteria to capture nutrients (Pontefract,1991).The formation of biofilm goes through a mechanism which is different from species to species. Even the matrix thickness can be different from 0.2 to 1.0pm depending on the species and doubling time of the cells as thickness of 10 to 30 nm has been found in some bacteria species (Sleytr,1997). The cells secrete polysaccharides, proteins, nucleic acids and glycoproteins. Adherence on solid surfaces by microorganisms is a very complicated process that depends mostly on extracellular molecule production (Czaczyk and Myszka, 2007). The biosynthesis of EPS provides an optimal environment in which genetic material between the cells can be exchanged. This is needed for cell identification and the antigenic properties are helpful in serological characterization of the cells. Among the various compounds of extracellular carbohydrates are acetate esters, pyruvtes, formates, succinates, polysaccharides and proteins (Sutherland, 2001a).

Microbial life abounds on a solid substrate. Water and some nutrients are sufficient to allow the microbial construction called biofilm. Biofilm-associated infections (BAI) can enhance chronic infections in which the bacterial pathogens can persist causing cross-contamination of the food products.

Giaouris et al. (2014) worked on the meat processing and biofilm formation by foodborne bacteria. Work on seafoods has been well worked by Mizan et al. (2015). Habimana et al. (2010) studied them in feed industry on Salmonella versus host resident flora strains. Lin et al. (2017) have studied the characteristics of some food borne pathogens. In a study by Rao et al. (2020) cold atmospheric plasma can be a solution to prevent biofilms.Ferriol-Gonzalez et al. (2020) worked out that bacteriophages can be helpful to remove biofims. According to Przekwas et al. (2020) in early stage of growth of the biofilm use of ascorbic acid can be helpful for the removal of biofilms. Apples can be protected from pathogenic bacteria by protecting them using harmless bacteria. It leads towards the development of alternative foodborne-pathogen-control strategies. Listeria monocytogenes is a big concern in the NE part of India.

There are many bacteria and fungi which produce biofilms. These are made up of living, reproducing microorganisms. These microbes form communities and adhere tightly to the surfaces and are resistant to many antibiotics. Many pathogenic microorganisms form biofilms which are difficult to be removed and are harmful.Such microbial colonies produce an extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) to protect them. The dental plaque was the first documented evidence of microbial biofilms. When such microorganisms get a moist environment they attach themselves to any object and reproduce forming an attachment by secreting a slimy, glue-like substance. It is possible with metals, plastics, natural materials, medical implants, kitchen counters, contact lenses, walls of a hot tub or swimming pool. Initially it was the investigation of many scientists to show the presence of biofilms

Beneficial effects of biofilms have also been shown (Rosche et al., 2009) especially in agriculture (Bogino et al., 2013; Berlanga and Guerrero, 2016) where it can be utilized as a biological control agents. They are used as biofertilizers to enhance crop production (Timmusk et al., 2017), hazardous pollutants can be removed (Irankhah et al., 2019). 

Product Characteristics and Packaging Requirements:

The key raw materials for sugar confectionery are sugar (60 - 65%), glucose, citric acid and flavoured essences. Confectionery is hygroscopic in nature and requires protection against the ingress of moisture, and exposure to high temperature (as far as possible).

A candy or confectionery product may be adversely affected by many things. Hard candy, brittles and crunch products are most sensitive to moisture and absorb water vapour fairly rapidly from the atmosphere. Various gums are less sensitive while some creams tend to lose moisture considerably.

This process involves building up a coating of sugar and sometimes of other things, layer by layer. Panning is one of those processes that the confectionery and pharmaceutical industries have in common.

The coating of confectionery with sugar using a pan is very ancient. Originally, these products were made in an open pan suspended over a fire by chains. Apparently the operator swung the pan by hand, coating the product with sugar syrup which was then allowed to crystallise. The normal modern small-scale method is to use a rotating dragee pan (Fig.No.19.1).

These are elliptical vessels made traditionally of copper, but now more commonly of stainless steel. The pan is equipped to be rotated and usually there is a system for supplying and extracting air and possibly with a system for spraying in the sugar syrup. Typical pan sizes are between 1.5 and 0.9 m in diameter although smaller sizes are used for small-scale work.

These products were originally flavoured with the herb marshmallow but a modem marshmallow is a foam that has been stabilised by a gelling agent. The traditional material for marshmallows is egg albumen which acts both as a foaming and gelling agent - this gives light, soft gel. Gelatine is now more commonly used, and once again can act as both a whipping and gelling agent. A gelatine marshmallow is soft and rubbery but heavier than an egg albumen one. Further gelling agents, e.g., pectin, agar and starch all give a soft, short textured gel. These gelling agents have the advantage of being vegetable products but have the disadvantage of normally needing a whipping agent as well. Enzyme-modified soya products have also recently become available for this use.

Methods of Marshmallow Manufacturing:

Tabletting is the area where sugar confectionery and pharmaceutical manufacture come closest, as the machines are similar the process can also be similar. Confectioners normally try to make tablets as hard as possible whereas pharmaceutical tablets are normally made to be fairly soft.

Tablets are made by compressing a powder in a die. Under pressure the powder fuses and is ejected as a tablet. The problem of tabletting is to produce a powder that will flow freely when poured into the die but bonds satisfactorily when compressed. Some materials are available in a directly compressible form. One example is sorbitol, which goes some way to explain the popularity of pressed sorbitol tablets with manufacturers. If directly compressible materials are not being used then the material must be granulated before being tabletted.

Granulation

Tabletting materials can be prepared by a number of different methods as outlined below:

Lozenges are solid preparations that contain one or more medicaments, usually in a flavored, sweetened base, that are intended to dissolve or disintegrate slowly in the mouth. They can be prepared by molding (gelatin and/or fused sucrose and sorbitol base) or by compression of sugar-based tablets. Molded lozenges are sometimes referred to as pastilles, whereas compressed lozenges may be referred to as troches. They are used for patients who cannot swallow solid oral dosage forms well as for medications designed to be released slowly to yield a constant level of drug in the oral cavity or to bathe the throat tissues in a solution of the drug. Lozenges historically have been used for the relief of minor sore throat pain and irritation and have been used extensively to deliver topical anaesthetics and antibacterial.

Advantages

1. It is easy to administer to both paediatric and geriatric patients.
2. It has a pleasant taste and will extend the time a quantity of drug remains in the oral cavity to elicit local activity.