Johanna Andrea Serna-Jiménez

Lollipop sticks were developed with fully biobased materials made of different plantain by-products, using extrusion processing followed by hot compression molding. The thermoplastic matrix was constituted of flour and starch from plantain bunch pulp and plantain peel cake. At the same time, two types of reinforcement were used, one of them being yarn from the lignocellulosic fibers of the pseudostem sheaths to constitute the BC1 lollipop stick and the other directly from the plantain pseudostem treated sheath to establish the BC2 lollipop stick. The biobased lollipop sticks were characterized in the migration test, finding a higher structural stability in lipophilic foods, with chocolate chosen as a confection to undergo physicochemical, structural, mechanical, and dynamic–mechanical characterization when interacting with the two biobased lollipop sticks until post-consumption was reached. The BC2 lollipop stick was characterized by maintaining higher stability in maximum tensile strength (12.62 to 11.76 MPa), higher flexural strength (19.07 to 10.11 MPa), storage modulus (4.97 to 1.65 GPa at 30 °C), and Tan delta (66.90 to 52.64 °C).

Coffee is an extremely popular beverage worldwide. To obtain it, the berry must be depulped, fermented, washed, dried, and roasted, producing residues: pulp and husk, mucilage, and parchment. Recently there has been an interest in generating high-value products. In this article, advances in the valorization process are critically reviewed, including an overview of the composition of residues derived from primary processing, uses in food, biocomposite, and biofuel production (thermochemical conversion). With an increasing production of coffee projected in the coming years, there is an urgent need to balance it with the appropriate use and industrial application of coffee wastes and by-products, which are renewable resources rich in carbohydrates, proteins, pectin, and bioactive compounds (polyphenols). The applications described above, together with those that will undoubtedly be developed in the future, represent promising opportunities to take advantage of agro-industrial residues derived from primary processing of Coffea spp. and develop more efficient and sustainable systems through biorefinery approaches and the circular economy.

This study compared the green solvents ethyl acetate and water for caffeine extraction from coffee pills against four traditional solvents (ethanol, methanol, acetone, and acetonitrile). Each solvent's green degree (GD) was calculated using seven environmental and technical performance parameters. The environmental parameters were obtained from the Glaxo Smith Kline guide. Fick's law of effective diffusion was used as the technical parameter. Water was selected as the preferred solvent (among the six evaluated in this study), and its ultrasound‐assisted extraction (UAE) conditions were optimized. The optimal conditions were estimated by ridge analysis. It was found that caffeine extraction was approximately 4.3 times higher in UAE than in conventional solid–liquid processes, and the extraction time was reduced by 96%. Moreover, this process improved caffeine extraction with water. Therefore, the use of UAE over conventional solid extraction and water as an inexpensive, easily accessible, manageable, and environmentally friendly solvent provides extraction alternatives for caffeine in different matrices. Additionally, a methodology is proposed to evaluate the GD for each solvent in the green chemistry framework to achieve sustainable development goals.

Introducción: la extracción de los polifenoles ha tomado un interés debido a la relación que tiene con la prevención del estrés oxidativo y efectos benéficos sobre la salud en la prevención de enfermedades no transmisibles; estos están comúnmente en algunas frutas por lo que su extracción se ha convertido en una tendencia para obtener productos de alto valor agregado. El ultrasonido es una técnica que puede disminuir el tiempo de extracción de estos biocomponentes. Objetivo: evaluar las condiciones de la extracción asistida por ultrasonido de polifenoles con actividad antioxidantes en cáscara de pitahaya amarilla deshidratada. Materiales y métodos: Se deshidrataron las cáscaras y construyó cinéticas de secado a 60ºC, con el fin de disminuir las reacciones de deterioro. Para la extracción, una solución de etanol al 96% (V/V) fue usada como disolvente, en una relación cáscaradisolvente 1:1. El proceso fue realizado a 25 ºC en un sistema de ultrasonido indirecto con una frecuencia de 37 kHz. Se usó un diseño central compuesto, fueron evaluados el efecto de la potencia (40 – 80%) y tiempo de sonicación (11,90 – 33,10 minutos). Se hizo extracción con el método soxhlet (control). Los polifenoles totales y capacidad antioxidantes fue determinado por lo métodos Folin-Ciocalteau y ABTS respectivamente. Resultados: Bajos tiempos y altas potencias de sonicación fueron asociados con incremento en la extracción de polifenoles y capacidad antioxidante. En particular, la extracción asistida con ultrasonido con 60% de potencia y 11 minutos, se obtuvo un 77% más de polifenoles que 24 horas de proceso con método Soxhlet. Conclusión: El ultrasonido tiene potencial en comparación con la técnica tradicional para reducir el tiempo de procesamiento en extracción de biocomponentes, en este caso aprovechar la cáscara de pitahaya amarilla que es considerada como un residuo, se encontraron concentraciones de polifenoles de 973,10 mg/L que pueden ser extraídos por ultrasonido a 222 W de potencia nominal (60%), 35kHz de frecuencia y 22 minutos y con una capacidad antioxidante superior al 90%.

The aim of this study was to assess the inhibitory effect of three commercial bioprotectant agents on the growth of yogurt-spoiling fungi. Mucor circinelloides, Mucor racemosus, Penicillium spp., Saccharomyces exiguus, and Candida intermedia , commonly involved in the spoilage of dairy products, were isolated from spoiled yogurt and were fully characterized using molecular and phenotypic methods. HOLDBAC-YMC™ , Lyofast-FPR2™ and MicroGARD 200™ were used as antifungal products. An optimized experimental mixture design was applied to determine the proportion of each bioprotectant in terms of growth-inhibition response against the fungal strains in standard laboratory media. The results of the challenge tests showed that the application of bioprotectants inhibited the growth of the moulds in the range of 85–100% and the growth of yeast between 1.23 and 5.40 log cycles. The optimal combination of the bioprotectants was determined, tested in standard laboratory media and found to inhibit fungal growth. The antifungal effect of the optimal combination of the bioprotectants was validated in yogurt against the most resistant fungal species of the study, M. circinelloides and C. intermedia . The bioprotectants elicited antifungal effect in yogurt by completely inhibiting all of the tested fungi compared to controls. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time a mixture of commercial bioprotectants has been tested on yogurt as a potential alternative for the biopreservation of yogurt in order to reduce spoilage of fermented dairy products and economic losses.

Supramolecular solvents (SUPRASs) were investigated for the recovery of bioactives from coffee wastewater (CWW), an abundant residue in the wet and semi-wet processing methods of coffee beans. The SUPRASs were made up of hexagonal inverted aggregates of hexanol or decanoic acid and were spontaneously produced in the wastewater through self-assembly processes. The SUPRAS components were authorized food ingredients facilitating future industrial applicability. Under passive extraction (without stirring), caffeine was recovered with a yield of 54 to 65 mg per liter of wastewater. The SUPRAS extracts showed good antioxidant capacity (up to 53% ABTS˙⁺) and were stable for at least 2 months in the range of temperatures investigated (4–24 °C) for the preservation of bioactives. Additionally, the SUPRAS-based extraction of bioactives improved substantially some wastewater quality parameters (e.g. BOD, total suspended solids and conductivity), so this process also helped to purify wastewater before dumping it into surface waters.

El objetivo de este trabajo fue evaluar las condiciones de secado de cáscara de café y su efecto sobre propiedades fisicoquímicas. Se realizaron cinéticas de secado hasta 420 minutos, a 40, 50 y 60 ºC; los datos experimentales se ajustaron con 4 modelos cinéticos de capa delgada. Adicionalmente, se evaluó el contenido de cafeína y ácido clorogénico y los parámetros de color en la cáscara húmeda y seca. Se obtuvo una reducción del contenido de agua hasta el 13,5%. El modelo de Page fue el más adecuado para representar el secado a las tres temperaturas evaluadas. Respecto a los biocomponentes, la concentración se incrementó en el proceso y los cambios de color fueron superiores al 4%, generando tonalidades rojizas y cambios en el ángulo de tono, luminosidad y croma. Lo anterior demuestra que el secado es una alternativa para estabilizar este subproducto, como etapa previa para su uso industrial.