| Affiliations: | |
| Project Leader: | Dipanshu Chinwan dipanshuchinwan@tamu.edu Biological & Agricultural Engineering |
| Faculty Mentor: | Elena Castell-Perez, Ph.D. |
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Meeting Times:
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Spring 2017: Tuesday 11AM-Noon |
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Team Size:
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0 (Team Full) |
| Open Spots: | 0 |
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Special Opportunities:
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Co-Authorship, Attending a conference. |
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Team Needs:
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Interest in working with foods. |
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Description:
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Fresh blueberries contain an array of phytochemicals that contribute to their elevated antioxidant capacity, including flavonols, tannins, and anthocyanins. The growing concern regarding health related problems has caused researchers to look for foods that are benevolent and can provide more than just useful nutrients. Blueberries are rich in antioxidants which have been widely considered to help in promoting health benefits. Several processing techniques are currently available to disinfect the blueberries but radiation treatment has shown great promise by displaying good results that don’t only include disinfecting them but also enhancing the phytochemicals. With this in mind, we plan to study the effect of e-beam irradiation and freeze drying at different doses on the phenolic content of the blueberries. E-beam radiations will be used to disinfect the blueberries and also enhance the phenolic content. Freeze drying will be used with the objective of retaining the total phenolic content that has been enhanced by irradiation for foods like breakfast cereals. We will elucidate the kinetics of the radiation-induced chemical changes responsible for the enhanced antioxidant activity of the fruits. |