Canola stalks (Brassica napus L.) have been investigated as a source of fibres using water retting. In this study, equipment was constructed to develop a mechanized water retting system for canola stalks under aerobic conditions with a controlled flow rate and temperature to obtain canola fibres. The mechanized retting equipment is comprised of a retting chamber, holding tank, circulating pump, water heater, and dripping system, where the pump sucks water from the holding tank and feeds it to the heater, followed by the circulation of heated water to the dripping system in the retting chamber. The retting process was optimized by varying the retting time (24-72 h), retting temperature (30-50°C), and stalk lengths (5-25 cm). When taking fibre strength into account, it was observed that the optimal retting conditions for this mechanized retting equipment were 36 h of retting time, 30°C temperature, and 15 cm stalk length. The fibre strength decreases when the stalk length is further increased to 25 cm. Similarly, if the retting time is reduced to 24 h or increased to 72 h, it resulted in incomplete or excessive retting, respectively. For a given retting temperature, fibre yield % decreases with an increase in stalk length, possibly because smaller stalks experience less fibre breakage, and for a given stalk length, fibre moisture regain decreases with an increase in retting temperature. The problems of manual bast fibre retting processes associated with quality, quantity, efficacy, and sustainability could potentially be resolved with this mechanized retting equipment.

Technological advancement in encapsulating vegetable oil enriched with PUFA has become a new trend to improve stability, preservation, and food application. For microencapsulation of flaxseed oil, three independent parameters, i.e., maltodextrin (MD) (3.5, 4 and 4.5 g/g of whey protein concentrate (WPC)), oil (0.20, 0.2125, and 0.225 ml/g of wall material (WM)) and ultrasonication time (UT) (10, 12 and 15 min). Encapsulation efficiency (%) and dissolution time (min) increased with an increase in MD (g/g of WPC) and UT (min), while both decreased with an increase in oil (ml/g of WM). Similarly, the peroxide value and the color difference increased with an increase in oil (ml/g of WM) and a decrease in MD (g/g of WPC) and UT (min). Analysis of experimental data revealed the optimized condition of microencapsulated flaxseed oil powder at 4.5 g MD/g of WPC, 0.208 ml oil /g of WM and 14 min UT having 85.4% encapsulation efficiency, 1.98 meq/kg of oil peroxide value, 4.92 colour difference and 7.08 min dissolution time. Storage studies for 21 days revealed that microencapsulated flaxseed oil powder was found to be more stable as compared to fresh flaxseed oil.

With the global population increasing rapidly, there is a growing need for technologies to enhance food production. Ensuring sustainability and traceability in food production has become a priority, leading researchers to explore innovative techniques for monitoring the quality of agri-food products, particularly grains, during post-harvest handling. These techniques need to be precise, non-destructive, environmentally friendly, and capable of real-time analysis. This study provides a concise overview of eight non-destructive techniques for monitoring grain quality, with a specific focus on wheat as a staple food worldwide. The discussed techniques include near-infrared spectroscopy, colour imaging, near-infrared hyperspectral imaging, mid-infrared spectroscopy, X-ray imaging, thermal imaging, acoustic sensors, and electronic nose. Each technique’s state-of-the-art advantages and challenges are thoroughly examined. In this analysis, the techniques are classified based on their commercial readiness, as some are still in the research stage while others have already been adopted by the industry.

The review highlights the dynamic landscape of grain quality monitoring by shedding light on the latest developments in sensor technology and data mining. These advancements are expected to have a significant impact on grain handling facilities, including reducing losses, optimizing unit operations, decreasing energy consumption, and improving relationships between the facilities and end-users.

Through an extensive review of the existing literature, untapped potential has been revealed in non-destructive techniques for enhancing the quantity and quality of grains. Overall, this literature review provides valuable insights for researchers and practitioners, empowering them to improve grain quality monitoring and minimize losses in grain handling facilities.

Pulses are relied upon as a staple food and source of proteinaceous nutrition for billions of people worldwide. Furthermore, sustainable pulse protein isolate production is experiencing rapid growth due to a combination of consumer trends, concerns about the environment and animal welfare, and improvements in plant-based meat product quality, availability, and affordability. However, among the naturally occurring micro-nutritional components in pulses, a low level of sulphur amino acids poses a barrier to the widespread uptake of these nutritionally dense crops into food products. Multiple strategies to effectively address deficits in sulphur amino acids (e.g., supplementing, combining with complementary proteins, or plant breeding) are befitted by the development of rapid testing platforms to detect these important amino acids in pulses. Conventional methods of sulphur amino acid analysis are slow, expensive, non-specific and lack portability. They can also be insensitive to cysteine oxidation, which is problematic as proteins are highly susceptible to oxidative reactions, with dire consequences being a loss of essential nutrients, toxin formation, and textural impairment, reduced water-holding capacity, and adverse effects on colour and flavour. To overcome these challenges, we propose a highly sensitive spectroscopic detection method, Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS), as a platform for rapid, inexpensive, specific, and portable testing. This paper presents a conceptual framework to extend our core enabling technology to alkaline extracts of pea (Pisum sativum), and to microfluidics, towards developing new methods to analyze macro- and micro-nutritional components of protein from pulses.