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The purpose of this paper is to explore consumers’ health perception and demonstrate its relevance in product and process design in early stages of new product development.

A dried mango was used as a case study involving three countries: Indonesia, China and the Netherlands. Data were collected from nine focus groups (n=53 participants) and were content-analysed to acquire in-depth insights.

Four themes of health perception emerged, namely, nutrition, naturalness, taste and well-being, which were all expressed on different levels of abstractness. Participants’ health perception of dried mango varied, it is related to the product category it is compared with, e.g. candy or fresh fruit, and the eating context, e.g. position in the diet either as a snack or a meal. In extension participants mentioned product and process characteristics. Application of the insights into product and process design was performed through iterative interactions between consumer scientists and food technologists. The development of two product concepts was elaborated to transform the insights into technical product and process specifications for a natural dried mango product.

This transformation suggests that iterative interactions are necessary to achieve relevant product and process characteristics in the simultaneous design of the technical product and process specifications based on consumer perceptions.

Modern meat processing requires automation and robotisation to remain sustainable and adapt to future challenges, including those brought by global infection events. Automation of all or many processes is seen as the way forward, with robots performing various tasks instead of people. Meat cutting is one of these tasks. Smart novel solutions, including smart knives, are required, with the smart knife being able to analyse and predict the meat it cuts. This paper aims to review technologies with the potential to be used as a so-called “smart knife” The criteria for a smart knife are also defined.

This paper reviews various technologies that can be used, either alone or in combination, for developing a future smart knife for robotic meat cutting, with possibilities for their integration into automatic meat processing. Optical methods, Near Infra-Red spectroscopy, electrical impedance spectroscopy, force sensing and electromagnetic wave-based sensing approaches are assessed against the defined criteria for a smart knife.

Optical methods are well established for meat quality and composition characterisation but lack speed and robustness for real-time use as part of a cutting tool. Combining these methods with artificial intelligence (AI) could improve the performance. Methods, such as electrical impedance measurements and rapid evaporative ionisation mass spectrometry, are invasive and not suitable in meat processing since they damage the meat. One attractive option is using athermal electromagnetic waves, although no commercially developed solutions exist that are readily adaptable to produce a smart knife with proven functionality, robustness or reliability.

This paper critically reviews and assesses a range of sensing technologies with very specific requirements: to be compatible with robotic assisted cutting in the meat industry. The concept of a smart knife that can benefit from these technologies to provide a real-time “feeling feedback” to the robot is at the centre of the discussion.

White maize-based porridge is a staple food for about 80 per cent consumers in South Africa and in other sub-Saharan African countries contributing significantly to the diet of rural population in developing countries. White maize is deficient in some amino acids and over-dependency on its porridge may lead to high prevalence of malnutrition-related health conditions. Moringa oleifera (MO) and termite (Macrotermes falciger) are known to contain substantial amount of protein. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of powders from MO leaves and termite on the nutritional and sensory properties of instant maize porridge.

Inclusion of MO and termite powder in instant maize porridge, using different treatments were considered using a completely randomised design. Factor levels were control (maize flour) cooked, blanched and uncooked MO samples. Data were analysed using SPSS version 23.

Protein content of fortified instant maize porridge (FMP) significantly increased from 10.0 to 21.2 per cent compared to unfortified porridge, and this could be attributed to the substitution effect, as fresh uncooked MO leaves are reported to be high in protein. Mineral content of FMP was higher in zinc, iron, calcium and magnesium. Calcium values of FMP were higher (276.8 mg/100 g) compared to unfortified porridge (7.1 mg/100 g). Upon the addition of MO leaves and termite powder, the zinc content increased from 3.4 mg/100to 7.6 mg/100 g. Higher iron values (27.9-36.9 mg/100 g) were observed among fortified samples. The sensory result showed that control sample had higher acceptance than the fortified samples (p = 0.02). Sensory analysis showed that among fortified porridges, blanched sample was rated high for colour and texture, cooked sample was higher in taste and uncooked sample was higher for aroma. Control sample had higher acceptance than fortified porridges for taste. The results of this study showed that the addition of MO leaves and termite powder to instant maize porridge has led to a substantial increase in the nutritional value of FMP.

This study was carried out to develop instant maize porridge fortified with MO leaves and termite powder suitable for infants, pregnant mothers and other maize consumers. The author aimed at improving the nutritional content of instant maize porridge by combining it with MO leaves and termite powders. The results showed that the addition of MO leaves and termite powders to instant maize porridge has led to a substantial increase in the nutritional value of FMP. Therefore, powder from MO leaves and termites could be used in complementary foods to increase protein and mineral contents.

The amount of food wasted every year is 1.3 billion metric tonne (MT), out of which 0.5 billion MT is contributed by the fruits processing industries. The waste includes by-products such as peels, pomace and seeds and is a good source of bioactive compounds like phenolic compounds, flavonoids, pectin lipids and dietary fibres. Hence, the purpose of the present study is to review the novel extraction techniques used for the extraction of the bio active compounds from food waste for the selection of suitable extraction method.

Novel extraction techniques such as ultrasound-assisted extraction, microwave-assisted extraction, enzyme-assisted extraction, supercritical fluid extraction, pulsed electric field extraction and pressurized liquid extraction have emerged to overcome the drawbacks and constraints of conventional extraction techniques. Hence, this study is focussed on novel extraction techniques, their limitations and optimization for the extraction of bioactive compounds from fruit and vegetable waste.

This study presents a comprehensive review on the novel extraction processes that have been adopted for the extraction of bioactive compounds from food waste. This paper also summarizes bioactive compounds' optimum extraction condition from various food waste using novel extraction techniques.

Food waste is rich in bioactive compounds, and its efficient extraction may add value to the food processing industries. Hence, compressive analysis is needed to overcome the problem associated with the extraction and selection of suitable extraction techniques.

Selection of a suitable extraction method will not only add value to food waste but also reduce waste dumping and the cost of bioactive compounds.

This paper presents the research progress on the extraction of bioactive active compounds from food waste using novel extraction techniques.

The main purpose of this study is to test the performance of the ink-jet printed microwave resonant circuits on Low temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) substrates combined with microfluidic channels for sensor applications. Normally, conductive patterns are deposited on an LTCC substrate by means of the screen-printing technique, but in this paper applicability of ink-jet printing in connection with LTCC materials is demonstrated.

A simple microfluidic LTCC sensor based on the microstrip ring resonator was designed. It was assumed the micro-channel, located under the ring, was filled with a mixture of DI water and ethanol, and the operating frequency of the resonator was tuned to 2.4 GHz. The substrate was fabricated by standard LTCC process, and the pattern of the microstrip ring resonator was deposited over the substrate by means of an ink-jet printer. Performance of the sensor was assessed with the use of various volumetric concentrations of DI water and ethanol. Actual changes in concentration were detected by means of microwave measurements.

It can be concluded that ink-jet printing is a feasible technique for fast fabrication of micro-strip circuits on LTCC substrates, including microfluidic components. Further research needs to be conducted to improve the reliability, accuracy and performance of this technique.

The literature shows the use of ink-jet printing for producing various conductive patterns in different applications. However, the idea to replace the screen-printing with the ink-jet printing on LTCC substrates in connection with microwave-microfluidic applications is not widely studied. Some questions concerning accuracy and reliability of this technique are still open.

Porous silicon (Si) was fabricated by using three different wet etching methods, namely, direct current photo-assisted electrochemical (DCPEC), alternating CPEC (ACPEC) and two-step ACPEC etching. This study aims to investigate the structural properties of porous structures formed by using these etching methods and to identify which etching method works best.

Si n(100) was used to fabricate porous Si using three different etching methods (DCPEC, ACPEC and two-step ACPEC). All the samples were etched with the same current density and etching duration. The samples were etched by using hydrofluoric acid-based electrolytes under the illumination of an incandescent lamp.

Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) images showed that porous Si etched using the two-step ACPEC method has a higher porosity and density than porous Si etched using DCPEC and ACPEC. The atomic force microscopy results supported the FESEM results showing that porous Si etched using the two-step ACPEC method has the highest surface roughness relative to the samples produced using the other two methods. High resolution X-ray diffraction revealed that porous Si produced through two-step ACPEC has the highest peak intensity out of the three porous Si samples suggesting an improvement in pore uniformity with a better crystalline quality.

Two-step ACPEC method is a fairly new etching method and many of its fundamental properties are yet to be established. This work presents a comparison of the effect of these three different etching methods on the structural properties of Si. The results obtained indicated that the two-step ACPEC method produced an etched sample with a higher porosity, pore density, surface roughness, improvement in uniformity of pores and better crystalline quality than the other etching methods.