Milk is a wholesome nutritious dairy product and is consumed by a majority of the population worldwide for drinking as such, as well as via dairy products. However, the practice of adulteration of milk invariably reduces its quality and may introduce hazardous substances into the dairy supply chain jeopardising consumers’ health. Various instances of adulteration of milk have been reported globally, wherein substances such as extraneous water, foreign proteins, whey proteins, melamine and urea, vegetable or animal fats, plus many minor constituents of milk fat have been added as potential adulterants in milk and milk products. This review focusses on the different methods of detection of these adulterants in milk using techniques such as DSC, RP‐HPLC, LC‐GC, HPTLC, immunoassays: CE, ELISA, FAMPST, FTIR, NIR spectroscopy, PAGE, IEF, DNA‐based methods and MALDI‐MS that have been developed and employed for the last 25 years. The combination of advanced IR spectroscopy and chemometrics provides a powerful tool for quality and authenticity analysis of milk. An electronic tongue is an easy and economic tool for the detection of caprine milk adulterations with bovine milk. Biosensors having the ability to furnish real‐time signals have been developed for the detection of urea in milk. An attempt has been made to give a clear understanding of the most suitable methods for the determination of various sources of adulteration.

Green leafy vegetables have generated interest worldwide as they exhibit multiple benefits for health of human beings. Vegetables can form the cheapest and most readily available sources of important vitamins, minerals, fibres and essential amino acids particularly. In most of the developing countries where the daily diet is dominated by starchy staple foods, vegetables can form the cheapest and most readily available sources of important vitamins, minerals, fibres and essential amino acids. Across the globe there are several local and wild vegetables which are underexploited because of inadequate scientific information on knowledge of their nutritional potentials. A resurgence of interest has developed in wild vegetables for their possible medicinal values in diets. C. album is under exploited vegetable which has high functional potential apart from basic nutritional benefits. The plant is used in diet not only to provide minerals, fibre, vitamins and essential fatty acids but also enhance sensory and functional value of the food. The plant has been traditionally used as a bloodpurifier, diuretic, sedative, hepatoprotective, antiscorbutic laxative and as an anthelmentic against round and hookworms. Pharmacological studies have revealed that the plant possesses anthelmentic, sperm immobilizing and contraceptive properties. It is also claimed to be antipruritic and antinociceptive in action. Therefore C. album holds a great potential for in depth biological evaluation. No significant work has ever been carried out for processing parameters for this potentially useful plant.Significance and future scope of C. album for public and dietary awareness of its nutritional status has been discussed in this review.

In the present work Lactobacillus delbrueckii was used to utilize agro-industrial byproduct (cane molasses) for lactic acid production under submerged fermentation process. Screening of LAB was done by Fourier transform infra red spectroscopy (FTIR). Effect of different amino acids (DLPhenylalanine, L-Lysine and DL-Aspartic acid) on the fermentation process was done by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Central composite rotatable design (CCRD) was used to optimize the levels of three parameters viz. tween 80, amino acid and cane molasses concentration during fermentative production of lactic acid. Under optimum condition lactic acid production was enhanced from 55.89 g/L to 84.50 g/L. Further, validation showed 81.50 g/L lactic acid production. Scale up was done on 7.5 L fermentor. Productivity was found to be 3.40 g/L/h which was higher than previous studies with reduced fermentation time from 24 h to 12 h. Further characterization of lactic acid was done by FTIR.

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Light-emitting diode (LED) technology is a new non-thermal food preservation method that works by converting light energy into heat. LED has potential to revolutionize crop production, protection and preservation. This technology is economical and environmentally friendly. LEDs have been shown to improve the nutritive quality and shelf life of foods, control the ripening of fruits, induce the synthesis of bioactive compounds and antioxidants and reduce the microbial contamination. This technology also has great scope in countries, where safety, hygiene, storage and distribution of foods are serious issues. While comparing this technology with other lighting technologies, LEDs can bring numerous advantages to food supply chain from farm to fork. In case of small growing amenities which exploit only LEDs, energy expenditure has been successfully reduced while producing nutritious food. LEDs can be used to give us better understanding and control over production and preservation of food with relation to spectral composition of light. LEDs also play significant role in food safety by inactivating the food borne pathogens. Therefore, LED lighting is a very effective and promising technology for extending shelf life of agricultural produce by increasing disease resistance and with increased nutritional values. Graphical abstract