No abstract

No abstract

Partial rejection of irradiated foods by the population demands a greater understanding of the thoughts of consumers. With such goals, focus group sessions were conducted with 26 participants, investigating their attitudes, opinions and knowledge about irradiated foods. The majority of participants were in favor of the presence of true and enlightening information on the labels of irradiated foods and consider the term "ionization" less impactful that "irradiation." However, some consumers require that the method of real conservation is informed, stating that the term "ionization" can be associated with other processes used in food, and therefore, it is misleading. Moreover, participants agreed that greater disclosure of information on the irradiation process for the acceptance of irradiated foods increase is necessary. For example, the major concern of consumers regarding irradiated foods is their possible health hazards, and clarification of this question could result in greater acceptance of irradiated foods. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONSWe provided information on the thoughts, knowledge and attitudes of consumers regarding irradiated foods. This information is of great importance to industries that market or intend to market irradiated foods and seek to adopt strategies aimed at increasing the acceptance and intent to purchase of consumers for these products. The fact that irradiation technology is rejected by the population further accentuates the importance of the results obtained in this study. For example, it was found that the major question and concern among consumers regarding irradiated foods is their possible health hazards; the clarification of this doubt by reliable sources could result in greater acceptance of irradiated foods, and consequently greater use of irradiation in food and increased supply of foods that are microbiologically safer and have longer shelf life.

No abstract

Bovine serum albumin is one of the major serum proteins; it plays an important role as a result of its functional and nutritional properties which have bioactive peptides. Adsorption method was used to separate protein, which involves hydroxyapatite, synthetic hydroxyapatite, and active babassu coal. Initially, characterization was carried out using the zeta potential of the adsorbents. Kinetic pseudo-first- and pseudo-second-order models were applied. For isotherms, equilibrium data studies were carried out using the Langmuir and Freundlich models, in addition to determining the efficiency of adsorptive process. The results of the zeta potential showed loads ranging from +6.9 to −42.8 mV. The kinetic data were better represented in the pseudo-second-order model with chemisorption characteristics. The adsorption capacity of the adsorbents decreased as pH increased, indicating that the electrostatic bonds and some functional groups of active babassu coal contributed to the reduction of adsorption, especially oxygen linked to carbon atoms. The value of pH 4.0 showed the best results of adsorption, being obtained as the maximum adsorption capacity (q m) and yield (%) (where q m = 87.95 mg g−1 and 74.2%; 68.26 mg g−1 and 68.6%; and 36.18 mg g−1, 37.4%) of hydroxyapatite, synthetic hydroxyapatite, and active babassu coal, respectively.