Safe food handling in school kitchens is an important practice to protect the students from foodborne illnesses. Bacterial count in prepared food is a key factor in assessing the quality and safety of food. It also reveals the level of hygiene adopted by food handlers in the course of preparation of such foods. A case study research was conducted to examine the food safety knowledge, attitudes and practices of food handlers and bacterial contaminations in food from two women's hostel kitchens at Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture Technology and Sciences (SHUATS) Allahabad, India. Questionnaires regarding food safety knowledge, attitudes and practices were administered to all the 25 food handlers working at these two kitchens (18 (72%) from old and 7 (28%) from new women's hostel kitchens) through in-person interviews. A total of 72 cooked food samples (36 from each kitchen) were analyzed for evidence of contamination (total aerobic mesophilic bacteria, coliforms, and Escherichia coli). The majority of the food handlers did not used good food handling practices and did not practice proper personal hygiene, because majority of them had poor knowledge and attitudes regarding food safety. All the cooked food samples tested had total APC, coliform, and E. coli levels higher than acceptable. The study results, therefore, call for stringent supervision and implementation of food safety practices. Periodic trainings on personal hygiene and good food handling practices will play a pivotal role in improving the safety of the prepared meals in these kitchens.

The objective of this study was to investigate the physical and functional qualities of composite flour made from finger millet (Eluesine coracana), rice flour (Oryza sativa), and guar gum flour (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba). As physicochemical and functional parameters, the moisture content, ash content, fat content, protein content, swelling capacity, water absorption capacity, bulk density, foaming capacity, and oil absorption capacity were determined. 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% of guar gum were combined with equal amounts of flour from finger millet and rice flour. The proximate, physicochemical, and functional features of composite flour were analysed. Moisture content, ash content, amount of fat, and protein isolate were 11.2-11.9%, 1.3-2.1%, 1.5-2.5%, and 6.8-23.5%, respectively. The composite flour moisture level was below 12%, which makes it suitable for storage. The swelling capacity, water absorption capacity, bulk density, foaming capacity, and oil absorption capacity were, respectively, 6.93 to 7.49 g/g, 106 to 364%, 0.815-0.815 gm/ml, 4.0 to 18.6%, and 113 to 119%. This work promotes for the promotion and use of ragi and rice flour in the production of pasta and bread in India, a country noted for its exclusive reliance on wheat flour. Ragi and rice flour can be found in most Indian super markets.

Exploring the functionality of composite flours from Rice, Amaranth and Raw banana for various food products can be advantageous in food industry as it has more benefits. Therefore the purpose of the plan of the current study is to examine the functional characteristics of these composite flours at various proportions. Composite flours were blended in six treatments in the ratio of 100:0:0 (T0), 0:100:0 (T00), 49:49:2 (T1), 48:48:4 (T2), 47:47:6 (T3) and 46:46:8 (T4) respectively. The different functional properties of the blend such as water absorption capacity, oil absorption capacity, swelling capacity and foaming capacity were determined. It was revealed that the capacity for water and oil absorption was decreased for T00 and decreased with the addingpercentage of raw banana powder in the flour blend from T1 to T4. Also the foaming measurement and swelling measurement of the flour blend ranged between 8% to 14% and 8ml to 17ml respectively. These flours can be used for making the pasta and similar products, because of its high nutritional quality which is beneficial for human health.

This study was focused on investigating drying traits and quality retention of orange pulp using Refractance Window Drying (RWD) method. The effect of RWD temperature (70, 80 and 90 °C) and orange pulp thickness (2mm and 3mm) on drying time, drying rate, moisture content, ascorbic acid and colour (L*, a*, b* and b*/a*) were studied. The moisture content of 15-25 % (wb) for intermediate moisture food like orange pestil was achieved within 50 minutes of drying. The moisture content of the final product was 18.5% (wb). The fastest and slowest drying rate was observed for the sample dried at 2mm thickness and 90°C (5.74 g/min) and the sample dried at 3mm thickness and 90°C (1.00g/min) respectively. The lowest ascorbic acid (57.15 mg/100g) was recorded for the sample dried at 2mm thickness and 70°C temperature and the highest ascorbic acid (62.05 mg/100g) was for the sample dried at 3mm thickness and 90°C temperature. The effect of pulp thickness (2mm and 3mm) and drying temperature had a considerable influence on the colour factors of orange pestil. The sample dried at 2mm thickness and 90°C has the least L* value of 57 and the samples appear brown or dark red dark in colour and sample dried at 3mm thickness and 90°C had a maximum L* value i.e., 62.96 with the bright yellow sample. Increased value of a* of orange pestil/sheet as compared to the a* value of orange pulp i.e., for orange sheet sample dried at 3mm and 90°C a* value was 10.69 showcasing an elevation in the level of redness of dried sample in comparison to the orange colour of orange puree. The b* value of dried orange pestil/sheet decreased maximum for sample dried at 3mm and 90°C i.e., 32.28. The findings revealed that RW drying is a suitable drying process that can be effectively used for the formulation of quality orange pestil preserving its nutritional as well as sensory attributes.

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