Journal of Crop Production and Processing

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Due to problems in storage, transportation and price fluctuation of fresh potato, production of ready-to-use products like French fries is of particular importance. French fries quality mainly depends on the appearance, taste, color, texture and oil uptake. One of the important steps in product processing is blanching. This step improves product texture and color due to the decrease in reducing sugar content, and causes reduction of oil uptake due to the gelatinization of surface starch. Therefore, by selecting a suitable method and condition, the improvement of product quality is possible. In order to investigate the effect of blanching temperature on kinetic of the reducing sugar content and changes in potato stick color and texture, sticks with 0.8 0.8 8 cm dimensions were prepared and blanching was carried out with hot water at different temperatures (60, 70, 80 and 90°C) and various times up to 120 minutes. Color, texture and reducing sugar content of samples were measured during blanching. The results showed that reducing sugar content was reduced during the blanching as a function of temperature and time. Also, product color and texture were mainly affected by blanching temperature, with the low temperature being more suitable to improve potato stick quality. According to the results, there was no significant difference between blanching at 80, 90°C and 60°C for reducing sugar content. Also, for this parameter, there was no significant difference between times of 100 and 5 minutes at 60°C. The least texture damage was obtained by blanching at 60°C in a short time. It could be concluded that to preserve potato stick color and texture and reduce energy consumption, blanching can be done at 60°C for 5 minutes if enzymes are inactivated.

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In this study, the effects of quality and quantity of protein in flours with 95% and 70% extraction rates obtained from Mahdavi and Tajan wheat cultivars each baked at two different durations (100 and 75 sec.) and temperatures (210 and 250°C), after wrapping in polyethylene packages with 40µm thickness were investigated. All tests were carried out during 168 hours after packing and at 24h intervals. Results indicated that bread staling was affected by wheat cultivar, flour extraction rate, and storage time. Bread prepared from Tajan flour had lower firmness and staleness than that prepared from Mahdavi. High bran content bread was firmer than that with lower bran content. Organoleptic tests indicated that bread baked with 95% flour and bread baked at high temperatures with short durations were not very acceptable.

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Of all types of xenobiotics, pesticides such as herbicides play a significant role in soil and water pollution due to their widely usage all over the world. This study addresses the ability of organic amendments to enhance atrazine and metamitron degradation in two herbicide contaminated soils with contrasting textures under laboratory conditions. Soil samples were collected from surface soils with textures of sandy loam and silty clay, from northeastern part of Iran. Initial concentration of herbicides was 50 mgkg^-1 soil. Contaminated soil samples were treated by manure, compost and vermicompost at the rates of %0.5 and %2 (w/w). Residual concentrations of atrazine and metamitron were determined by HPLC at the end of incubation periods of 20,40 and 60 d. Residual concentrations of atrazine were 93, 77.8 and 72.4 % of the initial concentration after 20, 40 and 60d incubation, respectively. Residual metamitron concentrations were clearly lower than atrazine. After 20,40 and 60 d., the remaining concentrations of metamitron were 5.8, 2 and 1.2 %, respectively. Organic amendments at the rates of .5 and 2 % showed similar effects on the enhancement of herbicides degradation in soils. However, no significant effect was observed between types of organic amendments. Degradation was clearly affected by soil textures. Residual concentrations of herbicides were higher in sandy loam than in silty clay soil.

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Many factors including climate, type of rootstock, soil properties, geological factors, plant nutrition and irrigation affect the quantity and quality of orange fruit. In this study, the relations between citrus orchards conditions, their soil properties and leaf elements concentration and fruit quality were evaluated. The experiment was conducted as a randomized complete block design and soil, fruit and leaf samples were collected from six different regions of Darab, Fars, Iran. After fruit sampling, land properties such as physiographic features, slope, gravel, altitude and soil physical and chemical properties such as percent of sand, silt, clay, organic matter, calcium carbonate, pH and electrical conductivity and also N, P, K, Fe and Zn availability were determined. Several morphological and qualitative characteristics of fruit including, rind and flesh weight, rind thickness, length, diameter, fruit granulation, flavor, sugar and fruit juice acidity were determined. The contents of N, P, K, Fe and Zn in the collected leaves were determined. Three random samples were taken for each orchard and each replicate consisted of one tree. Results showed that fruit weight was correlated with the land slope, soil pH, electrical conductivity, soil organic matter content, soil N, P and K and leaf K content. Rind thickness showed a significant positive correlation with parameters such as land slope, electrical conductivity, organic matter, silt, clay and soil N, P and Zn and leaf N and K content. However, there was a significant negative correlation between rind thickness and soil gravel and sand contents. The relations between fruit granulation and soils calcium carbonate, gravel, organic matter content and soil K concentration were significant. TSS to TA ratio in fruit juices had significant negative correlation with land altitude, soils silt, calcium carbonate contents and leaf K content. Generally, many soil properties had significant effects on fruit quality but it seems that soil texture, organic matter, pH, P and K were more effective on fruit quality.

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In order to determine the effects of emulsifiers (Lecithin, E471 and E472) and their levels (0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1%) and also addition of fungal α-amylase (0, 5, 10 and 20 g/100 kg flour) on bread staling, a completely randomized experiment with factorial design and 3 replications was conducted. Bread staling was determined after 0, 24, 48 and 72 hours of storage. Correlation between variables was analyzed by simple and multivariate regression. Results indicated that addition of emulsifiers reduced the firmness of bread. E472 had the most and E471 had the least effect on bread firmness after 72 hours of storage. Addition of α-amylase reduced the bread firmness and this effect was less pronounced after 72 hours of storage. Correlation between variables based on the development of a model showed that in the first day of bread production, optimal levels of emulsifiers were 1%, 0.25% and 0.5% for Lecithin, E471 and E472, respectively. In case of simultaneous application of emulsifiers and enzyme, the optimal level of enzyme was 5 g/100 kg flour.

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To prepare a sheetable dough, potato granule and potato puree of Agria and Marfona potato-cultivars, corn flour, emulsifier ,shortening, water,starch, salt, garlic and pepper powder were used. Dough was sheeted to thickness of 1-2 mm and formed to desirable shape. These slices were baked at 125^oC for 30 minutes. Prepared potato chips were packed in air or nitrogen atmosphere and stored in dark at 25^oC. Peroxide value, bending strength and color of the samples were determined in 30 day intervals. Peroxide value was detected just at the end of the third month. Peroxide value in chips packed in nitrogen atmosphere was less than that in chips packed in air atmosphere. Atmosphere of packages had a significant effect on the bending strength of the chips (p<0.01). The bending strength of chips packed in nitrogen atmosphere was more than that of chips packed in air atmosphere. Storage time had significant effect on bending strength (p<0.01). Storage time and cultivar effects on lightness and darkness of chips (L in hunter lab system) were significant (p<0.01). Storage time and cultivar effects on yellowness and blueness (b) of chips were significant (p<0.05). Storage time, cultivar and packaging atmosphere had no significant effect on redness and greenness (a) of chips (p<0.05)

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Turfgrasses are the most important cover plants in the world. Quality evaluation of the turfgrasses is usually done by experienced evaluators using color texture, density and uniformity. The results obtained by different evaluators may be different, leading to researcher’s concern. Therefore, some quantitative methods have been used for increasing the aquracy and stability in results. In this study, three color evaluating methods including, spectrophotometery (chlorophyll content), chlorophyllmeter SPAD-502, and evaluator person, as well as leaf texture by evaluator person compared with leaf width were used for 75 populations of Cynodon dactylon L. and Tifdwarf cultivar. The results showed that there were significant differences between populations for the color and leaf texture. There were no significant corelations between measuring color by using specterophotometery, chlorophyllmeter-502, and evaluator. Use of SPAD-502 instrument for measuring leaf color of bermudagrass is not recommended due to small leaf width of this species. However, there was significant corelation between visual evaluation and leaf width in measuring leaf texture. Therefore, when no experienced evaluator is present, leaf width maybe used for measuring leaf texture.

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Soil physical and chemical properties, and test conditions might affect soil structural stability. In this study, the effects of test conditions as well as intrinsic soil properties on structural stability were investigated for selected soils from Hamedan Province. Mean weight diameter (MWD) and tensile strength (Y) of aggregates were determined by wet sieving method and indirect Brazilian test, respectively. The soil samples were pre-wetted slowly to matric suction of 200 kPa before the wet sieving. The pre-wetted samples were wet-sieved for 5, 10 and 15 min in order to simulate different hydro-mechanical stresses imposed on soil structure. Tensile strength of soil aggregates were also measured at air-dry and 500 kPa matric suction conditions. Short duration shaking (i.e. 5 min) could effectively discriminate the Hamedan soils in terms of structural stability due to their fairly low aggregate stabilities. The soil organic matter content had the highest impact on MWD followed by both clay and CaCO₃ content. The same was true for the Y values i.e. OM played the highest role in mechanical strength of soil aggregates. The highest coefficient of determination (R²) was obtained between Y and the intrinsic soil properties for matric suction of 500 kPa. The organic matter content had an important role in water and mechanically stable soil aggregates. The results indicated that short-duration wet sieving (i.e. 5 min) and measurements of tensile strength at matric suction of 500 kPa could be recommended for aggregate stability assessment in Hamedan soils

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Date fruit as a high calorie and valuable food source can be one of the main Iranian agricultural commodities for export, if properly processed and packed. The aim of this study was to process Kabkaab date variety from Routab (high moisture dates) to Tamar (known as dates or dry dates) using an industrial cabinet dryer. The Routab samples were dried using hot air at 56, 66, 76, 86 and 96 ˚C and changes in weight, moisture, pH, colour, texture and density of the dried samples were monitored. The results indicated that at 56 and 66 ˚C, drying rate was too low to be economic for an industrial process. At 86 and 96 ˚C the drying rate was high, although quality factors like colour was not acceptable. Therefore 76 ˚C is recommended as the best temperature for drying dates fruit. Moisture range of 24-27% (db) was the critical moisture level where a sharp decrease was observed in drying rate. Textural experiments of dates fruits with a wide range of moisture contents showed that above 30% moisture the hardness does not change with moisture level however, below 30% a small change in moisture can have a considerable impact on texture.

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To optimize the use of sulfur in drying of apricot, four following treatments including: sulfiting and drying, sulfiting- blanching and drying, blanching- sulfiting and drying, and finally sulfiting- drying to % 50 of initial moisture- blanching and finish drying were studied. The levels of sulfur addition were from 0 to 1500 ppm, SO2 and drying was carried out at 50 to 74 °C. The quality of dried apricots was judged by extent of browning development and hardness determination. A response surface statistical design was applied to evaluate the quality of slabs and to determine optimum drying conditions. The results showed that sulfite was the major factor in controlling dried apricot quality. At present of sulfur, the role of temperature can be neglected. The amount of used sulfite has no significant effect on drying time of apricots. Blanching reduced drying time of product significantly. By increasing the drying temperature, loss percentage of SO2 was reduced for all treatments. Blanching and then sulfiting, increased loss in residual sulfur of products significantly. Application of sulfiting– drying method, using 900 ppm of SO2 at 50 to 68 °C was found to be the best treatment because of production of slabs whit average hardness and color texture equal to 1.44 N/m2 and 0.07 Od respectively.