Team Leader
Tadesse Teferra
Texas A&M University
Food Science
tadesse.teferra@ag.tamu.edu
Project Type
Research
Who Can Join
Faculty, Staff/Postdoctoral Scholars, Graduate Students, Masters Students, Undergraduate Students
Project Description
There has been a trending demand to have lower cabs and fats and higher proteins, dietary fiber and phenolic compounds in the diet for better health outcomes. This project focuses on improving the quality and health functionality of grain-based foods by
– Increasing resistant starch and other water-soluble dietary fibers (beta glucans and arabinoxylans) in foods .
– Reducing the proportions of rapidly digestible starch components (via processing).
– Increasing protein quality in terms of improved digestibility and increased limiting amino acids (lysine in cereal grains).
– Increasing the intake of grain phenolic compounds as natural antioxidants (whole grain consumption).
The project is unique as it largely considers ready-to-eat food products (RTEs) shifting the traditional research focus from ingredients to finished products. Two specific categories of grain-staples considered in this project include wheat-based baked products (baking for better health, B4BH) and rice-based cooked meals (rice for health, R4H). The two grains (wheat and rice) make up the majority of cereal-based calorie and protein supplies and their improvement can have a huge impact on the health of large segment of the global population. The project specifically looks at profiling the carbs and proteins of available improved genotypes of the respective crops (e.g., high arabinoxylan wheat, high resistant starch rice and high lysine rice). The improved crops will be made into popular staple meals and characterized for their starch and protein profiles, in vitro digestibility and glycemic response parameters. Molecular level understanding of the starch and non-starch dietary fibers using high performance chromatographic techniques will be of special interest. Project participants will be trained on the preparation and characterization of the products using conventional and advanced research approaches. The results from the project will be used as preliminary data for grant applications.
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Team Needs
Team members might need to have some skills and interest of cooking and exposure to science experiments in chemistry/biology lab. Team members might be needed to take general lab safety training. Team members might need to be sure that they do not have allergy to gluten or wheat as the lab work is carried out in an area where wheat is being processed. Team members who can commit at least 2 consecutive hours at a session and a total of 8-9 hours a week would benefit themselves in terms of research experience and development of skill sets required for similar work in a laboratory or industry research and development settings. Team members with the specified commitment listed above will also benefit the project in terms of reaching the specific goals and having a positive impact on members and leaders.
Members with great attention to details and motivation to learn and train others are highly valued in the project. Individuals having interest to improve food and health are encouraged to join the project. Individuals with general awareness on the global grand challenges in terms of sustainable health of the people and the planet are highly encouraged to join this project.
Special Opportunities
The experience will be beneficial to individuals who want to have general understanding of food research and quality analysis. The experience and skills gained will be helpful for advanced research roles (graduate research/student, industry R&D, and quality analysis and assurance) for grain-based foods. Team members will be trained on the use of major food characterization techniques that includes:
– Food preparation (fermentation, cooking, baking of model foods for experimental analysis)
– Food Rheology on cooking-cooling cycle for starchy products using rapid visco analyzer (RVA).
– Texture analysis of foods using texture profile analyzer (TPA)
– Food color analysis using 3D color L*a*b* colorimeter
– Starch and protein in vitro enzyme digestibility assays
– Total phenolic compounds in grain-based products using ultraviolet visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy
– Profiling major phenolic compounds and dietary fiber components using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with different detectors (UV, mass, fluorescence).