Zearalenone (ZEN) and ochratoxin A (OTA) are key concerns of the food industry because of their toxicity and pollution scope. This study investigated the effects of ozone and electron beam irradiation (EBI) on the degradation of ZEN and OTA. Results demonstrated that 2 mL of 50 μg/mL ZEN was completely degraded after 10 s of treatment by 2.0 mg/L ozone. The degradation rate of 1 μg/mL ZEN by 16 kGy EBI was 92.76%. Methanol was superior to acetonitrile in terms of degrading ZEN when the irradiation dose was higher than 6 kGy. The degradation rate of 2 mL of 5 μg/mL OTA by 50 mg/L ozone at 180 s was 34%, and that of 1 μg/mL OTA by 16 kGy EBI exceeded 90%. Moreover, OTA degraded more rapidly in acetonitrile. Ozone performed better in the degradation of ZEN, whereas EBI was better for OTA. The conclusions provide theoretical and practical bases for the degradation of different fungal toxins.

In this study, the effects of the addition of pectin (PEC) on the physicochemical properties and freeze-thaw stability of waxy rice starch (WRS) were investigated. As PEC content increased, the pasting viscosity and pasting temperature of WRS significantly increased (p < 0.05), whereas its breakdown value and setback value decreased. Differential scanning calorimetry showed that the addition of PEC increased the gelatinization temperature of WRS, but decreased its gelatinization enthalpy. Rheological measurements indicated that the addition of PEC did not change the shear-thinning behavior of WRS–PEC blends, and the storage modulus and loss modulus were positively correlated with PEC content. Moreover, the textural parameter of WRS decreased with the increase in PEC content. Furthermore, the addition of PEC decreased the transmittance of starch paste, but enhanced the freeze-thaw stability of WRS to some extent. These results may contribute to the development of WRS-based food products.

Electron beam irradiation (EBI) has high energy, no induced radioactivity, and strong degradation capacity toward mycotoxins, such as zearalenone (ZEN) and ochratoxin A (OTA). In this study, we determined EBI’s influence on the physical and chemical properties of corn contaminated with ZEN and OTA. Moreover, the toxicity of corn after EBI was assessed through a mouse experiment. Amylose content and starch crystallinity in corn decreased significantly (p < 0.05) at an irradiation dose higher than 20 kGy. Scanning electron microscopy results revealed that the starch particles of corn began to be crushed at 10 kGy. Essential and total amino acid contents in corn decreased significantly with increasing irradiation dose of EBI (p < 0.05). Feeding EBI-treated corn fodders to mice could significantly improve blood biochemical indexes. The EBI-treated group was not significantly different from the normal corn group and did not display histopathological changes of the liver. EBI treatment can influence the quality of corn to some extent and effectively lower the toxicity of ZEN and OTA in contaminated corn. The results provide a theoretical and practical basis for the processing of EBI-treated corn and its safety.

Moisture content is an important factor that affects rice storage. Rice with high moisture (HM) content has superior taste but is difficult to store. In this study, low-dose electron beam irradiation (EBI) was used to study water distribution in newly harvested HM (15.03%) rice and dried rice (11.97%) via low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR). The gelatinization, texture and rheological properties of rice and the thermal and digestion properties of rice starch were determined. Results showed that low-dose EBI could change water distribution in rice mainly by affecting free water under low-moisture (LM) conditions and free water and bound water under HM conditions. HM rice showed smooth changes in gelatinization and rheological properties and softened textural properties. The swelling power and solubility index indicated that irradiation promoted the depolymerization of starch chains. Overall, low-dose EBI had little effect on the properties of rice. HM rice showed superior quality and taste, whereas LM rice exhibited superior nutritional quality. This work attempted to optimize the outcome of the EBI treatment of rice for storage purposes by analyzing its effects. It demonstrated that low-dose EBI was more effective and environmentally friendly than other techniques.

Starch-lipid complexes were prepared from high amylose starch (HAS) with stearic acid (SA) or potassium stearate (PS) at different molar concentrations. The complexes (HAS-PS) formed between HAS and PS showed polyelectrolyte characteristics with ζ-potential ranging from −22.2 to −32.8 mV, and the electrostatic repulsion between anionic charges restricted the starch chain reassociation and facilitated the formation of V-type crystalline structures upon cooling. The hydrophobic effects enabled recrystallization of the SA, and the HAS-SA complexes exhibited weaker V-type crystalline structures than the HAS-PS complexes; both HAS-SA/PS complexes were of a similar “mass fractal” type, with a dimension varied from 2.15 to 2.96. The HAS-SA complexes had a considerable content of resistant starch (RS, 16.1~29.2%), whereas negligible RS was found in the HAS-PS complexes. The findings from the present study imply that the molecular order of starch chains and the macro-structures of starch particles are more important to regulate the digestibility of starch-lipid complexes than the crystalline structures.

In recent years, the blending of hydrocolloids and natural starch to improve the properties of natural starch has become a research hotspot. In this study, the effects of pectin (PEC) on the retrogradation properties and in vitro digestibility of waxy rice starch (WRS) were investigated. The results showed that PEC could significantly (p < 0.05) reduce the retrogradation enthalpy and reduce the hardness of WRS gel. X-ray diffraction results indicated that PEC could reduce the relative crystallinity of the composite system, and the higher the PEC content, the lower the relative crystallinity. When the PEC content was 10%, the relative crystallinity of the composite system was only 10.6% after 21 d of cold storage. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy results proved that the interaction between PEC and WRS was mainly a hydrogen bond interaction. Furthermore, after 21 d of cold storage, the T₂₃ free water signal appeared in the natural WRS paste, while only a small free water signal appeared in the compound system with 2% PEC addition. Moreover, addition of PEC could reduce the starch digestion rate and digestibility. When the content of PEC increased from 0% to 10%, the digestibility decreased from 82.31% to 71.84%. This study provides a theoretical basis for the further application of hydrocolloids in starch-based foods.