The local food movement has prompted interest in fermented vegetables, especially novel combinations of vegetables. The physicochemical characteristics of dry-salted (2% Sodium Chloride [NaCl]) fermented carrots, daikon radish, red cabbage, carrot + daikon radish (mix I), and red cabbage + daikon radish (mix II) were examined during a 14-day fermentation at room temperature. The fermentation process was monitored through the measurement of pH, titratable acidity, and Brixvalue. Further, effects of fermentation on shredded vegetables were determined by measuring color, water activity, and texture (hardness). During the fermentation process, pH of fermented carrot, daikon radish, red cabbage, and mix I and mix II decreased significantly (p < 0.05) to 3.99±0.04, 4.17±0.05, 3.76±0.11, 3.74±0.18, and 3.70±0.05, respectively, at the end of fermentation (10 days for carrot and 14 days for other vegetables). Titratable acidity (% as lactic acid) in fermented carrot, daikon radish, red cabbage, and mix I and mix II increased throughout fermentation, and final fermentation day acidity values were 1.39±0.12, 0.78±0.02, 1.54±0.09, 1.2±0.06, and 1.50±0.07%, respectively. In general, fermentation did not impact significantly color, water activity, hardness values of fermented vegetables. The use of the dry-salting method has applications in other vegetables besides cabbage. The study results support the use of this method for other vegetables and also might be useful to provide knowledge helpful in the local food movement.

Supercritical carbon dioxide + ethanol (SC-CO₂+EtOH) extraction, was employed as a deflavoring method to improve the sensory properties of pea flours. Furthermore, the impacts of particle size along with extraction on volatile profile and sensory attributes of pea flours were investigated using multiple approaches. These included headspace solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography (HS-SPME-GC), GC-olfactometry (GC-O), and quantitative descriptive analysis (QDA) using a trained sensory panel. Total volatile contents of non-deflavored and deflavored whole pea flour and its fractions were in the range of 7.1 ± 0.3 to 18.1 ± 1.0 µg/g and 0.4 ± 0.1 to 2.7 ± 0.4 µg/g, respectively. The GC-O system showed that the total volatile intensity was in the range of 14.5 to 22.0 and 0 to 3.5, for non-deflavored and deflavored pea flours, respectively. Volatile analyses indicated that 1-hexanol, 1-octanol, 1-nonanol, nonanal, and 2-alkyl methoxypyrazines were major off-aroma compounds. Most off-aroma compounds were not detected in deflavored pea flours. QDA revealed less pea intensity and bitterness of deflavored pea flours. The larger particle size of flours resulted in less off-aroma compounds based on the GC data but more bitterness based on QDA. The SC-CO₂+EtOH extraction at optimum conditions and particle size modifications can be a potential technology to improve the organoleptic properties of pulse ingredients.

The objective of this study was to establish the impacts of supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) processing on the physicochemical properties of pea flour and the structure of isolated pea starch. A significant (p < 0.05) increase in protein content and reduction in several pasting and thermal parameters as measured by rapid visco-analyzer and differential scanning calorimeter were observed after SFE. Additionally, SFE increased starch digestibility as determined by an in vitro starch digestion assay. An increased amylopectin content and crystallinity along with the loss of double helix content was supported by size exclusion chromatography and FT-IR data, respectively. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy showed minimal alterations of starch, by SFE, in long-range crystalline and morphological structure of starch granules, respectively. The data demonstrated SFE influenced the physicochemical and structural characteristics of pea starch. These outcomes illustrated that SFE might be a green and novel technology for starch modification.