Charles Odilichukwu R. Okpala

University of Georgia | UGA · College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

This current work explored the physicochemical characteristics of sprouted cowpea starch across different varieties. Specifically, cowpea varieties (IR48B, IT89KD-288, IT82D-716W, and TV32-36WS) were sprouted (steeping = 36 h; germinating = 72 h), then, milling to slurry, followed by starch extraction. Physicochemical characterization involved the...

Physicochemical properties of Ethiopian orange (Citrus sinensis) peels and their extracted pectin by varieties were investigated. Specifically, orange (peel) varieties included Valencia, Mandarin, and Gunda Gundo, and their extracted pectin was physicochemically characterized in terms of yield, moisture, ash, viscosity, acetyl, equivalent weight, m...

Introduction: The unfermented pale-yellow exudates (“palm sap”) emerge from tapped unopened spathe of mostly oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) and raphia palm (Raphia hookeri). Besides, tiger nut milk (Kunuaya) is among non-alcoholic refreshing drinks with dairy appearance. A sustainable alternative could therefore emerge from blends of tiger nut milk a...

Ozone (O3) remains a well-known and highly unstable triatomic oxygen molecule with a promising capacity to bring about changes in fishery products, from reducing bacterial numbers to advancing shelf life. Indeed, there are many variables to consider when dealing with the effectiveness of ozone treatment when applied to any given fish product. Given...

The functional properties of animal food protein, especially from nutritional and health contexts, remain crucial to (food) product formulation/processing. Moreover, the increases in consumer awareness continue to push the food industry to seek alternatives to chemical food preservatives, particularly those natural approaches that extend the shelf...

Food security is not just a global issue, it is also a local issue. It requires appropriate contextualization, and this invited lecture attempts to present the links between local and global perspectives. Local perspectives range from food systems to global food trade, whereas global perspectives range from equity/inclusion to food supply and utili...

Despite the growing acceptance of plant-based foods among consumers, the aquatic/marine plant-based seafood analogues sector appears to lack strong representation as high-quality products. Further, plant-based alternatives seem available for nearly all animal-based foods, which could guarantee a transition to more sustainable diets. Moreover, consu...

Food markets around the globe need to sustainably attract consumers to buy food products, dependent on such factors as availability, quality, quantity, type of food product, affordability, (degree/level of) consumer need, convenience, and logistics, among others. Most likely, consumers arrive at food markets with specific food products in mind to p...

The research impact of catalysts on the hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) process remains an ongoing debate, especially regarding the quest to enhance biomass conversion into fuels and chemicals, which requires diverse catalysts to optimize bio-oil utilization. Comprehensive insights and standardized analytical methodologies are crucial for understa...

Natural antioxidants, such as phenolic compounds, carotenoids, vitamins, and microelements, are predominant in fruits, vegetables, herbs, and spices. The accretion interest of consumers in utilizing natural ingredients in food products, have accelerated the appeal for functional “natural” operations. Therefore, understanding how natural antioxidant...

The sink is among the most important parts of the kitchen. To avoid harmful microbes, it has to be kept clean. How to do it is presented in this news column. Some effort is required, including consistency. Keep kitchen sink clean! https://www.augustachronicle.com/story/lifestyle/columns/2024/03/28/keep-your-kitchen-sink-free-of-harmful-germs-with-...

Worldwide urbanization and subsequent migration have accelerated the emergence and spread of diverse novel human diseases. Among them, diseases caused by viruses could result in epidemics, typified by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) which hit the globe towards the end of December 2019. The global battle against SARS...

The environment today is confronted by an unending cascade of global anthropogenic and ecosystem-based challenges. Biomass is considered to have the potential to be utilized as an alternative energy source. The conversion of the high carbon content of biomass through thermochemical treatment resulted in better fuel properties of biochar production....

BACKGROUND The consumption of olive oil has been shown to have a positive effect on preventing obesity and hypertension. At the same time, it is recommended to avoid processed meat products as they contain saturated fats. The inclusion of highly unsaturated lipids in food products can lead to rapid oxidation and deterioration of sensory characteris...

Pyrolysis and related thermal conversion processes have shown increased research momentum in recent decades. Understanding the underlying thermal conversion process principles alongside the associated/exhibited operational challenges that are specific to biomass types is crucial for beginners in this research area. From an extensive literature sear...

To achieve food safety for farm (food) produce in a community garden, some activities are required, from (garden) preparation, through maintenance, to harvest (of produce). The farmer needs to know how to keep clean, as well as prevent harmful microbes on farm produce. UGA Extension offers food safety classes for the community that extend beyond ga...

Tropical almond (Terminalia catappa Linn.) is highly distributed within the tropics, but appears rather underutilized in developing countries like Nigeria. Specifically, relevant information regards the nutritional, health benefits, and pharmaceutical potential of roasted T. catappa nuts remains scanty. Comparing both raw and roasted T. catappa nut...

Yogurt is a nutrient-dense dairy food product produced by lactic acid bacteria that enhances digestion and nutrient absorption, as well as sustains gut flora. However, it is a low-phenolic food. Beyond being a potential food delivery system, creating unique yogurts with plant-derived ingredients has become more popular. Increasingly, Moringa oleife...

As a young person, how do you occupy yourself to benefit your home as the Christmas season approaches, and probably beyond, into the New Year? This presentation was focused on encouraging the young learners to think more about how to maximize their time as the term ends into Christmas, to place them better for the New Year.

The incorporation of lipid droplets and further characterization of matrices within dairy products may be possible using such adjacent particles as protein complexes/lipids. Among the range of varied emulsions and their functionalities, great attention has recently focused on the fabrication of high internal phase types. Feasibly, stable alternativ...

Ensuring high quality and guaranteeing meat safety is still a key issue in food technology. The thesis assumes that marinating in combination with heat treatment can lead to an improvement in the quality of meat, and the knowledge and involvement of staff in shaping the quality of food is of key importance. Meat, i.e. chicken breast, beef entrecote...

Radon, vaping, and tobacco contribute in various ways to aggravate the levels of cancer risks. Dangerous amounts of exposure to them can cause gradual damage to the lungs and liver. To fight this, there is a need for increased community awareness on this issue. This poster attempts to demonstrate some basic connections between radon, vaping, and to...

The mantis shrimp Rissoides pallidus (Giesbrecht, 1910) is a rarely reported crustacean species in the Central Mediterranean Sea. In December 2020, during a trawl survey off Mazara del Vallo harbor (Strait of Sicily), two specimens of R. pallidus were captured on coastal detritus and coastal terrigenous mud bottoms at about 132 and 152 m depths. Ad...

This presentation was made to brainstorm how the credentials required by food service can be strengthened from regulatory and training perspectives. The regulatory audience observed their role as very useful, in ensuring the food service employees are delivering for food safety. The training aspect is needed for capacity building and career develop...

The food service environment can be very complicated, especially in the context of food safety. ServSafe® credentials of the National Restaurant Association targets to ensure the success of the food service/hospitality industry. Each food service environment by regulation is expected to have at least one Certified ServSafe® Food Protection Manager...

Between September and October 2021, a total of seven adult specimens (five females and two males) of Umbrina ronchus Valenciennes, 1843 were caught in the waters off Portopalo di Capo Passero and Porto Empedocle (the southeastern coast of Sicily). This was the first record of this species in the Strait of Sicily and the deepest record of this speci...

The role of mothers in family and home are most times unappreciated, underestimated, and under-valued. This presentation was made to further reiterate the importance of mothers in family, and home, but more so, elevate the mother audience to be appreciated, and not to give up in their role.

Nowadays, natural preservatives, specifically involving marinades, are being applied to meat products to enhance various quality attributes. The need for food preservation has continually strengthened the processing of meat products. Besides the global production of bovine, porcine, ovine, and caprine animals, including poultry, that varies across...

The mantis shrimp Rissoides pallidus (Giesbrecht, 1910) is among the rarely reported crustacean species in the Central Mediterranean Sea. In December 2020, during a trawl survey off Mazara del Vallo harbour (Strait of Sicily), two specimens of R. pallidus were captured on coastal detritus and coastal terrigenous mud bottoms at about 132 and 152 m d...

The continuous improvement in good practices and implementation of hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP) remains very crucial for food hygiene quality safety to steadily thrive in the agro-food product industry sector. To improve the agro-food product quality, the dependency of quality management (QM) on such key facets as quality ass...

The most important ingredient in ice cream production is milk. However, keeping the body, structure, and texture of ice cream requires striking the right balance with various constituent ingredients. More so, a number of plant-based milk alternatives have emerged with reduced particle size distribution. Although Bambara groundnut milk (BGNM) bevera...

Mobile colistin resistance (mcr) genes (mcr-1 to mcr-10) are plasmid-encoded genes that threaten the clinical utility of colistin (COL), one of the highest-priority and critically-important antibiotics (HP-CIAs), used in treating infections caused by multidrug-resistant and extensively-drug resistant bacteria in humans and animals. For more than si...

White melon (Cucumeropsis mannii Naudin), is among common and yet underutilized oil seed crop within the West African region, does not have sufficient information specific to its nutrient composition for foreign consumers. To supplement existing information, therefore, we investigated the nutritional profile of defatted and full-fat flour, alongsid...

Good practices are among direct/indirect components that influence agrofood safety knowledge, occupying quality assurance control facets within the (agrofood) product industry. Cleaner production involves an integrated preventive environmental strategy applied to processes, products, and services, which increases overall efficiency, and reduces ris...

Chlorella vulgaris is a highly nutritious single cell microalgae reported to alleviate oxidative-stress induced damage. Although Saccharomyces cerevisiae is highly renounced for its fermentation capacity is susceptible to ethanol toxicity. In this context, the potential of C. vulgaris powder to help improve the life span of S cerevisiae cultured in...

Dietary supplements (DS) and their purchase has often been based on consumer’s personal choice and advertisements. The associated DS regulations particularly in manufacture and marketing are far more flexible and permissive than that of the well-regulated prescription pharmaceuticals. However, the adverse health effects associated with the inadvert...

Understanding the impact that combined action of marination and oven grill processes would have on such meat products as beef entrecôte is crucial from both consumer appeal and product development standpoints. Therefore, different marinated oven-grilled beef entrecôte meat specifically evaluating resultant physicochemical and organoleptic attribute...

Studying the effects of temperature on cookies are necessary especially if the impact on quality attributes are to be deduced. More so, blending wheat flour, date flour, and pineapple juice could improve the nutrient quality required in modern-day cookies. This current study investigated the quality attributes of date and wheat flour pineapple juic...

This poster showcases the behavioural features of juvenile pelagic Atlantic horse mackerel as affected by artificial light wavelengths. There were three major objectives, and the research approach was as per publication. Key results were shown, with important resultant data. We also shared some concluding remarks.

Whereas herbs/spices serve as natural preservatives, and thermal processing makes animal meat products edible, combining them should complement each other. Additionally, the application of oven grilling to meat products continues to increase in popularity. However, there is a paucity of relevant published information specific to different marinated...

E-commerce is increasingly gaining ground in the agrifood industry, across national and global fronts. Narrowing down to meat products, various market entities are employing e-commerce strategies to smoothen the supply chain challenges. This poster makes an attempt to provide snapshots that can help delineate the e-commerce entities' challenges inv...

Aquaculture effluent treatment is essential to eliminate the undesirable characteristics of water to ensure cleaner production and environmental sustainability. In an effort to develop green coagulant without compromising cost, this research investigated the feasibility of aquaculture effluent (AQEF) pollutant removal using Picralima nitida seeds e...

The antioxidant, organoleptic, and physicochemical changes in different marinated oven-grilled chicken breast meat were investigated. Specifically, the chicken breast meat samples were procured from a local retailer in Wroclaw, Poland. The antioxidant aspects involved 2,2′-azinobis-(3-ethylbenzthiazolin-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS), 1,1-diphenyl-2-piery...

Challenges and constraints deter the effective gathering of adequate information specific to the characteristics of yam (Dioscorea rotundata) landraces capable of producing a promising instant pounded fufu product. This current work, therefore, investigated the effects of yam varieties on flour physicochemical characteristics and resultant instant...

Specific to the West African sub-region, previous studies involving fruit, stem, and bark of Tetrapleura tetraptera as well as seeds of Monodora myristica have largely focused on phytochemical properties of aqueous and methanolic and ethanolic extracts. To supplement existing information, the chemical composition, antibacterial efficacy (tested aga...

Nutraceuticals play wide range of important roles, from health promotion, increasing life expectancy, maintaining body cell integrity, to reducing the risks of many diseases. As consumers continue to be attracted to nutraceuticals, such as superfoods, vegetables, fruits, high-protein foods, eating healthy intertwines with finding the right balance....

As a dairy product, yogurt delivers nourishing milk components through the beneficial microbial fermentation process, improved by bioavailability and bioaccessibility - an exclusive combined food asset. In recent decades, there has been considerable attention to yogurt product development particularly in areas like influence by antioxidant-rich fru...

The preparation of moi-moi either from cowpea flour (processed by dry-milling) or paste (processed by wet-milling) has evolved from the indigenous processing methods. Feasibly, freezing should enhance the characteristics of the cowpea grain, and when combined with conventional processing, help to improve emergent products. In this current work, the...

Multi-characteristic optimization and modeling analysis of electrocoagulation (EC) treatment of abattoir wastewater (AWW) using iron‑iron electrodes are reported. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) and Artificial Intelligent (AI) modeling tools viz. Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) were used for the...

Quality agrofood products, on one hand, either from animal or plant sources, require specific standards to be met prior to reaching the consumer shelf. Food technological processes on the other hand, from thermal to non-thermal, have contributed to enhancing quality improvement, as well as consumer product safety. Quality, whether by concept, conte...

Roasting is among food processing methods applied to nuts regardless of type, on one hand. In particular, the roasting process usually involves temperatures that range between 100-130 degrees Celsius , and usually within a specific time frame. Additionally, sun-drying greatly practiced in the tropics/subtropics, demonstrates the importance of solar...

Typically, oven-drying is a well-known process that aims to reduce moisture contents in seeds to the best minimal levels. It is considered among useful avenues that aims to extend the seed's shelf life. On the other hand, the characteristic potentials of the Canarium schweinfurthii Engl. fruit have attracted increased interest among researchers esp...

Nanoencapsulation/nanocarrier systems like nanoemulsions, nanoliposomes, solid lipid nanoparticles, biopolymeric nanocarriers, nature-inspired nanocapsules, have been shown with the capacity to encapsulate food constituents. To understand the current status of nanoencapsulation of food, the authors examined recently published reviews and deemed fur...

Physiochemical properties, lipid breakdown, β-carotenoids, tocopherols, and vitamins as well as amino and fatty acid profiles of Soxhlet-extracted oil from five different garden cress (Lepidium sativum L.) seed genotypes (namely: CG8, CG7, CG17, CG4, and 207910) across Ethiopia regions were investigated. Results showed that despite the seeds’ proxi...

A promising extraction method for obtaining fat from Pycnanthus angolensis seeds through Aspergillus niger strain BC23 enzyme pretreatment and particle size reduction is presented in this work. The employed A. niger enzyme was produced from corn bagasse waste material, which served as the only source of carbon. P. angolensis seeds were dried, pulve...

Global public awareness about fish-based diet and its health/nutritional benefits is on the rise. Fish nutritional profile projects promising bioactive and other compounds with innumerable health benefits for human wellbeing. As various reported researches involving fish/marine-derived molecules reveal promising attributes, and as the position of f...

The enzymatic fermentation of starch from non-edible sources using Aspergillus niger could help supplement the increasing glucose demand within the Nigeria food supply chain. Also, response surface methodology could help optimise the glucose production of starch hydrolysed from cocoyam tubers. In this work, we evaluated and optimized the enzymatic-...

Mobile tigecycline resistance (MTR) threatens the clinical efficacy of the salvage antibiotic, tigecycline (TIG) used in treating deadly infections in humans caused by superbugs (multidrug-, extensively drug-, and pandrug-resistant bacteria), including carbapenem- and colistin-resistant bacteria. Currently, non-mobile tet(X) and mobile plasmid-medi...

The composition of free amino acids (FAAs) in seafood products contributes to characterizing their flavor, as well as freshness and quality during storage. Deep-water rose shrimps (Parapenaues longirostris, Lucas, 1846) (DWRS) are being increasingly harvested in the Mediterranean Sea, and the captured specimens are quickly frozen onboard fishing tr...

On July 2018, one specimen of Ichthyococcus ovatus (Cocco, 1838) was caught in the Strait of Sicily during the International Bottom Trawl Survey in the Mediterranean (MEDITS). The adult I. ovatus measured 49 mm in total length and weighed 1.44 g. In this context, the presently reported study constitutes the first and deepest record of an adult of I...

Mycotoxins contaminating agricultural commodities like animal, and plant products result in human health complications, some are hidden, visible, chronic, and or acute, and others long-term. To understand the current status, published relevant reviews conducted between 2020-2021 about mycotoxins toxicities involving animals, food, and human showed...