Investigation of the metabolic consequences of impregnating spinach leaves with trehalose and applying a pulsed electric field.

The impregnation of leafy vegetables with cryoprotectants using a combination of vacuum impregnation (VI) and pulsed electric fields (PEF) has been proposed by our research group as a method of improving their freezing tolerance and consequently their general quality after thawing. In this study, we have investigated the metabolic consequences of the combination of these unit operations on spinach. The vacuum impregnated spinach leaves showed a drastic decrease in the porosity of the extracellular space.

Indirect, non-competitive amperometric immunoassay for accurate quantification of calpastatin, a meat tenderness marker, in bovine muscle.

A method is described for quantification of the beef tenderness marker, calpastatin, in meat samples by amperometric detection. Using a novel bovine recombinant partial calpastatin protein as standard antigen a low detection limit of 0.2 ng/mL was achieved.