Vidulani Shanika

Vinegar is a condiment made from various sugary and starchy materials by alcoholic and subsequent acetic fermentation. The present study was aimed to improve the efficiency of coconut water vinegar production process by reducing the fermentation time, along with identifying the product conformity to SLS 168:1999-Specification for Coconut Vinegar. Optimum conditions for ethanol fermentation was investigated by Taguchi’s factorial design with L8 orthogonal array. The optimum inoculum type, pH, Total soluble solids, and concentration of nutrient respectively was brewer’s yeast, 4.97 (natural pH of coconut water), 16 brix and 1% w/w yeast nutrient for the highest yield of ethanol (8.28±0.029 % m/V). This optimum treatment combination was proceeding for next levels of acetic acid fermentation 20% w/w 1:1 ratio of coconut water mother (solid scum) and liquid culture (unpasteurized coconut water vinegar) was most efficient in producing acetic acid (within 10 days 4.02±0.21 % m/V total acid...

All fertilizers are divided into organic and mineral. Organic fertilizers are universal, they contain everything necessary nutrition elements for plants.
For example, organic fertilizer is manure contains about 0.5% nitrogen and 0.6% potassium, 0.25% phosphorus, etc. Mineral fertilizers contain many times more nutrients than organic fertilizers. So, for example, nitrogen fertilizer contains 15% nitrogen (sodium nitrate, NaNO3) to 82% (liquid ammonia).
Phosphate fertilizers contain from 18% phosphorus (phosphate rock) to 40%. Potassium fertilizers contain potassium from 16% to 62% (potassium chloride - KCl). In complex fertilizers contains nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. It is known that one kilogram of potassium, added to soil in which the potato is planted, increases the yield of 50 kg. Mineral fertilizers increase the harvest of grain, vegetables and fruit crops.
There are mineral fertilizers containing 1,2 and 3 nutrients, therefore are called simple, double and complex. In addition, some complex fertilizers also contain trace elements such as copper, boron, zinc, manganese. Fertilizer are stored in dry cool place, the shelf life is not limited, but preferably not more than 2 years.
Mineral fertilizers applied to the soil in early spring or autumn before the preparation of the soil. During plant growth the fertilizers also add. (evenly scattered in dry form or watered).
In order to assess the quality of the fertilizer number of physical and chemical parameters need to be tested among them moisture content and particle size are identified as physical parameters while N/P/K content and total organic matters play a major role as chemical parameters

Rubbers – elastomers - are polymer materials that are characterized by ability of reversible deformation under influence of external deformation forces. Forms of polyisoprene that are used as natural rubbers are classified as elastomers.
Currently, rubber is harvested mainly in the form of the latex from the rubber tree or others. The latex is a sticky, milky colloid drawn off by making incisions in the bark and collecting the fluid in vessels in a process called "tapping". The latex then is refined into rubber ready for commercial processing. In major areas, latex is to coagulate in the collection cup. The coagulated lumps are collected and processed into dry forms for marketing.
Natural rubber is used extensively in many applications and products, either alone or in combination with other materials. In most of its useful forms, it has a large stretch ratio and high resilience, and is extremely waterproof
Latex is the polymer cis-1,4-polyisoprene – with a molecular weight of 100,000 to 1,000,000 daltons. Typically, a small percentage (up to 5% of dry mass) of other materials, such as proteins, fatty acids, resins, and inorganic materials (salts) are found in natural rubber. Polyisoprene can also be created synthetically, producing what is sometimes referred to as "synthetic natural rubber", but the synthetic and natural routes are different.

In Sri Lanka fresh fruits and vegetables are packed mainly in poly-sacks for transportation and this practice leads to serious losses. Of the total post harvest loss occurring in fresh produce, the loss during handling and transportation alone amounts to approximately 20%.
The use of rigid containers such as plastic crates, wooden boxes and fiberboard boxes can minimize the serious damage occurring in fruits and vegetables during handling and transportation (Anon, 1986). Hence, it is important to introduce suitable packages for handling and transportation of fresh fruits and vegetables in Sri Lanka.

Sandwiches are a popular type of lunch food, taken to work, school, or picnics to be eaten as part of a packed lunch. The bread can be used plain, or it can be coated with one or more condiments such as mayonnaise or mustard to enhance the flavors and texture. As well as being homemade, sandwiches are also widely sold in restaurants and cafes, and are sometimes served hot as well as cold. There are both savory sandwiches, such as meat sandwiches, and sweet sandwiches, such as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Today’s world, the people are increasing the consumption for their different varieties of food due to the convenience and socio economic factors they prefer to take them from the restaurants and the rapid advancement in the food industry can be attributed to the growth in technology which also gave way to fast food. Sandwich also a one of convenience food consumers always ask for.
This study has focus on establishing a sandwich producing bakery which is producing 400 sandwiches under the brand name Delicious Sandwiches. Those are brown bread Sandwiches having 2 day shelf life in hermitically sealed pack. Planned to sell those products for 80/= through fast food outlets & school & office cafeterias in urban areas of Colombo & few areas of kaluthara districts. Also planned to achieve 0.4% market share of prepared food market 

As a summary this project is having a positive NPV and IRR over cost of capital. So this is a project that can maximize the profit while minimizing the risks. In addition to that the study was carried out in areas of marketing, technical, production, environmental, social and financial. It is necessary to do further researches and studies, before implementing this study in to real environment as it is dynamic

Unilever Company has been selected to do this assignment in management process. With this assignment it is expected to discuss about the organizations planning, organizing, controlling, and leading, and how the Unilever has success in those areas when attaining productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness.

Iron is one of the many minerals required by the human body. It is used in the manufacture of the oxygen-carrying proteins, haemoglobin and myoglobin. A deficiency of iron in the body can leave a person feeling tired and listless, and can lead to a disorder called anemia. Many of the foods we eat contain small quantities of iron. So if people suffer from iron deficiency and during pregnancy or some illnesses they are recommended to get iron supplements, or iron capsules. However correct dose is essential over dose may cause health problems.
The absorption of irons varies in amounts ranging from 1 to 20 mg daily depending on the needs of the body. Ferrous salts are better absorb than ferric salts. The most common form of iron in capsules is Ferrous fumarate contains 33% of elemental iron.
The iron capsules contains,
Ferrous fumarate USP 300mg
Vitamin B1 (thiamine mononitrate) USP 10 mg
Vitamin B3 (niacinamide) USP 50 mg
Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine hydrochloride) USP 10 mg
Vitamin B9 (folic acid) USP 5 mg
Vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin) USP 10 mg
Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) USP 100 mg

The iron content in the tablets are determined by colorimetric methodology and by AAS technique. In colorimetric technique iron is analyzed as in its Fe(+2) state and in AAS iron is analyzed as Fe(0).

Food preservation usually involves preventing the growth of bacteria, fungi (such as yeasts), or other micro-organisms, as well as retarding the oxidation of fats that cause rancidity. Food preservation may also include processes that inhibit visual deterioration, such as the enzymatic browning reaction in apples after they are cut during food preparation.

Many processes designed to preserve food will involve a number of food preservation methods. Preserving fruit by turning it into jam, for example, involves boiling (to reduce the fruit’s moisture content and to kill bacteria, etc.), sugaring (to prevent their re-growth) and sealing within an airtight jar (to prevent recontamination). Some traditional methods of preserving food have been shown to have a lower energy input and carbon footprint, when compared to modern methods.
Maintaining or creating nutritional value, texture and flavor is an important aspect of food preservation, although, historically, some methods drastically altered the character of the food being preserved. In many cases these changes have come to be seen as desirable qualities – cheese, yogurt and pickled onions being common examples.

Demand for minimally processed foods has resulted in the development of innovative, non-thermal food preservation methods, such as high-pressure sonication, ozone, and UV treatment. This book presents a summary of these novel food processing techniques. It also covers new methods used to monitor microbial activity, including spectroscopic methods (FT-IR and Raman), molecular and electronic noses, and DNA-based methods.

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L.) is considered as prize vegetable in almost all countries and extensively used in fresh condition as well as in the preparation of various food products. Tomato represents an essential part of human diet. It is a good nutritional resource rich in vitamin C and antioxidant mainly lycopene, carotenes, organic acids and phenolics. Consumption of beta-carotene and lycopene, has been related to lower incidence of cardiovascular disease and prostate, gastrointestinal and epithelial cell cancer. Organic acids which influence its shelf-life and organoleptic properties such as colour brightness and texture contribute to acid-base balance for the consumer. While plant phenolics can have anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic and properties and may be beneficial in cardiovascular, neoplastic and neurological pathologies.
Tomato is processed in the forms of pulp, paste, juice ketchup, sauce and purée. It has a limited storage life and cannot be stored over extended\ periods. The problem is further compounded by lack of cold chain system.
Conversion of tomato into processed products provides a way out for extended shelf life/storage periods.
Tomato purée is a thick liquid made by cooking and straining tomatoes. The difference between tomato paste, tomato purée, and tomato sauce is consistency, tomato puree has a thicker consistency and a deeper flavor
According to SLS 945:1991 standards tomato puree is processed tomato concentrate which contain not less than 8 percent of natural tomato soluble solids not preserved by chemical means.
And According to SLS 260: 2008  standards tomato sauce product contain not less than 6 percent (m/m) of tomato solids, prepared from strained tomato juice from fresh tomatoes, tomato puree or tomato paste with sugar, salt, spices and vinegar with or without other optional ingredients. It shall not contain any other fruit or vegetable.

Silver nanoparticles are nanoparticles of silver of between 1 nm and 100 nm in size. While frequently described as being 'silver' some are composed of a large percentage of silver oxide due to their large ratio of surface-to-bulk silver atoms. Numerous shapes of nanoparticles can be constructed depending on the application at hand. Commonly used are spherical silver nanoparticles but diamond, octagonal and thin sheets are also popular.
Their extremely large surface area permits the coordination of a vast number of ligands. The properties of silver nanoparticles applicable to human treatments are under investigation in laboratory and animal studies, assessing potential efficacy, toxicity, and costs.
Recent advances in nanoscience and nanotechnology radically changed the way we diagnose, treat, and prevent various diseases in all aspects of human life. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are one of the most vital and fascinating nanomaterials among several metallic nanoparticles that are involved in biomedical applications. AgNPs play an important role in nanoscience and nanotechnology, particularly in nanomedicine
Generally, the synthesis of nanoparticles has been carried out using three different approaches, including physical, chemical, and biological methods. In physical methods, nanoparticles are prepared by evaporation-condensation using a tube furnace at atmospheric pressure
Chemical methods use water or organic solvents to prepare the silver nanoparticles. This process usually employs three main components, such as metal precursors, reducing agents, and stabilizing/capping agents. Basically, the reduction of silver salts involves two stages nucleation; and subsequent growth. In general, silver nanomaterials can be obtained by two methods, classified as “top-down” and “bottom-up”. The “top-down” method is the mechanical grinding of bulk metals with subsequent stabilization using colloidal protecting agents. The “bottom-up” methods include chemical reduction, electrochemical methods, and sono-decomposition. The major advantage of chemical methods is high yield, contrary to physical methods, which have low yield. The above-mentioned methods are extremely expensive.
The most common methods for nanoparticle synthesis fall under the category of wet chemistry, or the nucleation of particles within a solution. This nucleation occurs when a silver ion complex, usually AgNO3 or AgClO4, is reduced to colloidal silver in the presence of a reducing agent. When the concentration increases enough, dissolved metallic silver ions bind together to form a stable surface.
The characteristic feature of nanomaterials, such as size, shape, size distribution, surface area, shape, solubility, aggregation, etc. need to be evaluated before assessing toxicity or biocompatibility. To evaluate the synthesized nanomaterials, many analytical techniques have been used, including ultraviolet visible spectroscopy (UV-vis spectroscopy), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), dynamic light scattering (DLS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and so on.

Diffraction is a physical phenomenon that consists in electromagnetic waves avoiding obstacles if the size of the obstacles compares to the wavelength. This phenomenon can be applied to the analysis of materials as the atom plans are placed at comparable distances to X ray lengths. X rays are electromagnetic waves similar to light, but whose wavelength is much shorter (λ = 0,2 - 200 Å).

XRD is produced as a reflexion at well-defined angles. Every crystalline phase has its own diffraction image. The diffraction image contains a small number of maximum points that is not all the families of crystallographic planes give maximum diffraction points; all the crystalline phases with the same type of elementary cell will exhibit the same succession of Miller indices for the crystalline planes families giving a diffraction maximum points.

Moisture content is one of the most commonly measured properties of food materials. It is important to food scientists for a number of different reasons:
• Legal and Labeling Requirements. There are legal limits to the maximum or minimum amount of water that must be present in certain types of food.
• Economic. The cost of many foods depends on the amount of water they contain - water is an inexpensive ingredient, and manufacturers often try to incorporate as much as possible in a food, without exceeding some maximum legal requirement.
• Microbial Stability. The propensity of microorganisms to grow in foods depends on their water content. For this reason many foods are dried below some critical moisture content.
• Food Quality. The texture, taste, appearance and stability of foods depends on the amount of water they contain.
• Food Processing Operations. A knowledge of the moisture content is often necessary to predict the behavior of foods during processing, e.g. mixing, drying, flow through a pipe or packaging.
It is therefore important for food scientists to be able to reliably measure moisture contents. A number of analytical techniques have been developed for this purpose, which vary in their accuracy, cost, speed, sensitivity, specificity, ease of operation, etc. The choice of an analytical procedure for a particular application depends on the nature of the food being analyzed and the reason the information is needed
1.1 Moisture in food material
Foods are heterogeneous materials that contain different proportions of chemically bound, physically bound, capillary, trapped or bulk water. In addition, foods may contain water that is present in different physical states: gas, liquid or solid.
The fact that water molecules can exist in a number of different molecular environments, with different physicochemical properties, can be problematic for the food analyst trying to accurately determine the moisture content of foods. Many analytical procedures developed to measure moisture content are more sensitive to water in certain types of molecular environment than to water in other types of molecular environment.

Yam is the common name for some plant species in the genus Dioscorea(family Dioscoreaceae) that form edible tubers. These are perennial herbaceous vines cultivated for the consumption of their starchy tubers in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and Oceania. There are many cultivars of yam. Although some varieties of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) are also called yam in parts of the United States and Canada, it is not part of the family Dioscoreaceae but belongs in the unrelated morning glory family Convolvulaceae.
The true yam is a versatile vegetable. It can be barbecued, roasted, fried, grilled, boiled, baked, smoked and when grated it is processed into a dessert recipe.
The edible, matured yam does not contain any compounds however, bitter component stands to accumulate in immature tuber tissues of D. rotundata and D. cayenesis. They may be polyphenols or tannin-like compounds
Yam starch accounts for about 60–80% of the dry matter of yam tuber (on dry basis) and has been reported as a dominant factor in determining the physicochemical, rheological and textural characteristics of food products from different yam species