International Symposium on Agriculture and Environment - 2023

Comparative study for a potential usage of underutilized or wasted fruits for sanitizer production

2024-10-28T05:43:53Z

Comparative study for a potential usage of underutilized or wasted fruits for sanitizer production Priyamali, M.D.; Rebeira, S.P.; Arachchige, M.P.M.; Medagoda, M.H.M.D.M.L.; Sasiprabha, H.B. The Covid-19 pandemic situation was a recent issue that drew global concern about the use of hand sanitizer to control the spread of pathogens through personal contact. This study aimed at bioethanol production using abundant wasted fruits or underutilized fruits as a cheaper raw material source. Six species of overripe fruits: banana, mango, papaya, star fruit, sapodilla, and jackfruit were tested at three different fermentation periods. Pulps were extracted from surface sterilized fruits using KMnO4 (5% w/w) and fermentation was facilitated by inoculating Saccharomyces cerevisiae as inoculum with a calculated amount of sucrose and urea. The pulps were analyzed for proximate composition (moisture, ash, fiber analysis) and physicochemical parameters (pH, brix, acidity) and the concentration of ethanol and methanol fermented pulps were measured in three-week intervals. The highest ethanol concentration was resulted by jack fruit at the ninth week (17.3±0.416%) followed by banana at the sixth and ninth weeks (16.4±0.586% and 16.27±0.902% respectively). Jack fruit and banana showed a significantly high ethanol production even at the third week (16.1±0.265% and 15.73±0.416 respectively). During fermentation, all the fermented samples contain high amount of methanol (>15%). Therefore, the methanol production was controlled by adjusting pH (2.5-3.0) using citric acid. pH adjusted samples have recorded ethanol 14.8±0.28%, methanol 6.7±0.14%, Brix 6.15±0.07 and pH 3.65±0.01, respectively. The steam distillation method was carried out to purify the alcohol from fermented samples. The highest mean ethanol concentration was observed in jackfruit (71.33%). The methanol percentage of the samples decreased with time and the final product consisted of a negligible amount of methanol (0.002%). The highest ethanol percentage was observed in fruits that had the highest brix values. Total plate count study after sanitizing hands with 75% ethanol produced by jackfruit revealed that the produced sanitizer can be successfully used to produce hand sanitizer

Assessment of Raw Milk Quality Collected from Suburban Sale Centres in Jaffna District, Sri Lanka

2023-09-19T06:33:59Z

Assessment of Raw Milk Quality Collected from Suburban Sale Centres in Jaffna District, Sri Lanka Prabakaran, T.; Briyangari, A.; Amutha, P. The annual milk production of Sri Lanka is significantly bolstered by the Northern Province, with the Jaffna District playing a particularly vital role in this regard. However, the dairy sector is faced with a major concern in the form of the quality of freshly drawn milk, which has far-reaching implications for both direct domestic consumption and the production of various dairy products. Against this backdrop, the primary objective of this study is to comprehensively evaluate the quality of raw milk and effectively identify instances of adulteration across the suburban areas of Jaffna, Sri Lanka. The study was carried out on 1723 milk samples collected from 25 milk sale centres from 2018 to 2022 and milk composition, microbial quality and adulterants were tested. The data were analysed using one way ANOVA procedure in Minitab. The results revealed that water was the common adulterant (64%) found in milk ranging from 13.8 to 55.38% and it was pronounced in the dry season (p<0.05) than wet season. The mean specific gravity (SG) was 1.025±0.0039. Only half of the total samples had normal values (1.025 –1.35) of SG which further validates the water adulteration. Sugar, salt, starch and urea were the other extraneous substances found in insignificant quantity (3, 2, 2 and 1%, respectively). The average values obtained for milk fat, Solid Non-Fat and Total Solid contents were 2.63±0.87%, 7.416±0.909% and 9.888±1.464%, respectively. The mean values of the milk components were not statistically significant between years. The organoleptic evaluation confirmed that the majority (86%) of the milk samples met the standards for physical properties. Microbial analysis with alcohol and clot on boiling tests ensured the absence of mastitis-causing microbes and the heat stability of the samples. The resazurin test showed promising results (62%) on the hygienic and keeping quality of milk, whereas 38% of the samples were rejected due to high microbial load. This study found water was the primary adulterant and only few samples were detected with other substances. Microbiological and compositional quality of milk was in required standards

Validity & reproducibility of a food frequency questionnaire to assess nutritional intake among preschool children in Kegalle district, Sri Lanka

2024-11-05T10:36:54Z

Validity & reproducibility of a food frequency questionnaire to assess nutritional intake among preschool children in Kegalle district, Sri Lanka Subhashani, E.P.M.; Sirasa, M.S.F. Sri Lankan preschool children do not consume a varied and balanced diet, which has resulted in the prevalence of malnutrition among preschool age groups for several decades. An accurate assessment of children’s diets is necessary to identify the current diet and evaluate the effectiveness of dietary behavior interventions. Currently, no validated food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) exists to measure the habitual dietary intake of Sri Lankan preschool-aged children. Therefore, a validated dietary assessment method is necessary to evaluate the validity and reliability of an adapted food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) to assess energy and nutrient intake in preschool-aged children. A cross-sectional study was conducted among the preschoolers in Ruwanwella division, Kegalle district, Sri Lanka. A total of 52 preschoolers aged 2–5 years participated in the validation study, while a subsample of 15 participants joined the reliability study. The FFQ is modified from the validated FFQ for adults in Sri Lanka and comprises 114 food items from 8 food groups. A three-day estimated dietary record (3DR) was used as a reference, and reliability was assessed through a second administration of the FFQ (FFQ2), four weeks after the first administration (FFQ1). Spearman’s correlations showed a lower correlation between FFQ and 3DR for the validation study (r = -0.029 to 0.192) except for vitamin D (r = 0.215), energy (r = 0.217), calcium (r = 0.234) and vitamin C (r = 0.339). The results indicated that FFQ overestimated the intakes of 3DR for energy (2572.1±1 vs 1025.9±289.5 kcal) and all nutrients, including protein (72.6 ± 3.4 vs. 31.3 ± 1.0 g/day). The portion sizes of FFQ need to be reconsidered and the food list has to be modified to improve the validity of FFQ in future studies.

Use of diet-related coping strategies by households with preschoolers in western province during the current financial crisis in Sri Lanka

2024-10-08T05:48:40Z

Use of diet-related coping strategies by households with preschoolers in western province during the current financial crisis in Sri Lanka Abayasinghe, C.R.; Sirasa, M.S.F. Due to the current financial crisis in Sri Lanka, the dietary behaviours of households have been drastically changed, which has badly impacted the nutritional status of preschoolers too. A cross sectional study was conducted among households with at least one preschooler residing in Western Province, Sri Lanka. A convenient sample of parents or primary caretakers of preschoolers (n=255) was recruited from randomly selected 9 preschools from Kaduwela area. A self-administered questionnaire and a single 24-hour recall were used to collect data. The majority of the participants were females (98.9%), middle-aged adults (63.5%), belonging to Sinhalese ethnicity (97.7%) and housewives (65.7%) who have completed 13 years of school education (41%). Most households had a monthly income of less than 30000 LKR (40.7%). The percentage of households with food security was 19.66% whereas; mild food insecurity, moderate food insecurity and severe food insecurity were 33.06%, 37.65% and 9.63%, respectively. The mean Coping Strategy Index (CSI) was 13.9±22.9. Children scored a mean Dietary Diversity Score (DDS) of 4.4±1.2. Diet-related coping strategies mostly followed were; relying on less preferred and less expensive food (70%), reducing the portion size of meals (43%) and restricting the consumption of adults for small children to eat (33%). Primary caretakers’ age, education level and household income showed a significant effect on household food insecurity (p < 0.05). Compared to the households with younger parents (≤30 years), households with middle-aged parents (>30 years) were 0.3 times less likely to be food insecure. The households that had a monthly income of below 30,000 LKR were 2.5 times more likely to experience food insecurity than the households that had a monthly income between 30,000 LKR and 60,000 LKR. In conclusion, the majority of households is food insecure and follows various diet-related coping strategies but provide a moderately diverse diet to their young members in the household. Further studies are required to examine the situation in other rural and estate areas in Sri Lanka to understand the complete situation.