The food processing industry is one of the largest consumers of energy and water in the manufacturing sector. It is vital that conservation measures are taken to reduce the use of electricity, fuel, and water for producers to have long-term, sustainable growth. The Pacific Northwest (PNW) region includes some the largest food processers in the United States, particularly with products such as fruit and vegetable preserves, apples products, potato products, and milk. Energy and water consumption in PNW food processing facilities are quantified as well as techniques to increase efficiency and reduce waste. Mechanical drive systems and refrigeration consumes the most electricity in the industry and the implementation of energy management plans has the largest potential to save electricity in PNW facilities. Heating and cooling process needs are the largest consumers of energy in the food processing industry. Implementing cogeneration/trigeneration technology, replacing of older equipment, capturing waste heat, and reusing wastewater can have significant impacts on both energy and water consumption. Novel, emerging technologies such as membrane separation, high-pressure processing, microwave assist, ultrasound, pulsed high electric fields, ozone, and hydrogen/electricity generation have significant potential to benefit the food processing industry by increasing efficiency and allowing companies to stay competitive in an industry where sustainable practices are becoming increasingly important to the public.

A dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction procedure for lead(II) as its 5-(4-dimethylaminobenzylidene) rhodanine complex has been established prior to its microsampling flame atomic absorption spectrometric determination. The influences of various analytical parameters including pH, solvent type and volume, dispersive solvent type and volume, 5-(4-dimethylaminobenzylidene) rhodanine amount, salt effect, and centrifugation time and speed were investigated. The effects of certain alkali, alkaline earth, and transition metal ions on the quantitative extraction of lead(II) were also studied. Quantitative recoveries were obtained at pH 6. The enrichment factor was calculated as 125. The detection limit for lead is 1.1 μg/L. The accuracy of the method was tested with the additions recovery test and analysis of the standard reference materials (SPS-WW2 waste water, NIST SRM 1515 apple leaves, and TMDA-51.3 fortified water). Applications of the present procedure were tested by analyzing water and food samples.

In mass spectrometry, the type and design of ionization source play a key role on the performance of a given instrument. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to evaluate newly developed sources for their suitability to analyze food contaminants like pesticide residues. Here, we carried out a head-to-head comparison of key extraction and analytical performance parameters of an electrospray ionization (ESI) source with a new atmospheric pressure ionization source, UniSpray (US). The two interfaces were evaluated in three matrices of different properties (coffee, apple, and water) to determine if multiresidue analysis of 81 pesticides by QuEChERS extraction and LC-MS/MS analysis could be improved. Depending on the matrix and irrespective of the chemical class, US provided a tremendous gain in signal intensity (22- to 32-fold in peak area, 6- to 7-fold in peak height), a threefold to fourfold increase in signal-to-noise ratio, a mild gain in the range of compounds that can be quantified, and up to twofold improvement of recovery. UniSpray offered comparable linearity and precision of the analyses with ESI, and did not affect the ion ratio. A gain in sensitivity of many compounds was observed with US, but in general, the two ionization interfaces did not show significant difference in LOD and LOQ. UniSpray suffered less signal suppression; the matrix effect was in average 3 to 4 times more pronounced, but showed better values than ESI. With no effect on recovery efficiency, US improved the overall process efficiency 3 to 4 times more than ESI. Graphical abstract

This work presents, for the first time, a fast and highly sensitive electrochemical method for determination of three organophosphorus compounds (OPs), diazinon (DZN), malathion (MLT), and chlorpyrifos (CLPF), using a modified pyrolytic graphite electrode (PGE) coupled to batch injection analysis system with multiple pulse amperometric detection (BIA–MPA). The PGE was modified by a nanocomposite based on functionalized carbon nanotubes (CNTf) and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). The OPs samples were directly analyzed on the modified working electrode surface by BIA-MPA system in Britton-Robinson (BR) buffer 0.15 mol L⁻¹ at pH 6.0. The MPA detection of DZN, MLT and CLPF was performed using two potential pulses, which were sequentially applied on modified PGE at −1.3 V (100 ms) and +0.8 V (100 ms) for selective determination of these three OPs and working electrode cleaning, respectively. Under optimized conditions, the sensor presented a linear range of 0.1–20 μmol L⁻¹ for DZN, 1.0–30 μmol L⁻¹ for MLT and from 0.25 to 50 μmol L⁻¹ for CLPF. The limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) of 0.35 and 1.18 μmol L⁻¹ for DZN, 0.89 and 2.98 μmol L⁻¹ for MLT, and 0.53 and 1.78 μmol L⁻¹ for CLPF were obtained. The proposed method exhibited high sensitivity of 0.068, 0.030 and 0.043 mA L μmol⁻¹ for DZN, MLT and CLPF detection, respectively. Furthermore, the BIA-MPA system provided an analytical frequency of 71 determinations per hour for direct determination of these OPs in water and food samples. The modified PGE coupled to BIA-MPA system showed a high stability of electrochemical response for OPs detection with relative standard deviation (RSD) of 1.60% (n = 20). The addition-recovery studies of the proposed method were carried out in tap water, orange juice, and apple fruit real samples, which showed suitable recovery values between 77 and 124%. The analytical performance of the developed sensor provides an attractive alternative method for OPs determination with great potential for a fast and sensitive application in contaminated samples with these pesticides.