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In this study, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy coupled with machine learning (ML) approaches were applied to detect and quantify wheat flour (WF) contamination in gluten-free cornbread. Samples of corn flour (CF) were contaminated with WF in the range of 0–10% with a 0.5% increment. The flour samples were baked into bread using basic bread formulation and ground into a fine particle size for homogeneity, and FTIR spectra of the ground samples were obtained and standardized before modeling. For constructing the classification model, majority voting-based ensemble learning (stack of k-nearest neighbor [KNN], random forest, and support vector classifier) was implemented to detect and quantify WF in the cornbread samples. KNN regressor was determined to be the best predictive model to quantify wheat contaminants based on the majority-vote ensemble. The optimal classification model for the test set showed an F1 score, true positive rate (TPR), and false negative rate (FNR) of 1.0, 1.0, and 0.0, respectively. For the quantification models, the coefficient of determination and root mean square error for the prediction set (R2P and RMSEP) were 0.99 and 0.34, respectively. These results show the feasibility of utilizing FTIR along with supervised learning algorithms for the rapid offline evaluation of wheat flour contamination in gluten-free products.

Corn is one of the major cereal crops produced worldwide. It has recently been used for the production of healthy, gluten-free, and high-fiber bread. However, corn is highly susceptible to aflatoxin (AF) contamination, representing a serious health concern, as aflatoxins (AFs) are carcinogenic to humans. In this study, the cornbread-making process using the unit operations nixtamalization with different calcium sources, fermentation, and baking was evaluated as a method for AF detoxification at 2 different contamination levels. The nixtamalized cornbread-making process with tequesquite (an alkaline mineral complex) showed an average reduction of 77.12% in AF content from 550.33 µg/kg to 114.50 µg/kg. For the second contamination level (2208.33 µg/kg), the cornbread-making process with the nixtamalization using calcium hydroxide was the most effective, resulting in an average reduction in AF content of 83.58% (362.50 µg/kg). At both levels, the control cornbread samples were significantly different (p < 0.05) from others, reaching an average reduction of 55.43% for level 1 and 58.23% for level 2 (125.73 and 522.33 µg/kg respectively). Additionally, when the AF extracts of cornbread samples were subjected to acidic pH values (pH = 3), an additional reduction in AF content was achieved. The chemical structure of AFs did transform to irreversible forms, with only non-fluorescent derivatives remaining. Our results demonstrate that despite the high contamination of corn used as a raw material, the cornbread-making process including nixtamalization as a unit operation was effective in reducing AF content by more than 80%.

Canadian journalist Brandy Yanchyk travels to Akwesasne where she makes traditional Mohawk cornbread.

In this article the authors describe a project during which they unpacked fraction standards, created rigorous tasks and lesson plans, and developed formative and summative assessments to analyze students' thinking about fraction multiplication. The purpose of this article is to (1) illustrate a process that can be replicated by educators interested in using rigorous mathematical tasks and assessments to support and advance their students' mathematical thinking; and (2) share the artifacts and instructional products that educators can use to improve mathematics assessment practices.

Food in Kentucky-born novelist Julia Watts’s novels is never merely nutrition: the food on the characters’ tables represents safety or risk, the known or the unknown, the comforts of the familiar, or the pleasures and discomforts of expanding horizons. In Finding H.F., as part of a journey of self-discovery and coming-of-age, H.F. Simms leaves behind the familiarity of her memaw’s beans and cornbread for the Chinese food of Atlanta and the fried shrimp of the Gulf Coast. In Secret City, Ruby Pickett and her family move to the government’s \"Secret City\" of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, so that Ruby’s daddy can help with the war effort, and they bring with them the recipes and foodways of their home in Whitley County, Kentucky. Yet as Ruby comes of age, she, too, experiences her world expanding through new foods such as mushroom consomme and tomato aspic. This essay examines how one Kentucky novelist has employed Appalachian food and foodways as metaphors of her characters’ personal journeys of discovery.