Application of the Water Quality Index (NSFWQI) on the Al-Sain Lake

This research aims to evaluate the water quality of the Al-Sain lake which feeds mainly the Lattakia city and a part of the Tartous city of drinking water purpose. In this paper, we study a group of physical and chemical factors for the water of the Al-Sain lake during the years of available data (1991-2004-2007-2011), samples were taken from four different locations according to the program approved by the concerned staff to monitor and protect the lake, namely: (Lattakia water supply point, Tartous water supply point, irrigation point, southern spring observatory), and we calculated the quality index for drinking purposes using US approved methodology of National Sanitation Foundation. Nine factors have been adopted: (dissolved oxygen, fecal coliforms, pH, BOD5, temperature, phosphate, nitrates, turbidity, and total solids). The research result showed that the classification of water quality was good in all four monitoring points during the years 1991 and 2004, noting a significant improvement of the quality in 2004, and decreases slightly during the years 2007 and 2011 for monitoring points in the Lattakia water supply and irrigation points, but water quality still keep maintain a good classification, while the quality of the water goes down within the threshold of middle classification for the Tartous and southern spring observatory monitoring point.

Studying some microbiological, chemical and sensory parameters of Broccoli during refrigerated storage

This investigation was conducted to study the effect of cooling preservation on some microbiological (total count of organism, yeast and fungi, Coliform bacteria), chemical (total soluble solids, total acids, vitamin C) parameters and sensory evaluation of Broccoli during refrigerated storage and to determine the acceptability of the best treatment of the broccoli by customer during refrigerated storage. Two hybrids of broccoli, F1 Kondi and F1 Kibbah grow at Abi Jarash farms of Damascus University in 2011/2012 season were used. Three treatments were applied on two hybrids of broccoli. Treatments 1 (broccoli was stored without any packaging), treatments 2 (broccoli was stored after packaging without vacuum sealed) and treatments 3 (broccoli was stored after packaging with vacuum sealed). Results showed and based on microbiology, chemically and sensory evaluation that the best treatment to save the broccoli reverberated was treatment 3 for the both hybrids of broccoli F1 Kondi and F1 Kibbah (broccoli was stored after packaging with vacuum sealed) where the broccoli F1 Kondi was preserved without any changes in sensory parameters and accepted qualities for 15 days and for 10 days for broccoli F1 Kibbah.

The effect of commercial starter cultures on quality parameters of smoked fermented semi-dry sausage

This study was conducted at the laboratory of Agriculture College, Damascus University to produce smoked fermented semi-dry sausages using three kinds of commercial starter cultures, First culture contained a Staphylococcus carnosus and Staphylococcus xylosus, the second contained Lactococcus lactis, Lactobacillus sakei, while the third one contained Lactococcus lactis, Lactobacillus sakei, Staphylococcus carnosus and Staphylococcus xylosus. All treatments were analyzed for microbial and sensory evaluation after 0, 7, 14, 21, and 28 days and for chemical parameters after 0, 14 and 28 days of cold storage at 5 C in order to choose the optimal treatment to determine the best product. Results of microbial analysis showed the sovereignty of lactic acid bacteria in fermented sausage before smoking and then decreased after smoking and reappeared in commercial starter culture containing lactic acid bacteria after that it was dropped gradually until the end of storage while the pathogenic bacteria did not appear in cultures. Chemical analysis showed significant effect in the pH number between control and treatments that had lactic acid bacteria starters. The sensory evaluation also showed superiority of the fermented sausage using the third starter and gave the best qualities in terms of taste, odor, color, texture and overall appearance.

Effect of initial treatments on quality parameters of canned Artichoke

This study was investigated at the laboratories of the Department of Food Sciences at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Damascus in order to determine the effect of initial treatments such as: blanching period, salting, adding acid) on chemical, microbiological, sensory parameters of canned Artichoke. Group of chemical (humidity, protein, ashes, anti-oxidants, phenols), microbiological indicators (total count of organism, yeast and fungi, anaerobic bacteria, Coliform bacteria, E.coli and pseudomonas), and sensory evaluation had been carried out to determine the acceptability of the best treatment of the canned Artichoke. 48 treatments were applied on Artichoke samples: with three blanching (period 10, 20, 30 minutes), adding citric acid (0, 2, 4, 6 %), and adding salt (0, 1, 2, 3 %). Results based on microbiology, chemically and sensory evaluation showed that the best treatment applied on Artichoke was treatment number 6 (10 minutes blanching time, 2% of citric acid and 1% of salt), following number 22 (20 minutes blanching time, 2 % of citric acid and 1% of salt) and treatment number 26 (20 minutes blanching time, 2 % of citric acid and 2% of salt)