Effect of Pulse Flours on the Physiochemical Characteristics and Sensory Acceptance of Baked Crackers.

Pulse flours offer nutritional alternatives to wheat flour in the production of baked snacks due to their high protein and fibre levels and low glycaemic index. In this study, broad-bean (Vicia faba), yellow-pea and green-pea (Pisum sativum) flours were each blended with wheat flour at 40% in the formulation of chemically leavened crackers. The effects of flour type and baking time on the physiochemical properties, sensory acceptability, nutritional composition and antioxidant activity of the crackers were observed in comparison with 100% wheat crackers. Broad-bean crackers had the highest protein content and antioxidant activity (13 g per 100 g DM and 38.8 mgAAE per 100 g DM, respectively). Yellow-pea crackers had the highest fibre content (12 g per 100 g DM). Physical dimensions and colour attributes were significantly affected by pulse-flour substitution. Yellow-pea and broad-bean crackers were significantly preferred by consumers compared to the control, demonstrating the potential application of these flours to improve the eating quality and nutritional profile of crackers

Optimisation and modelling of supercritical CO2 extraction process of carotenoids from carrot peels

This work aimed to assess and optimise the extraction of carotenoids from carrot peels by supercritical CO2 (S-CO2), utilising ethanol as co-solvent. The evaluated variables were temperature, pressure and co-solvent concentration. According to the validated model, the optimal conditions for maximum mass yield (5.31%, d.b.) were found at 58.5 °C, 306 bar and 14.3% of ethanol, and at 59.0 °C, 349 bar and 15.5% ethanol for carotenoid recovery (86.1%). Kinetic experiments showed that 97% of the total extractable carotenoid content was recovered after only 30 min, whereas model fitting confirmed the fast extraction trend and desorbing nature of carotenoids from the sample matrix. The process is potentially scalable, as demonstrated by runs performed with a 10-fold initial sample size, which led to even higher recoveries (96.2%), indicating that S-CO2 can be as efficient as a conventional solvent extraction for recovering high value compounds from vegetable by-products