Development and evaluation of tools to improve the texture and quality of dry-cured ham

El jamón curado es considerado un producto típico de la región mediterránea elaborado con las patas traseras del cerdo, las cuales se salan y curan durante un período largo. Sin embargo, existen otros productos curados como el jamón curado de cordero, el Fenalår, típico de Noruega, que se sala, se ahúma y se cura durante un período más corto de tiempo. La textura de los productos curados es un criterio de calidad importante para los consumidores. Sin embargo, el desarrollo de la textura, así como también de los defectos de textura de los productos curados tanto de cerdo como de cordero son un tema complejo puesto que hay muchos factores involucrados. Por este motivo, hay un interés creciente de la industria alimentaria en encontrar soluciones para reducir la incidencia de productos con texturas blandas y/o defectuosas.El principal objetivo de esta Tesis es desarrollar y evaluar herramientas para mejorar el proceso de elaboración y la calidad de dos productos curados: el jamón curado y el Fenalår. Para ello, se han llevado a cabo diferentes estudios los cuales se presentan en esta Tesis en diferentes artículos científicos. El artículo I aborda los principales factores que afectan al desarrollo de la textura y a la modelización de la textura. El segundo artículo muestra los resultados de la microbiología predictiva utilizada para estudiar la seguridad alimentaria en relación con el proceso de elaboración y la reducción del contenido de sal, así como también la omisión de nitrificantes (artículo II). En el artículo III se investigó un método para evaluar de manera no destructiva el punto final del proceso en función de las medidas obtenidas en la superficie del jamón. En el artículo IV,se presentan los resultados obtenidos de un primer intento para el desarrollo de un método para evaluar la pastosidad con el reómetro y evitar así los tediosos análisis sensoriales. Finalmente, el uso de un tratamiento de altas presiones como acción correctora para productos con texturas defectuosas se presenta en el artículo V.Con la finalidad de estudiar de forma más detallada el desarrollo de la textura, se desarrolló un modelo matemático (artículo 1), que relaciona las condiciones de procesado y las características de la materia prima con la textura del producto. Este modelo no sólo permite evaluar el efecto de estos factores, sino que también podría permitir una optimización del proceso de elaboración a nivel industrial. Los resultados mostraron que el contenido de sal, el pH, las características de la materia prima y las condiciones de procesado (temperatura de secado y merma final) son factores importantes que afectan al desarrollo de la textura, tal y como se presenta en el artículo I, y a la vez comprometen la seguridad del producto. En el artículo II, la reducción del contenido de sal no sólo dio como resultado texturas más blandas, sino que también produjo un incremento de los riesgos microbiológicos, especialmente cuando se omitieron los nitrificantes, tal y como muestran los resultados obtenidos mediante los modelos de microbiología predictiva. Además, los defectos de textura en ambosproductos curados representan un importante desafío para la industria.A pesar de los esfuerzos realizados para mejorar el proceso de elaboración, es posible que algunos productos sigan siendo defectuosos, evidenciando así la necesidad de nuevas herramientas y/o tecnologías con potencial para su aplicación a nivel industrial. En esta Tesis, se estudió una metodología para evaluar si el producto tenía o no la textura adecuada para su comercialización (artículo III), así como también un análisis para evaluar instrumentalmente el defecto de pastosidad en jamón curado loncheado (papel IV). Los resultados presentados en el artículo III muestran que el método ITAS permitió evaluar de manera no destructiva el punto final del proceso; esta metodología consiste ensimular la valoración táctil en la superficie del jamón realizada actualmente por los expertos. La máxima precisión de clasificación fue del 82,1%, obtenida al combinar las mediciones junto con el espesor de la grasa subcutánea. La implantación de esta tecnología a nivel industrial no sólo mejoraría la calidad del producto, sino que también supondría un ahorro económico, energético y de espacio, ya que permitiría un mejor ajuste del tiempo de secado necesario para cada jamón.En el artículo IV se presentan los resultados obtenidos en un primer estudio para el desarrollo de un método para evaluar la pastosidad utilizando un reómetro. Los resultados obtenidos mostraron un aumento de la viscosidad de los extractos a medida que aumentaba la intensidad del defecto de pastosidad, mostrando así la posibilidad de detectar instrumentalmente este defecto utilizando el reómetro. Sin embargo, hay otros factores a parte de la viscosidad que pueden afectar/alterar los resultados y el reómetro sólo permite discriminar las muestras con una pastosidad intensa de aquellas que tienen un defecto medio o que no son pastosas.También se han llevado a cabo acciones correctoras en lonchas de jamón curado utilizando tratamientos mediante altas presiones a diferentes temperaturas (artículo V).Los resultados obtenidos muestran que, si bien las temperaturas de 7 ºC y 20 ºC son útiles para corregir el defecto en las lonchas con pastosidad media, se necesita una temperatura superior (35 ºC) para las de pastosidad intensa. Por lo tanto, conocer las características iniciales de textura del producto es clave para definir las condiciones óptimas para su procesado mediante altas presiones cuando se busca mejorar la textura sin deteriorar el color ni el aroma.Las metodologías desarrolladas y evaluadas en esta Tesis pueden utilizarse para mejorar el proceso de elaboración y la calidad del jamón curado. Además, representan un primer paso en el desarrollo de nuevas herramientas para uso industrial.Dry-cured ham is considered a typical product of the Mediterranean area made of pig¿s hind leg which is dry-salted and has a long maturation period. However, there are other typical dry-cured products such as the dry-cured lamb ham, Fenalår, from Norway, which is dry-salted and smoked followed by a short maturation period. The texture of dry-cured products is an important quality criterion for the consumers. However, texture development and also texture defects of dry cured products from both pork and lamb are a complex issue since many factors are involved. For this reason, there is an increasing interest of the industry in finding solutions to reduce the incidence of products with soft and/or defective textures. The main objective of this PhD Thesis dissertation was to develop and evaluate tools to improve the manufacturing process and the quality of two examples of dry-cured products; dry-cured ham and Fenalår. For this reason, different studies were conducted and herein presented as different papers. First one addresses the main factors affecting texture development and texture prediction modelling (presented in paper I). The second paper presents the results of predictive microbiology used to study food safety in relation to manufacturing process with reduced salt and nitrites addition (in paper II). Next study investigated a method to non-destructively evaluate the end of process based on the measurements taken at the surface of the ham (in paper III). The results of an attempt to develop a method to evaluate pastiness with a rheometer to avoid the tedious sensory analysis are presented in paper IV. Finally, the use of high pressure treatments as a corrective action for products with defective textures is presented in paper V. In order to study texture development in more detail, mathematical models were developed (paper I), that relate processing conditions and raw material characteristics to the texture of the product. These models not only allow the effect of these factors to be evaluated but could also enable further optimisation of the process in the industry. The results showed that salt content, pH, raw material characteristics and processing conditions (drying temperature and final weight loss) are important factors affecting texture development, as shown in paper I, while affecting product safety. In paper II, reduced salt content not only resulted in softer textures but also in an increase of microbiological hazards especially when no nitrite was used as evaluated by predictive microbiology models. Furthermore, texture defects in both dry-cured products represent an important challenge for the industry. Despite the efforts to improve the manufacturing process, some products may still be defective and the need for new tools and/or technologies with potential for industrial application is emerging. In this Thesis, a methodology to evaluate whether the product had the appropriate texture to be sent to the market or not (paper III) and an analysis to instrumentally evaluate pastiness defect in sliced dry-cured ham (paper IV) were studied. Results presented in paper III show that ITAS method allowed to non-destructively assess processing end point; this methodology consist of simulating the tactile assessment of ham surface as currently made by the experts. The maximum classification accuracy was 82.1% obtained when combining measurements with subcutaneous fat thickness. The implementation of this technology in industry would not only improve the quality of the product but also economic, energy and space savings, as it would enable better adjustment of required drying time for each ham. Results of the study in paper IV represent a first attempt for the development of a method to evaluate pastiness using a rheometer to avoid the tedious sensory analysis. An increase in viscosity of water extracts with an increase in pastiness intensity, show the ability to instrumentally detect this defect using the rheometer. However, there are factors other than viscosity that can affect/alter the results and this method allows discriminating only samples with high pastiness intensity from those with medium or non-pastiness defect. Corrective actions for dry-cured ham slices using HPP treatments at different temperatures were also analysed (paper V). The obtained results show that while temperatures of 7 ºC and 20 ºC are useful to correct ham slices with medium pastiness, higher temperature (35 ºC) is needed in the case of high pastiness. Therefore, knowing textural properties of the product is key information to define optimal HP processing conditions when aiming to improve texture without deteriorating colour and aroma. The methodologies developed and evaluated in the present work can be used to improve the manufacturing process and quality of dry-cured ham. They represent a first step in development of new tools for industrial use. <br /

Effects of post mortem pH and salting time on Zinc-protoporphyrin content in nitrite-free Serrano dry-cured hams

There is a growing demand for clean label products and thus the elimination of curing additives in various dry-cured meats is of interest while maintaining colour characteristics. This study was aimed to examine the effect of pH at 24 h post mortem (pHSM24h ≤ 5.4; 5.4 > pHSM24h < 5.9; pHSM24h ≥5.9) and salting time (standard vs reduced) on zinc-protoporphyrin content, heme content and other physicochemical parameters of Serrano dry-cured hams manufactured without the addition of curing agents. Results showed that in those hams with higher post mortem pH heme content was increased whereas ZnPP content and proteolysis index were decreased. Reduced salting time decreased salt content whereas ZnPP and heme contents remained unaffected. Lower post mortem pH and reduced salting time led to a higher content in various free fatty acids which, in turn, were found to correlate positively with ZnPP formation. However, the observed changes in heme and ZnPP contents had no effect on the instrumental color of the final product.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Automatic marbling prediction of sliced dry-cured ham using image segmentation, texture analysis and regression

Dry-cured ham is a traditional Mediterranean meat product consumed throughout the world. This product is very variable in terms of composition and quality. Consumer’s acceptability of this product is influenced by different factors, in particular, visual intramuscular fat and its distribution across the slice, also known as marbling. On-line marbling assessment is of great interest for the industry for classification purposes. However, until now this assessment has been traditionally carried out by panels of experts and this methodology cannot be implement in industry. We propose a complete automatic system to predict marbling degree of dry-cured ham slices, which combines: (1) the color texture features of regions of interest (ROIs) extracted automatically for each muscle; and (2) machine learning models to predict the marbling. For the ROIs extraction algorithm more than the 90% of pixels of the ROI fall into the true muscle. The proposed system achieves a correlation of 0.92 using the support vector regression and a set of color texture features including statistics of each channel of RGB color image and Haralick’s coefficients of its gray-level version. The mean absolute error was 0.46, which is lower than the standard desviation (0.5) of the marbling scores evaluated by experts. This high accuracy in the marbling prediction for sliced dry-cured ham would allow to deploy its application in the dry-cured ham industryThis work has received financial support from the Xunta de Galicia (Centro singular de investigación de Galicia, accreditation 2020– 2023) and the European Union (European Regional Development Fund–ERDF), Project ED431G-2019/04. IRTA’s contribution was also funded by the CCLabel project (RTI-2018- 096883-R-C41) and the CERCA programme from Generalitat de CatalunyaS

Seaweed Inclusion in Finishing Lamb Diet Promotes Changes in Micronutrient Content and Flavour-Related Compounds of Raw Meat and Dry-Cured Leg (Fenalår)

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Zinc-protoporphyrin content in commercial Parma hams is affected by proteolysis index and marbling

The contents of zinc-protoporphyrin (ZnPP) and heme in twenty-four sliced Parma hams made without the addition of curing agents were determined. Expressed on a dry weight basis, ZnPP averaged 45 mg/kg and ranged from 23 to 85 mg/kg. The heme content averaged 37 mg/kg on a dry matter basis and ranged from 17 to 73 mg/kg. A Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression analyses were carried out to examine the existing correlations between these pigments and various physicochemical parameters in the final product. PCA showed the existence of associations between ZnPP, sensory redness and salt content. PLS suggests that the conversion of ZnPP from heme is facilitated in those hams with a higher proteolysis index and higher marbling.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Assessing consumer preferences for labeling information of dry-cured serrano ham on a virtual supermarket in Spain

Encouraging healthy and personalized nutrition has become one of the EU strategic lines and, since 2015, the third sustainable developed objective promoted by the United Nations aims to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all ages. One approach to address this objective is to provide information to consumers through the labeling of food products. However, it has been scientifically proven that some food products provide an approximation of their nutrient content on the food packages, which might mislead consumers. Hence, this study examines consumers’ acceptance of precise nutrient labeling (nutritional facts and nutritional claims related to fat and salt content) on dry-cured ham (Jamón Serrano) in a virtual supermarket. The study was conducted in Zaragoza (Spain) on 161 consumers. In a virtual supermarket that mimics a real-life environment, participants were presented with a choice set of six alternatives and a no-buy option and were asked to choose their most preferred ham. The results indicate that Spanish consumers preferred dry-cured ham with a conventional nutrition label while the low salt content nutrition claim did not affect preferences

Avaluació de la toxicitat de metalls pesants i arsènic en diferents models biològics

En aquest estudi, la toxicitat de diversos metalls pesants i l'arsènic va ser analitzada utilitzant diferents models biològics.En la primera part d'aquest treball, el bioassaig de toxicitat Microtox, el qual està basat en la variació de l'emissió lumínica del bacteri luminiscent Vibrio fischeri, va ser utilitzat per establir les corbes dosi-resposta de diferents elements tòxics com el Zn(II), Pb(II), Cu(II), Hg(II), Ag(I), Co(II), Cd(II), Cr(VI), As(V) i As(III) en solucions aquoses. Els experiments es varen portar a terme a pH 6.0 i 7.0 per tal de mostrar que el pH pot influir en la toxicitat final mesurada d'alguns metalls degut als canvis relacionats amb la seva especiació química. Es varen trobar diferents tipus de corbes dosi-resposta depenent del metall analitzat i el pH del medi. En el cas de l'arsènic, l'efecte del pH en la toxicitat de l'arsenat i l'arsenit es va investigar utilitzant l'assaig Microtox en un rang de pHs comprès entre pH 5.0 i 9.0. Els valors d'EC50 determinats per l'As(V) disminueixen, reflectint un augment de la toxicitat, a mesura que el pH de la solució augmenta mentre que, en el cas de l'As(III), els valors d'EC50 quasi bé no varien entre pH 6.0 i 8.0 i només disminueixen a pH 9.0. HAsO42- i H2AsO3- es varen definir com les espècies més tòxiques. Així mateix, una anàlisi estadística va revelar un efecte antagònic entre les espècies químiques d'arsenat que es troben conjuntament a pH 6.0 i 7.0.D'altra banda, els resultats de dos mètodes estadístics per predir la toxicitat i les possibles interaccions entre el Co(II), Cd(II), Cu(II), Zn(II) i Pb(II) en mescles binàries equitòxiques es varen comparar amb la toxicitat observada sobre el bacteri Vibrio fischeri. L'efecte combinat d'aquests metalls va resultar ser antagònic per les mescles de Co(II)-Cd(II), Cd(II)-Zn(II), Cd(II)-Pb(II) i Cu(II)-Pb(II), sinèrgic per Co(II)-Cu(II) i Zn(II)-Pb(II) i additiu en els altres casos, revelant un patró complex de possibles interaccions. L'efecte sinèrgic de la combinació Co(II)-Cu(II) i la forta disminució de la toxicitat del Pb(II) quan es troba en presència de Cd(II) hauria de merèixer més atenció quan s'estableixen les normatives de seguretat ambiental.La sensibilitat de l'assaig Microtox també va ser determinada. Els valors d'EC20, els quals representen la toxicitat llindar mesurable, varen ser determinats per cada element individualment i es va veure que augmenten de la següent manera: Pb(II) En la segona part d'aquest treball, com a resultats complementaris dels resultats previs obtinguts utilitzant l'assaig de toxicitat aguda Microtox, els efectes crònics del Cd(II), Cr(VI) i As(V) es varen analitzar sobre la taxa de creixement i la viabilitat en el mateix model biològic. Sorprenentment, aquests productes químics nocius varen resultar ser poc tòxics per aquest bacteri quan es mesura el seu efecte després de temps d'exposició llargs. Tot i això, en el cas del Cr(VI), l'assaig d'inhibició de la viabilitat va resultar ser més sensible que l'assaig de toxicitat aguda Microtox. Així mateix, també va ser possible observar un clar fenomen d'hormesis, especialment en el cas del Cd(II), quan s'utilitza l'assaig d'inhibició de la viabilitat. A més a més, diversos experiments es varen portar a terme per intentar explicar la manca de toxicitat de Cr(VI) mostrada pel bacteri Vibrio fischeri. La resistència mostrada per aquest bacteri podria ser atribuïda a la capacitat d'aquest bacteri de convertir el Cr(VI) a la forma menys tòxica de Cr(III). Es va trobar que aquesta capacitat de reducció depèn de la composició del medi de cultiu, de la concentració inicial de Cr(VI), del temps d'incubació i de la presència d'una font de carboni. En la tercera part d'aquest treball, la línia cel·lular humana HT29 i cultius primaris de cèl·lules sanguínies de Sparus sarba es varen utilitzar in vitro per detectar la toxicitat llindar de metalls mesurant la sobreexpressió de proteines d'estrès. Extractes de fangs precedents de diverses plantes de tractament d'aigues residuals i diferents metalls, individualment o en combinació, es varen analitzar sobre cultius cel·lulars humans per avaluar el seu efecte sobre la taxa de creixement i la capacitat d'induir la síntesi de les proteïnes Hsp72 relacionades amb l'estrès cel·lular. No es varen trobar efectes adversos significatius quan els components s'analitzen individualment. Nogensmenys, quan es troben conjuntament, es produeix un afecte advers sobre tan la taxa de creixement com en l'expressió de proteins d'estrès. D'altra banda, cèl·lules sanguínies procedents de Sparus sarba es varen exposar in vitro a diferents concentracions de cadmi, plom i crom. La proteïna d'estrès HSP70 es va sobreexpressar significativament després de l'exposició a concentracions tan febles com 0.1 &#61549;M. Sota les nostres condicions de treball, no es va evidenciar una sobreexpressió de metal·lotioneïnes. Nogensmenys, les cèl·lules sanguínies de peix varen resultar ser un model biològic interessant per a ser utilitzat en anàlisis de toxicitat. Ambdós models biològics varen resultar ser molt adequats per a detectar acuradament la toxicitat produïda per metalls. En general, l'avaluació de la toxicitat basada en l'anàlisi de la sobreexpressió de proteïnes d'estrès és més sensible que l'avaluació de la toxicitat realitzada a nivell d'organisme.A partir dels resultats obtinguts, podem concloure que una bateria de bioassaigs és realment necessària per avaluar acuradament la toxicitat de metalls ja que existeixen grans variacions entre els valors de toxicitat obtinguts emprant diferents organismes i molts factors ambientals poden influir i modificar els resultats obtinguts.In this study, the toxicity of some metals and arsenic was investigated using three different biological models. In the first part of this work, the Microtox® bioassay, which is based on variation in light emission by Vibrio fischeri luminescent bacteria, was used to establish dose-response curves for several toxic elements, namely, Zn(II), Pb(II), Cu(II), Hg(II), Ag(I), Co(II), Cd(II), Cr(VI), As(V), and As(III), in aqueous solutions. Experiments were carried out at either pH 6.0 or pH 7.0 to indicate that pH may influence the measured toxicity of some elements due to pH-related changes in their chemical speciation. Different types of dose-response curves were found depending on the analyzed metal and pH. In the case of arsenic, effect of pH on either arsenate or arsenite toxicity, was investigated using the Microtox® bioassay within a 5.0 - 9.0 pH range. EC50 values for As(V) were found to decrease, reflecting an increase in toxicity, as pH became basic, whereas in the case of As(III), EC50 values were almost unchanged within a 6.0 - 8.0 pH range and lowered at pH 9.0 only. HAsO42- and H2AsO3- were found to be the most toxic species. A statistical approach revealed an antagonistic effect between the arsenate chemical species found in combination at pH 6.0 or 7.0.On the other hand, results from two mathematical approaches to predict the toxicity of all the possible binary equitoxic mixtures of Co(II), Cd(II), Cu(II), Zn(II), and Pb(II) were compared to the observed toxicity of these mixtures to Vibrio fischeri bacteria. Combined effect of the metals was found to be antagonistic for Co(II)-Cd(II), Cd(II)-Zn(II), Cd(II)-Pb(II), and Cu(II)-Pb(II), synergistic for Co(II)-Cu(II) and Zn(II)-Pb(II) and merely additive in other cases, revealing a complex pattern of possible interactions. The synergistic effect of the Co(II)-Cu(II) combination and the strong decrease of Pb(II) toxicity when in the presence of Cd(II) should deserve much attention when establishing environmental safety regulations. Microtox bioassay sensitivity was also analyzed. EC20 values, which represent a measurable threshold of toxicity, were determined for each element individually and were found to rank as Pb(II) In the second part of this work, as a complement to previous results obtained using the standard Microtox® acute toxicity test, the long-term effects of Cd(II), Cr(VI), and As(V) were studied on growth rate and viability of the same biological model. Surprisingly, these poisonous chemicals were found not to be very toxic to these bacteria when measuring their effect on viability or growth after long periods of exposure. Nevertheless, in the case of Cr(VI), the inhibition viability assay resulted to be more sensitive than the Microtox acute toxicity test was. Interestingly, it was possible to observe a clear hormesis phenomenon, especially for Cd(II), under the conditions of the viability assay. In addition, several experiments were performed as an attempt to explain the lack of Cr(VI) toxicity shown by Vibrio fischeri bacteria. The resistance shown by Vibrio fischeri bacteria could be attributed to the capacity of the bacteria to convert Cr(VI) ions into less toxic Cr(III) ions. This capacity of reduction was found to depend on culture medium composition, initial concentration of chromium, incubation time, and the presence of a carbon source. In the third part of this work, the HT29 human cell line and primary cultures of Sparus sarba blood cells were used in vitro to detect metal toxicity thresholds by measuring the overexpression of stress proteins. Sludge extracts from several wastewater treatment plants and metals, individually or in combination, were tested on human cultured cells for evaluating their ability to affect the growth rate and trigger a synthesis of the stress-related HSP72i proteins. No significant adverse effects were found when given individually. When given in combination, they were however found to affect both cell growth and stress proteins expression. On the other hand, blood cells freshly collected from Sparus sarba were exposed in vitro to different concentrations of cadmium, lead or chromium(VI). HSP70 stress protein was significantly overexpressed after exposure to a metal concentration as low as 0.1 µM. Under our experimental conditions, no overexpression of metallothioneins was evidenced. Nevertheless, fish blood cells appear as an interesting biological model for experimental toxicology.Both biological models were found convenient to detect toxicity produced by metals. In general, evaluation of toxicity based on stress proteins overexpression was found to be more sensitive than evaluation of toxicity performed at the organism level.Based on the results, it can be concluded that a battery of bioassays is necessary to accurately evaluate toxicity of metals since important variations between different organisms can be found and a lot of environmental factors may influence as well as modify the obtained results

Automatic marbling prediction of sliced dry-cured ham using image segmentation, texture analysis and regression

Dry-cured ham is a traditional Mediterranean meat product consumed throughout the world. This product is very variable in terms of composition and quality. Consumer’s acceptability of this product is influenced by different factors, in particular, visual intramuscular fat and its distribution across the slice, also known as marbling. On-line marbling assessment is of great interest for the industry for classification purposes. However, until now this assessment has been traditionally carried out by panels of experts and this methodology cannot be implement in industry. We propose a complete automatic system to predict marbling degree of dry-cured ham slices, which combines: (1) the color texture features of regions of interest (ROIs) extracted automatically for each muscle; and (2) machine learning models to predict the marbling. For the ROIs extraction algorithm more than the 90% of pixels of the ROI fall into the true muscle. The proposed system achieves a correlation of 0.92 using the support vector regression and a set of color texture features including statistics of each channel of RGB color image and Haralick’s coefficients of its gray-level version. The mean absolute error was 0.46, which is lower than the standard desviation (0.5) of the marbling scores evaluated by experts. This high accuracy in the marbling prediction for sliced dry-cured ham would allow to deploy its application in the dry-cured ham industry.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Use and Understanding of Nutrition Labels: Impact of Diet Attachment

Food labels may have an important function in communicating nutrition information and have considerable potential to influence food choice and dietary behavior. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate Spanish consumers’ reasons for reading or not reading nutrition information, their nutrition knowledge, perception and understanding of nutrition label information, and the possible impact of following a diet on all these. A 74-item questionnaire was developed to assess nutrition knowledge, attitude toward food labels, reasons for never reading nutrition information, food choice, the perceived importance of nutrition facts, and label-reading behavior. The results indicated that dietary patterns, nutrition knowledge, and sociodemographic characteristics strongly influenced label use. Based on the participants’ beliefs, four segments were identified for those who followed a diet and three segments for those who did not. Our study suggests that following a diet increases Spanish consumers’ nutrition knowledge as well as their use of nutrition labels, although this cause-effect relationship could be reversed. Nonetheless, further studies would be necessary to clarify the causal direction.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio