No lockdown in the kitchen: How the COVID-19 pandemic has affected food-related behaviours

The COVID-19 pandemic and especially the lockdowns coming with it have been a disruptive event also for food consumption. In order to study the impact of the pandemic on eating habits, self-reported changes in food-related behaviours were investigated in ten European countries by means of an online survey. A latent class cluster analysis distinguished five clusters and showed that different types of consumers can be distinguished based on how they react to the pandemic as regards their eating habits. While food-related behaviours were resilient for 60% of the sample, another 35% reported more enjoyment in cooking and eating, more time in the kitchen and more family meals. Among those, a slight majority also showed signs of more mindful eating, as indicated by more deliberate choices and increased consumption of healthy food, whereas a slight minority reported more consumption of indulgence food. Only 5% indicated less involvement with food. As the COVID-19 pandemic is a disruptive event, some of these changes may have habit-breaking properties and open up new opportunities and challenges for food policy and food industry.This project has received funding from EIT Food, the European Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) on Food, under KAVA 20423Peer reviewe

Identification of emulsifier potato peptides by bioinformatics: application to omega-3 delivery emulsions and release from potato industry side streams

We are grateful for the financial support from Innovation Fund Denmark (Grant nr: 7045-00021B, PROVIDE project). We also acknowledge K.M.C. amba (Brande, Denmark) and A.K.V. amba (Langholt, Denmark) for providing the potato samples used in this study.In this work, we developed a novel approach combining bioinformatics, testing of functionality and bottom-up proteomics to obtain peptide emulsifiers from potato side-streams. This is a significant advancement in the process to obtain emulsifier peptides and it is applicable to any type of protein. Our results indicated that structure at the interface is the major determining factor of the emulsifying activity of peptide emulsifiers. Fish oil-in-water emulsions with high physical stability were stabilized with peptides to be predicted to have facial amphiphilicity: (i) peptides with predominantly α-helix conformation at the interface and having 18–29 amino acids, and (ii) peptides with predominantly β-strand conformation at the interface and having 13–15 amino acids. In addition, high physically stable emulsions were obtained with peptides that were predicted to have axial hydrophobic/hydrophilic regions. Peptides containing the sequence FCLKVGV showed high in vitro antioxidant activity and led to emulsions with high oxidative stability. Peptide-level proteomics data and sequence analysis revealed the feasibility to obtain the potent emulsifier peptides found in this study (e.g. γ-1) by trypsin-based hydrolysis of different side streams in the potato industry.Innovation Fund Denmark 7045-00021

Analysis of ascorbate in plant tissues by high-performance capillary zone electrophoresis

We describe here a simple and rapid capillary electrophoresis method for the determination of ascorbic acid (L-AA) and isoascorbic acid (D-AA) in vegetative tissues. For optimal yields and stabilization, samples are extracted with cold 3% metaphosphoric acid. Hydrophobic contaminants are then removed by passage through a C-18 solid-phase extraction cartridge. The analysis itself is performed on a fused silica capillary with 200 mM berate, pH 9, as the carrier electrolyte, using on-line diode array detection over the range 190-350 nm. Quantitation was performed at 260 nm, the uv-absorption maximum for ascorbate at this pH. This method has a minimum detection Limit of 84 fmol/injection and linearity of detector response was observed up to at least 12 pmol/injection. We also describe the influence of electrolyte concentration, pH, and the presence of detergent on separations of L-AA, D-AA, and L-galacturonic acid-1,4-lactone. The protocol has been demonstrated to be suitable for the analysis of L-AA in Arabidopsis, parsley, and mushroom. The method has superior resolution to comparable HPLC separations, a comparable analysis time, but lower sensitivity because of the concentration limitations of the detection system. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.status: publishe

Simultaneous high-performance capillary electrophoresis analysis of the reduced and oxidised forms of ascorbate and glutathione

We describe here a procedure for the simultaneous analysis of the oxidised and reduced forms of the major cellular hydrophillic antioxidants, ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and glutathione (gamma-L-glutamyl-L-cysteinylglycine), by high-performance capillary electrophoresis. Separations are performed in uncoated fused-silica capillaries using 200 mmol/l berate pH 9.0, containing 20% (v/v) acetonitrile as the background electrolyte with fixed-wavelength UV absorbance detection at 185 nm. The influence of pH, organic solvent and other additives on the resolution of these compounds is described and we show that the optimised protocol is capable of simultaneously resolving other thiol components including, N-acetylcysteine and methyl-S-glutathione. The method is suitable for the analysis of these antioxidants in Arabidopsis and Nicotiana leaf tissue and is compatible with the use of the high ionic strength, acidic extraction solvents which are necessary to quench the redox equilibria of these labile components. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.status: publishe