Processing and characterization of durum wheat bread enriched with antioxidant from yellow pepper flour

The effect of the addition of yellow pepper flour on bread physico-chemical and sensorial properties was addressed in this study. In particular, vegetable flour concentration was set at 25%; in order to optimize the bread sensorial properties, yellow pepper flour was separately hydrated at three different water content levels. Texture analysis were carried out on both dough and bread samples to evaluate their firmness. Furthermore, tomographic analysis was performed on the same samples in order to provide a more detailed view of their texture. Estimation of the glycemic response, determination of the carotenoids content and sensory analysis of the fortified bread were also determined. Results highlighted that the highest glycemic index was achieved in bread sample having the highest water content and that showed the worst results in terms of texture. Among the studied samples, bread with medium hydration level showed good structural characteristic, double anti-oxidant content compared to the control bread (CTRL S) and the highest sensorial quality

Bio-Based Device to Control Active Compound Release for Food Preservation: The Case of Propionic Acid

This work was aimed at assessing the release of propionic acid as a repellent from reservoir-type release devices. Agar-based balls were developed and covered with various layers of biodegradable materials as polylactic acid (PLA), chitosan (CHIT), pectin (PEC) and gelatin (GEL), which are properly combined. The release kinetics of propionic acid from different bio-based devices was defined and trends of data were properly fitted. Results highlighted that developed systems allowed controlling the active compound release with different effectiveness. In particular, the device made with only PLA recorded the highest apparent permeability coefficient [6.28*10−5 (g*cm)/(cm2*day*hPA)]; the device with PLA/PEC recorded the lowest apparent permeability coefficient [1.50*10−5 (g*cm)/(cm2*day*hPA)] while the devices with PLA/CHIT and PLA/GEL exerted a similar behavior with an apparent permeability coefficient ranged between the two previous ones. Practical Applications: Considering that insect infestations are one of the main causes of loss of packed foodstuffs, the results of the current work could gain great attention from the industrial sector. The proposed solutions are effective not only in releasing an active compound that could control pest infestation but also in representing eco-friendly systems

X-ray microtomography and statistical analysis: Tools to quantitatively classify bred microstructure

In this study, five different types of Italian bread samples chosen for their visible differences in physical structure were analysed by X-ray microtomographical analysis. The average and individual object microstructural parameters of the bread samples were obtained from data analysis. Following data analysis, the application of advanced statistic analysis to the obtained microtomographical data was used to quantitatively classify the different bread types in this study. The results of this work show that X-ray microtomography combined with an integrated statistical approach does not only provide important microstructural information of the product under investigation but is also able to classify these products into specific group types based on the average or individual microstructural properties of the objects present in the sample