Effects of processing conditions on physical parameters of triticale flakes

ArticleConsumer interest in breakfast cereal flakes has increased during the last few years. Various technologies, used to produce flakes, significantly influence their quality parameters and shelf - life stab ility. The main purpose of the present research was to investigate how different processing methods affect the physical parameters of triticale flakes. For obtaining the flakes, cleaned whole triticale grains were treated using the following technologies: dry processing (hot air), steam processing and soaking with subsequent steaming. For preparing the flakes different kilning methods and traditional flaking rolls were used. Traditionally made rolled and dried whole grain triticale flakes were analysed as a control sample. Using standard methods, the flakes’ moisture content, water activity, microstructure, swelling capacity and colour changes were analysed. The gap settings of flake rollers do not influence significantly ( P < 0.05) changes of starch during processing. However, the starch granules were fully transformed into sugars in the flake samples with greater thickness. Non - significant ( P < 0.05) steaming and hot air drying (toasting) conditions’ effects were observed on the changes of the starch granules during processing. Strong correlation was determined during the analysis of water activity and moisture content. The moisture content of the ready - to - eat flakes varied from 2.54% to 10.66%, and the water activity value was from 0.108 to 0.494. Compared with traditionally processed flakes (control sample) the colour of the flakes prepared using other technologies changed significantly, the E values varied from 9.587 to 18.554. The colour of the soaked - steamed - rolled - hot air dried samples was similar but those significantly differed from the colour of soaked - dried - rolled - hot air dried flake samples. The soaked - dried - rolled - hot air dried flakes were darker compared with other analysed flake samples

Influence of technological parameters on chemical composition of triticale flakes

ArticleTriticale is hybrid crop developed by crossing wheat ( Triticum ) and rye ( Secale ) and in last years it become more popular for food applications, including flake production. Different approaches are developed to improve flakes technology by applying different cooking, rolling, toasting parameters resulting in high quality products. All these technologies influence also nutrition quality of product due to the diffe rent stability of these compounds during mechanical and thermal treatment. The aim of current experiment was to investigate the influence of technological parameters on chemical composition of triticale flakes. In current experiment triticale grains and tr iticale flakes obtained by different technologies was tested. For evaluation of the influence of technological parameters, different flaking and rolling parameters were tested. For all samples were determined composition of basic nutrients (fats, proteins, fibres, sugars, ash), minerals (Ca, Mg, K, Zn, P), vitamins, total phenolics and antioxidant activity. Triticale has high nutritional quality, containing significant amounts of protein, fibres, vitamins and minerals. Technological processes significantly influence cereals composition, but it depends on parameters tested. Control sample showed lower results and hierarchical cluster analyses showed that samples 1/3/1, 2/1/2/1, 2/1/3/1, 2/1/4/1 are similar in composition of bioactive compounds. Results showed that for selection of the best method for flaking physical and/or sensory properties should be taken in account

Food choices as influenced by environmental concerns: study involving participants from 16 countries

The activities related to food production, processing, handling, transportation, storage and disposal of food products have an important impact on sustainability. Hence, people's food choices also contribute for the definition of the extension of this impact and therefore this work aimed at studying some motivations that influence people's eating habits. This was an observational, cross-sectional study, undertaken on a non-probabilistic sample of 11960 participants form 16 countries (Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Romania, United States of America). The survey was undertaken by means of a questionnaire of self-response, applied only to adult citizens. The results obtained indicated that a great number of participants admit to shape their food choices according to some environmental concerns, like, for example, they prefer foods from the season or those that comply with sustainable processing and packaging. Regarding the food surplus, this seems a priority to avoid at home, but not so much when it comes to restaurants. Factor analysis indicated two types of concerns: Purely Environmental Concerns (PEC) and Sustainability allied to Quality Concerns (SQC), and cluster analysis showed that 54% of the participants tend to make their food choices considering both types of concerns, which is very expressive and positive towards sustainability of the food chain

Happiness around the world: A combined etic-emic approach across 63 countries

What does it mean to be happy? The vast majority of cross-cultural studies on happiness have employed a Western-origin, or "WEIRD" measure of happiness that conceptualizes it as a self-centered (or "independent"), high-arousal emotion. However, research from Eastern cultures, particularly Japan, conceptualizes happiness as including an interpersonal aspect emphasizing harmony and connectedness to others. Following a combined emicetic approach (Cheung, van de Vijver &amp; Leong, 2011), we assessed the cross-cultural applicability of a measure of independent happiness developed in the US (Subjective Happiness Scale; Lyubomirsky &amp; Lepper, 1999) and a measure of interdependent happiness developed in Japan (Interdependent Happiness Scale; Hitokoto &amp; Uchida, 2015), with data from 63 countries representing 7 sociocultural regions. Results indicate that the schema of independent happiness was more coherent in more WEIRD countries. In contrast, the coherence of interdependent happiness was unrelated to a country's "WEIRD-ness." Reliabilities of both happiness measures were lowest in African and Middle Eastern countries, suggesting these two conceptualizations of happiness may not be globally comprehensive. Overall, while the two measures had many similar correlates and properties, the self-focused concept of independent happiness is "WEIRD-er" than interdependent happiness, suggesting cross-cultural researchers should attend to both conceptualizations

Food choices as influenced by environmental concerns: study involving participants from 16 countries

The activities related to food production, processing, handling, transportation, storage and disposal of food products have an important impact on sustainability. Hence, people’s food choices also contribute for the definition of the extension of this impact and therefore this work aimed at studying some motivations that influence people’s eating habits. This was an observational, cross-sectional study, undertaken on a non-probabilistic sample of 11960 participants form 16 countries (Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Romania, United States of America). The survey was undertaken by means of a questionnaire of self-response, applied only to adult citizens. The results obtained indicated that a great number of participants admit to shape their food choices according to some environmental concerns, like, for example, they prefer foods from the season or those that comply with sustainable processing and packaging. Regarding the food surplus, this seems a priority to avoid at home, but not so much when it comes to restaurants. Factor analysis indicated two types of concerns: Purely Environmental Concerns (PEC) and Sustainability allied to Quality Concerns (SQC), and cluster analysis showed that 54% of the participants tend to make their food choices considering both types of concerns, which is very expressive and positive towards sustainability of the food chain.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Analysis of food buying behavior: A multinational study framework

To make everyday food choices is a complex pro- cess, involving decisions which are influenced by distinct aspects associated with, among other fac- tors, purchasing ease, competitiveness of the mar- ket, advertising campaigns and marketing strategies, to mention a few related with aspects linked to com- mercialization. Hence, the objective of this study, which is integrated in the EATMOT project, was to as- sess some factors that influence food buying and food choice, in particular related with aspects such as price,convenience and marketing, as a function of some sociodemographic and geographic variables, namely, age, gender, marital status, level of education, living environment and country of residence. This study involved a questionnaire survey undertak- en on 11,960 participants from 16 countries. The in- strument used in this study was validated and trans- lated into the different languages of the participating countries, following double sided translation-checking methodology. The participants were from: Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and United States of America. The sample was selected by convenience and the partici- pation in the study was voluntary, being the question- naire applied only to adult citizens. Basic descriptive statistics were used for data analysis and the associ- ations between variables were investigated by cross- tabs and chi square tests. Additionally, a tree classifi- cation analysis was performed to assess the relative importance of each of the sociodemographic variables (gender, age group, level of education, country, living environment or marital status). The analysis followed the Classification and Regression Trees (CRT) algorithm with cross validation and the minimum number of cas- es considered for parent or child nodes was 100 and 50, respectively. For all data analysis, the software SPSS from IBM Inc. (version 25) was used and the level of sig- nificance considered was 5%. Results showed statistically significant differences (p < 0.0005) between groups for all sociodemographic vari- ables (gender, age, education, marital status, living en- vironment, country) in terms of the value attributed to convenience, price and marketing when buying foods. In most cases, the associations between the variables were considered very weak, although with a little high- er values for the associations between the country and variables “value convenience” (V = 0.179), “value price” (V = 0.158) and “value marketing” (V = 0.167). Tree clas- sification analysis confirmed for all three dependent variables that the most influential factor was country. This work highlighted that people in different coun - tries and from different sociodemographic groups show different motivations for buying food products.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Environmental Issues as Drivers for Food Choice: Study from a Multinational Framework

This work intended to explore some motivations that influence people’s eating habits to- wards sustainability. This was an observational, cross-sectional study, carried out by questionnaire survey on a non-probabilistic sample of 10,067 participants from 13 countries (Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Romania and United States). Results indicated that people prefer fresh local foods from the season, being im- portant because it allows transportation and storage to be reduced, which in many cases implies refrigeration systems and consequent energy expenditure. Although people avoid food waste at home, the awareness for the waste at restaurants still needs to be improved. Consumers seem to prefer foods that have been produced and packed in sustainable ways but still give importance to the package—understandable for food products. The results also indicated significant differences in the food choice motivations between groups for all sociodemographic variables tested (age, sex, marital status, education, professional area, living environment and country), but the association was high only for variable country. Additionally, a tree classification analysis allowed to identify the relative importance of the influential variables on the sustainable food choices, with country being the most important, followed by age and sex. Additionally, discriminant function analysis allowed establishing a model for the relation between country and six variables accounting for preservation of biodiversity, respect for life, save natural resources, save energy, reduce industrial pollution and minimal packaging. Although with some limitations, this study brings valuable in- sight into some aspects linked with sustainable food choices on a number of countries and how people shape their food choices according to some sustainability issues.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Validation of the Brazilian version of the Attentional Function Index

OBJECTIVES: To assess the reliability and validity of the Brazilian version of the Attentional Function Index. METHOD: Methodological study. The sample was made up of 138 students from an undergraduate nursing course. The psychometric properties were assessed through the convergent construct validity, using the Brazilian version of the Attentional Function Index and the Portuguese-language version of the Profile of Mood States instrument, while the reliability was measured by its internal consistency, expressed by the Cronbach Alpha Coefficient. RESULTS: The Cronbach Alpha Coefficient was 0.86 for the total score, and varied from 0.64 to 0.86 in the three subscales. A strong significant negative correlation (r=-0.64; p<0.0001) was obtained for the convergent validity. CONCLUSION: The Brazilian version of the Attentional Function Index resulted in satisfactory levels of validity and reliability, demonstrating its viability for use in practice and in undertaking further research