Relationship of Thermal Treatment and Antioxidant Capacity in Cooked Foods

Most of the foods we eat undergo a cooking process before they are eaten. During such a process, the non-enzymatic browning occurs, which generates compounds such as furosine, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and furfural. These are considered markers of cookedness and can therefore be used as quality indicators. In this work, we study the production of these compounds in different foods (both of plant and animal origin) that are cooked with different techniques. Additionally, we investigate correlations between the production of these markers of cookedness and the antioxidant capacity produced after in vitro digestion and fermentation. We observe that, in general, cereals and vegetables are more thermally damaged. Toasting and frying produce the highest concentrations of Maillard compounds whereas boiling the lowest. Furosine content shows a significant positive correlation with in vitro digestion data in fried foods, and with fermentation in roasted foods. Furfural content shows a significant positive correlation with in vitro digestion results in roasted foods, specifically in the Folin–Ciocalteu method

Effect of Cooking Methods on the Antioxidant Capacity of Plant Foods Submitted to In Vitro Digestion–Fermentation

The antioxidant capacity of foods is essential to complement the body’s own endogenous antioxidant systems. The main antioxidant foods in the regular diet are those of plant origin. Although every kind of food has a di erent antioxidant capacity, thermal processing or cooking methods also play a role. In this work, the antioxidant capacity of 42 foods of vegetable origin was evaluated after in vitro digestion and fermentation. All foods were studied both raw and after di erent thermal processing methods, such as boiling, grilling roasting, frying, toasting and brewing. The cooking methods had an impact on the antioxidant capacity of the digested and fermented fractions, allowing the release and transformation of antioxidant compounds. In general, the fermented fraction accounted for up to 80–98% of the total antioxidant capacity. The most antioxidant foods were cocoa and legumes, which contributed to 20% of the daily antioxidant capacity intake. Finally, it was found that the antioxidant capacity of the studied foods was much higher than those reported by other authors since digestion–fermentation pretreatment allows for a higher extraction of antioxidant compounds and their transformation by the gut microbiota.European Research Commission (Research Executive Agency) under the research project Stance4Health 81630

Stance4Health Nutritional APP: A Path to Personalized Smart Nutrition

Funding: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 816303 and from the Plan Propio de Investigación y Transferencia of the University of Granada under the program “Intensificación de la Investigación, modalidad B”.Acknowledgments: This work is part of the doctoral thesis of Daniel Hinojosa-Nogueira conducted within the context of the “Program of Nutrition and Food Sciences” at the University of Granada and part of the doctoral thesis of Bartolome Ortiz-Viso conducted within the context of the “Program of Information and Communication technologies” at the University of Granada.Access to good nutritional health is one of the principal objectives of current society. Several e-services offer dietary advice. However, multifactorial and more individualized nutritional recommendations should be developed to recommend healthy menus according to the specific user’s needs. In this article, we present and validate a personalized nutrition system based on an application (APP) for smart devices with the capacity to offer an adaptable menu to the user. The APP was developed following a structured recommendation generation scheme, where the characteristics of the menus of 20 users were evaluated. Specific menus were generated for each user based on their preferences and nutritional requirements. These menus were evaluated by comparing their nutritional content versus the nutrient composition retrieved from dietary records. The generated menus showed great similarity to those obtained from the user dietary records. Furthermore, the generated menus showed less variability in micronutrient amounts and higher concentrations than the menus from the user records. The macronutrient deviations were also corrected in the generated menus, offering a better adaptation to the users. The presented system is a good tool for the generation of menus that are adapted to the user characteristics and a starting point to nutritional interventions.European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 816303Plan Propio de Investigación y Transferencia of the University of Granada under the program “Intensificación de la Investigación, modalidad B

Development of a food composition database of different food contaminants CONT11 and estimation of dietary exposure in children of southern Spain

This work was supported by the “Plan propio de Investigaci´on y Transferencia” of the University of Granada under the program “Intensificaci´on de la Investigaci´on, modalidad B′′ granted to Jos´e A. Rufi´an-Henares. This work is part of the doctoral thesis of Daniel Hinojosa-Nogueira conducted within the context of the “Program of Nutrition and Food Sciences” at the University of Granada.Increasing food security is one of the Sustainable Development Goals. One of the main risks in food is the increase in food contaminants. Processing methods, such as the addition of additives or heat treatment, influence contaminant generation and increase their levels in food. The aim of the present study was to create a database using a methodology similar to that of food composition databases but with a focus on potential food contaminants. CONT11 collects information on 11 contaminants: hydroxymethyl-2-furfural, pyrraline, Amadori compounds, furosine, acrylamide, furan, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, benzopyrene, nitrates, nitrites and nitrosamines. This is collected for more than 220 foods obtained from 35 different data sources. A food frequency questionnaire validated for use with children was used to validate the database. Contaminant intake and exposure in 114 children aged 10–11 years were estimated. Outcomes were within the range of values described by other studies, confirming the usefulness of CONT11. This database will allow nutrition researchers to go a step further in assessing dietary exposure to some food components and the association of this with disease, whilst also informing strategies to reduce exposure.Universidad de Granad

An in vitro batch fermentation protocol for studying the contribution of food to gut microbiota composition and functionality

Supplementary information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41596-021-00537-x.This study was supported by the EU project Stance4Health (contract no. 816303) and by the Plan propio de Investigación y Transferencia of the University of Granada under the program ‘Intensificación de la Investigación, modalidad B’ to J.A.R.-H.Knowledge of the effect of foods on gut microbiota composition and functionality is expanding. To isolate the effect of single foods and/or single nutrients (i.e., fiber, polyphenols), this protocol describes an in vitro batch fermentation procedure to be carried out after an in vitro gastrointestinal digestion. Therefore, this is an extension of the previous protocol described by Brodkorb et al. (2019) for studying in vitro digestion. The current protocol uses an oligotrophic fermentation medium with peptone and a high concentration of fecal inoculum from human fecal samples both to provide the microbiota and as the main source of nutrients for the bacteria. This protocol is recommended for screening work to be performed when many food samples are to be studied. It has been used successfully to study gut microbiota fermentation of different foodstuffs, giving insights into their functionality, community structure or ability to degrade particular substances, which can contribute to the development of personalized nutrition strategies. The procedure does not require a specific level of expertise. The protocol takes 4–6 h for preparation of fermentation tubes and 20 h for incubation.EU project Stance4Health (contract no. 816303)Plan propio de Investigación y Transferencia of the University of Granada under the program ‘Intensificación de la Investigación, modalidad

Development of an Unified Food Composition Database for the European Project “Stance4Health”

The European Commission funded project Stance4Health (S4H) aims to develop a complete personalised nutrition service. In order to succeed, sources of information on nutritional composition and other characteristics of foods need to be as comprehensive as possible. Food composition tables or databases (FCT/FCDB) are the most commonly used tools for this purpose. The aim of this study is to describe the harmonisation efforts carried out to obtain the Stance4Health FCDB. A total of 10 FCT/FCDB were selected from different countries and organizations. Data were classified using FoodEx2 and INFOODS tagnames to harmonise the information. Hazard analysis and critical control points analysis was applied as the quality control method. Data were processed by spreadsheets and MySQL. S4H’s FCDB is composed of 880 elements, including nutrients and bioactive compounds. A total of 2648 unified foods were used to complete the missing values of the national FCDB used. Recipes and dishes were estimated following EuroFIR standards via linked tables. S4H’s FCDB will be part of the smartphone app developed in the framework of the Stance4Health European project, which will be used in different personalized nutrition intervention studies. S4H FCDB has great perspectives, being one of the most complete in terms of number of harmonized foods, nutrients and bioactive compounds included.European Research Commission (Research Executive Agency) under the research project Stance4Health (Grant Contract No. 816303)“Plan propio de Investigación y Transferencia” of the University of Granada under the programs “Intensificación de la Investigación, modalidad B

Total Zn of foods and bioaccesible fractions in the small and large intestine after in vitro digestion and fermentation with fecal material of healthy adults and children: Influence of culinary techniques

This work was supported by the European Research Commission (Research Executive Agency) under the research project Stance4Health under Grant Contract No 816303 and by the Plan propio de Investigación y Transferencia of the University of Granada under the program “Intensificación de la Investigación, modalidad B”.The healthy status of human beings is associated with an appropriate nutritional status in Zn, which must firstly be bioavailable. We measured the total Zn amount and its bioaccesibility in raw foods and after cooking by common culinary techniques. These foods were submitted to an in vitro digestion and fermentation with faecal inocula from healthy adults and children to evaluate Zn bioaccesibility in the small and large intestine. Mean total Zn amount provided by foods was 8.080 μg/g. Zn amount released from food in the small intestine was significantly different among several food groups and lower in raw vegetal foods compared to cooked ones (frying, roasting and grilling; p < 0.05); the same behaviour was found in the large intestine for healthy children. Zn bioaccesibility in the large intestine varied statistically according to the subjects’ idiosyncrasies, and was higher in healthy children (p < 0.05) probably due to growth demands and different composition of the colonic microbiota. In healthy adults and children, the bioaccesible fractions were 33.0 ± 20.4 % for the small intestine, 16.4 ± 22.0 and 59.6 ± 29.9% for the large one, and the non-bioaccessible ones 50.6 ± 19.9 and 7.4 ± 9.1%, respectively.European Research Commission 816303Plan propio de Investigación y Transferencia of the University of GranadaUniversidad de Granada UG

Selenium bioaccesibility after in vitro digestion/fermentation of foods differs in adults and children

Selenium (Se) as essential element regulates the immune, endocrine, reproductive and neurological systems through selenoproteins. More important than its content, is the fraction available to be absorbed (bioaccesibility) to exert its important metabolic functions. The objective of this study was to determine the bioaccessibility of Se (Se-BA) in multiple foods by an in vitro digestion/fermentation method. Samples were subjected to homemade culinary techniques and fermented with feces from healthy adults (HE-AD), and healthy (HE-CH) and unhealthy children (with gluten related disorders, GRD-CH; obesity, OB-CH; or allergy/intolerance to cow’s milk proteins, AICM-CH). Se-BA varied largely among samples depending on their vegetal/animal origin, category and type of food. Animal-vs. plant-based foods have higher mean Se concentration and total Se-BA (82.5(±97.5) and 93.6 (±8.58) vs. 44.3(±55.6) μg/kg and 77.7(±20.4)%, respectively). In plant-based foods, higher Se-BA values were found in the large intestine (41.0(±25.7) vs. 30.1(±26.7%) in animal-base foods). In comparison to raw foods, the cooking techniques of vegetal- and animal-based foods grouped by heating in liquid media (frying-boiling) or hot air (roasting-grilling) decrease Se-BA in the small intestine (42.5(±27.0) vs. 34.8(±25.1) and 34.0(±24.3), and 75.9(±38.0) vs. 52.4(±28.9) and 71.3(±24.8)%, respectively), while it is increased in the large intestine (36.6(±28.5) vs. 41.3(±24.9) and 44.2(±23.6), and 19.9(±30.4) vs. 39.9(±26.0) and 23.4(±22.7)%, respec tively). The higher Se-BA levels in the large intestine found in HE-CH (42.1 (±26.5) vs. HE-AD (35.2(±27.1) and unhealthy children (GRD-CH and OB-CH; 38.0(±24.6) and 35.8(±28.1)%, respectively) could be related to greater demands on growth and specific fermentative microbiota.AGR-295 Alimentación y microbiota intestinal: relación con los alimentos y su procesado (Foodmicrogut

Zn Biofortification of Dutch Cucumbers with Chemically Modified Spent Coffee Grounds: Zn Enrichment and Nutritional Implications

Spent coffee grounds (SCGs) are a food waste with a large generation around the world. However, their utilization as a soil organic amendment is difficult due to their phytotoxic effect. In the present work, the impact of agronomic biofortification on Dutch cucumbers was studied by using different chemically modified SCGs, analyzing their effects on Zn content, the release of antioxidant capacity and the production of short-chain fatty acids after in vitro digestion–fermentation. The results indicated variations in the Zn content and chemical composition of cucumbers according to the treatment groups. The functionalized with Zn and activated SCGs were able to increase Zn levels in cucumbers. Meanwhile, the activated hydrochar obtained at 160 ºC and the activated and functionalized with Zn SCGs showed the highest Zn supply per serving. Differences in the antioxidant capacity and short-chain fatty acid production were observed between the groups. It is concluded that the growing conditions and the presence of Zn may significantly influence the contribution of these cucumbers to the dietary intake of nutrients and antioxidants, which could have important implications for human health and nutrition.Research project P20_00585 from the Consejería de Economía, Conocimiento, Empresas y Universidad of the Andalusia GovernmentEuropean Research Commission (Research Executive Agency) under the research project Stance4Health (Contract Nº 816303)Plan propio de Investigación y Transferencia of the University of Granada under the program “Intensificación de la Investigación, modalidad B”Unit of Excellence ‘UNETE’ from the University of Granada (reference UCE-PP2017-05

Effect of Cooking Methods on the Antioxidant Capacity of Plant Foods Submitted to In Vitro Digestion–Fermentation

The antioxidant capacity of foods is essential to complement the body&rsquo;s own endogenous antioxidant systems. The main antioxidant foods in the regular diet are those of plant origin. Although every kind of food has a different antioxidant capacity, thermal processing or cooking methods also play a role. In this work, the antioxidant capacity of 42 foods of vegetable origin was evaluated after in vitro digestion and fermentation. All foods were studied both raw and after different thermal processing methods, such as boiling, grilling roasting, frying, toasting and brewing. The cooking methods had an impact on the antioxidant capacity of the digested and fermented fractions, allowing the release and transformation of antioxidant compounds. In general, the fermented fraction accounted for up to 80&ndash;98% of the total antioxidant capacity. The most antioxidant foods were cocoa and legumes, which contributed to 20% of the daily antioxidant capacity intake. Finally, it was found that the antioxidant capacity of the studied foods was much higher than those reported by other authors since digestion&ndash;fermentation pretreatment allows for a higher extraction of antioxidant compounds and their transformation by the gut microbiota