Assessment of Nutritional Value and Maillard Reaction in Different Gluten-Free Pasta

Evaluating the nutritional quality and thermal damage effects of gluten-free foods is essential to ensure that people with gluten intolerance or celiac disease can safely meet their needs. In this work, fifteen different commercial gluten-free pasta samples made from cereals, pseudocereals, and pulses, alone or in mixed combinations, were analyzed to assess their nutritional value, essential amino acids composition, and protein chemical score. The occurrence of the Maillard reaction was investigated, and the levels of heat treatment markers (furosine, maltulose, hydroxymethylfurfural, and glucosylisomaltol) were determined. Analysis of the furosine values showed that pasta made with the same raw materials can have different degrees of thermal damage. There was no evidence of the Maillard reaction progressing in the advanced phase in any of the samples tested. Finally, the correlation between maltulose and furosine levels demonstrated the usefulness of combining the two markers to assess the extent of thermal damag

Fishing the Targets of Bioactive Compounds from Psidium guajava L. Leaves in the Context of Diabetes

Psidium guajava L. (guava) leaves have demonstrated their in vitro and in vivo effect against diabetes mellitus (DM). However, there is a lack of literature concerning the effect of the individual phenolic compounds present in the leaves in DM disease. The aim of the present work was to identify the individual compounds in Spanish guava leaves and their potential contribution to the observed anti-diabetic effect. Seventy-three phenolic compounds were identified from an 80% ethanol extract of guava leaves by high performance liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization and quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry. The potential anti-diabetic activity of each compound was evaluated with the DIA-DB web server that uses a docking and molecular shape similarity approach. The DIA-DB web server revealed that aldose reductase was the target protein with heterogeneous affinity for compounds naringenin, avicularin, guaijaverin, quercetin, ellagic acid, morin, catechin and guavinoside C. Naringenin exhibited the highest number of interactions with target proteins dipeptidyl peptidase-4, hydroxysteroid 11-beta dehydrogenase 1, aldose reductase and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor. Compounds catechin, quercetin and naringenin displayed similarities with the known antidiabetic drug tolrestat. In conclusion, the computational workflow showed that guava leaves contain several compounds acting in the DM mechanism by interacting with specific DM protein targets.Spanish Government CTQ2017-87974-RSupercomputing infrastructure of Poznan Supercomputing CenterEuropean CommissionSpanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness - MCIN/AEI RTI2018-099835-A-I00Supercomputing infrastructure of the NLHPCSupercomputer center of UiT-the Arctic University of Norway ECM-0

How Fermentation Affects the Antioxidant Properties of Cereals and Legumes

The major role of antioxidant compounds in preserving food shelf life, as well as providing health promoting benefits, combined with the increasing concern towards synthetic antioxidants, has led the scientific community to focus on natural antioxidants present in food matrices or resulting from microbial metabolism during fermentation. This review aims at providing a comprehensive overview of the effect of fermentation on the antioxidant compounds of vegetables, with emphasis on cereals- and legumes- derived foods. Polyphenols are the main natural antioxidants in food. However, they are often bound to cell wall, glycosylated, or in polymeric forms, which affect their bioaccessibility, yet several metabolic activities are involved in their release or conversion in more active forms. In some cases, the antioxidant properties in vitro, were also confirmed during in vivo studies. Similarly, bioactive peptides resulted from bacterial and fungal proteolysis, were also found to have ex vivo protective effect against oxidation. Fermentation also influenced the bioaccessibility of other compounds, such as vitamins and exopolysaccharides, enabling a further improvement of antioxidant activity in vitro and in vivo. The ability of fermentation to improve food antioxidant properties strictly relies on the metabolic activities of the starter used, and to further demonstrate its potential, more in vivo studies should be carried out.The research was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (project RTI2018-099835-A-I00)

Bioactive Components in Fermented Foods and Food By-Products

Food fermentation is one of the most ancient processes of food production that has historically been used to extend food shelf life and to enhance its organoleptic properties. However, several studies have demonstrated that fermentation is also able to increase the nutritional value and/or digestibility of food. Firstly, microorganisms are able to produce huge amounts of secondary metabolites with excellent health benefits and preservative properties (i.e., antimicrobial activity). Secondarily, fermented foods contain living organisms that contribute to the modulation of the host physiological balance, which constitutes an opportunity to enrich the diet with new bioactive molecules. Indeed, some microorganisms can increase the levels of numerous bioactive compounds (e.g., vitamins, antioxidant compounds, peptides, etc.). Moreover, recent advances in fermentation have focused on food by-products; in fact, they are a source of potentially bioactive compounds that, after fermentation, could be used as ingredients for nutraceuticals and functional food formulations. Because of that, understanding the benefits of food fermentation is a growing field of research in nutrition and food science. This book aims to present the current knowledge and research trends concerning the use of fermentation technologies as sustainable and GRAS processes for food and nutraceutical production

Bioconversion of Cheese Whey and Food By-Products by Phaeodactylum tricornutum into Fucoxanthin and n-3 Lc-PUFA through a Biorefinery Approach

This study investigates the potential of utilizing three food wastes: cheese whey (CW), beet molasses (BM), and corn steep liquor (CSL) as alternative nutrient sources for the cultivation of the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum, a promising source of polyunsaturated eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and the carotenoid fucoxanthin. The CW media tested did not significantly impact the growth rate of P. tricornutum; however, CW hydrolysate significantly enhances cell growth. BM in cultivation medium enhances biomass production and fucoxanthin yield. The optimization of the new food waste medium was conducted through the application of a response surface methodology (RSM) using hydrolyzed CW, BM, and CSL as factors. The results showed a significant positive impact of these factors (p < 0.005), with an optimized biomass yield of 2.35 g L-1 and a fucoxanthin yield of 3.64 mg L-1 using a medium composed of 33 mL L-1 of CW, 2.3 g L-1 of BM, and 2.24 g L-1 of CSL. The experimental results reported in this study showed that some food by-products from a biorefinery perspective could be utilized for the efficient production of fucoxanthin and other high-added-value products such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA).Italian Ministry of Education, Universities, and Research (MIUR)The Spanish Ministry of Science, Education, and Universities/Spanish State Research Agency (PCI2018-093178)Co-funding by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation progra

Assessment of Lipid Quality in Commercial Omega-3 Supplements Sold in the French Market

Supplementation of omega-3 fatty acids is considered a valuable strategy to supply the low intake of these fatty acids. Thus, the safety of the supplements is an important milestone. Because of that, we analyzed 20 unflavored supplements sold in the French market for fatty acid and triglyceride composition, for EPA and DHA, and for tocol content, as well as for oxidative status. This study found that only 2.5% of the supplements did not meet their label claims for omega-3 content. TAG analysis showed high variability among the triglyceride distribution, and the same trend was also noticed for the tocol content; in fact, a high variability of the distribution of the six tocols (four tocopherols and two tocotrienols) was found among the samples. Of the tested products, all of them complied with peroxide value, p-anisidine value, and Totox values established by the Global Organization for EPA and DHA Omega-3s (GOED) and were not oxidized.Spanish Ministry of Science, Education and Universities/Spanish State Research Agency PCI2018-093178European Commissio

Integrated Profiling of Fatty Acids, Sterols and Phenolic Compounds in Tree and Herbaceous Peony Seed Oils: Marker Screening for New Resources of Vegetable Oil

Vito Verardo thanks the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) for “Ramon y Cajal” contract (RYC-2015-18795).Tree peonies (Paeonia ostii and Paeonia rockii) are popular ornamental plants. Moreover, these plants have become oil crops in recent years. However, there are limited compositional studies focused on fatty acids. Therefore, this work aims to reveal compositional characteristics, regarding fatty acids, sterols, γ-tocopherol and phenolic compounds, of tree peony seed oils from all major cultivation areas in China, and to compare with herbaceous peony seed oil. For that, an integrative analysis was performed by GC-FID, GC-MS and UHPLC-Q-TOF-MS technologies. The main fatty acid was α-linolenic acid (39.0–48.3%), while β-sitosterol (1802.5–2793.7 mg/kg) and fucosterol (682.2–1225.1 mg/kg) were the dominant phytosterols. Importantly, 34 phenolic compounds, including paeonol and “Paeonia glycosides” (36.62–103.17 µg/g), were characterized in vegetable oils for the first time. Conclusively, this work gives new insights into the phytochemical composition of peony seed oil and reveals the presence of bioactive compounds, including “Paeonia glycosides”.National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) 31601403Fujian Science & Technology Program 2017N5010Promotion Program for Young and Middle-aged Teacher in Science and Technology Research of Huaqiao University ZQN-PY41

Formulation of New Media from Dairy and Brewery Wastes for a Sustainable Production of DHA-Rich Oil by Aurantiochytrium mangrovei

This research was funded by the SUSPUFA project, ID 145, as part of the ERA-Net SUSFOOD2, with funding provided by national and regional sources (Ministero dellIstruzione dellUniversita e della Ricerca, MIUR and Spanish Ministry of Science, Education and Universities/Spanish State Research Agency-PCI2018-093178) and was co-funded by the European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.SUSPUFA project, ERA-Net SUSFOOD2 145Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR)Spanish Ministry of Science, Education and Universities/Spanish State Research Agency PCI2018-093178European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation programm

Bioprocessing of Brewers’ Spent Grain Enhances Its Antioxidant Activity: Characterization of Phenolic Compounds and Bioactive Peptides

This research was developed under the project "FUNBREW Biotransformation of brewers' spent grain: increased functionality for novel food applications" funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under grant agreement No. 727473 (ERANet SUSFOOD2).Brewers’ spent grain (BSG) is the major by-product of the brewing industry which remain largely unutilized despite its nutritional quality. In this study, the effects of fermentation on BSG antioxidant potential were analyzed. A biotechnological protocol including the use of xylanase followed by fermentation with Lactiplantibacillus plantarum (Lactobacillus plantarum) PU1, PRO17, and H46 was used. Bioprocessed BSG exhibited enhanced antioxidant potential, characterized by high radical scavenging activity, long-term inhibition of linoleic acid oxidation and protective effect toward oxidative stress on human keratinocytes NCTC 2544. Immunolabelling and confocal laser microscopy showed that xylanase caused an extensive cell wall arabinoxylan disruption, contributing to the release of bound phenols molecules, thus available to further conversion through lactic acid bacteria metabolism. To clarify the role of fermentation on the antioxidant BSG potential, phenols were selectively extracted and characterized through HPLC-MS techniques. Novel antioxidant peptides were purified and identified in the most active bioprocessed BSG.European Union (EU) 72747