Children preferences of coloured fresh cheese prepared during an educational laboratory

Choices among young consumers are mainly driven by food preferences; in particular, a connection between appearance and acceptance of food has been highlighted, together with a general lack of knowledge of food processing. For these reasons, educational activities are important to increase scientific knowledge and awareness. The cheese-making educational laboratory described herein involved children, adolescents, and their parents/teachers in the preparation of fresh and naturally-coloured cheeses. At the end of the activity, both the colour preference and possible relation between preference and colour of cheese prepared were investigated administering a short questionnaire

Sensory perception and food neophobia drive liking of functional plant-based food enriched with winemaking by-products

The use of phenol compounds obtained from unripe grapes as antioxidant sustainable food ingredients is challenging due to their specific sensory attributes, such as sourness and astringency. The aim was to evaluate sensory attributes perception and consumers' liking for beetroot purees added with phenols from unripe grapes. According to hedonic responses, consumer clusters were identified and characterized for eating behavioral attitudes. Three hundred two subjects (56% women, 18–60 years old) evaluated sweet, sour, astringency, and overall flavor intensity of and liking for four beetroot puree samples added with increasing phenols concentrations (0–1.93 g/kg). Results showed that liking decreased with increasing phenols. Interestingly, samples with highest phenols concentration, characterized by sourness, and astringency, were preferred by a segment of consumers (39% of the group). This group was characterized by a low food neophobia and tended to have high emotional eating scores compared to consumers preferring samples without or with the lowest amount of extract. These results suggest that the development of functional phenol-enriched products using winemaking by-products is challenging due to their sensory properties that negatively influence consumers' acceptance. However, with appropriate segmentation strategies it is possible to identify specific consumer targets who could appreciate these new functional foods. Practical Applications: Unripe grapes can be used as a sustainable phenol source for the development of new highly antioxidant foods. Indeed, an addition till 1.9 g/kg, besides improving both the nutritional content of the food matrices, as well as promoting the reuse of winemaking by-products, could be considered feasible from a sensory point of view. Specifically, new sustainable plant-based food product, characterized by specific sensory attributes, could be target for specific groups of consumers to foster the transition to the consumption of food products developed using value-added and sustainable ingredients

Research challenges and methods to study food preferences in school-aged children : A review of the last 15 years

Until only a few decades ago, there was little interest in research about children as consumers. Today, the food market for ''the small consumers'' is continuously growing and many foods and beverages are developed specifically for this target group. Furthermore, a better understanding of children's food preferences could help design strategies to reduce obesity and malnutrition. The present review examines the main research domains in which measurements of children's food preferences are applied. It also gives an overview of the progress made during the last 15. years in the field of consumer testing with children, highlighting the need of investigating and using new methods in addition to existing ones. Attention is devoted to the choice of specific methods according to the child's age.An intense interest in consumer and sensory research with children is demonstrated by the systematic increase of scientific publications on this topic. A shift in research methodology has been observed in the last 15. years, being research more focused on feeding behavior and healthy eating. Recent investigations confirm that children in the age range of 4-11. years are able to perform most traditional consumer tests in addition to more sophisticated methods (e.g. projective mapping, memory and emotion evaluation) if age-appropriate procedures are adopted

A INFLUÊNCIA DA TECNOLOGIA NO DESENVOLVIMENTO ORGANIZACIONAL

A Teoria do Desenvolvimento Organizacional tomou força a partir da década de 1970. Os gestores perceberam que tomar conhecimento dessas competências tornou-se um diferencial frente à concorrência. A partir de uma pesquisa bibliográfica, o presente estudo buscou analisar a evolução da Teoria do Desenvolvimento Organizacional e as implicações das novas tecnologias no contexto das organizações. Buscou-se verificar as concepções que devem ser aplicadas nas empresas e como os colaboradores buscam melhorar o seu desempenho

Sensory and chemical profile of a phenolic extract from olive mill waste waters in plant-base food with varied macro-composition

Phenols from olive mill waste water (OMWW) represent valuable functional ingredients. The negative impact on sensory quality limits their use in functional food formulations. Chemical interactions phenols/biopolymers and their consequences on bioactivity in plant-base foods have been widely investigated, but no studies to date have explored the variation of bitterness, astringency and pungency induced by OMWW phenols as a function of the food composition. The aim of the paper was to profile the sensory and chemical properties of phenols from OMWW in plant-base foods varied in their macro-composition. Four phenol concentrations were selected (0.44, 1.00, 2.25, 5.06 g/kg) to induce significant variations of bitterness, sourness, astringency and pungency in three plant-base food: proteins/neutral pH \u2013 bean pur\ue9e (BP), starch/neutral pH \u2013 potato pur\ue9e (PP), fiber/low pH \u2013 tomato juice (TJ). The macro-composition affected the amount of the phenols recovered from functionalized food. The highest recovery was from TJ and the lowest from BP. Two groups of 29 and 27 subjects, trained to general Labelled Magnitude Scale and target sensations, participated in the evaluation of psychophysical curves of OMWW phenols and of functionalized plant-base foods, respectively. Target sensations were affected by the food macro-composition. Bitterness increased with phenol concentration in all foods. Astringency and sourness slightly increased with concentration, reaching the weak-moderate intensity at the highest phenol concentration in PP and TJ only. Pungency was suppressed in BP and perceived at weak-moderate intensity in PP and TJ sample at the highest phenol concentration. Proteins/neutral pH plant-food (BP) resulted more appropriate to counteract the impact of added phenol on negative sensory properties thus allowing to optimize the balance between health and sensory properties

Sensory and chemical profile of a phenolic extract from olive mill waste waters in plant-base food with varied macro-composition

Phenols from olive mill waste water (OMWW) represent valuable functional ingredients. The negative impact on sensory quality limits their use in functional food formulations. Chemical interactions phenols/biopolymers and their consequences on bioactivity in plant-base foods have been widely investigated, but no studies to date have explored the variation of bitterness, astringency and pungency induced by OMWW phenols as a function of the food composition. The aim of the paper was to profile the sensory and chemical properties of phenols from OMWW in plant-base foods varied in their macro-composition. Four phenol concentrations were selected (0.44, 1.00, 2.25, 5.06 g/kg) to induce significant variations of bitterness, sourness, astringency and pungency in three plant-base food: proteins/neutral pH \u2013 bean pur\ue9e (BP), starch/neutral pH \u2013 potato pur\ue9e (PP), fiber/low pH \u2013 tomato juice (TJ). The macro-composition affected the amount of the phenols recovered from functionalized food. The highest recovery was from TJ and the lowest from BP. Two groups of 29 and 27 subjects, trained to general Labelled Magnitude Scale and target sensations, participated in the evaluation of psychophysical curves of OMWW phenols and of functionalized plant-base foods, respectively. Target sensations were affected by the food macro-composition. Bitterness increased with phenol concentration in all foods. Astringency and sourness slightly increased with concentration, reaching the weak-moderate intensity at the highest phenol concentration in PP and TJ only. Pungency was suppressed in BP and perceived at weak-moderate intensity in PP and TJ sample at the highest phenol concentration. Proteins/neutral pH plant-food (BP) resulted more appropriate to counteract the impact of added phenol on negative sensory properties thus allowing to optimize the balance between health and sensory properties

The 65th Symposium of the Society for General Physiologists: Energizing research in mitochondrial physiology and medicine

The annual Society of General Physiologists (SGP) symposium has a six-decade legacy as the premier and innovative international meeting for physiologists, cell biologists, and biophysicists. During September 7–11th, 2011, more than 130 scientists participated in the 65th SGP symposium entitled “Mitochondrial Physiology and Medicine” at Woods Hole, MA. In a survey distributed at the end of the conference, participants ranked the overall science and quality of discussions very highly (average of 9.5 out of 10), with multiple respondents noting the highly collegial atmosphere, emphasis on unpublished research, and opportunity for younger scientists to interact with leaders in the field. Recent groundbreaking discoveries demonstrating the pivotal role of mitochondria in human physiology and disease have repositioned mitochondria to the center stage of biomedical research. Mitochondria serve as gatekeepers between cell survival and death, as well as regulate proper cell signaling, energy metabolism, redox balance, and ion homeostasis. Mitochondrial dysfunction is associated with numerous acute and chronic human diseases, including heart failure, ischemia-reperfusion injury, atherosclerosis, cardiomyopathy, stroke, neurodegeneration, diabetes, obesity, cancer, rare diseases, and aging. Clearly, the SGP’s selection of this year’s topic on mitochondrial physiology and disease was timely and fitting

FindFoci: a focus detection algorithm with automated parameter training that closely matches human assignments, reduces human inconsistencies and increases speed of analysis

Accurate and reproducible quantification of the accumulation of proteins into foci in cells is essential for data interpretation and for biological inferences. To improve reproducibility, much emphasis has been placed on the preparation of samples, but less attention has been given to reporting and standardizing the quantification of foci. The current standard to quantitate foci in open-source software is to manually determine a range of parameters based on the outcome of one or a few representative images and then apply the parameter combination to the analysis of a larger dataset. Here, we demonstrate the power and utility of using machine learning to train a new algorithm (FindFoci) to determine optimal parameters. FindFoci closely matches human assignments and allows rapid automated exploration of parameter space. Thus, individuals can train the algorithm to mirror their own assignments and then automate focus counting using the same parameters across a large number of images. Using the training algorithm to match human assignments of foci, we demonstrate that applying an optimal parameter combination from a single image is not broadly applicable to analysis of other images scored by the same experimenter or by other experimenters. Our analysis thus reveals wide variation in human assignment of foci and their quantification. To overcome this, we developed training on multiple images, which reduces the inconsistency of using a single or a few images to set parameters for focus detection. FindFoci is provided as an open-source plugin for ImageJ