Pomegranate (Punica granutum L.) seeds account for 10% of the total fruit weight and are mostly considered as a waste by food industry. The oil content in pomegranate seeds varies from 12 to 20%. This oil consists of the high content of polyunsaturated fatty acids mainly conjugated type, punicic acid. It possesses a wide array of biological properties - antidiabetic, antiobesity, antiproliferative, and anticarcinogenic activity.

Aim of this research was to compare the properties of pomegranate seed oil (from two different region of Dalmatia) obtained by cold extraction, the Soxhlet extraction and Accelerated Solvent Extraction (ASE). Oxidative stability of oils from pomegranate was determined using the calorimetric method (Differential Scanning Calorimetry). The determination of fatty acid composition was carried out by GC-FID analysis of fatty acid methyl esters. The positional distribution of fatty acids in the sn-2 and sn-1,3 positions of triacylglycerols was based on the ability of the pancreatic lipase to selectively hydrolyse ester bonds in the sn-1,3 positions. Sterols composition was determined with GC-MS.

The highest yield of oil was obtained using the Soxhlet method (12-15%) and the least with the ASE method (10-11%) but with significantly shorter time and minimum solvent usage. All extracted oils were rich in punicic acid (average 80%) and were characterized by good oxidative stability. Punicic acid was dominant in the external positions of triacylglycerols while in the internal positions there were oleic and linoleic acids.

Anthocyanins, often assocated with health benefits, readily degrade during processing and storage, and anthocyanin-matrix-interactions affect their stability and bioaccessibility.

Our study investigated how anthocyanins in strawberry puree were affected by preservation technologies and addition of relatively protein-rich kale juice. Strawberry-kale-mix (M) was compared to strawberry-water-mix (S), untreated and treated thermally, by pulsed electric fields (PEF) and high pressure (HPP). Anthocyanin stability and bioaccessibility after in-vitro digestion was evaluated during refrigerated storage.

The degradation of the strawberry anthocyanins during storage followed 1^st-order-kinetics (c = c₀∙e^-kt). The degradation rate constant k varied depending on juice system, preservation technology and anthocyanin structure. Generally, k was at least doubled for M compared to S. The untreated sample showed the highest k, followed by thermal, PEF and HPP. Both likely resulted from high enzyme activity measured in M and untreated samples.

Relative gastric bioaccessibility of anthocyanins was higher for M (1.27-1.29) compared to S (1.10-1.14 ), indicating interactions of anthocyanins with the kale matrix. Additionally, relative gastric bioaccessibility increased during storage, possibly resulting from anthocyanin polymerization during storage, followed by their decomposition during digestion. Intestinal bioaccessibility was overall low with 20-30 % compared to the initial bioaccessible fraction due to instability at neutral pH.

This research shows evidence that processing and formulation strongly affect stability and gastric bioaccessibility of anthocyanins during storage.

Functional foods have raised within the industrial production era due to the increasing consumers demand for nutritious and safe foods with health benefits, particularly of natural origin. In this context, microalgae have become an innovative and promising resource of nutritional supplements as they are commercially cultivated to produce valuable compounds, including protein, pigments, lipids, essential amino acids, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids, carotenoids, steroids and vitamins, among others. Specifically, Spirulina platensis which has recognized as safe (GRAS) for human consumption, provides important properties such as anti-cancer and anti-hypertensive activity, immune system enhancement, high content of antioxidants, vitamins and trace elements and belongs to the category of superfoods. Concerning the above the main target of the current study was to produce a novel functional Feta-type cheese with incorporated Spirulina platensis and study its effect on microflora and physicochemical properties of produced cheeses. Feta cheese was prepared with pasteurized goat (30%) and sheep (70%) milk. The effects of S. platensis at 0%, 0.25%, 0.5%, and 1% was studied during manufacture and storage (4^oC) of Feta-type cheese for 90 days and compared with commercial Feta cheese. Growth and viability of Lactobacilli and Lactococci was reported higher in cheese samples containing spirulina as a result the starter culture (lactic acid bacterial culture) used in Feta cheese production is not disturbed can be even enhanced by the presence of microalgae. Specifically, S. platensis showed a positive effect on the growth of lactobacilli while lactococci viability was detected enhanced in cheese sample with incorporated spirulina. In addition, no pathogenic or possible spoilage microorganisms were detected after the 30^th day of production. The protein content of cheese with incorporated spirulina was increased. Finally, incorporation of spirulina significantly affected the color and mouthfeel of produced cheeses while moisture was detected higher as the content of spirulina increased. To conclude, Spirulina platensis has great industrialization potential as an additive in dairy products and especially ones produced by Lactobacilli as starter cultures while enhancing products nutritional value in parallel.

Microencapsulation is a technique that is increasingly used to encapsulate fragrances. It offers a valuable method to protect aromas against degradation in technological processes and during storage, which extends the usefulness of the aroma in the production and processing of food products.

Thanks to it, it is better to protect aromas against degradation in technological processes and during storage, which extends the usefulness of the aroma in the production and processing of food products One of the more common encapsulation techniques is spray drying whereby liquids are sprayed with a hot, drying gas to obtain a powder.

The aim of the research was to develop a microencapsulation method of gamma-decalactone, a cyclic ester with the scent of peach, which is used as a food additive. The carrier used for microencapsulation was an emulsion consisting of rapeseed oil, maltodextrin and arabic gum.

In this work, optimization of the carrier composition was performed in order to obtain a stable emulsion. The effect of inlet air temperature (80°C, 180°C) during spray drying on the powder quality parameters was then analyzed. In the final stage, the gamma-decalactone content in the obtained powders was evaluated. The results have shown that emulsions based on colza oil and arabic gum are a good carrier for the microencapsulation of gamma-decalactone. The use of high pressure during homogenization results in better fragmentation and homogenization of the emulsion. Drying at a higher inlet air temperature (180°C) contributes to a more efficient microencapsulation process in that more aroma is encapsulated inside the capsules with less adhering to their surface.

Salmonella growth and survival in egg and egg products has been widely studied. Nevertheless, there are still some aspects that are still not fully known. Therefore, the objective of this work was to study the influence of the initial cell number on the growth fitness of Salmonella in raw and pasteurized liquid whole egg.

Growth curves of Salmonella Enteritidis in raw and pasteurized liquid whole egg and starting from different initial numbers were obtained and fitted to the Baranyi and Roberts model. Results obtained revealed that in raw egg lower initial numbers led to longer lag phases (l) and lower maximum specific growth rates (m_max). However, the application of thermal treatments of increasing intensity to the liquid egg -before inoculation with Salmonella cells- led to a progressive reduction of this effect. Supplementation assays with lysozyme and ovotransferrin revealed that these proteins would not be the responsible for the decreased growth fitness of Salmonella cells when inoculated in raw egg at low concentrations. By contrast, addition of iron (0.20 g/l) to raw egg increased the growth fitness of Salmonella cells inoculated at a low an initial but not a high one. Thus, under these conditions the growth fitness of Salmonella was similar regardless of the initial dose and thermal history of the whole liquid egg, indicating the major role of Fe bioavailability on the phenomenon observed.

Background: Several studies have investigated the possibility of using nutrients supplied as fertilizers to improve yield, firmness or final olive fruit size, however, scarce are the studies about the effect of pre-harvest foliar calcium application rate on mineral, quality and phytochemical composition of olive oils, which is the main goal of this investigation.

Methods: For this study, an organic calcium compound (at two rates: 20g/tree and 40g/tree) and control (water) were applied to olive trees of three different cultivars (Cobrançosa, Galega, and Picual) at three different moments in a certified olive orchard in Portugal. At the commercial maturity, the olive fruits were harvested and processed to obtain the monovarietal olive oils.

Results: The calcium application did not reveal significant changes on the quality parameters of the monovarietal olive oils, remaining extra virgin olive oils, however, the analysis of Ca mineral content revealed a significant increase of this content for some olive oil cultivars. Furthermore, some phenolic compounds concentration of olive oils were improved with the Ca foliar application, in opposite of antioxidant activity that was negatively affected.

Conclusions: This investigation comes to demonstrate the cultivar effect on the final phytochemical composition, as well as the Ca mineral content effect on the biosynthesis of bioactive compounds.

Global warming is one of the main problems that poultry industry is currently facing, since high temperatures could generate oxidative stress and impact on nutritional quality of its derived products. The aim of this work was to study the effects of dietary supplementation with polyphenols from defatted chia seed cake on the fatty acids composition of eggs from Japanese quail exposed to heat stress. A total of 24 females were randomly assigned into different groups (n=12 per group) according to whether they were fed with standard commercial diet (BASAL) or chia polyphenol supplemented diet (500 mg polyphenol/Kg or CP500). Half of the animals in each diet group were exposed to 34 °C for 9 hours a day (Heat Stress or HS groups). After 23 days of experimental conditions eggs were collected, and lipids from yolks were extracted. Fatty acid composition (saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids or SFA, MUFA and PUFA respectively) was analyzed by gas chromatography. Egg yolks of HS-BASAL animals showed higher proportion of C12:0, C13:0 and C20:0, but with no significant differences in ΣSFA respect to those animals that had no heat stress and the same basal diet (NHS-BASAL). Besides, ΣMUFA decreased in HS-BASAL animals (mainly due to the reduction in C18:1 content), and no significant differences were observed in ΣPUFA. Regarding the effect of polyphenols, CP500 helped to decrease ΣSFA and produced an increment of ΣPUFA (specifically C18:3, C20:4, C20:5 and C22:4) respect to BASAL diet in heat stress conditions. In conclusion, the use of defatted chia seed cake seems to be a promising sustainable strategy to improve the nutritional quality of eggs from heat-stressed Japanese quail.

Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) production in Brazil is recent and growing, but only a few studies have been published on the topic, specially involving commercial EVOO samples. A preliminary discrimination of Brazilian EVOOs according to olives’ cultivar and region of production was pursued. A principal components analysis (PCA) and a partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) were performed based on the results of a recent published work by our research group on the evaluation of the quality parameters, the metabolic profile, and other typical features of ten commercial EVOOs from Brazil. One of the oleuropein aglycone isomers, linoleic acid, α-tocopherol and free sterols were pointed out as the most influential variables within the models. PLS-DA also revealed the region of production as a significant factor to samples’ clustering. The present work provides a preview of Brazilian EVOOs typicity and shows the urge for more investigations with higher number of commercial samples, from different olives´ cultivars and production regions. The comprehensive definition of their chemical profile’s identity could provide Brazilian oils with a significant added value.

The management of waste from the food industry is currently of great importance. Making use of alternative wastes is inevitable due to the rapid depletion of natural resources. The olive oil industry represents an important productive sector in the Mediterranean basin countries. Depending on the climate, 15-40 kg of olives can be obtained from one olive tree each year. Olive seed is an essential by-product generated in the olive oil extraction industries and it represents roughly 10% by weight of olive fruit. Olive seeds have characteristics that make them perfect for combustion in a biomass furnace, such as a moisture content of 15% and high calorific value. The seeds of pickled olives are also a significant waste product.

Thermal analysis is convenient and reproducible, and is a useful method for characterizing heterogeneous organic materials. In the present study we have investigated the possibility of use of differential scanning calorimetry for thermal characterization of seeds from green and black pickled olives from Croatia. The differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) with a normal pressure cell equipped with a cooling system was used to determine thermal properties of seeds from olives. The following analyses were also performed: determination of calorific values in a pressure bomb calorimeter, determination of initial water content, determination of changes of water content during drying at the temperatures of 30°C, 50°C and 80°C, determination of a percentage content of seeds mass to the mass of the whole olives, determination of ash content.

Seeds from olives are characterized by very good parameters as a biomass. The analysed olive seeds were characterised by low water content and low ash content and a relatively high caloric value.

According to several studies, the citrus fruits waste material has a high amount of bioactive compounds such as citric acid, a strong antimicrobial agent. The objective of this work was to optimize the ultrasound-assisted extraction of citric acid from orange, lemon and lime peels using the response surface methodology (RSM). For the extraction optimization, a central composite design coupled with RSM was implemented by combining five levels of the variables time (2–45 min), power (50–500 W), and ethanol proportion (0–100%). The levels of citric acid were determined by ultra-fast liquid chromatography coupled to a diode array detector. The highest citric acid contents were obtained from orange peels, followed by lime, with the optimal processing conditions yielding 10 and 8 g per 100 g of dry peels, respectively. In both cases, the extraction was maximized with a low ultrasonic power for a long period of time, using considerably low ethanol proportions. For lemon peels, citric acid was not detected in some runs, so it was not possible to construct a predictive model. This work provided information on the optimal conditions for the extraction of citric acid as a functional agent and contributes to the valorization of citrus biowaste.