Vicia faba L. (fava bean) (Fabaceae) is cultivated worldwide as a crop for human consumption [1]. In this study, beans and pods were investigated for their phytochemical content and their potential nutraceutical properties as strategy to counteract metabolic syndrome (MetS), a group of risk factors, including insulin resistance and consequently impaired glucose tolerance, dyslipidaemia and obesity [2]. Pods represent a fava bean industrial processing by-products. The potential reuse of by-products can contribute to innovation and growth in the functional foods and nutraceutical industry due to their high bioactive phytochemicals content [3]. Pod ethanol extract showed the highest total phenol and flavonoid content. HPLC analysis revealed that in both pods and bean (+)-catechin and (−)-epicatechin were the two most abundant compounds. A multi-target approach based on the application of ABTS, DPPH, β-carotene bleaching, and FRAP assays was used to test V. faba antioxidant activity. The anti-obesity effect was investigated through inhibition of alpha-amylase, alpha-glucosidase, and lipase [4]. Pod extract showed an ABTS radical scavenging ability (IC₅₀ value of 1.5 mg/mL) comparable to ascorbic acid (IC₅₀ value of 1.7 mg/mL) used as the positive control, whereas bean extract was the most active in protecting lipid peroxidation (IC₅₀ values of 17.6 mg/mL after 30 min of incubation). The edible portion of fava beans exerted also a promising alpha-glucosidase inhibitory activity with an IC₅₀ value of 38.31 mg/mL. Collectively, our results demonstrated the potential health properties of V. faba edible and inedible portions. However, further in vivo studies will be needed to confirm the potential in humans and prove the safety of the products.

[1] Helstosky, Carol (2009). Food Culture in the Mediterranean. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 7. ISBN 0313346267. [2] Rochlani, Y.; Pothineni, N.V.; Kovelamudi, S.; Mehta, J.L. Metabolic syndrome: Pathophysiology, management, and modulation by natural compounds. Ther. Adv. Cardiovasc. Dis. 2017, 11, 215–225. [3] Helkar, P.B.; Sahoo, A.K.; Patil, N.J. Food industry by-products used as a functional food ingredient. Int. J. Waste Resour. 2016, 6, 248–254. [4]Leporini, M.; Loizzo, M.R.; Sicari, V.; Pellicanò, T.M.; Reitano, A.; Dugay, A.; Deguin, B.; Tundis, R. Citrus × Clementina Hort. Juice Enriched with Its By-Products (Peels and Leaves): Chemical composition, in vitro bioactivity, and impact of processing. Antioxidants 2020, 9, 298.

Gelled emulsion (GE) systems are one of the novel proposals for reformulation of meat products with healthier profiles. The aim of this research was to obtain a better understanding of the impact of different oils in physicochemical properties, in fact measure of texture as spreadability and work of shear with a texturometer TA-XT2i with TTC spreadability rig at a speed of 3 mm/s, emulsion stability (Henning et al., 2016) and TBARS level (Nassu et al., 2003) for two gelled emulsions based on amaranth flour with hemp oil (GAH) and amaranth flour with sesame oil (GAS). The characterization of these GE was carried out after 24 h in cooling of 4ºC (t₀) and 15 days in freezing at -23 ºC (t₁₅). The spreadability was measured only at t₀ and this revealed that the GAH sample had greater firmness and greater work of shear than GAS sample. Among the two samples, the one with the most emulsion stability was the GAH with 11.33± 0.65% liquid expelled and after 15 days of storage, the volume of liquid expelled was 34.23±0.47. On the other hand, the GAS sample had a higher value of emulsion instability at t₀ (29.16±1.87) with an increase after freezing of 10% more. Regarding the results obtained for the TBARS, the initial oxidation of the GAS was 0.501 ± 0.167 mg malonaldehyde / Kg sample and after 15 days of storage this amount was 25% higher, GAH had 1.230 ± 0.074 mg ma / Kg sample and after 15 days in freezing increased to 12% this amount. Between the emulsions studied, the GAS has less consistence and emulsion stability than GAH, so it could be undesirable for some meat products. Thus, gelled emulsions could be a potential alternative for their application in the development of functional foods. So, in future studies could investigate the use of oil in water gelled emulsion prepared with healthier combinations of pseudo-cereal flour with seed oils as possible future fat replacer.

While we encounter sticky liquids in our daily life and are able to discriminate between them, relating instrumental measurements of stickiness to sensory perception remains to be a significant challenge in the context of the rational product design. In this paper we use the extensional flow analysis to examine some of the factors (probe withdrawal velocity, total contact area and total perimeter of probe) that influence instrumental measurements of stickiness in sticky liquid foods. Shortcomings of using the maximum peak or the area under the force-vs-time curve are discussed. In addition, we introduce a method where we use a series of probes with the varying ratio of the probe perimeter (P) over the probe area (A). By extrapolating parameters of the extensional force curve to the zero value of P/A we can obtain the values of the force at the maximum negative peak, gradient of the linear portion of the curve, distance to reach the maximum pull-off force for an effective zero perimeter probe. This “zero-perimeter” approach allows us to compensate for the changes in the meniscus and obtain extrapolated measures of stickiness independent of the probe perimeter. Results show that the linear region at the start of probe withdrawal during which time the perimeter is fully in contact with the liquid, might be a better correlation with stickiness compared to other parts of the curve. The dependency of the zero-perimeter corrected measured of stickiness on extensional speed showed a power law dependence for a ranged of fluids with different viscosity. In agreement with reports by other authors, we find that the extensional speed determines the type of failure (cohesive or adhesive) of the liquid column.

Microbial oils also called single cell oils are lipids synthesized by microorganisms exceeding 20% of the dry weight of the cell. The aim of this work was to investigate the possibility to apply a rapeseed post-frying oil from fish fillets as a carbon source in growth medium for Yarrowia lipolytica oleaginous yeast species in order to synthesize a microbial oil. The key contribution of this work was the solution that provides a sustainable method for valorization of post-frying waste oil. A shaken batch cultures were provided and the influence of triacylglycerides hydrolysis on yeast growth was evaluated. In conclusion, the post-frying rapeseed oil seemed to be an easily utilizing carbon source by the yeast. Regardless of the method of lipid substrate pre-treatment, the yeast strain preferentially accumulated oleic acid (C18: 1) from 52.07 to 66.62% and linoleic acid (C18: 2) from 12.98 to 24.10%. To our knowledge, this is the first report of using the oxygen nanobubbles as an unconventional method of aerating the culture medium containing lipid carbon sources. The use of water oxygenated with nano-sized bubbles to prepare culture media resulted in obtaining a higher yield of biomass compared to the biomass yield in distilled water based medium.

Honey is a natural food that also has a long history of use in traditional medicine due its many biological properties, such as antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-tumor and anti-inflammatory. In this study, the antimicrobial actions of eight honeys produced in various locations of the Lemnos island (northwest Greece) and that of manuka (origin of New Zealand, UMF 30+, licensed in many countries as topical medical preparation) were comparatively evaluated against ten clinically relevant bacteria, including five Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus, S. epidermidis, Enterococcus faecalis, Listeria monocytogenes and Bacillus cereus) and five Gram-negative (Salmonella enterica serovars Enteritidis and Typhimurium, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa). To do this, the agar-well diffusion assay was applied to measure the diameter of inhibition zones (mm) of two selected concentrations for each honey (25 and 12.5 % v/v), while the minimum inhibitory and bactericidal concentrations (MICs and MBCs) of each sample were also calculated against two representative of the bacterial species (S. Typhimurium and S. aureus), following the broth microdilution and agar spot methods, respectively. The water activity, pH and pollen composition of each honey were also determined. Results revealed that all the Lemnos honeys presented antibacterial action which was for some samples even superior to that of manuka, highlighting their further promising exploitation as natural antimicrobial systems for use in foods and medicine.

Age related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness in developed countries, such as Australia. Lutein and zeaxanthin are the only two carotenoids found in the macular region of the eye. Past studies have shown that intake of 10 mg and 2 mg per day of lutein and zeaxanthin, respectively, can reduce the risk of AMD. The supply of these carotenoids can only be met through dietary sources or supplements, as these compounds cannot be synthesised by humans. Although lutein is relatively abundant in dietary sources, such as green leafy vegetables, zeaxanthin is much less common, although orange capsicums have been identified as an excellent source. In this study, eight orange and three red capsicum varieties were analysed for their carotenoid profiles by UHPLC-DAD-ESI-MS. It was observed that the principal carotenoid for seven of the orange varieties was zeaxanthin (50-75%), and capsanthin (46-70%) for the three red varieties. One orange variety, which had a darker orange hue, had capsanthin (33%) and violaxanthin (39%) as its principal carotenoids. Zeaxanthin concentration in the 7 orange varieties, with zeaxanthin as the principal carotenoid, varied from a maximum of 25.27±9.4 mg/100g FW to 2.6±0.5 mg/100g FW. Depending on variety, different amounts of tissue would be required to be consumed to attain 2 mg per person per day of zeaxanthin, ranging from 8 g for the highest zeaxanthin-concentration to 100 g for the lowest zeaxanthin-containing variety. This study emphasises the large differences in zeaxanthin concentration that can occur, even between capsicums of similar appearance.

Virgin coconut oil (VCO) is produced from fresh coconut meat without the use of chemicals and high heat. To ensure quality, it is important to be able to differentiate fresh quality VCO from old VCO, refined, bleached and deodorized coconut oil (RBDCO), and VCO which is adulterated with RBDCO. Differentiating these types of samples is a challenge because of their chemical similarity. This study investigated the use of ¹³C NMR and multivariate analysis to differentiate these samples. The methodology used the standard ¹³C NMR pulse sequence with broadband ¹H decoupling using CDCl₃ as solvent and dioxane as quantitative internal standard (IS). After pre-processing the spectra (alignment, bucketing/binning, normalization with respect to dioxane IS peak), untargeted multivariate analysis – unsupervised and supervised – were done on the bins of the ¹³C peaks. The linear unsupervised methods were able to differentiate fresh VCO (as control, 51 samples) from RBDCO (19 samples), adulterated VCO (12 samples), and VCO which was over 2 years old (5 samples). These results were verified by performing supervised binary linear classifiers using a one versus the rest strategy. Using AUC-ROC curves, the supervised dataset gave better than 95% accuracy in differentiating fresh VCO versus RBDCO, and better than 90% accuracy in differentiating fresh VCO versus adulterated VCO and old VCO using cross-validation and training holdout. Using cross-validation, this method was also able to differentiate with up to 73% accuracy among the three processes which were used to make the VCO samples (fermentation, centrifuge, and expeller). We conclude that linear techniques are adequate to classify fresh VCO from RBDCO, adulterated VCO, and old VCO.

Antimicrobial and biocide resistance is a major public health problem today. Therefore, one of the main scientific challenges nowadays is the search for alternatives to these substances. One of these potential alternatives are the bacteriocins. Microbiota is a potential source of bacteriocin-producing bacteria that needs to be studied. In this study, a total of 40 samples of human milk and 10 samples of cow milk were collected from healthy individuals and stored at -20ºC until use. To isolate antimicrobial-producing milk isolates, milk samples were ten-fold serially diluted and spread-plated in BHI agar and incubated aerobically at 37ºC for 48h. BHI incubated plates were overlaid with MRS sloppy agar containing 0.25% of and overnight culture of Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus LMG 6901 used as indicator of antimicrobial products production. Plates were incubated anaerobically 24h at 37ºC. Colonies from BHI that exhibited zones of inhibition on MRS agar were stocked. Well diffusion assays were carried out with the cell-free supernatant (CFS) from these colonies neutralized to pH 7.2 and inhibition zones were recorded. The activity against eight common bacterial pathogens was evaluated. A total of 32 colonies with potential antimicrobial activity were isolated. The neutralized CFS of 10 strains showed antimicrobial activity against at least one pathogen tested in well diffusion assays. Eight of the 10 CFS inhibited the growth of Staphylococcus aureus. These CFS also showed activity against Staphylococcus epidermidis, Streptococcus agalactiae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and L. monocytogenes. The next steps of the research will be 16s rRNA sequencing to identify the species of isolates and mass spectrometry to determine the antimicrobial product produced by isolated. Finally, this study demonstrated that milk microbiota is a potential source of new producing bacteriocin bacteria that can be used in the formulation of new food products.

Virgin coconut oil (VCO) can be prepared with or without the use of heat: (1) cold-process includes fermentation or centrifugation; and (2) heat-treated includes expelling. The volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from VCO samples prepared with and without the use of heat were collected using solid phase microextraction (SPME) and analyzed using gas chromatography – mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Twenty-seven VCO samples, from 9 VCO producers, were analyzed. The VOC profile of refined coconut oil (RCO) was also obtained for comparison. Thirteen compounds were identified in more than 80% of the VCO samples analyzed. These included: acetic acid; C6, C8, C10, C12, and C14 fatty acids and their corresponding δ-lactones; and C8 and C10 ethyl carboxylates. Minor volatiles occurring in less than half of the VCO samples included: other carboxylic acids, aldehydes, alcohols, and esters. The fermentation process produced more acetic acid. There were variations in the VOCs within each method as each producer used different processing times and temperature. Principal components analysis (PCA) grouped the samples according to the process used, but there were overlaps which may be due to variations in the specific procedures used by the different manufacturers. These results may help VCO manufacturers control their production processes.

Allergy is the most common chronic disease in Europe and about 40% of the population suffers from it. The microbiota is closely linked to the immune system, being some probiotics characterized as beneficial contributing to reduce allergenic symptomatology. To ensure the predominance of beneficial
probiotics on the gut microbiota, the use of prebiotics is very important. Among the most important prebiotics are those of marine origin, standing out the fucoidan, a polysaccharide from brown algae (Phaeophyta). The effect of fucoidan on Lactobacillus reuteri in vitro growth behaviour has been studied,
using turbidimetry, plate count and statistical analysis. The fucoidan revealed a significant prebiotic effect increasing L. reuteri growth (≈ 2 log₁₀ cycles after 48 h exposure). The combination of the prebiotic effect of the fucoidan together with the direct action that it exerts on allergy and other health problems, make this molecule a promising nutraceutical for future.