While fruit smoothies are widely used to enhance fruit consumption, vegetable based green smoothies have not yet been systematically analyzed for consumer acceptance. Vegetable based green smoothies are often neglected due to their bitter and unpleasant taste or are masked with sweet fruits. This study investigates consumers' liking of 3 different smoothies with equal amounts of bitter lettuce and apple, but different portions of sweet apple juice, resulting in a decreasing bitter-compound-to-sugar ratio. Liking (9-point scales) of odor and taste, flavor perception (check-all-that-apply) and texture (just-about-right scale) were evaluated by 67 consumers. In the sweetest smoothie the descriptor ‘bitter’ was chosen almost 4 times less frequently than in the smoothie with the lowest sugar concentrations (medium effect size; Cohens D: 0.569). Detailed knowledge of bitter masking thresholds may help to balance between bitter masking and limited use of highly caloric ingredients in healthy green smoothies.
Edible filamentous fungi, a source of mycoprotein, are one of the sustainable alternative protein. This study compares protein digestibility (DH%) and amino acid and mineral accessibility in Rhizopus oligosporus cultivated in oat flour (OatRO) or glucose media (GluRO) by using the INFOGEST in vitro digestion protocol. Fungal total amino acids was higher in GluRO (39.0 ± 1.1 % dw) than OatRO (21.8 ± 1.3 % dw) which was also the case for calcium and magnesium content. After completed gastrointestinal digestion, there were no significant differences between GluRO and OatRO regarding DH% (27.21 ± 10.4 % and 29.4 ± 0.5 %), however, GluRO provided significantly higher amino acid accessibility compared to OatRO (64.3 ± 1.6 % and 55.1 ± 3.1 %). Mineral accessibility of GluRO was for Ca: 37.9 ± 1.8 %, Zn: 9.3 ± 0.4 %, Fe: 38.2 ± 1.9 %, Mg: 66.5 ± 1.4 % and Cu: 24.7 ± 1.3 % and for OatRO; Ca: −40.2 ± 2.4 %, Zn: −4.13 ± 0.15 %, Fe:14.6 ± 1.6 %, Mg: 74.5 ± 3.1 %, and Cu: 55.95 ± 0.8 %. Despite the low phytic acid content, OatRO thus showed antinutrient properties with respect to calcium, and zinc, suggesting that oat-derived fungi had antinutrients other than phytic acid. This study hereby revealed that the cultivation substrate affect amino acid and mineral accessibility of filamentous fungi and calls for deeper evaluations of antinutrients in oat-derived fungi.
In order to verify the nutritional and quality properties of gluten-free breads supplemented with flour from cacay seed cake (CF), a mixing design was used, in which part of the rice (R) was replaced with CF and dietary fiber concentrates (DFC) from papaya pulp and peel. The results showed that supplementation of the formulations with CF and DFC produced an increase in the gel strength parameter (S) of the batter before baking, with respect to that of a control formulation (542 vs. 3.1 Pa.sn, respectively). It was also found that there was an improvement in the specific volume (1.598 vs. 1.32 cm3/g), crumb pore diameter (3.4 vs. 2.2 mm), protein content (10.5 vs. 2.6 g/100 g) and total dietary fiber (9.9 vs. 1.2 g/100 g) of the supplement breads (SB) over the control breads (CB). The results of the creep and recovery test parameters, performed on the bread crumb, showed a greater elastic response in the SB, evidenced by a greater recovery of the crumb structure. It is concluded that CF and DFC as ingredients improve the nutritional content of gluten-free baked goods and also that the improvements in specific volume and pore size would be related to dietary fiber.
Food-to-food fortification (FtFF) is gaining traction as a strategy to enhance nutritional value of cereal-based foods. Sorghum, a major food crop for millions in the semi-arid tropics lends itself to such FtFF efforts. Such food-to-food fortified (FtF fortified) foods also contain bioactive phenolics with health-promoting properties in relation to potential protection against diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs) whose prevalence is increasing in sub-Saharan Africa. In this study, the effects of extrusion cooking of sorghum-based porridges FtF fortified with baobab fruit powder and moringa leaf powder on antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic and anti-lipogenic properties were determined.
FtFF porridges showed higher phenolic content (phenolic acids and their esters, flavonoids and their glycosides) and greater radical scavenging properties and reduction in advanced glycation end products (AGEs) compared to unfortified porridges. Extruded instant porridges had lower phenolic content, radical scavenging properties and showed less reduction in AGEs compared to conventionally wet-cooked porridges. All porridges exerted antioxidant effects in Caco-2 cells and FtFF inhibited nitric oxide (NO) formation in RAW 264.7 cells. Extracts from all porridge samples exhibited prevention and reduction of adipocyte formation in 3 T3-L1 cells, indicating anti-lipogenic effects.
FtFF (with moringa and baobab) and extrusion cooking can be used to produce instant porridges from wholegrain sorghums with targeted health-promoting properties to address rising non-communicable diseases in sub-Saharan Africa.
This study highlights the potential of FtFF with tropical plant foodstuffs to improve health-promoting properties of cereal wholegrain-based starchy staple foods.
A headspace solid–phase microextraction (HS-SPME) method coupled with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry with quadrupole time-of-flight (GC/MS-QTOF) was developed for analysis of volatile off-odor compounds, i.e., earthy/musty (2-methylisoborneol, 2-MIB) and rancid (aldehydes and alcohols), from farmed hybrid catfish (Clarias macrocephalus × Clarias gariepinus). The most efficient extraction of targeted volatiles was provided by 50 min at 70 °C with a CWR-PDMS fiber and 3 g of fish diluted to 5 mL with 1.5 g NaCl (30 % saturated NaCl). The maximum time-delay before extraction was 8 h to avoid spoilage and lipid oxidation during analysis. The final method showed good linearity, intraday repeatability of 5–9 %, interday reproducibility of 5–12 % and recoveries of 94–112 %. The implementation part proved that the developed method gave accurate quantitative results for oxidation-derived volatiles, several with high correlation to thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS). Altogether, our study provided an effective SPME-GC–MS method for the extraction and analysis of important off-odor compounds in catfish mince.