Investigation on the presence of mycotoxins in seed hemp varieties.

In recent years, the cultivation of hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) in Europe has aroused interest among farmers for the potential market opportunities of its products; its cultivation has increased from 20,450 ha in 2015 to 33,020 ha in 2022. Thanks to the great versatility of this crop, there are opportunities in the food and nutraceutical fields (gluten free), cosmetics, energy and industrial sectors. As for several crops, hemp seeds may also be contaminated by fungal pathogens compromising its quality and safety. Considering the recent interest of consumers in using hemp for food purposes, in the present work, a small survey on mycotoxin contamination was carried out during 2018-2022 in hemp seed samples cultivated in Italy for food use. The results showed a limited occurrence of the most common regulated mycotoxins (aflatoxins [AFs], fumonisins [FBs], ochratoxin A [OTA], deoxynivalenol [DON] and zearalenone), but very high levels of alternariols, reaching a maximum value of 38510, 308, 226 and 288 ug/kg for tenuazonic acid [TeA], tentoxin [TEN], alternariol [AOH] and alternariol monoether, respectively. In the same period, an investigation carried out in an experimental field showed that fungal contamination and mycotoxin occurrence were influenced by different meteorological conditions and different varieties.

Volatile compounds, gamma-glutamyl-peptides and free amino acids as biomarkers of long-ripened protected designation of origin Coppa Piacentina.

Coppa Piacentina is an Italian protected designation of origin (PDO) dry-cured product obtained from the muscle of pork neck and ripened for at least six months. Metabolomics- and volatilomics-based strategies, combined with a chemical characterization of free amino acids were applied to identify biomarkers of long-ripened Coppa Piacentina PDO. Long ripening induced a significantly increase of total free amino acids, mainly represented by glutamic acid, involved in the umami taste perception. Untargeted metabolomics, performed using UHPLC-HRMS, allowed to identify 32 putative gamma-glutamyl-peptides, known as main contributors to the kokumi taste. Unsupervised and supervised multivariate statistics observed a clear modification of these peptides over the ripening, with gamma-glutamyl-peptides which significantly increased in long-ripened samples. A volatilomics-based strategy, conducted with GCxGC-MS, was then performed, and 93 different compounds were identified, with aldehyde and ketones deriving from the lipid auto-oxidation which increased according to ripening.

Italian Grape Ale Beers Obtained with Malvasia di Candia Aromatica Grape Variety: Evolution of Phenolic Compounds during Fermentation.

Italian grape ale (IGA) beers have been categorized by the Beer Judge Certification Program as a sub-category of fruit beers in which grape, or grape must, is added during the brewing process to provide additional characteristics to the final beer. In the present work, IGA beers have been produced with must and pomace of the Malvasia di Candia Aromatica (MaCA) grape variety, which were added before fermentation at two different percentages (10% and 20%). The (poly)phenolic profile of IGA beers have been characterized with HPLC-MS/MS and compared to a golden ale control beer (produced in the same conditions without the addition of grape-derived ingredients). A series of sub-samples have been collected to monitor the (poly)phenol profile at time 0 and during the different phases of the fermentation process (1, 3, 5, 7 30, 65 days). Results demonstrated how the addition of pomace allowed to significantly enrich (p < 0.05) final beers in total (poly)phenols detected by MS, while must addition did not influence that amount if compared to the control sample. However, a PCA cluster analysis identified strong similarities among IGA beers and differentiated them to control beer samples. This study underlined how the addition of must and pomace from the MaCA grape variety improved the (poly)phenolic profile of beer from both a qualitative and quantitative point of view.