A Rapid Detection of Whole Wheat Gluten Quality by a Novel Chemometric Technique-GlutoPeak.

The study aims to accurately detect gluten quality of whole wheat flour without a refining process by measuring gluten aggregation properties with a novel and non-destructive chemometric technique called GlutoPeak, coupled with principal component analyses (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analyses (HCA). For this purpose, whole wheat flour samples from 125 common bread wheat cultivars were analyzed for protein content (PC), wet gluten content (WGC), and Zeleny sedimentation value (SV). The correlations of GlutoPeak indices (peak maximum time, PMT; maximum torque, MT; torque 15 s before MT, AM; torque 15 s after MT) with other conventional wheat quality parameters were evaluated. Results indicated that MT had high correlations with WGC (r = 0.627, p < 0.05) and PC (r = 0.589, p < 0.05) while PC (r = 0.511, p < 0.05) and WGC (r = 0.566, p < 0.05) values had moderate correlations with the GlutoPeak PM index. Considering the effect of regions, the MT and PM GlutoPeak indices are powerful parameters to discriminate whole wheat flour samples by their gluten strengths. In conclusion, the GlutoPeak test can be a powerful and reliable tool for prediction of refined and unrefined wheat quality without being time-consuming.

Assessment of dietary exposure to deoxynivalenol and fumonisin in the population of infants and toddlers in Turkey.

This study aims to estimate dietary exposure to deoxynivalenol and fumonisins (FBs) of infants and toddlers in Turkey. A total of 75 processed cereal-based foods intended for infants and toddlers collected between July and October 2018, were analysed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). DON was determined in 21.3% of samples with mean middle bound (MB) level of 28.4 µg/kg. Of the 16 quantifiable samples, only one showed values above 200 µg/kg. Fumonisin B1 (FB1) was detected at quantifiable levels only in three samples, while FB2 was not found in any sample. Estimated mean MB chronic dietary exposures to DON in infants and toddlers were 0.161 and 0.118 µg/kg b.w. per day, while 95th percentile (P95) MB exposures to DON were estimated at 0.564 and 0.414 µg/kg b.w. per day, respectively. Mean MB dietary exposures to FBs for infants and toddlers, respectively, were 0.093 and 0.068 µg/kg b.w. per day; P95 exposure estimates were 0.079 and 0.058 µg/kg b.w. per day. Both for DON and FBs, mean and P95 exposures of infants and toddlers did not exceeded the threshold level of 1 µg/kg b.w. per day and are therefore not of health concern.

Changes in the functional constituents and phytic acid contents of firiks produced from wheats at different maturation stages.

Three different wheat cultivars (Bezostaya, Eser and Cesit-1252) at four maturity stages were processed into firik which is a whole wheat-based ethnic food by using traditional cooking method. Some nutritional and antinutritional (moisture, ash, protein, fructans, dietary fibers, phenolic contents and antioxidant activity) properties of firiks were investigated. A significant increase was observed for the hectoliter and 1000 kernel weights whereas a decrease for ash and protein contents by increased maturation level. It was found that immature wheats especially at early stages of kernel development are rich sources of functional nutrients such as total dietary fiber (17.3-20.4%), fructans (4.1-7.2%), total phenolics (4602.5-4838.3 mgGAE/kg) and antioxidants (729.2-782.8 µmolTE/100 g) besides having lower phytic acid contents (498.6-604.9 mg/100 g).