Preparation and Study of the Physicochemical and Functional Properties of Nano/Micromicellar Structures Containing Chokeberry Fruit Pomace Extracts Using Egg White and Egg Yolk.

There is currently a growing interest in health-promoting foods. The beneficial effects of food on human health are actively promoted by health professionals and nutritionists. This growing awareness is influencing the increasing range of functional foods and the pursuit of more innovative solutions. Recent research indicates that spherical nanoparticles have the potential to be used as functional biomaterials in the food industry, particularly for encapsulating hydrophobic natural phytochemicals. Techniques and systems based on micro- and nano-encapsulation are of great importance in the food and pharmaceutical industries. It is of paramount importance that encapsulation materials are safe for use in food. The aim of this study was to obtain micelles containing extracts from chokeberry fruit pomace using egg yolk powder (EYP) for emulsification (as a source of lecithin) and egg white powder (EWP) for stabilisation. The structural properties of the micelles in the resulting powders were characterised using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis confirmed the presence of spherical micellar structures between 500 and 1000 nm in size. The water activity and water content of the obtained powders were determined, and the thermal (DSC) and antioxidant properties were investigated. The results indicated that the powder with the micellar structures had a higher stability compared to the powder obtained by simple mixing without the use of encapsulation techniques.

Physicochemical and Functional Properties and Storage Stability of Chitosan-Starch Films Containing Micellar Nano/Microstructures with Turmeric and Hibiscus Extracts.

The dynamic development of the food industry and the growing interest of consumers in innovative solutions that increase the comfort and quality of life push the industry towards seeking pioneering solutions in the field of food packaging. Intelligent and active packaging, which affects the quality and durability of food products and allows one to determine their freshness, is still a modern concept. The aim of our study was to obtain two types of films based on chitosan and starch with micellar nanostructures containing extracts from turmeric rhizomes and hibiscus flowers. The presence of spherical nanostructures was confirmed using a scanning electron microscope. The structural and optical properties of the obtained composites were characterised by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR), UltraViolet-Visible (UV-VIS), and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis confirmed the presence of spherical micellar structures with a size of about 800 nm in the obtained biocomposites. The presence of nano-/microstructures containing extracts affected the mechanical properties of the composites: it weakened the strength of the films and improved their elongation at break (EAB). Films with nano-/microparticles were characterised by a higher water content compared to the control sample and lower solubility, and they showed stronger hydrophilic properties. Preliminary storage tests showed that the obtained biocomposites are sensitive to changes occurring during the storage of products such as cheese or fish. In addition, it was found that the film with the addition of turmeric extract inhibited the growth of microorganisms during storage. The results suggest that the obtained bionanocomposites can be used as active and/or intelligent materials.

Comparison of the Rheological Behavior of Fortified Rye-Wheat Dough with Buckwheat, Beetroot and Flax Fiber Powders and Their Effect on the Final Product.

This study was focused on the replacement of the part of the flour (10% w/w) in rye-wheat bread with three different botanical origin powders with a high dietary fiber content (buckwheat hulls, beetroot and flax powder). The dough was based on rye-wheat flour without and with the addition of fiber powders with different botanical origins and was tested, and the quality of the finished baked products made from those doughs were assessed. In order to characterize the flour mixtures, their basic parameters were determined, and their pasting characteristic was performed. The dough parameters were described by the Burger rheological model and also the creep and recovery test. On the other hand, in bread, the basic parameters of baking, crumb and crust color parameters were determined, and an analysis of the crumb texture was carried out. Additionally, a sensory analysis of the finished products was carried out. The applied fiber additives influenced the pasting characteristics of the tested rye-wheat flour and were influenced by the dough rheological properties. It was found that used fiber powders changed the quality parameters of the final products. Despite this, using fiber at the amount of 10% as a flour substitute allowed us to obtain bread of a similar quality to the control sample.

Quality Characteristics of Novel Pasta Enriched with Non-Extruded and Extruded Blackcurrant Pomace.

Fruit pomace is a valuable by-product in terms of its chemical composition, which potential might be used through transformation of the pomace into food ingredients. The aim of this work was to assess the effect of partial (5% and 10%) substitution of powdered non-extruded or extruded blackcurrant pomace for semolina in pasta formula on nutritional and technological properties of the final product. The pasta was assessed for chemical composition, DPPH antiradical activity, color, cooking and textural properties. Presence of the by-products in the pasta resulted in increased total dietary fiber content (from 1.89 ± 0.06 up to 10.03 ± 0.15 g/100 g, dwb), fat content (from 1.29 ± 0.01 up to 2.70 ± 0.05 g/100 g, dwb) and DPPH antiradical activity (from 253 ± 15 up to 1037 ± 7 µmol TE/g, dwb), as well as in significantly different color (p < 0.05) as compared to the semolina-only pasta. The optimal cooking time was shortened by 1.0−1.5 min and by 2.0 min in the case of the lower and higher, respectively, level of pasta supplementation. The water absorption decreased by up to 32% in the enriched pasta. In general, the cooking loss remained unchanged. The uncooked product containing the extruded fruit pomace was characterized by significantly higher breaking strength (p < 0.05) as compared to the standard pasta. Presence of the pomace also affected texture of the cooked pasta, increasing its firmness and hardness and, when using the non-extruded pomace, the tensile strength. In our research, we have shown that durum wheat pasta enriched with 5 or 10% of powdered blackcurrant pomace or their extrudates constitute a food product of improved nutritional value and of appropriate textural characteristics, while maintaining culinary properties that meet pasta industry requirements.

The Thermal Characteristics, Sorption Isotherms and State Diagrams of the Freeze-Dried Pumpkin-Inulin Powders.

Powders based on plant raw materials have low storage stability due to their sorption and thermal properties and generate problems during processing. Therefore, there is a need to find carrier agents to improve their storage life as well as methods to evaluate their properties during storage. Water adsorption isotherms and thermal characteristics of the pumpkin powder with various inulin additions were investigated in order to develop state diagrams. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to obtained glass transition lines, freezing curves and maximal-freeze-concentration conditions. The glass transition lines were developed using the Gordon-Taylor model. Freezing data were modeled employing the Clausius-Clapeyron equation and its development-Chen model. The glass transition temperature of anhydrous material (Tgs) and characteristic glass transition temperature of maximum-freeze-concentration (Tg') increased with growing inulin additions. Sorption isotherms of the powders were determined at 25 °C by the static-gravimetric method and the experimental data was modeled with four different mathematical models. The Peleg model was the most adequate to describe the sorption data of the pumpkin-inulin powders. Guggenheim-Anderson-de Boer (GAB) monolayer capacity decreased with increasing inulin concentration in the sample.

Ancient Wheat and Quinoa Flours as Ingredients for Pasta Dough-Evaluation of Thermal and Rheological Properties.

The aim of this study was to investigate thermal and rheological properties of selected ancient grain flours and to evaluate rheological properties of mixtures thereof represented by pasta dough and dry pasta. Flours from spelt, einkorn, and emmer ancient wheat varieties were combined with quinoa flour. All these flour sources are considered healthy grains of high bioactive component content. Research results were compared to durum wheat flour or spelt wheat flour systems. Differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and a rapid visco analyzer (RVA) were used to investigate the phase transition behavior of the flours and pasting characteristics of the flours and dried pasta. Angular frequency sweep experiments and creep and recovery tests of the pasta dough were performed. The main components modifying the pasta dough structure were starch and water. Moreover, the proportion of the individual flours influenced the rheological properties of the dough. The durum wheat dough was characterized by the lowest values of the K' and K″ parameters of the power law models (24,861 Pa·sn' and 10,687 Pa·sn″, respectively) and the highest values of the instantaneous (J0) and retardation (J1) compliances (0.453 × 10-4 Pa and 0.644 × 10-4 Pa, respectively). Replacing the spelt wheat flour with the other ancient wheat flours and quinoa flour increased the proportion of elastic properties and decreased values of the J0 and J1 of the pasta dough. Presence of the quinoa flour increased pasting temperature (from 81.4 up to 83.3 °C) and significantly influenced pasting viscosities of the spelt wheat pasta samples. This study indicates a potential for using mixtures of spelt, einkorn, and emmer wheat flours with quinoa flour in the production of innovative pasta dough and pasta products.

Glass Transition in Rice Pasta as Observed by Combined Neutron Scattering and Time-Domain NMR.

Experimental protocols aiming at the characterisation of glass transition often suffer from ambiguity. The ambition of the present study is to describe the glass transition in a complex, micro heterogeneous system, the dry rice pasta, in a most unambiguous manner, minimising the influence of technique-specific bias. To this end, we apply an unprecedented combination of experimental techniques. Apart from the usually used NMR and DSC, we employ, in a concurrent manner, neutron transmission, diffraction, and Compton scattering. This enables us to investigate the glass transition over a range of spatio-temporal scales that stretches over seven orders of magnitude. The results obtained by neutron diffraction and DSC reveal that dry rice pasta is almost entirely amorphous. Moreover, the glass transition is evidenced by neutron transmission and diffraction data and manifested as a significant decrease of the average sample number density in the temperature range between 40 and 60 °C. At the microscopic level, our NMR, neutron transmission and Compton scattering results provide evidence of changes in the secondary structure of the starch within the dry rice pasta accompanying the glass transition, whereby the long-range order provided by the polymer structure within the starch present in the dry rice pasta is partially lost.

Effect of Octenyl Succinic Anhydride (OSA) Modified Starches on the Rheological Properties of Dough and Characteristic of the Gluten-Free Bread.

The study focused on the influence of starch modified by octenyl succinic anhydride (OSA) on the rheological and thermal properties of gluten-free dough containing corn and potato starch with the addition of pectin and guar gum as structure-forming substances. The starch blend used in the original dough recipe was partially (5% to 15%) replaced with OSA starch. The rheological properties of dough samples were determined, and the properties of the resulting bread were analyzed. It was found that the dough samples behaved as weak gels, and the values of storage and loss moduli (G' and G″, respectively) significantly depended on angular frequency. Various shares of OSA starch in recipes modified dough in different ways, causing changes in its rheological characteristics. The introduction of OSA starch preparations resulted in changes in the bread volume and physical characteristics of the crumb. All the applied preparations caused an increase in bread porosity and the number of pores larger than 5 mm, and there was a parallel decrease in pore density. The presence of OSA starch preparations modified bread texture depending on the amount and type of the applied preparation. The introduction of OSA starches in gluten-free bread formulation caused a significant drop in the enthalpy of retrograded amylopectin decomposition, indicating a beneficial influence of such type of additive on staling retardation in gluten-free bread.

The influence of the extrusion process on the nutritional composition, physical properties and storage stability of black chokeberry pomaces.

The study examined the influence of the process of extrusion on the physical properties and nutritional composition of black chokeberry pomaces. It has been determined that the extrusion process resulted in a reduction of the content of anthocyanins and fibre, but an increase of the contribution of simple sugars. In order to assess the phase transitions occurring in the products, a state diagram was utilized, which was constructed using the freezing and vitrification curve and values characterizing the conditions of maximum cryoconcentration. The determined values of critical water activity (based on water activity concepts) indicate that pomaces and extrudates retain crispiness in storage under moderate environmental relative humidity conditions. However, in the case of the glass transition concept, the determined values of water activity indicate that products stored in room temperature must be protected against the influence of humidity.

Influence of Replacement Part of Starch with Inulin on the Rheological Properties of Pastes and Gels Based on Potato Starch.

The objective of the present study was to determine the influence of replacement part of starch with inulin on the rheological characteristics of pastes and gels obtained on the basis of potato starch. Replacement of the starch by inulin varied from 0 to 40%. Flow curves for pastes and gels were determined, and the viscoelastic properties were characterized using dynamic tests and creep and recovery tests. It was determined that the replacement of part of potato starch with inulin significantly modifies rheological properties of starch pastes and gels, weakening their structure. With the increasing amount of inulin, an increase of viscous properties was becoming more apparent. Moreover, an irregular influence of inulin addition on the parameters of rheological characteristics was determined. Initially, the differences were minor, and the differences at the lowest addition were typically statistically insignificant, followed by strong increase with local restrictions to structural weakening.

Moisture sorption characteristics of food powders containing freeze dried avocado, maltodextrin and inulin.

Moisture adsorption isotherms of the freeze-dried powders containing avocado, maltodextrin and inulin with different ratio, were determined using gravimetric static method of saturated salt solutions at 25 °C and the range of the water activity from 0.11 to 0.86. The data obtained were evaluated using sorption models: BET (Brunauer-Emmett-Teller), GAB (Guggenheim, Anderson and deBoer), Peleg, Lewicki, Oswin and Henderson. The goodness of the fit evaluated on the basis of criteria such as coefficient of the determination and root mean square values. Sorption isotherm of the pure avocado powder was III type while curves plotted for others powders showed sigmoid shape. It was found that the Peleg model was the most adequate for representation of the sorption data of all analyzed blends. In order to characterize the research material, chemical composition of the edible part of the avocado fruit was determined. Main component of the dry matter was fat.

Physicochemical, thermal and rheological properties of starches isolated from malting barley varieties.

The aim of this work was to characterize physicochemical, thermal and rheological properties of starches isolated from malting barley varieties. The analyzed starches contained 19.6-25.2 g of amylose, 42.47-70.67 mg of phosphorus, 0.50-1.26 g of protein and 0.10-0.61 g of fat per 100 g of starch dry mass. The clarity of the 1 % (w/w) starch pastes ranged from 5.4 to 9.8 %. Values of the characteristic gelatinization temperatures were in the ranges of 56.5-58.5 °C, 61.2-63.0 °C and 66.7-68.7 °C, respectively for TO, TP and TE, whereas values of gelatinization enthalpy were from 6.49 to 9.61 J/g. The barley starches showed various tendency to retrogradation, from 24.52 to 44.22 %, measured as R = ∆HR/∆HG value. The pasting curves showed differences in pasting characteristics of the barley starches, where values of peak (PV) and final (FV) viscosities were 133-230 mPa·s and 224-411 mPa·s, respectively. The barley starch pastes exhibited non-Newtonian, shear thinning flow behaviour and thixotropy phenomenon. After cooling the starch gels showed different viscoelastic properties, however, most of them behaved like weak gels (tan δ = G″/G' > 0.1). Significant linear correlations between the parameters of pasting characteristic and some rheological parameters were found.

Effect of Maltodextrins on the Rheological Properties of Potato Starch Pastes and Gels.

The study examines the effects of maltodextrins saccharified to various degrees on some rheological properties of potato starch dispersions. Pasting characteristics, flow curves, and mechanical spectra were determined for native potato starch and for its blends with potato maltodextrins having dextrose equivalents (DE) of 10.5, 18.4, and 26.5. The results showed that medium-saccharified maltodextrin (DE = 18.4) gave the strongest effect, manifesting itself as a considerable reduction in the viscosity at pasting, a decrease in apparent viscosity during flow, and a decrease in the storage and loss moduli. Addition of high-(DE = 26.5) or low-(DE = 10.5) saccharified maltodextrins had a markedly smaller effect on the rheological properties of starch. The differences in the effects produced by the maltodextrins are closely connected to the degree of polymerisation of the maltooligosaccharides in the systems.

Effect of inulin on rheological and thermal properties of gluten-free dough.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the influence of inulins with varying degree of polymerization on rheological and thermal properties of gluten-free starch-based dough. The share of inulin reduced the values of consistency coefficient, as well as storage and loss moduli, and increased creep compliance. Inulin preparation with the highest average degree of polymerization had the strongest impact on viscoelastic properties of the obtained dough. The presence of inulin also caused a significant decrease of viscosity upon pasting, and an increase of gelatinization temperatures TOg, TP1g, TP2g, and TEg. Addition of inulin had no effect on gelatinization enthalpy (ΔHg), while it strongly reduced the enthalpies of retrograded amylopectin after storage. Water binding properties of inulin seem to be the key factor, responsible for modification of dough properties, because they influence solvent availability for other constituents of such system.