Gluten free sourdough bread enriched with cricket flour for protein fortification: Antioxidant improvement and Volatilome characterization.

Insects represent a novel source of edible high nutritional value proteins which are gaining increasing interest as an alternative to traditional animal foods. In this work, cricket flour was used to produce gluten-free sourdough breads, suitable for celiac people and "source of proteins". The doughs were fermented by different methods and pH and microbial growth, volatile compounds, protein profile, and antioxidant activity, before and after baking, were analyzed and compared to standard gluten-free doughs. The results showed that cricket-enriched doughs and the standard had similar fermentation processes. Cricket enrichment conferred to the breads a typical flavoring profile, characterized by a unique bouquet of volatile compounds, made by nonanoic acid, 2,4-nonadienal (E,E), 1-hexanol, 1-heptanol, and 3-octen-2-one, expressed in different amounts depending on the type of inoculum. Finally, antioxidant activities were significantly enhanced in cricket breads, indicating that cricket powder provides to bakery gluten-free goods high nutritional value proteins and antioxidant properties.

Functional, nutritional, antioxidant, sensory properties and comparative peptidomic profile of faba bean (Vicia faba, L.) seed protein hydrolysates and fortified apple juice.

Enzymatic hydrolysis of plant-derived proteins can improve their quality by offering opportunities for food applications. In this study, three proteolytic enzymes (pepsin, trypsin, Alcalase®) were used, alone or combined, to produce faba bean protein hydrolysates (PHs). Their functional, nutritional and antioxidant properties were evaluated, and the peptidomic profile was assessed by LC-MS/MS. Hydrolysis improved solubility of faba proteins at acidic and neutral pH, and their antioxidant properties. Peptidomic analysis identified 2031 peptides in the different PHs. Among them, 9 showed 100% homology with previously known antioxidant peptides and several others had antioxidant motifs in their sequences. Sensory data analysis showed that after addition of PHs to apple juice, no significant differences were perceived between control and some of the PHs. This study demonstrates that enzymatic hydrolysis enhances the functional and antioxidant properties of faba bean proteins. Specifically, hydrolysates can be used as functional food ingredients to produce fortified beverages.