Gas Chromatographic Fingerprinting Coupled to Chemometrics for Food Authentication

 Food Reviews International, 2020, 36, 384-427

DOI: 10.1080/87559129.2019.1649691

Fingerprinting has become a powerful device in food authentication activities. Food products can be verified based on their chemical composition, geographical origin, specified botanical sources or possible adulterations by fingerprinting gas chromatographic chemical analysis and a subsequent multivariate data analysis. Although fingerprinting approaches have already been used successfully in many research projects, feasibility and employment in routine daily tests and food composition monitoring are not still widespread. Within this review, food fingerprinting studies in gas chromatographic methods for different food product categories were selected by a systematic search method. The studies were examined for chemometrics techniques, identification of effective variables, method validation and quality assurance parameters. In this way, the research activities could be considered as an effective starting point to establish fingerprinting techniques for food authentication in wide industrial scale in the future.

Bioactive Compounds and Quality of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

 Foods 2020, 9(8), 1014

DOI:10.3390/foods9081014

Background: 

Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is responsible for a large part of many health benefits associated to Mediterranean diet as it is a fundamental ingredient of this diet. The peculiarities of this golden, highly valued product are in part due to the requirements that must be met to achieve this title, namely, it has to be obtained using exclusively mechanical procedures, its free acidity cannot be greater than 0.8%, it must not show sensory defects, and it has to possess a fruity taste. 

Methods: 

All these characteristics are key factors to EVOO quality, thus the chemical composition of these many health-promoting compounds, such as unsaturated fatty acids (which are also the major compounds, especially oleic acid), as well as minor components such as tocopherols or phenolic compounds (which behave as natural antioxidants) must be preserved. 

Results: 

Due to the presence of all these compounds, the daily consumption of EVOO entails health benefits such as cardioprotective, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor properties or acting as regulator of the intestinal microbiota, among others. 

Conclusions: 

Taking all together, conserving EVOO chemical composition is essential to preserve its properties, so it is worth to control certain factors during storage like exposure to light, temperature, oxygen presence or the chosen packaging material, to maintain its quality and extend its shelf-life until its consumption.

Influence of tetraconazole on the proteome profile of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Lalvin T73™ strain

Journal of Proteomics, 2020, 227, 103915 

DOI:10.1016/j.jprot.2020.103915

This work aimed to evaluate the modifications on the proteome profile of Saccharomyces cerevisiae T73™ strain as a consequence of its adaptive response to the presence of tetraconazole molecules in the fermentation medium. Pasteurised grape juices were separately supplemented with tetraconazole or a commercial formulation containing 12.5% w/v of tetraconazole at two concentration levels. In addition, experiments without fungicides were developed for comparative purposes.

Proteome profiles of yeasts cultured in the presence or absence of fungicide molecules were different. Independently of the fungicide treatment applied, the highest variations concerning the control sample were observed for those proteins involved in metabolic processes, especially in the metabolism of nitrogen compounds. Tetraconazole molecules altered the abundance of several enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of amino acids, purines, and ergosterol. Moreover, differences in the abundance of several enzymes of the TCA cycle were found. Changes observed were different between the active substance and the commercial formulation.

Significance

The presence of fungicide residues in grape juice has direct implications on the development of the aromatic profile of the wine. These alterations could be related to changes in the secondary metabolism of yeasts. However, the molecular mechanisms involved in the response of yeasts to fungicide residues remains quite unexplored. Through this exhaustive proteomic study, alterations in the amino acids biosynthesis pathways due to the presence of the tetraconazole molecules were observed. Amino acids are precursors of some important higher alcohols and ethyl acetates (such as methionol, 2-phenylethanol, isoamyl alcohol or 2-phenylacetate). Besides, the effect of tetraconazole on the ergosterol biosynthesis pathway could be related to a higher production of medium-chain fatty acids and their corresponding ethyl acetates.

Potential Health Benefit of Garlic Based on Human Intervention Studies: A Brief Overview

 Antioxidants 2020, 9(7), 619 

DOI: 10.3390/antiox9070619

Garlic is a polyphenolic and organosulfur enriched nutraceutical spice consumed since ancient times. Garlic and its secondary metabolites have shown excellent health-promoting and disease-preventing effects on many human common diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular and metabolic disorders, blood pressure, and diabetes, through its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and lipid-lowering properties, as demonstrated in several in vitro, in vivo, and clinical studies. The present review aims to provide a comprehensive overview on the consumption of garlic, garlic preparation, garlic extract, and garlic extract-derived bioactive constituents on oxidative stress, inflammation, cancer, cardiovascular and metabolic disorders, skin, bone, and other common diseases. Among the 83 human interventional trials considered, the consumption of garlic has been reported to modulate multiple biomarkers of different diseases; in addition, its combination with drugs or other food matrices has been shown to be safe and to prolong their therapeutic effects. The rapid metabolism and poor bioavailability that have limited the therapeutic use of garlic in the last years are also discussed.

Stability assessment of extracts obtained from Arbutus unedo L. fruits in powder and solution systems using machine-learning methodologies

 Food Chem. 2020, 333,127460

Arbutus unedo L. (strawberry tree) has showed considerable content in phenolic compounds, especially flavan-3-ols (catechin, gallocatechin, among others). The interest of flavan-3-ols has increased due their bioactive actions, namely antioxidant and antimicrobial activities, and by association of their consumption to diverse health benefits including the prevention of obesity, cardiovascular diseases or cancer. These compounds, mainly catechin, have been showed potential for use as natural preservative in foodstuffs; however, their degradation is increased by pH and temperature of processing and storage, which can limit their use by food industry. To model the degradation kinetics of these compounds under different conditions of storage, three kinds of machine learning models were developed: i) random forest, ii) support vector machine and iii) artificial neural network. The selected models can be used to track the kinetics of the different compounds and properties under study without the prior knowledge requirement of the reaction system.

Preventive potential and mechanism of dietary polyphenols on the formation of heterocyclic aromatic amines

 Food Frontiers, 2020, 1, 134-151

https://doi.org/10.1002/fft2.30

Thermal processing is the most important and popular domestic cooking method. More than 30 heterocyclic aromatic amines have been identified in cooked meat using various methods. This review highlights preventive potential and mechanism of dietary polyphenols on the formation of heterocyclic amines. Tea, coffee, fruits, vegetable, and spice extracts rich in polyphenols exerted significant inhibition against the formation of heterocyclic aromatic amines. Some polyphenols, such as naringenin and epigallocatechin 3‐O‐gallate, can actively participate into food chemistry reaction to trap Strecker aldehyde and lower the formation of heterocyclic aromatic amines. In addition, some polyphenols can lower the mutagenicity of heterocyclic aromatic amines. More specifically, polyphenols possessing two hydroxyl groups at the meta position of aromatic ring are the most efficient one, but the presence of carboxylic or alkyl groups as substituents in the aromatic ring slightly reduced the inhibitory effect.

Application of Rank Annihilation Factor Analysis for Antibacterial Drugs Determination by Means of pH Gradual Change-UV Spectral Data

 Antibiotics 2020, 9(7), 383

DOI: 10.3390/antibiotics9070383

The main objective of this study was to develop a simple and efficient spectrophotometric technique combined with chemometrics for the simultaneous determination of sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and trimethoprim (TMP) in drug formulations. Specifically, we sought: (i) to evaluate the potential use of rank annihilation factor analysis (RAFA) to pH gradual change spectrophotometric data in order to provide sufficient accuracy and model robustness; and (ii) to determine SMX and TMP concentration in drug formulations without tedious pre-treatments such as derivatization or extraction techniques which are time-consuming and require hazardous solvents. In the proposed method, the spectra of the sample solutions at different pH values were recorded and the pH-spectra bilinear data matrix was generated. On these data, RAFA was then applied to estimate the concentrations of SMX and TMP in synthetic and real samples. Applying RAFA showed that the two drugs could be determined simultaneously with concentration ratios of SMX to TMP varying from 1:30 to 30:1 in the mixed samples (concentration range is 1–30 µg mL−1 for both components). The limits of detection were 0.25 and 0.38 µg mL−1 for SMX and TMP, respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied to the simultaneous determination of SMX and TMP in some synthetic, pharmaceutical formulation and biological fluid samples. In addition, the means of the estimated RSD (%) were 1.71 and 2.18 for SMX and TMP, respectively, in synthetic mixtures. The accuracy of the proposed method was confirmed by spiked recovery test on biological samples with satisfactory results (90.50–109.80%).

Stability assessment of extracts obtained from Arbutus unedo L. fruits in powder and solution systems using machine-learning methodologies

 Food Chemistry, 2020, 33, 127460

DOI:10.1016/j.foodchem.2020.127460

Arbutus unedo L. (strawberry tree) has showed considerable content in phenolic compounds, especially flavan-3-ols (catechin, gallocatechin, among others). The interest of flavan-3-ols has increased due their bioactive actions, namely antioxidant and antimicrobial activities, and by association of their consumption to diverse health benefits including the prevention of obesity, cardiovascular diseases or cancer. These compounds, mainly catechin, have been showed potential for use as natural preservative in foodstuffs; however, their degradation is increased by pH and temperature of processing and storage, which can limit their use by food industry. To model the degradation kinetics of these compounds under different conditions of storage, three kinds of machine learning models were developed: i) random forest, ii) support vector machine and iii) artificial neural network. The selected models can be used to track the kinetics of the different compounds and properties under study without the prior knowledge requirement of the reaction system.

Pomegranate Peel as Suitable Source of High-Added Value Bioactives: Tailored Functionalized Meat Products

Molecules 2020, 25(12), 2859

In the last few years, the consumer’s concern with the relationship between health and diet has led to the search of foods with functional properties beyond the nutritional. In this framework, the consumption of pomegranate has increased due to their sensorial attributes and remarkable amounts of bioactive compounds, which generate, at the same time, huge amounts of by-products. A search in the Scopus database for the last 10 years has revealed the rising interest in pomegranate peel (PP), the main residue from this fruit. The meat industry is a food sector that has had to search for new alternatives to substitute the use of synthetic preservatives by new natural additives, to extend the self-life and keep the quality attributes of their processed products. This review sets out the main bioactivities of PP extracts, and their incorporation in meat products is elaborated. PP is a good source of bioactive compounds, including phenolic acids, flavonoids and hydrolyzable tannins, which have beneficial health effects. It can be concluded that the reformulation of meat products with PP extracts is a suitable strategy for enhancing their technological characteristics, in addition to conferring functional properties that make them healthier and potentially more acceptable for the consumer.

Rapid liquid chromatographic method for the control of doxycycline and tiamulin residues and their metabolites in vivo assays with pigs: Treatment and depletion

 Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis, 2020, 190, 113428

DOI:10.1016/j.jpba.2020.113428

Results gained from in vivo metabolism could be more authentic to reflect the biotransformation of drugs than in vitro metabolism. This paper discusses the development and characterization of an analytical method for controlling tiamulin (TIA) and doxycycline (DOX) residues in pig plasma and urine, as well as their in vivo biotransformation during treatment and suppression steps at pig farms. For such a purpose, urine samples were taken daily (24-hr intervals) during treatment and until day 8 after last dose. Plasma samples were collected on the last treatment day and up to days 4 and 7 after the last dose. Only traces of TIA and their metabolites have been still detected 8 days after the last day of therapy, in agreement with the period of suppression of both antibiotics set by the manufacturers in 7 days. It was estimated that TIA and DOX half-lives were of two days and one day, respectively. TIA and DOX metabolites have been identified for the first time in plasma and urine pig samples during treatment and suppression steps.

AA1 & EcoChestnut

EcoChestnut project aims at enhancing the development opportunities and boost the growth potential of European chestnut farmers & chestnut products producers.

 

EcoChestnut main output is an online comprehensive and tailored training on organic chestnuts farming & chestnut products manufacturing. The course focuses also on enhancing the competences on marketing strategy, communication with customers, and diversification of the activities.

 

EcoChestnut project supports farmers and producers in development of their potential for production and promotion of organic chestnuts & chestnut products. EcoChestnut will also provide the vocational trainers with learning methods and material to encourage farmers in their initiative.

Objectives

The EU chestnuts market has been experiencing a strong growth in demand for organic chestnut products for the last 10 years. This demand is unsatisfied in volume, so it has to rely on non-EU imports to be satisfied. The Project aims at enhancing the competitiveness of the EU chestnut farmers and producers.

The main objectives are:

1. Develop specific knowledge on production and promotion of Organic Chestnuts & Chestnut Products through a tailor made training course for farmers & producers.
2. Support chestnut farmers & chestnut products producers to enter the market of Organic Chestnuts & Chestnut Products in order to enhance their development opportunities and their growth potential.
3. Raise awareness in chestnuts & chestnut groves as part of cultural, historical and landscape heritage of the countries that produce them.
4. Promote sustainable agricultural farming & encourage the application of organic farming among new and existing chestnut farmers and producers.

To answer this needs, EcoChestnut proposes

1. The EcoChestnut Learning Model
2. A Training Course on Organic Chestnuts & Chestnut Products
3. A Manual for Trainers
4. A Guidebook on Certification of Organic Chestnuts
5. A Handbook on “Utilize the potential of the chestnut groves”

 

The project is running from November 2019 to April 2022.

Project number

2019-1-FR01-KA202-062276

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.

This website and all its contents reflect the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

More information following this link

Scientific basis for the industrialization of traditionally used plants of the Rosaceae family

Food Chemistry, 2020, 330, 127197

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2020.127197

Plants have been traditionally used for the treatment of different types of illness, due to biomolecules with recognised benefits. Rosaceae family is used in traditional Galician medicine. The following plants Agrimonia eupatoria, Crataegus monogyna, Filipendula ulmaria, Geum urbanum, Potentilla erecta and Rosa canina are usually found in treatments. The aim of this study is to perform an ethnobotanical review about the bioactive compounds of these plants and their different bioactivities, both studied in vitro and in vivo. The nature of the bioactive compounds is varied, highlighting the presence of different phenolic compounds, such as phenolic acids, flavonoids or tannins. Understanding the beneficial effects of the administration of the whole plant or target tissues from A. eupatoria, C. monogyna, F. ulmaria, G. urbanum, P. erecta and R. canina as well as those from their individual compounds could lead to the development of new drugs based on the use of natural ingredients.

 

The effect of two antifungal commercial formulations on the metabolism of a commercial Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain and their repercussion on fermentation evolution and phenylalanine catabolism

 Food Microbiology, 2020, 92, 103554

DOI: 10.1016/j.fm.2020.103554

The effect of two commercial formulations (incorporating mepanipyrim and tetraconazole as active substances) on the metabolism of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Lalvin T73™, growing on a synthetic grape must, and their influence on the alcoholic fermentation course and the biosynthesis of volatiles derived from phenylalanine catabolism was studied. No relevant effects were observed for mepanipyrim except for glycerol production. On the contrary, in the presence of tetraconazole many genes and some proteins related to cell cycle progression and mitosis were repressed. This fact could explain the lower biomass concentration and the lower sugar consumption registered for tetraconazole at the end of the study. However, the biomass-to-ethanol yield was higher in connection with the overexpression of the ADH1 gene. The presence of tetraconazole residues seems to accelerate the Ehrlich pathway. These results agree with the overexpression of several genes (BAT1, PDC1, PDC5, ADH1, SFA1, ATF2, PFK1, PFK2 and ARO3) and a higher abundance of two proteins (Gap1p and Atf2p) involved in this metabolic pathway.

Plant-Food Guarantee and Improvement

WEBINAR SERIES 

The series includes 3 live Webinars that will take place between 5-19 June 2020, starting at 11:30 AM, on the remote campus of Vigo University (Link). They will be carried out by leading professors and postdoctoral researchers in this subject area.



 Date: June 5th, 2020

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Program:
11:30- Greetings and presentation

11:35- Pre and post-harvest factors determining fruit nutritional quality.
Presenter: Bruno Mezzetti, Prof.- Full Professor Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences – Università Politecnica delle Marche. Higlhy Cited Researcher 2019. (Visiting professor)

12:10- Circular Bio-Economy and the Case of Phenolic Compounds from Food By-Products.
Presenter: Jesús Simal Gándara, Prof.- Full Professor Department of Food and Analytical Chemistry– Vigo University. Higlhy Cited Researcher 2018.

12:30- Models for Quantification of Individual, Synergistic, and Antagonistic Anti- and Pro-Oxidant Responses.
Presenter: Miguel Angel Prieto Lage, PhD- Postdoctoral Researcher (Ramón y Cajal), Department of Food and Analytical Chemistry – Vigo University.

12:50- Discussion


 Date: June 12th, 2020

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Program:
11:30- Greetings and presentation

11:35- Breeding and biotechnology for improving nutritional quality.
Presenter: Bruno Mezzetti, Prof.- Full Professor Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences – Università Politecnica delle Marche. Higlhy Cited Researcher 2019. (Visiting professor)

12:10- Technological Application of Tannin-Based Extracts.
Presenter: María Fraga Corral, PhD- Postdoctoral Researcher (Xunta de Galicia), Department of Food and Analytical Chemistry – Vigo University.

12:30- Phenolic Compounds as Nutraceutical Tools for the Prevention of Metabolic diseases.
Presenter: Tamara Forbes Hernández, PhD- Postdoctoral Researcher (Juan de la Cierva), Department of Food and Analytical Chemistry – Vigo University.

12:50- Discussion


 Date: June 19th, 2020

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Program:
11:30- Greetings and presentation

11:35- RNAi technology for food security and safety.
Presenter: Bruno Mezzetti, Prof.- Full Professor Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences – Università Politecnica delle Marche. Higlhy Cited Researcher 2019. (Visiting professor)

12:10- Phenolic Compounds as Nutraceutical Tools for the Prevention of Cancer.
Presenter: Francesca Giampieri, PhD.- Distinguished Researcher, Department of Food and Analytical Chemistry – Vigo University. Higlhy Cited Researcher 2019.

12:30- Bioactive compounds recovery from winery industry by-products: vine shoots as study case.
Presenter: Particia Gullón Estévez, PhD- Researcher Laboratory of Microbiology and Technology of Marine Products, Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas (IIM-CSIC).

12:50- Discussion

Advantages of techniques to fortify food products with the benefits of fish oil

 Food Research International, 2020, 137, 109353

DOI: 10.1016/j.foodres.2020.109353

Fish oil has been widely applied in fortified food products because of its special health benefits especially containing high unsaturated fatty acids mainly docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). Nowadays, there are various foods fortify with fish oil available in the market. The main challenge of fortification of food products with fish oil is its highly susceptible to oxidation and its influence on sensory attributes during storage. The fortification methods such as direct addition through bulk fish oil, emulsion or microencapsulation could effectively improve the oxidative stability of fish oil and mask unpleasant fishy flavour in fortified products. Therefore, this article provides a review of techniques, their advantages and limitations, together with the effects of incorporating fish oil in foods products.

Dietary polyphenols for managing cancers: What have we ignored?

 Trends in Food Science & Technology, 2020, 101, 150-164

DOI: 10.1016/j.tifs.2020.05.017

Although the chemoprevention and anti-cancer activities of dietary polyphenols have been evidenced through both in vitro and in vivo studies, most of the human clinical trials were unsuccessful or even harmful. Debates on the beneficial roles of dietary polyphenols in cancer therapy are increasing. Many dietary polyphenols studies are conducted by in vitro experiments, but the nature of these studies does not consider the complexity of metabolic processes that are present in vivo. These can often cause instability in the dietary polyphenols, thereby leading to unsuccessful extrapolation into animal or human studies. Dietary polyphenols often have low bioavailability, which is mainly due to poor bioaccessibility and significant metabolism mediated by both host enzymes and colon microbiota. Some metabolites or catabolites are more potent and absorb better than the parent component. It is recognised that the oral bioavailability of dietary polyphenols is underestimated when the bioactive metabolites or catabolites are not considered. Notably, dietary polyphenols and their metabolites undergo further cellular metabolism within the cancer cells, which confers “cellular bioavailability” as an additional step to influence the actions of dietary polyphenols. Moreover, there are growing controversies in using dietary polyphenols for both chemopreventive and anti-cancer applications. A clear therapeutic window for dietary polyphenols as specific chemopreventive or chemotherapeutic agents is required. This review, thus, aims to identify key issues that were ignored by most of the studies, or are critical for future investigation.

Recent advances in extracting phenolic compounds from food and their use in disease prevention and as cosmetics

 Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition

Phenolic compounds in plants are essential components of human nutrition, which provide various health benefits. However, some missing links became the research in phenolic compounds structures and potential applications in a challenging work. Despite universal extraction methods with mixtures of different organic solvents are generally adopted in the analysis of phenolic compounds, a need for establish a specific procedure is still open. The great heterogeneity in food and food by-products matrices and the lack of standardized methods which combine chromatographic with spectrophotometric techniques to calculate the amount of phenolic compounds joined with the absence of specific standards hamper to accurate know the real amount of phenolic compounds. Indeed, the high complexity in nature and chemistry of phenolic compounds clearly difficult to establish a daily intake to obtain certain healthy outcomes. Hence, despite the potential of phenolic compounds to use them in cosmetic and healthy applications have been widely analyzed, some concerns must be considered. The chemical complexity, the interactions between phenolic compounds and other food components and the structural changes induced by food processing joined with the lack in the understanding of phenolic compounds metabolism and bioavailability undergo the need to conduct a comprehensive review of each factors influencing the final activity of phenolic compounds. This paper summarizes the potential of phenolic compounds for disease prevention and cosmetics production, as well as their many other uses derived from their antioxidant activity. This paper illustrates the potential of phenolic compounds for disease prevention and cosmetics production, as well as their many other uses derived from their antioxidant activity.

Mitigation of emerging implications of climate change on food production systems

 Food Research International

Crops, livestock and seafood are major contributors to global economy. Agriculture and fisheries are especially dependent on climate. Thus, elevated temperatures and carbon dioxide levels can have large impacts on appropriate nutrient levels, soil moisture, water availability and various other critical performance conditions. Changes in drought and flood frequency and severity can pose severe challenges to farmers and threaten food safety. In addition, increasingly warmer water temperatures are likely to shift the habitat ranges of many fish and shellfish species, ultimately disrupting ecosystems. In general, climate change will probably have negative implications for farming, animal husbandry and fishing. The effects of climate change must be taken into account as a key aspect along with other evolving factors with a potential impact on agricultural production, such as changes in agricultural practices and technology; all of them with a serious impact on food availability and price. This review is intended to provide critical and timely information on climate change and its implications in the food production/consumption system, paying special attention to the available mitigation strategies.

Food production link to underground waters quality in A Limia river basin

 Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 2020, 297, 106969

DOI:10.1016/j.agee.2020.106969

Water pollution is a global challenge, undermining economic growth as well as the physical and environmental health of billions of people. With the exception of polar caps, the world's largest freshwater reserve is found underground, but human activities such as agricultural, livestock, urban or industrial can affect its quality. 

The aim of this work was to carry out a study on the chemical quality of groundwater in the region of A Limia (NW Spain) and to evaluate its possible degradation by anthropogenic influence. Water samples were taken from 76 private wells and 26 natural sources in the region. The presence and levels of anions were analyzed by ion chromatography, whereas trace metals were measured by an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS). More than half of the wells analyzed and three natural sources showed nitrate contamination and some samples exceeded the limit allowed by legislation for other elements and compounds. It could be inferred that this surface aquifer contamination could be attributed to intensive agriculture and livestock farming.

Toward a sustainable metric and indicators for the goal of sustainability in agricultural and food production

 Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition

This paper reviews the state of the art in agricultural and food sustainability with special emphasis on metrics for monitoring progress toward their accomplishment, and with a view to assisting stakeholders in facing the challenges involved. Priorities, bottlenecks, alternatives, conclusions and recommendations are considered. Finding long-lasting solutions in this scenario will inevitably require revising rural development and smallholder agriculture, and bringing about structural changes for the benefit of the poorer stakeholders. Better farming systems, new technologies, quality education and effective business models can be useful toward creating decent jobs, solving resource constraints, expanding market participation, and alleviating physical hardship in the agricultural sector —particularly among women and young people. Agriculture in industrialized countries will additionally require restructuring with new policies aimed at favoring low- and medium-income countries. On the other hand, high-income countries will have to face pressing challenges including unhealthy diets, food waste generation, balancing food and biofuel production, and developing fair agricultural policies. In addition, the richer should lead the way to higher levels of productivity, resource efficiency, food safety and traceability, and environmental friendliness in order to provide useful lessons for technological development and policing in developing countries. This is why, after presenting the actual world status of food sustainability and how its global governance is linked to environmental, economic and social dimensions, some measures and indicators for monitoring progress are reviewed with the final aim of providing solutions and recommendations for the sustainability of the food production and consumption system.

#QuedaNaCasa

Latest developments in the application of cyclodextrin host-guest complexes in beverage technology processes

 Food Hydrocolloids

The use of cyclodextrins (CDs) in beverages has increased in the last decades, and they are widely used in food processing and technology. Cyclodextrins have an important capacity for use in the technology industry due to their capacity to form an inclusion complex with a large number of compounds. This complex can improve the food characteristics, such as stabilize volatile compounds, preserve the physical and chemical stability, improve the shelf-life, mask and reduce unwanted flavours, odours or bitterness, protect compounds against heat treatments, etc. This review deals with applications of cyclodextrins in industrial beverage products using different scientific databases and patenting authorities around the world.

Random Forest, Artificial Neural Network, and Support Vector Machine Models for Honey Classification

eFood, 2020, 1(1) 69-76

Different separated protein fractions by the electrophoretic method in polyacrylamide gel were used to classify two different types of honeys, Galician honeys and commercial honeys produced and packaged outside of Galicia. Random forest, artificial neural network, and support vector machine models were tested to differentiate Galician honeys and other commercial honeys produced and packaged outside of Galicia. The results obtained for the best random forest model allowed us to determine the origin of honeys with an accuracy of 95.2%. The random forest model, and the other developed models, could be improved with the inclusion of new data from different commercial honeys.

II Xornada de Riscos Emerxentes en Seguridade Alimentaria

A Rede Galega de Riscos Emerxentes en Seguridade Alimentaria (RISEGAL) celebrará a II Xornada de Riscos Emerxentes o próximo 16 de outubro no Edificio Miralles sito no Campus da Universidade de Vigo. A Xornada contatá coa participación de representantes doutras redes de coñecemento de España e Portugal e de expertos dalgúns dos perigos emerxentes de importancia en seguridade alimentaria.

O prazo para inscribirse xa está aberto. O aforo é limitado

Mais información

The Potential of Seaweeds as a Source of Functional Ingredients of Prebiotic and Antioxidant Value

 Antioxidants 2019, 8(9), 406

Two thirds of the world is covered by oceans, whose upper layer is inhabited by algae. This means that there is a large extension to obtain these photoautotrophic organisms. Algae have undergone a boom in recent years, with consequent discoveries and advances in this field. Algae are not only of high ecological value but also of great economic importance. Possible applications of algae are very diverse and include anti-biofilm activity, production of biofuels, bioremediation, as fertilizer, as fish feed, as food or food ingredients, in pharmacology (since they show antioxidant or contraceptive activities), in cosmeceutical formulation, and in such other applications as filters or for obtaining minerals. In this context, algae as food can be of help to maintain or even improve human health, and there is a growing interest in new products called functional foods, which can promote such a healthy state. Therefore, in this search, one of the main areas of research is the extraction and characterization of new natural ingredients with biological activity (e.g., prebiotic and antioxidant) that can contribute to consumers’ well-being. The present review shows the results of a bibliographic survey on the chemical composition of macroalgae, together with a critical discussion about their potential as natural sources of new functional ingredients.

AQUACIBUS en el Telediario de Ecuador

Aqua Technica

La Universidad Técnica de Manabí lanza la nueva revista AQUA TECHNICA, Revista Iberoamericana de Acuicultura. Dicha publicación cuenta con el apoyo de la Red AQUACIBUS a la que pertenece nuestro grupo de investigación y que está liderada por la Universidad de Vigo.

Desde aquí os invitamos a participar en la misma y darle la mayor difusión posible. Así mismo queremos expresar nuestros mejores deseos al Prof. Carlos Lodeiros, impulsor de esta importante iniciativa.

Interaction of Caffeic Acid with SDS Micellar Aggregates

Molecules 2019, 24(7), 1204

DOI: 10.3390/molecules24071204

Micellar systems consisting of a surfactant and an additive such as an organic salt or an acid usually self-organize as a series of worm-like micelles that ultimately form a micellar network. The nature of the additive influences micellar structure and properties such as aggregate lifetime. For ionic surfactants such as sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), CMC decreases with increasing temperature to a minimum in the low-temperature region beyond which it exhibits the opposite trend. The presence of additives in a surfactant micellar system also modifies monomer interactions in aggregates, thereby altering CMC and conductance. Because the standard deviation of β was always lower than 10%, its slight decrease with increasing temperature was not significant. However, the absolute value of Gibbs free enthalpy, a thermodynamic potential that can be used to calculate the maximum of reversible work, increased with increasing temperature and caffeic acid concentration. Micellization in the presence of caffeic acid was an endothermic process, which was entropically controlled. The enthalpy and enthropy positive values resulted from melting of “icebergs” or “flickering clusters” around the surfactant, leading to increased packing of hydrocarbon chains within the micellar core in a non-random manner. This can be possibly explained by caffeic acid governing the 3D matrix structure of water around the micellar aggregates. The fact that both enthalpy and entropy were positive testifies to the importance of hydrophobic interactions as a major driving force for micellization. Micellar systems allow the service life of some products to be extended without the need to increase the amounts of post-harvest storage preservatives used. If a surfactant is not an allowed ingredient or food additive, carefully washing it off before the product is consumed can avoid any associated risks. In this work, we examined the influence of temperature and SDS concentration on the properties of SDS–caffeic acid micellar systems. Micellar properties can be modified with various additives to develop new uses for micelles. This allows smaller amounts of additives to be used without detracting from their benefits.

Dissipation of Three Fungicides and Their Effects on Anthocyanins and Color of Monastrell Red Wines

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2019, 20(6), 1447

DOI: 10.3390/ijms20061447

The effect of fungicides on fermentation is of paramount importance to control the quality and safety of wines. In this work, the quality (enological parameters, color, phenolic content, antioxidant activity, and fungicide residues) of wines from Monastrell grapes fortified with iprovalicarb, mepanipyrim, and tetraconazole fungicides was evaluated. Along the winemaking process, initial residues of mepanipyrim and tetraconazole were removed in more than 90% while the dissipation of iprovalicarb was around 73%. Significant statistical differences were found in the presence of iprovalicarb and mepanipyrim residues, especially at the highest concentration assayed. For both fungicides, increases in the volatile acidity (between 4 and 8.6 times), the lactic acid content (between 8.6 and 20.5 times), the percentage of polymeric anthocyanins (between 1.3 and 1.7 times), and also a slight increase of the total phenolic index and the total anthocyanin content determined by spectrophotometry were observed. On the contrary, the total monomeric anthocyanins content decreased about 16.3% and 28.6% in the presence of iprovalicarb and mepanipyrim, respectively. These results could be related to a higher development of acetic acid or lactic bacteria in the presence of these fungicides. The color of the final wines was also different in comparison with the control, with a higher yellow component, color intensity, tonality, and hue angle because of pH changes in the medium. Tetraconazole fermentations had a more similar trend to the control wine, probably due to the lower concentration of this fungicide in the grape must at the initial time. No effects on the antioxidant activity was observed for any of the target fungicides. A multivariate statistical analysis was done to view the interrelationships between different variables (color and anthocyanins profile). The obtained model allowed the wines to be separated according to the fungicide treatment applied.

Prediction Models to Control Aging Time in Red Wine

Molecules 2019, 24(5), 826

DOI: 10.3390/molecules24050826

A combination of physical-chemical analysis has been used to monitor the aging of red wines from D.O. Toro (Spain). The changes in the chemical composition of wines that occur over the aging time can be used to distinguish between wine samples collected after one, four, seven and ten months of aging. Different computational models were used to develop a good authenticity tool to certify wines. In this research, different models have been developed: Artificial Neural Network models (ANNs), Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Random Forest (RF) models. The results obtained for the ANN model developed with sigmoidal function in the output neuron and the RF model permit us to determine the aging time, with an average absolute percentage deviation below 1%, so it can be concluded that these two models have demonstrated their capacity to predict the age of wine.

Optimization of the Extraction Process to Obtain a Colorant Ingredient from Leaves of Ocimum basilicum var. purpurascens

Molecules 2019, 24(4), 686

DOI: 10.3390/molecules24040686

Heat-Assisted Extraction (HAE) was used for the optimized production of an extract rich in anthocyanin compounds from Ocimum basilicum var. purpurascens leaves. The optimization was performed using the response surface methodology employing a central composite experimental design with five-levels for each of the assessed variables. The independent variables studied were the extraction time (t, 20–120 min), temperature (T, 25–85 °C), and solvent (S, 0–100% of ethanol, v/v). Anthocyanin compounds were analysed by HPLC-DAD-ESI/MS and the extraction yields were used as response variables. Theoretical models were developed for the obtained experimental data, then the models were validated by a selected number of statistical tests, and finally, those models were used in the prediction and optimization steps. The optimal HAE conditions for the extraction of anthocyanin compounds were: t = 65.37 ± 3.62 min, T = 85.00 ± 1.17 °C and S = 62.50 ± 4.24%, and originated 114.74 ± 0.58 TA mg/g of extract. This study highlighted the red rubin basil leaves as a promising natural matrix to extract pigmented compounds, using green solvents and reduced extraction times. The extract rich in anthocyanins also showed antimicrobial and anti-proliferative properties against four human tumor cell lines, without any toxicity on a primary porcine liver cell line.

Fatty Acids-Based Quality Index to Differentiate Worldwide Commercial Pistachio Cultivars

Molecules 2019, 24(1), 58

DOI: 10.3390/molecules24010058

The fatty acid profiles of five main commercial pistachio cultivars, including Ahmad-Aghaei, Akbari, Chrok, Kalle-Ghouchi, and Ohadi, were determined by gas chromatography: palmitic (C16:0), palmitoleic (C16:1), stearic (C18:0), oleic (C18:1), linoleic (C18:2), linolenic (C18:3), arachidic (C20:0), and gondoic (C20:1) acid. Based on the oleic to linoleic acid (O/L) ratio, a quality index was determined for these five cultivars: Ohadi (2.40) < Ahmad-Aghaei (2.60) < Kale-Ghouchi (2.94) < Chrok (3.05) < Akbari (3.66). Principal component analysis (PCA) of the fatty acid data yielded three significant PCs, which together account for 80.0% of the total variance in the dataset. A linear discriminant analysis (LDA) model that was evaluated with cross-validation correctly classified almost all of the samples: the average percent accuracy for the prediction set was 98.0%. The high predictive power for the prediction set shows the ability to indicate the cultivar of an unknown sample based on its fatty acid chromatographic fingerprint.

International Journal of Molecular Science. Special Issue "Host-Guest Complexes"

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue entitled "Host-guest Complex" belongs to the section "Physical Chemistry and Chemical Physics". International Journal of Molecular Sciences is published by MPDI, and is indexed in Journal Citation Report with 3.687 in Multidisciplinar chemistry and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology categories. Since 2000 is an Open Access publication. In order to provide free access to readers, and to cover the costs of peer review, copyediting, typesetting, long-term archiving, and journal management, an article processing charge (APC)

Special Issue Information

Host–guest complexes, also known as inclusion complexes, are supramolecular structures composed of two or more molecules or ions that are maintained through noncovalent interactions.

In this Special Issue, we hope to address both the structural aspects of the formation and stability of these inclusion complexes as well as the energetic aspects associated with them, together with the different instrumental techniques used to characterize them, addressing the aspects related to molecular recognition and conformational switching. Of course, we must also take into account the aspects related to the technological applications of these compounds. In fact, they show important potentialities in topics such as superconductivity phenomena, the design of sensors, and food chemistry, agricultural chemistry, or their applications in matters of the environment.

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access bimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

host-guest complexes conformation and structure

inclusion complexes formation and stability

cooperativity

sensing

cyclodextrins

calixarenes

cucurbiturils

porphyrins

crown ethers

zeolites

carcelands

2018 HCR

Jesus Simal-Gándara, HCR 2018

Highly Cited Researchers (HCR) recolle aos investigadores situados entre o 1% dos máis citados en cada campo e en cada ano en Web of Science, e baseada nos traballos publicados e citados durante a última década. Na lista están catro científicos galegos: Jesús Simal e Maurizio Battino (UVigo), Juan José Nieto (USC), e Luis Liz Marzán (Ikerbasque).

Os nosos parabéns para o nosso compañeiro.

Actas AQUA CIBUS Volumen 1

El libro de actas de la Red Aqua Cibus correspondiente al año 2018 ya está disponible. Puedes descargar de forma gratuita el libro "Actas Aqua Cibus, volumen 1" en la plataforma CYTED

Contenidos:

• J. Simal-Gándara, Programa Iberoamericano de Ciencia y Tecnología para el Desarrollo. 
• J. C. Mejuto, Fortaleciendo la Acuicultura en Iberoamérica: Calidad, Competitividad y Sostenibilidad. 
• P. Martínez, Red Inmunogenom: Control de Patologías Relacionadas con la Acuicultura.
• M. Quiroga-Berdeal, Anatomía Patológica Veterinaria: una Herramienta de Gestión Sanitaria en Acuicultura. 
• E. Orche-García, Parionaccocha: una Piscigranja a 4.500 m de Altitud. 
• J. Diogene-Fadini, Detección de Toxinas Marinas Emergentes. 
• B. Paz-Pino, Análisis de Biotoxinas Marinas Reguladas. 
• M. Rey-Méndez, Las Herramientas Moleculares en el Cultivo del Pulpo, Erizos de Mar y Valoración del Berberecho. 
•  A. Gago, Estrategias para la Determinación y Confirmación de Biotoxinas Marinas.
• J. Lago, Avances en LC/MS/MS para dar Respuesta a los Desafíos en Acuicultura. 
• J. Lliberia, Nuevas Tecnologías: Rompiendo Barreras y Abriendo Nuevos Horizontes en HR LC-MS/MS. 
• T. Dagnac, Estudio de la Fotodegradación de Diferentes Contaminantes Orgánicos en el Medio Acuático.
• J. Lliberia, Nuevas Tecnologías: Rompiendo Barreras y Abriendo Nuevos Horizontes en TQ LC-MS/MS. 
• M. Ferreira-Novio, Aspectos Tecnológicos de la Producción de Microalgas.
• M.J. Chapela-Garrido, Obtención de Copuestos de Alto Valor a Partir de Microalgas.
• G. Álvarez-Vergara, Biotoxinas de Origen Fitoplanctónico y su Impacto en la Acuicultura y Explotación de Moluscos en el Norte de Chile.
• M.M. Araya-Castillo, Investigaciones en Macro- y Micro-algas.
• C. Lodeiros, Investigando sobre la Biología y el Cultivo de Moluscos.
• A. Gómez-Zavaglia, Criotecnología de Alimentos y Acuicultura. 
• D. F. Ardila-Jaime, OCEAN FARMS S.A., una Granja Off-shore a 9 Millas de la Costa de Ecuador. 
• P. Baltazar-Guerrero, Desarrollo de una Acuicultura Sostenible en Perú. 
• M. Lolo, Avances en LC/MS-MS Aplicados a la Acuicultura. 
• L.I.L. Carbral, C. Dias, R.B. Leite, M.L.S. Cristiano, Desarrollo de Análogos de Artemisinina para el Control de Perkinsosis en Bivalvos. 
• R. Rial, El Grupo UVigo-AA1: Un Referente en el Campo Agroambiental y Alimentario. 
• I. Guimaraes,  A.P. Muñez-Ramírez, J.C. Durán-Izquierdo, Sistemas de Agro-Acuicultura Integrada para Producción Sostenible de Alimentos en Comunidades Indígenas Arhuaca (Colombia).

Future challenges on the use of blockchain for food traceability analysis

Trends in Analytical Chemistry
DOI: 10.1016/j.trac.2018.08.011

The steady increase in food falsification, which has caused large economic losses and eroded consumers’ trust, has become a pressing issue for producers, researchers, governments, consumers and other stakeholders. Tracking and authenticating the food supply chain to understand provenance is critical with a view to identifying and addressing sources of contamination in the food supply chain worldwide. One way of solving traceability issues and ensuring transparency is by using blockchain technology to store data from chemical analysis in chronological order so that they are impossible to manipulate afterwards. This review examines the potential of blockchain technology for assuring traceability and authenticity in the food supply chain. It can be considered a true innovation and relevant approach to assure the quality of the third step of the analytical processes: data acquisition and management.

Modelling and Optimization of Biogenic Synthesis of Gold Nanoparticles from Leaf Extract of Swertia chirata Using Artificial Neural Network

 J Clust Sci 29, 1151–1159 (2018)

Swertia chirata is a medicinal plant studied for its ability to synthesize polyshaped gold nanoparticles (AuNP). The process of AuNP biosynthesis was studied using artificial neural networks (ANN) with different activation function on output node (logistic or linear) and different training algorithm (back propagation or Levenberg–Marquardt). The maximum biosynthesis was checked under the optimized condition of 17.24% leaf extract, pH 4.61, gold chloride concentration 4 mM and temperature 53.61 °C. A significant improvement in the model efficiency for predicting AuNP biosynthesis around 37.60%, in terms of root mean square error was obtained with the developed ANN-linear2 model, compared to the traditional response surface methodology.

Modelling and Optimization of Biogenic Synthesis of Gold Nanoparticles from Leaf Extract of Swertia chirata Using Artificial Neural Network

Journal of Cluster Science (2018) 29:1151–1159

DOI: 10.1007/s10876-018-1429-8

Swertia chirata is a medicinal plant studied for its ability to synthesize polyshaped gold nanoparticles (AuNP). The process of AuNP biosynthesis was studied using artificial neural networks (ANN) with different activation function on output node (logistic or linear) and different training algorithm (back propagation or Levenberg–Marquardt). The maximum biosyn- thesis was checked under the optimized condition of 17.24% leaf extract, pH 4.61, gold chloride concentration 4 mM and temperature 53.61 °C. A significant improvement in the model efficiency for predicting AuNP biosynthesis around 37.60%, in terms of root mean square error was obtained with the developed ANN-linear2 model, compared to the traditional response surface methodology.

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Soil Organic Horizons Depending on the Soil Burn Severity and Type of Ecosystem

Land Degradation & Development

DOI: 10.1002/ldr.2806

Because forest fires are a source of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), the influence of burnt conditions is of paramount importance and has not been thoroughly studied yet. In this study, two types of forest stands (Pinus nigra and Pinus pinaster) and two shrubland systems (Erica arborea and Ulex europaeus), differing in litter properties (composition and flammability), were considered. Changes in PAH levels were analysed in unburnt and charred litter, and they were related to different levels of soil burn severity and the organic matter composition of the charred litter, including charcoal and/or ashes. For monitoring PAH levels, an analytical method to determine them in unburnt and burnt woodland samples by pressure liquid extraction using a solid phase extraction cleanup was optimized. The highest levels of PAHs were found in the charred litter of P. pinaster (especially at soil burn severity = 200–400 °C), followed by U. europaeus, which presented similar concentration than Erica arborea and, finally, P. nigra. An association between the low molecular weight PAHs and 50% burn‐off temperature differential scanning calorimetry supports the idea of fire smoke as the main source of low molecular weight PAHs in charred biomass generated at temperatures of 200–400 °C. Instead, the fraction of high molecular weight PAHs is related to hydrogen‐to‐carbon and oxygen‐to‐carbon ash‐free dry weight, with charring depending on their organic matter content in the burnt material. PAH mobility will depend on the solubility of the organic matter, which is higher at higher pHs. The higher risk is the transport downstream to rivers or wet systems.