Can by-products replace conventional ingredients in concentrate of dairy goat diet?

Intensive dairy goat production in the Mediterranean basin is based on imported conventional ingredients to be included in concentrates. Fourteen Murciano-Granadina goats in the middle of the third lactation were allocated into 2 groups of 7 animals each fed, respectively, a control diet based on alfalfa hay and concentrate in a 40:60 ratio, and a diet in which the concentrate included tomato fruits, citrus pulp, brewer's grain and brewer's yeast (T100CBY) to study the effect of diet on nutrient utilization, ruminal fermentation, purine derivatives excretion in urine, milk yield and composition, and methane emissions. No effect of the diet on total dry matter intake was observed. Digestibility of neutral detergent fiber and acid detergent fiber were higher for T100CBY compared with the control diet. The N in feces and urine was lower and balance and retained N were higher in animals fed T100CBY than the control diet. Milk protein N and energy were similar for both diets. Metabolizable energy per energy intake and metabolizable energy per digestible energy were higher and energy in methane was lower with diet T100CBY than with the control. Milk yield and composition were not affected by diet, with the exception of protein, casein, and total solids, which were higher for diet T100CBY than the control. Diet T100CBY promoted less saturated fatty acids and higher mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids in milk than the control diet. Diet T100CBY produced less methane and NH₃ concentration in the rumen, higher propionate, and a lower acetate-to-propionate ratio without an effect on the volatile fatty acid concentration. The concentrate with by-products did not affect urinary excretion of total purine derivatives, reduced feeding costs, and increased profit margin by 14 and 16% compared with the control. The mixture of tomato fruits, citrus pulp, brewer's grain, and brewer's yeast could replace 47% of conventional ingredients (corn, wheat bran, sunflower meal, and soy flour) in the concentrate of the dairy goat diet, reducing feeding cost and methane production, leading to a healthier fatty acids profile in milk without compromising nutrient utilization or milk yield.     

Does information about the source of functional ingredients influence consumer perception of functional milk desserts?

BACKGROUND: The aims of the present study were to study the influence of information about the source of two functional ingredients (antioxidants and fibre) on consumer perception of functional milk dessert concepts and to evaluate whether this influence depends on consumer attitudes towards health and hedonic characteristics of foods. RESULTS: Scores for expected liking decreased when information about the source of fibre or antioxidants was incorporated, which could be explained considering that when consumers knew the source of the functional ingredient they imagine the flavour of the source in the milk concept. This decrease in expected liking led to a decrease in consumer willingness to purchase, showing the importance of hedonic expectations on the acceptance of functional foods. Consumers with different attitudes towards health and hedonic characteristics of foods reacted differently towards information about the source of functional ingredients. CONCLUSION: Providing information about the source of functional ingredients would not be recommended as it might create negative taste expectations to consumers and a concomitant decrease in their willingness to purchase. These show that consumers would not compromise on the taste of milk desserts for health. Thus, the development of functional foods that taste worse than conventional ones may be a risky option. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry     

Novel foods and food ingredients: what is the mission of scientists and technologists?

The situation concerning world food production is changing dramatically. On the one hand, the world population is expected to grow still further, reaching about 8 billion people in the middle of the 21st century. Novel phenomena, such as ageing of the human population and excess weight in developing countries pose new nutrition problems. Food scares, which were enhanced by recent BSE and toxicological outbreaks, hinder the applicability of some solutions. Under these conditions, scientists and technologists should participate actively in the tasks of informing the population as well as finding new ways to provide people with the optimal amount of nutritious food.     

Consumer perception of ice cream and frozen desserts in the “better-for-you” category

The consumption of ice cream and frozen desserts in the “better-for-you” (BFY) category has grown rapidly over the past few years, even as traditional ice cream sales remain stagnant. To better understand consumer preferences within the BFY category, an online survey (n = 1,051) was conducted with ice cream and frozen dessert consumers, followed by consumer acceptance testing of commercial BFY frozen dairy desserts. Consumers of BFY frozen desserts (n = 578) completed an adaptive choice-based conjoint survey and MaxDiff exercise to identify the attributes that drive purchase of BFY frozen desserts. MaxDiff exercises were also used to determine which attributes all frozen dessert consumers (n = 1,051) perceived to make a frozen dessert BFY and which stabilizers or emulsifiers were most attractive on an ice cream or frozen dessert label. Subsequently, a consumer acceptance test (n = 186) was conducted using 4 commercial vanilla-flavored frozen dairy desserts made with different sweetening systems (sugar, sucralose + acesulfame K, monk fruit + allulose, and stevia + erythritol). Half of consumers were primed or informed with the sweeteners and basic nutritional information for the frozen desserts before tasting, and the other half of consumers evaluated samples blinded, where they were only informed that they were tasting a vanilla-flavored frozen dessert. Sweetener type and base (dairy vs. plant) were the most important attributes to BFY consumers when selecting a BFY frozen dessert (n = 578). For all ice cream and BFY dessert consumers (n = 1,051), sweetener-related claims (naturally sweetened, reduced sugar, no added sugar), along with “all natural” and a short ingredient list, were the top attributes that contributed to perception of a “healthier” frozen dessert. When BFY frozen desserts were tasted by consumers, purchase intent decreased after tasting, suggesting that frozen desserts made with natural non-nutritive sweeteners did not meet consumer expectations. Flavor of BFY frozen desserts remains more important than perceived healthiness. Consumers perceive frozen desserts, even those in the BFY category, as an indulgence. Frozen dessert manufacturers should focus on naturally sweetened, dairy-based desserts with minimal sweetener-related flavor defects when designing products for the BFY category.     

Consumer valuation of European nutritional and health claims: Do taste and attention matter?

Healthier eating and convenience are two important and often divergent aspects of contemporary diet patterns. With the intention of guiding consumers to make more informed food purchase decisions, policy makers, such as the European Union, emphasize the need to shift dietary patterns toward healthier food by introducing nutritional claims (NCs) and health claims (HCs). The purpose of this study is to (i) explore the impact of NCs and HCs on a healthy food product (yogurt), (ii) investigate consumer choices through a discrete choice experiment (DCE), (iii) examine the role of taste as a key food attribute influencing the purchase decision process, and (iv) explore the visual attention that consumers pay to NCs and HCs. The results from a generalized mixed logit model suggest that there is a relationship between the most highly valued NCs and HCs from the stated preferences and visual attention in terms of fixation count. This relationship affirms that the final product selection is based not only on the type of labeling on the package but also on the visual attention that consumers pay to it. Tasting a healthy food product resulted in negative utility, but greater visual attention attached to NCs and HCs and a lower percentage of attribute non-attendance (ANA).     

Consumer’s perception of high gloss furniture: instrumental gloss measurement versus visual gloss evaluation

The overall impression of a glossy surface is an important parameter for consumer’s choice of wooden products. A new gloss parameter, called gloss impression, which calculates a reflexion structure image, was developed in order to complement the measurements made by industrial glossmeters, which are highly limited in describing the visual human perception, for example the commonly used gloss value. The objective of this study is to investigate to what extent the new measurement method of surface gloss is applicable to describe human gloss perception, in other words, to validate the new method. In order to analyse the concordance of the new methodology with human perception, 113 naïve observers had to rank the glossiness of eight series of black and white samples. The results were compared to both gloss impression and gloss value. The statistical evaluation by means of Pearson’s chi-squared tests revealed that the new method has an overall better correspondence to human perception than the gloss value. For black samples, it describes human perception significantly better than the gloss value and gives better results than those which would be achieved by guessing.     

“Chilled” pork — Part II. Consumer perception of sensory quality

The objective of this study was to compare consumer perception of the sensory quality of grilled Canadian pork destined for Japanese and domestic markets, with particular reference to export selection criteria imposed by Japanese importers and transportation conditions. Consumers from Quebec, Canada tasted local and export quality pork subjected to “chilled” (aged 43 days at − 1.7 °C) or conventional ageing (5 days at 3.1 °C). Consumers' scores (out of 10) were higher (P < 0.05) in the “chilled” than conventionally aged pork for tenderness (6.8 vs 5.7), juiciness (6.6 vs 6.0), taste liking (6.4 vs 5.9) and overall acceptability (6.7 vs 6.1). When informed that the conventionally aged, domestic quality pork was destined for the domestic market, consumer scores increased significantly (P < 0.05). No effect of information was observed on the perception of the ‘chilled’ export quality meat, perhaps a consequence of the high sensory quality observed prior to labelling.     

Consumer acceptance of dairy products with a saturated fatty acid–reduced,monounsaturated fatty acid–enriched content

Agriculture-based reformulation initiatives, including oleic acid–rich lipid supplementation of the dairy cow diet, provide a novel means for reducing intake of saturated fatty acids (SFA) at a population level. In a blinded manner, this study evaluated the consumer acceptance of SFA-reduced, monounsaturated fatty acid–enriched (modified) milk, Cheddar cheese, and butter when compared with control and commercially available comparative samples. The effect of providing nutritional information about the modified cheese was also evaluated. Consumers (n = 115) rated samples for overall liking (appearance, flavor, and texture) using 9-point hedonic scales. Although no significant differences were found between the milk samples, the modified cheese was liked significantly less than a regular-fat commercial alternative for overall liking and liking of specific modalities and had a lower liking of texture score compared with the control cheese. The provision of health information significantly increased the overall liking of the modified cheese compared with tasting the same sample in a blinded manner. Significant differences were evident between the butter samples for overall liking and modalities of liking; all of the samples were significantly more liked than the commercial butter and sunflower oil spread. In conclusion, this study illustrated that consumer acceptance of SFA-reduced, monounsaturated fatty acid–enriched dairy products was dependent on product type. Future research should consider how optimization of the textural properties of fatty acid–modified (and fat-reduced) cheese might enhance consumer acceptance of this product.     

When and where do dairy cows defecate and urinate?

The accumulation of urine and feces can be responsible for many cow and environmental problems. Despite this, little is known about the factors affecting defecation and urination. In the first experiment, the occurrence of defecation and urination behaviors of 48 lactating Holstein cows was observed [days in milk (DIM) = 144.7 ± 38.0 d, body weight (BW) = 667.1 ± 72.0 kg, parity = 2.8 ± 2.3] in freestalls over 48 h. In the second experiment, defecation and urination by 29 lactating Holstein dairy cows were observed (DIM = 62 ± 22.1 d, BW = 590 ± 70.0 kg, parity = 2 ± 1.3) in another freestall barn over a period of 5 d and related to cow activity and feeding behavior. In both experiments, based on total occurrence of eliminative behaviors, cows mainly defecated (experiment 1: 33.4 ± 2.0%; experiment 2: 42.3 ± 3.1%) and urinated (experiment 1: 28.2 ± 2.5%; experiment 2: 42.7 ± 4.0%) in the feed alley and while occupying a stall (defecation: experiment 1: 28.5 ± 1.0%; experiment 2: 26.2 ± 3.0%; urination: experiment 1: 42.2 ± 1.5%; experiment 2: 39.9 ± 3.8%). Occupying a stall included lying, standing in the stall, or standing with 2 feet in the stall and 2 feet in the alley. In both experiments, differences were found between cows in frequency of defecation (experiment 1: 9.8 ± 4.2/d, range = 3 to 20; experiment 2: 15.4 ± 4.3/d, range = 6 to 36) and in frequency of urination (experiment 1: 7.0 ± 3.1/d, range = 2 to 18; experiment 2: 9.3 ± 2.8/d, range = 3 to 19). Large differences between cows were observed in the frequency of defecation and urination, but these were not correlated with parity, milk production, BW, DIM, or dry matter intake.     

Technical note: Quantification of lignans in the urine,milk, and plasma of flaxseed cake–fed dairy sheep

Mammalian lignans are phytoestrogens with important bioactivities, and their concentrations in livestock milk may influence the health of consumers. This research aimed to establish a method to quantify multiple mammalian lignans in the biofluids of dairy sheep using ultra-HPLC-triple quadropole mass spectrometry with multiple-reaction monitoring. Secoisolariciresinol, 2-[(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)methyl]-3-[(3-hydroxyphenyl)methyl]-1,4-butanediol, enterodiol (ED), enterolactone (EL), ED-sulfate (ED-S), and EL-sulfate (EL-S) were purified from the urine of flaxseed cake–fed dairy sheep. The structures of these lignans were identified by a combination of mass and nuclear magnetic resonance spectra. These purified lignans were used as standards to optimize their quantification conditions in urine, milk, and plasma of dairy sheep. On this basis, the lignan metabolites in biofluids were quantified. To improve analysis sensitivity, plasma and milk were pretreated with acetonitrile containing 1% formic acid and passed through a HybridSPE-PL 55261-U column (Supelco, Bellefonte, PA). The limit of quantification of the lignans ranged from 1.43 to 18.3 ng/mL in plasma, and from 1.01 to 18.7 ng/mL in milk. The linearity of the calibration curves ranged from their limit of quantification to at least 217 ng/mL in plasma, and 217 ng/mL in milk. Regression coefficient of the calibration curves were above 0.99 for secoisolariciresinol, 2-[(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)methyl]-3-[(3-hydroxyphenyl)methyl]-1,4-butanediol, ED, EL, ED-S, and EL-S, indicating satisfactory relationships between the peak areas and concentrations in the quantification range. The relative concentrations of ED-glucuronide and EL-glucuronide (EL-G) in different biofluids were compared based on their chromatogram peak areas. The sheep plasma contained all forms of mammalian lignans (i.e., ED, EL, ED-S, EL-S, ED-glucuronide, and EL-G.); the urine contained ED, EL, ED-S, and EL-S; and the milk contained ED, EL, ED-S, EL-S, and EL-G. Milk-to-plasma concentration ratios of the mammalian lignans indicated that the free forms were more permeable than the sulfated conjugates. Mammalian lignans found in sheep plasma and milk may provide health benefits to the sheep and sheep-product consumers. The analytical method established in this work could be used to quantify mammalian lignans in livestock products.     

What is satiating? Consumer perceptions of satiating foods and expected satiety of protein-based meals

Designing food items with high satiating capacity is an area of increasing interest. It would be desirable for consumers to be able to make informed choices about individual products based on understanding the energy balance and the meaning of satiety.In the present work, the perceptions that consumers have of the word “satiating” and of different protein-based dishes were investigated in two populations (100 subjects related to the field of food science and technology and 100 unrelated to it). The Word Association (WA) technique was used, asking the consumers for the first four words that came into their mind when they thought of “satiating food”. This was followed by a Free Listing (FL) exercise that asked them to list four satiating food items. They also completed a Nutritional Knowledge Questionnaire. To evaluate the consumers' perception of the expected satiating capacity of different protein-based meals, they were shown eight photographs of equicaloric dishes composed of one piece of protein (beef, pork, chicken or fish) and one of two different side vegetables (salad or boiled potatoes). The expected satiety scores ranked fish last among the protein foods and potatoes last among the side vegetables. The results indicated that “satiating” food was related more with the immediate sensation of “stomach full” than with the cessation of hunger. This was reinforced by the mention of negative sensations of discomfort after a copious meal. Hearty dishes and meat were the meals most associated with satiating food items.     

A 100-Year Review: A century of dairy processing advancements—Pasteurization,cleaning and sanitation,and sanitary equipment design

Over the past century, advancements within the mainstream dairy foods processing industry have acted in complement with other dairy-affiliated industries to produce a human food that has few rivals with regard to safety, nutrition, and sustainability. These advancements, such as milk pasteurization, may appear commonplace in the context of a modern dairy processing plant, but some consideration of how these advancements came into being serve as a basis for considering what advancements will come to bear on the next century of processing advancements. In the year 1917, depending on where one resided, most milk was presented to the consumer through privately owned dairy animals, small local or regional dairy farms, or small urban commercial dairies with minimal, or at best nascent, processing capabilities. In 1917, much of the retail milk in the United States was packaged and sold in returnable quart-sized clear glass bottles fitted with caps of various design and composition. Some reports suggest that the cost of that quart of milk was approximately 9 cents—an estimated $2.00 in 2017 US dollars. Comparing that 1917 quart of milk to a quart of milk in 2017 suggests several differences in microbiological, compositional, and nutritional value as well as flavor characteristics. Although a more comprehensive timeline of significant processing advancements is noted in the AppendixTable A1 to this paper, we have selected 3 advancements to highlight; namely, the development of milk pasteurization, cleaning and sanitizing technologies, and sanitary specifications for processing equipment. Finally, we provide some insights into the future of milk processing and suggest areas where technological advancements may need continued or strengthened attention and development as a means of securing milk as a food of high safety and value for the next century to come.     

Polysaccharide–protein interactions in dairy matrices,control and design of structures

Protein–polysaccharide interactions are of great importance in the design of dairy formulations, as they play a key role in the formation of structure and texture in dairy products. With a detailed understanding of the factors affecting the interactions, the ability of charged polysaccharides to associate with the milk proteins is continuously exploited to create functional complexes, novel ingredients and delivery systems. In addition, formulations containing non-interacting polysaccharides also need to be carefully controlled, as these biopolymers may give rise to segregative phase separation, with important consequences to the stability and quality of the final matrix. As casein micelles play a major role in imparting structure to dairy products, emphasis in this review will be given to the molecular details of the interactions between polysaccharides with these protein particles. Some of the most researched polysaccharides will be highlighted in this context, and the progress made in understanding their role during structure formation of dairy matrices will be discussed. The opportunity of creating novel microstructures provided by association or/and incompatibility of milk proteins and different polysaccharides will be assessed.