Determination of diffusion and partition coefficients of model migrants by direct contact and vapour phase transfer from low-density polyethylene films into cake

The aim of the present study was to determine the migration kinetics of one photoinitiator, benzophenone, and two optical brighteners, Uvitex OB and 1,4-diphenyl-1,3-butadiene (DPBD), from low-density polyethylene (LDPE) films into cake. Transfer was assessed by both direct contact and also the vapour phase.

To perform the migration tests by direct contact, plastic films enriched with the additives were placed between two cake slices. To evaluate the migration through the gas phase, cake and the fortified LDPE film were placed with no direct contact in a glass container that was hermetically closed. Samples were stored at different time–temperature conditions.

Target compounds were extracted from the films with ethanol (70°C, 24 h) and analysed by HPLC-DAD. Relevant parameters such as partition and diffusion coefficients between food and plastic film were calculated. The Arrhenius equation was applied to estimate the diffusion coefficient at any temperature.

The data indicate that migration of benzophenone occurs in a significant extent into cake by both direct contact and through the gas phase (no direct contact). Conversely, very little migration occurred for Uvitex OB by direct contact and none through the gas phase. Results for benzophenone suggest that migration through the gas phase should be considered when evaluating migration from food packaging materials into food.     

Innovative applications of food-related emulsions

Research on oxidative stability of multiple emulsions is very scarce. Given that this is a relevant topic that must be ascertained before the successful application of multiple emulsions in foods (especially when a combination of highly unsaturated oils is used as a lipid phase), this review mainly focuses on various aspects of the multiple emulsions.

Fat replacement in meat products using emulsions is critically discussed along with innovative applications of natural antioxidants in food-based emulsions and multiple emulsions based on bioactive compounds/encapsulation as well as confectionery products.     

Human microbiota in aging and infection: A review

In most developed countries, ageing of the population started more than a century ago and it seems to be emerged in a wide range of developing countries as well.

Moreover, research into ageing has moved forward in extremely rapidly rhythms nowadays, and the scientific area is of great interest, as implications for nearly all sectors of society, including work, social, economic features, in addition to nutrition and health issues which are involved.

The fragile elder population is affected and experienced more frequently infections than the younger population. Infections in elderly patients are of major medical importance because of hormonal changes, increased production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, abnormalities of the telomeres which could cause a dysfunction of the immune system called immunosenescence and malnutrition.     

Dietary fruits and vegetables and cardiovascular diseases risk

Diet is likely to be an important determinant of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. In this article, we will review the evidence linking the consumption of fruit and vegetables and CVD risk.

The initial evidence that fruit and vegetable consumption has a protective effect against CVD came from observational studies. However, uncertainty remains about the magnitude of the benefit of fruit and vegetable intake on the occurrence of CVD and whether the optimal intake is five portions or greater. Results from randomized controlled trials do not show conclusively that fruit and vegetable intake protects against CVD, in part because the dietary interventions have been of limited intensity to enable optimal analysis of their putative effects.

The protective mechanisms of fruit and vegetables may not only include some of the known bioactive nutrient effects dependent on their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and electrolyte properties, but also include their functional properties, such as low glycemic load and energy density. Taken together, the totality of the evidence accumulated so far does appear to support the notion that increased intake of fruits and vegetables may reduce cardiovascular risk. It is clear that fruit and vegetables should be eaten as part of a balanced diet, as a source of vitamins, fiber, minerals, and phytochemicals.

The evidence now suggests that a complicated set of several nutrients may interact with genetic factors to influence CVD risk. Therefore, it may be more important to focus on whole foods and dietary patterns rather than individual nutrients to successfully impact on CVD risk reduction.

A clearer understanding of the relationship between fruit and vegetable intake and cardiovascular risk would provide health professionals with significant information in terms of public health and clinical practice.     

Mold spoilage of bread and its biopreservation: A review of current strategies for bread shelf life extension

Microbial spoilage of bread and the consequent waste problem causes large economic losses for both the bakery industry and the consumer. Furthermore the presence of mycotoxins due to fungal contamination in cereals and cereal products remains a significant issue. The use of conventional chemical preservatives has several drawbacks, necessitating the development of clean-label alternatives.

In this review, we describe current research aiming to extend the shelf life of bread through the use of more consumer friendly and ecologically sustainable preservation techniques as alternatives to chemical additives. Studies on the in situ-production/-expression of antifungal compounds are presented, with special attention given to recent developments over the past decade. Sourdough fermented with antifungal strains of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) is an area of increasing focus and serves as a high-potential biological ingredient to produce gluten-containing and gluten-free breads with improved nutritional value, quality and safety due to shelf-life extension, and is in-line with consumer's demands for more products containing less additives. Other alternative biopreservation techniques include the utilization of antifungal peptides, ethanol and plant extracts. These can be added to bread formulations or incorporated in antimicrobial films for active packaging (AP) of bread. This review outlines recent progress that has been made in the area of bread biopreservation and future perspectives in this important area.     

Critical assessment of the epidemiological data concerning the impact of antioxidant nutrients on cancer and cardiovascular disease

Epidemiological studies strongly suggest that high intakes of foods rich in beta carotene, as well as those rich in vitamin E or vitamin C, reduce the risk of some but not all cancers and cardiovascular disease. It is difficult to determine whether these antioxidant nutrients per se are the sole protective agents or whether other factors associated with foods containing them contribute to the foods’ protective effects.

With respect to vitamin E, a number of studies where dietary and supplementary vitamin E were clearly differentiated, a reduced risk of certain cancers or cardiovascular disease from supplemental vitamin E but not from dietary vitamin E was demonstrated. This provides strong presumptive evidence that high intakes of vitamin E per se provide a health benefit.

Only a few intervention studies with specific nutrients are available and results are inconsistent.     

A review on influencing factors on the minimum inhibitory concentration of essential oils

With growing interest in essential oils as natural preservatives in the food industry, the literature is expanding enormously. To understand the antimicrobial activity of essential oils, the antimicrobial mechanism of individual essential oil (EO) compounds, and their minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs), are interesting starting points for research. Therefore, and to get insight into the factors influencing their antimicrobial activities, the Web of Science was searched for MICs of EO compounds (1995–2016). Many MICs for individual EO compounds have already been reported in the literature, but there is large variability in these data, even for the MIC of the same compound against the same species.

No correlation was found between the tested structural parameters of EO compounds (polarity, water solubility, dissociation constant, molecular weight and molecular complexity) and their MICs against all microorganisms, Gram-negative bacteria, Gram-positive bacteria and fungi. Few clear differences in sensitivity between microorganisms could be found. Based on this review it is clear that different incubation conditions, culture media and the use of emulsifiers/solvents have an influence on the MIC, causing big variance. This review points out the need for a good international standard method to assess the antimicrobial activity of EO compounds for better comparability between studies.     

Nutrition and chemosensory perception in the elderly

The elderly person's perception of foods and food flavor is affected by age‐associated changes in the chemical senses (taste, smell, and trigeminal sensation). Both classic and modern psychophysical techniques have been applied to achieve some understanding of these changes.

Taste threshold sensitivity declines with age; however, the magnitude of the decline and the degree to which taste qualities are differentially affected remains to be understood. Suprathreshold taste intensity perception is affected by age, but there is a differential effect of taste quality.

Experiments with blended foods have indicated that both olfactory and taste deficits contribute to older people's difficulty with food identification. Experiments assessing threshold sensitivity, suprathreshold intensity, and suprathreshold identification have all demonstrated significant impairment in olfaction in old age. In fact, these effects are far greater than in the taste system.

Patients with Alzheimer's disease show even greater olfactory deficits than normal elderly and the effect is related to the degree of dementia. We have ruled out nasal disease in these patients as the primary causes of olfactory insensitivity, because significant impairment remains when the influence of nasal airflow and nasal cytology has been removed statistically. Both normal elderly and patients with Alzheimer's disease show impairment in odor memory. Sensitivity to, familiarity with, and identifiability of the odors all play a role in odor memory performance.

Flavor preference also changes over the lifespan. Older subjects, for instance, rate high concentration of sugar and salt as pleasanter than young subjects do. Multiple influences contribute to this phenomenon. Elderly persons and those of lower nutritional status have shown preferences for higher concentrations of casein hydrolysate than young persons and those of higher nutritional status, suggesting that dietary preference can be related to chemosensory cues.

There are significant age‐associated changes in chemosensory perception that have the potential to interact with dietary selection and nutrition in the elderly. A better understanding of these phenomena may promote health and well‐being in the elderly.     

Toward predictive food process models: A protocol for parameter estimation

Mathematical models, in particular, physics-based models, are essential tools to food product and process design, optimization and control.

The success of mathematical models relies on their predictive capabilities. However, describing physical, chemical and biological changes in food processing requires the values of some, typically unknown, parameters. Therefore, parameter estimation from experimental data is critical to achieving desired model predictive properties.

This work takes a new look into the parameter estimation (or identification) problem in food process modeling. First, we examine common pitfalls such as lack of identifiability and multimodality. Second, we present the theoretical background of a parameter identification protocol intended to deal with those challenges. And, to finish, we illustrate the performance of the proposed protocol with an example related to the thermal processing of packaged foods.     

Physiological protection of probiotic microcapsules by coatings

Nowadays, food and nutrition have a greater impact in people's concerns, with the awareness that nutrition have a direct impact in health and wellbeing. Probiotics have an important role in this topic and consumers are starting to really understand their potential in health, leading to an increasing interest of the companies to their commercial use in foods. However, there are several limitations to the use of probiotics in foods and beverages, being one of them their efficiency (directly associated to their survival rate) upon ingestion.

This work is focused in microencapsulation techniques that have been used to increase probiotics efficiency. More specifically, this work reviews the most recent and relevant research about the production and coating techniques of probiotic-loaded microcapsules, providing an insight in the effect of these coatings in probiotics survival during the gastrointestinal phase.

This review shows that coatings with the better performances in probiotics protection, against the harsh conditions of digestion, are chitosan, alginate, poly-L-lysine, and whey protein. Chitosan presented an interesting performance in probiotics protection being able to maintain the initial concentration of viable probiotics during a digestive test. The analyses of different works also showed that the utilization of several coatings does not guarantee a better protection in comparison with monocoated microcapsules.     

The effect of dietary polyphenols on intestinal absorption of glucose and fructose: Relation with obesity and type 2 diabetes

Polyphenols are a group of substances present in plant-based foods such as apples and in plant-based beverages such as red wine. This review shows that polyphenols interfere with intestinal sugar transporters, modulating their function and altering glucose and fructose absorption. Inhibition of intestinal glucose and fructose absorption contributes to the effect of polyphenols in reducing postprandial glycemia, altering the apparent glycemic index of foods and decreasing body mass index. The possible implication of these findings on type 2 diabetes and obesity is a matter of growing interest, as shown by the rise on publications on this subject.

Abbreviations: BBM: Brush Border Membrane; BLM: Basolateral Membrane; BMI: Body Mass Index; ECg: Epicatechin Gallate; EC: Epicatechin; EGC: Epigallocatechin; EGCg: Epigallocatechin Gallate; GLUT2: Facilitative Glucose Transporter 2; GLUT5: Facilitative Glucose Transporter 5; HFCS: High-Fructose Corn Syrup; HPLC/MS: High performance Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry; HOMA-IR: Homeostatic Model Assessment; IFD: International Diabetes Federation; LPH: Lactase Phloridzin Hydrolase; MAPK: Mitogen Activated Protein Kinase; MetS: Metabolic Syndrome; NHS I e II: Nurses’ Health Study I and II; PK: Protein Kinase; SGLT-1: Sodium-Glucose Co-Transporter; T2D: Type 2 Diabetes     

Use of lactic acid bacteria and yeasts to reduce exposure to chemical food contaminants and toxicity

Chemical contaminants that are present in food pose a health problem and their levels are controlled by national and international food safety organizations. Despite increasing regulation, foods that exceed legal limits reach the market. In Europe, the number of notifications of chemical contamination due to pesticide residues, mycotoxins and metals is particularly high. Moreover, in many parts of the world, drinking water contains high levels of chemical contaminants owing to geogenic or anthropogenic causes.

Elimination of chemical contaminants from water and especially from food is quite complex. Drastic treatments are usually required, which can modify the food matrix or involve changes in the forms of cultivation and production of the food products. These modifications often make these treatments unfeasible. In recent years, efforts have been made to develop strategies based on the use of components of natural origin to reduce the quantity of contaminants in foods and drinking water, and to reduce the quantity that reaches the bloodstream after ingestion, and thus, their toxicity. This review provides a summary of the existing literature on strategies based on the use of lactic acid bacteria or yeasts belonging to the genus Saccharomyces that are employed in food industry or for dietary purposes.     

Water activity,water glass dynamics,and the control of microbiological growth in foods

Water is probably the single most important factor governing microbial spoilage in foods, and the concept of water activity (a_w) has been very valuable because measured values generally correlate well with the potential for growth and metabolic activity. Despite some drawbacks (e.g., solute effect), the concept of a_w has assisted food scientists in their effort to predict the onset of food spoilage as well as to control food‐borne disease hazards in food products. In the last decade the concept of a_w has been challenged. It has been suggested that reduced‐moisture food products (e.g., low and intermediate) may be nonequilibrium systems and that most of them are in the amorphous metastable state, which is very sensitive to changes in moisture content and temperature. It has been proposed that the glass transition temperature T_g (temperature at which the glass‐rubber transition occurs), is a parameter that can determine many product properties, the safety of foods among them. The concept of water dynamics, originating in a food polymer science approach, has been suggested instead of a_w to better predict the microbial stability of intermediate‐moisture foods. The usage of a_w to predict microbial safety of foods has been discouraged on the basis that (1) in intermediate‐moisture foods the measured water vapor pressure is not an equilibrium one, and because a_w is a thermodynamic concept, it refers only to equilibrium; and (2) the microbial response may differ at a particular a_w when the latter is obtained with different solutes.

This review analyzes these suggestions on the basis of abundant experimental evidence found in the literature. It is concluded that nonequilibrium effects (e.g., inability of water to diffuse in a semimoist food) appear to be in many cases slow within the time frame (food's shelf life) of the experiments and/or so small that they do not affect seriously the application of the a_w concept as a predictor of microbial stability in foods.

The claims that a food science polymer approach to understanding the behavior of aqueous sugar glasses and concentrated solutions may be used to predict the microbial stability of food systems is not substantiated by experimental evidence. This approach does not offer, at the present time, a better alternative to the concept of a_w as a predictor of microbial growth in foods.

It is also recognized that a_w has several limitations and should be always used carefully, and this must include precautions regarding the possible influences of nonequilibrium situations. This aspect may be summarized by simply saying that anyone who is going to employ the term water activity must be aware of the implications of its definition.     

Comparison of blood lipid-lowering effects of olive oil and other plant oils: A systematic review and meta‐analysis of 27 randomized placebo‐controlled clinical trials

Objective: We aim to report a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on effects of olive oil consumption compared with other plant oils on blood lipids.

Methods: PubMed, web of science, Scopus, ProQuest, and Embase were systematically searched until September 2017, with no age, language and design restrictions. Weighed mean difference (WMD) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were expressed as effect size. Sensitivity analyses and pre specified subgroup was conducted to evaluate potential heterogeneity. Meta-regression analyses were performed to investigate association between blood lipid-lowering effects of olive oil and duration of treatment.

Results: Twenty-seven trials, comprising 1089 participants met the eligibility criteria. Results of this study showed that compared to other plant oils, high-density lipoprotein level increased significantly more for OO (1.37 mg/dl: 95% CI: 0.4, 2.36). Also OO consumption reduced total cholesterol (TC) (6.27 mg/dl, 95% CI: 2.8, 10.6), Low-density lipoprotein (LDL-c) (4.2 mg/dl, 95% CI: 1.4, 7.01), and triglyceride (TG) (4.31 mg/dl, 95% CI: 0.5, 8.12) significantly less than other plant oils. There were no significant effects on Apo lipoprotein A1 and Apo lipoprotein B.

Conclusion: This meta-analysis suggested that OO consumption decreased serum TC, LDL-c, and TG less but increased HDL-c more than other plant oils.     

Effect of resveratrol on blood pressure: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized,controlled, clinical trials

Introduction: Results of previous clinical trials evaluating the effect of resveratrol supplementation on blood pressure (BP) are controversial.

Purpose: We aimed to assess the impact of resveratrol on BP through systematic review of literature and meta-analysis of available randomized, controlled clinical trials (RCTs).

Methods: Literature search included SCOPUS, PubMed-Medline, ISI Web of Science and Google Scholar databases up to 17th October 2017 to identify RCTs investigating the impact of resveratrol on BP. Two review authors independently extracted data on study characteristics, methods and outcomes. Overall, the impact of resveratrol on BP was reported in 17 trials.

Results: Administration of resveratrol did not significantly affect neither systolic BP [weighted mean difference (WMD): ?2.5 95% CI:(-5.5, 0.6) mmHg; p=0.116; I²=62.1%], nor diastolic BP [WMD: ?0.5 95% CI:(-2.2, 1.3) mmHg; p=0.613; I²=50.8], nor mean BP [MAP; WMD: ?1.3 95% CI:(-2.8, 0.1) mmHg; p=0.070; I²=39.5%] nor pulse pressure [PP; WMD: ?0.9 95% CI:(-3.1, 1.4) mmHg; p=0.449; I²=19.2%]. However, significant WMDs were detected in subsets of studies categorized according to high resveratrol daily dosage (≥300 mg/day) and presence of diabetes. Meta-regression analysis revealed a positive association between systolic BP-lowering resveratrol activity (slope: 1.99; 95% CI: 0.05, 3.93; two-tailed p= 0.04) and Body Mass Index (BMI) at baseline, while no association was detected neither between baseline BMI and MAP-lowering resveratrol activity (slope: 1.35; 95% CI: ?0.22, 2.91; two-tailed p= 0.09) nor between baseline BMI and PP-lowering resveratrol activity (slope: 1.03; 95% CI: ?1.33, 3.39; two-tailed p= 0.39). Resveratrol was fairly well-tolerated and no serious adverse events occurred among most of the eligible trials.

Conclusion: The favourable effect of resveratrol emerging from the current meta-analysis suggests the possible use of this nutraceutical as active compound in order to promote cardiovascular health, mostly when used in high daily dose (≥300 mg/day) and in diabetic patients.     

Shelf-life Assessment of Food Undergoing Oxidation–A Review

Oxidation is the most common event leading to the end of shelf life of microbiologically stable foods. Thus, a reliable shelf-life assessment is crucial to verify how long the product will last before it becomes oxidized to an unacceptable level to the consumers.

Shelf-life assessment strategies of foods and beverages suffering oxidation are critically discussed focusing on definition of the acceptability limit, as well as the choice of the proper oxidative indicators, and methodologies for shelf-life testing. Testing methodologies for shelf-life determination under actual and accelerated storage conditions are considered, highlighting possible uncertainties, pitfalls, and future research needs.     

Taste loss in the elderly: Possible implications for dietary habits

Aging may coincide with a declining gustatory function that can affect dietary intake and ultimately have negative health consequences. Taste loss is caused by physiological changes and worsened by events often associated with aging, such as polypharmacy and chronic disease. The most pronounced increase in elderly people's detection threshold has been observed for sour and bitter tastes, but their perception of salty, sweet, and umami tastes also seems to decline with age. It has often been suggested that elderly people who lose their sense of taste may eat less food or choose stronger flavors, but the literature has revealed a more complicated picture: taste loss does not appear to make elderly people prefer stronger flavors, but nutrition surveys have pointed to a greater consumption of sweet and salty foods.

Real-life eating habits thus seem to be more influenced by other, social and psychological factors. Elderly gustatory function is worth investigating to identify dietary strategies that can prevent the consequences of unhealthy eating habits in the elderly.

This paper discusses age-related changes in taste perception, focusing on their consequences on food preferences, and pointing to some strategies for preserving appropriate dietary habits in elderly people.     

Lycopene and tomato and risk of cardiovascular diseases: A systematic review and meta-analysis of epidemiological evidence

Background and aims: Worldwide, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remains as the main cause of mortality. Observational studies supports an association between intake of tomato products or lycopene with a reduced CVDs risk. Our aim was to undertake a systematic review and meta-analysis of the evidence on the topic.

Methods: Medline, Web of Science, and Scopus were searched from inception until July 2017. We included longitudinal and cross-sectional studies reporting associations between lycopene and tomato consumption and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality among adult subjects. Random-effects models were used to determine the pooled effect sizes.

Results: Twenty-eight publications met our inclusion criteria and 25 studies provided quantitative data for meta-analysis. Results showed that individuals in the highest consumption category of, or with the highest serum concentration of, lycopene had significantly lower risk of stroke (hazard ratio (HR) 0.74, 0.62–0.89, p = 0.02; I² = 32) and CVDs (HR 0.86, 0.77–0.95, p = 0.003; I² = 0). In addition, individuals categorised in the highest serum concentration of lycopene also had significantly lower risk of mortality (HR 0.63, 0.49–0.81, p<0.001; I² = 46). Lycopene was not significantly associated with myocardial infarction, while scarce evidence on the association of lycopene with atherosclerosis, congestive heart failure, or atrial fibrillation was evident. Evidence from three studies suggested that higher intakes of tomato were associated with non-significantly lower stroke, CVDs and CHD.

Conclusions: This comprehensive meta-analysis suggests that high-intakes or high-serum concentration of lycopene are associated with significant reductions in the risk of stroke (26%), mortality (37%) and CVDs (14%).