Development of low-alcohol isotonic beer by interrupted fermentation

Alcohol-free beer with isotonic properties is getting more popular and its production can be carried out by different production strategies; however, interrupted fermentation is still a challenge. Therefore, the objective of this study was to develop a low-alcohol isotonic beer (<0.5% v/v) by interrupted fermentation. Moreover, the major objective is to compare the developed product to commercial beverages (sports drinks, ‘Pilsen' regular beer, alcohol-free beers and low-alcohol isotonic beer). The beverages were evaluated based on pH, alcohol content (% v/v), total titratable acidity (mEq L⁻¹), osmolality (mOsmol kg⁻¹), bitterness International Bitterness Units, colour European Brewery Convention, total phenolic compounds (mg L⁻¹ gallic acid), reducing and total sugars (%) and Na and K contents (mg L⁻¹). The developed low-alcohol isotonic beer presented characteristics similar to sports drinks, with the advantage of being richer in phenolic compounds and suitable osmolality. Despite salts were added in its formulation, the grades attributed to all beers employed in the sensory evaluation, as well as the purchase intention did not present significant differences.     

Diet effects in the asthma treatment: A systematic review

Introduction: Obesity in asthmatic patients has important relationships with asthma control, pulmonary function, and quality of life. The objective of this study was to conduct a systematic review of the literature on the effect of diet on asthma management in adults. Methods: We searched PubMed, Embase, and Scopus (January 1948–October 2014) for randomized clinical trials that evaluated the effects of diet in adults with asthma. Results: Of 12,215 studies identified, 21 were included. A reduction in weight of at least 7.5% from baseline as a result of caloric restriction can be beneficial for improving disease control, quality of life, and pulmonary function in obese patients with asthma. A dietary pattern rich in foods with potential antioxidant effect had an impact in improving asthma control, but with little clinical significance. Studies involving antioxidant supplementation showed improvements in asthma control with magnesium supplementation and less decline in lung function with vitamin C supplementation. Studies of fatty acid supplementation demonstrated effects on weight loss and improvement of asthma control and lung function. Studies of supplementation with propolis and caffeine reported significant increases in FEV1. Conversely, studies of high dietary salt intake reported greater declines in lung function. Conclusions: The evidence shows that, for obese adults with asthma, the best dietary intervention seems to be caloric restriction, regardless of specific dietary components.     

Biogenic amines assessment during different stages of the canning process of skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis)

The present research focused on the biogenic amines (BAs) formation in skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis) throughout the whole canning process. In agreement with its wide employment on this species, on‐board brine immersion freezing (BIF) was tested as post‐mortem processing. The study included fish samples corresponding to different stages of the canning process such as frozen, thawed, cooked and canned; after cooking, two kinds of tuna muscles were considered, that is, whole fillets (main product) and grated muscle (off‐product arising from small pieces). For the BAs (tryptamine, putrescine, cadaverine, histamine, spermidine and spermine) assessment, an HPLC‐DAD method was developed and validated in skipjack tuna samples, in agreement with different parameters such as suitability, linearity, limits of detection and quantification, precision, accuracy and robustness. Tuna submitted on‐board to BIF procedure provided low levels of spermine and spermidine (up to 27.6 mg kg^?1), while contents on the remaining BAs maintained below the limit of detection. Throughout the different stages of the canning process, skipjack tuna showed a low formation of most BAs; interestingly, histamine content was found below 10.6 mg kg^?1 level. The highest values were obtained for spermidine, these related to cooked grated tuna (from 22.6 to 66.7 mg kg^?1) and canned grated tuna (from 70.6 to 104.4 mg kg^?1). Values for pH assessment in all kinds of tuna samples corroborated the results obtained for BAs determination. BIF procedure proved to be an amenable post‐mortem processing to guarantee the quality of canned skipjack tuna.     

Quality and safety of maize (Zea mays L.) from Rondônia state storage units,Northern Brazil

The quality and safety of maize (Zea mays L.) from different grain storage units (GSUs), located in the main producing region of Rondônia State, Northern Brazil, were evaluated. Maize grains (n = 76) stored in four GSUs were collected from July to November 2014 and evaluated for grain damages, humidity, fungi and fumonisins (FBs) content. The climate conditions data were also obtained from plant growing to storage periods. Regarding the moisture content and water activity (a_w), these varied from 10.0% to 16.1% and 0.5 to 0.8, respectively. As expected, fungi spores were present in 94.8% of the samples, prevailing Fusarium genera, with a fungi colony maximum of 2.2 × 10⁴ CFU g^?1. Regarding FBs, 60.5% of the samples were contaminated, below Brazilian and United States maximum limits, but 9.2% had levels higher than the European legislation.     

GutSelf: Interindividual Variability in the Processing of Dietary Compounds by the Human Gastrointestinal Tract

Nutritional research is currently entering the field of personalized nutrition, to a large extent driven by major technological breakthroughs in analytical sciences and biocomputing. An efficient launching of the personalized approach depends on the ability of researchers to comprehensively monitor and characterize interindividual variability in the activity of the human gastrointestinal tract. This information is currently not available in such a form. This review therefore aims at identifying and discussing published data, providing evidence on interindividual variability in the processing of the major nutrients, i.e., protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals, along the gastrointestinal tract, including oral processing, intestinal digestion, and absorption. Although interindividual variability is not a primary endpoint of most studies identified, a significant number of publications provides a wealth of information on this topic for each category of nutrients. This knowledge remains fragmented, however, and understanding the clinical relevance of most of the interindividual responses to food ingestion described in this review remains unclear. In that regard, this review has identified a gap and sets the base for future research addressing the issue of the interindividual variability in the response of the human organism to the ingestion of foods.     

Estimation of thermal diffusivity of foods using transfer functions

The effective thermal diffusivity of foodstuffs was estimated from time-temperature histories in the geometric center of samples exposed to heating and cooling processes.Transfer functions methodology was used as an alternative method to estimate the thermal diffusivity assuming that conduction was the main heat transfer mechanism. The samples were characterized as delayed first-order systems with unit gain, dead time (L) and time constant (τ).The results were compared with those obtained from the f_h value and with results reported in the literature.     

Quantitative detection of Listeria monocytogenes in raw milk and soft cheeses: Culture-independent versus liquid- and solid-based culture-dependent real time PCR approaches

A culture-independent and two culture-dependent real time (rt-) PCR approaches were developed to quantitatively identify Listeria monocytogenes in raw milk and soft cheeses. The optimised rt-PCR revealed 100% inclusivity and exclusivity. DNA- and cell-based standard curves showed a good linearity of response (R² ≥ 0.987 and R² ≥ 0.998, respectively) for five orders of magnitude (39 × 10⁵ – 3 × 10⁰ genome equivalents and 10⁶–10¹ CFU equivalents, respectively) with about 100% relative accuracy and inter-assay variability ≤0.90%. Up to 1 genome equivalent/and 10 CFU/reaction were quantified in the DNA and cell standard curves, respectively. The rt-PCR was then combined with a liquid- (MPN technique) or a solid- (ALOA and PALCAM) based enumeration. The diagnostic sensitivity of the different approaches was investigated in artificially contaminated raw milk and soft cheeses. The rt-PCR culture-independent approach performed well in raw milk and (with a lower sensitivity) in stracchino cheese-based standard curves. MPN/rt-PCR was the best approach to enumerate low levels of L. monocytogenes in raw milk and stracchino cheese, while the ALOA-based rt-PCR quantification was more effective than the PALCAM-based. These performances were confirmed when 23 real samples of raw milk and soft cheeses by both the rt-PCR approaches were assayed.     

Short communication: Identification of Corynebacterium bovis by MALDI-mass spectrometry

Corynebacterium bovis is a mastitis-causing microorganism responsible for economic losses related to decrease in milk production. The aim of the study was identify Corynebacterium spp. strains recovered from milk samples of subclinical mastitis by using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS). Samples were collected during a 10-mo mastitis-monitoring program in a high-production dairy farm. In this study, 80 strains were analyzed; from these 54 (67.5%) were identified at species level as Corynebacterium bovis, 24 (31.2%) isolates were identified at the genus level as Corynebacterium spp., and only 1 (1.35%) isolated had unreliable identification. Results demonstrated that MALDI-MS could be an important technique for the identification of Corynebacterium spp. in milk.