Characterisation of extra virgin olive oils from Galician autochthonous varieties and their co-crushings with Arbequina and Picual cv.

The current trend of the olive oil market is the production of high quality extra from traditional minor olive varieties with peculiar and differentiated characteristics (especially with respect to the aromatic and phenolic composition). In this way, the interest of Galician oil producers (NW Spain) in recovering old autochthonous Local olive fruits has increased substantially in recent years. In order to investigate the potential of the Local olives by either producing high quality monovarietal oils or mixing with the most widespread olives in Galicia (Arbequina and Picual cv.), quality indices, and fatty acid composition as well as volatile and phenolic profiles were determined and compared. All EVOOs studied in this work can be considered as "extra virgin olive oil" due to quality indices fell within the ranges established in legislation. Picual and Local olive oils as well as those resulting from their co-crushing reach values which are required by EU legislation to add the specific health claim on the oil label. Co-crushing Picual:Local (80:20) provided a significant enhancement of grass and apple nuances and a decrease of banana notes with respect to Picual oils. The co-crushing process improved sensory and health properties of Picual extra virgin olive oils. The effect of co-crushing on phenolics, ester volatiles and banana nuances cannot be easily modulated, contrary to quality indices and fatty acid composition, both changing linearly in strict correlation with the fruit mass ratio.

Dietary assessment of an educated young Spanish population using a self-administered meal-based food frequency questionnaire.

In this study a self-administered meal-based semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire was developed, whose main aim was to classify individuals by their intake of food groups and nutrients. The respondents (205 final participants) from the target population were recruited from students and staff of the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Castilla-La Mancha in Ciudad Real (Spain). The validity of the questionnaire was assessed in comparison with a four-day weighed diet record on a subset group of participants (n = 38). Results of the calibration study were similar to those reported in the literature, showing a reasonable correlation between the two methods. To improve dietary habits of the target population, an effective nutritional education programme should stress the importance of increasing consumption of food groups rich in starch and reducing those containing high level of proteins, sugars, fat and cholesterol.

Wine vinegar production using a noncommercial 100-litre bubble column reactor equipped with a novel type of dynamic sparger

This paper describes batch and semicontinuous acetic acid fermentations for wine vinegar production carried out with Acetobacter pasteurianus, and an industrial strain using a noncommercial 100-L bubble column reactor equipped with a novel type of gas-liquid dynamic sparger. Results showed acetification rates with this fermentor (i.e., an overall acetic acid productivity of 1. 8 g/L/h and yield of 94%) similar to that of the Frings acetator and higher as compared to others fermentors in current industrial use in Spanish wine vinegar factories, and a linear relationship between overall productivity and kLa with different operating conditions and fermentation scales. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.