Sour Cherry Pomace Valorization as a Bakery Fruit Filling: Chemical Composition, Bioactivity, Quality and Sensory Properties.

Sour cherry pomace filling (SCPF) and commercial sour cherry filling (CSCF) produced on a semi-industrial scale were tested and compared in terms of food safety, chemical composition, bioactivity, quality, sensory properties and thermal stability. Both samples were safe for human consumption, thermally stable and there was a lack of syneresis. SCPF had a significantly higher fiber concentration (3.79 g/100 g) due to higher skin fraction and is considered a "source of fibers". The higher skin fraction in SCPF also resulted in a higher mineral quantity (Fe-3.83 mg/kg fw) in comparison to CSCF (Fe-2.87 mg/kg fw). Anthocyanins concentration was lower in SCPF (7.58 mg CGE/100 g fw), suggesting that a significant amount of anthocyanins was removed from SC skin during juice extraction. However, there was a lack of statistical differences in antioxidant activity between the two fillings. CSCF was more spreadable, not as firm and less sticky, with lower storage and loss modulus values than SCPF. However, both fillings exhibited acceptable rheological and textural behaviour for fruit fillings. According to the consumer pastry test, 28 participants preferred each pastry; thus, there was a lack of preference toward any of the tested samples. SCP could be used as a raw material for the bakery fruit fillings industry, which leads to the valorization of food industry by-products.

Communicating Function and Co-Creating Healthy Food: Designing a Functional Food Product Together with Consumers.

Functional food is lately an interesting topic from the new product development perspective; complex motivation and expectations of consumers regarding it present a challenge when new products are designed. Co-creation is an interesting alternative to the standard practices by the R & D departments since it directly involves consumers in the various stages of the creation process. This work aims to describe experiences of engaging consumers in different development stages of a functional food product within a project realized at a food research institute. Four consecutive studies were conducted: the first study explored current trends in Serbia regarding the way consumers use functional food and are informed about it; the second study described development of a raspberry seeds extract with antioxidant and anti-proliferative activity confirmed in vitro; the third study tested the same extract in a sample of consumers, validating its usability in food products; and the fourth study described a co-creation session with 18 participants, during which a number of activities were realized to stimulate idea generation. Rather than the final product idea itself, this work is valuable because of detailed insights into the various phases of the co-creation process. It is shown that consumers and food researchers can together engage in the new food product development process as long as the communication between them is rich and with mutual understanding.

Breadmaking performance and textural changes during storage of composite breads made from spelt wheat and different forms of amaranth grain.

The objectives of the present study were to assess the baking properties of composite spelt wheat-amaranth blends and to study the staling of composite breads during a six-day storage. Different forms of amaranth grains were added to spelt bread formulation: native amaranth flour and flour from popped amaranth, including their scalded and non-scalded variants. Native amaranth flour (both scalded and non-scalded) gave loaves with the highest volume and contributed to significantly softer crumb but not in comparison to the control bread. Crumb resilience did not show significant differences among the breads but there were differences in the crumb stress relaxation parameters which indicated certain influence on the crumb viscoelastic properties. During storage, all samples developed firmer and less elastic crumbs. Drying loss and staling degree significantly increased with increased storage time. The staling rate was the highest in the bread with non-scalded amaranth flours (native and flour from popped amaranth). The changes in the crumb textural and elastic properties caused by staling turned significant after six days of storage. In general, inclusion of different forms of amaranth flour did not alter the staling of breads and they exerted similar behaviour during storage.

Valorisation of raspberry and blueberry pomace through the formulation of value-added gluten-free cookies.

Successful valorisation of raspberry and blueberry pomace was achieved through their application, as dried and ground powders, in the formulation of value-added gluten-free cookies. Simplex-lattice mixture design approach was applied to obtain the product with the best sensory properties, nutritional profile and antioxidant activity. The highest desirability of 90.0 % was accomplished with the substitution of gluten-free flour mixture with 28.2 % of blueberry and 1.8 % of raspberry pomace. The model was verified. Optimized cookies had similar protein (3.72 %) and carbohydrate (66.7 %) contents as gluten-containing counterparts used for comparison, but significantly lower fat content (10.97 %). Daily portion of the optimized cookies meets: 5.00 % and 7.73 % of dietary reference intakes (DRIs) for linoleic acid, 23.6 % and 34.3 % of DRIs for α-linolenic acid and 10.3 % and 15.6 % of DRIs for dietary fibers, for male and female adults, respectively. The nutritional profile of the optimized formulation makes it comparable with added-value gluten-containing counterparts.

Antioxidant Capacity, Mineral Content and Sensory Properties of Gluten-Free Rice and Buckwheat Cookies.

Light buckwheat flour was used to substitute rice flour at the level of 10, 20 and 30% to produce gluten-free cookies. The substitution of gluten-free cookie formulation with light buckwheat flour contributed to the significantly higher mineral content, especially magnesium, potassium, iron and copper, in comparison with the control rice cookies (p<0.05). Gluten-free cookies made with rice flour and buckwheat flour exhibited significantly higher total phenolic and rutin content, scavenging activity against 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radicals (DPPH•), antioxidant activity and reducing power than the control cookies (p<0.05). Comparing all evaluated sensory properties, cookies containing 20% of light buckwheat flour had the most acceptable sensory properties. The obtained results of principal component analysis showed that the cookies with 20 and 30% buckwheat flour had better antioxidant and sensory properties in comparison with other two cookie samples.