A Feasible Approach to Developing Fiber-Enriched Bread Using Pomegranate Peel Powder: Assessing Its Nutritional Composition and Glycemic Index.

The consumption of dietary fiber (DF) has been associated with a reduced incidence of non-communicable diseases. Despite various strategies implemented worldwide to increase DF intake, it remains low. Therefore, the development of new fiber-rich food products that are widely consumed could be a strategy to improve DF intake. In this study, an agro-industrial by-product, pomegranate peel powder (PPP), was used as an innovative source of DF and antioxidant. The objective was to develop a bread enriched with DF, antioxidants, and sensory characteristics by partially replacing wheat flour (WF) with PPP at levels of 0%, 2.5%, 5%, 7.5%, and 10%. Bread with 2.5% and 5% PPP was chosen for a clinical trial to evaluate glycemic response (GR) in healthy subjects and determine the bread's glycemic index (GI). As the percentage of PPP increased, both the DF and total polyphenol content increased significantly. The highest overall acceptability was achieved with bread containing up to 5% PPP. Consumption of bread with 2.5% and 5.0% PPP significantly reduced the GI compared to the control bread, while the decrease in GR was not significant. PPP could be a potential food and low-cost ingredient to improve the bread's nutritional quality through its contribution to DF and antioxidants.

Effect of spray-drying with organic solvents on the encapsulation, release and stability of fish oil.

Fish-oil (FO) was encapsulated with hydroxypropylcelullose (HPC) by conventional spray-drying with water (FO-water) and solvent spray-drying with ethanol (FO-EtOH), methanol (FO-MeOH) and acetone (FO-Acet) in order to study the effect of the solvent on the encapsulation efficiency (EE), microparticle properties and stability of FO during storage at 40 °C. Results showed that FO-Acet presented the highest EE of FO (92.0%), followed by FO-EtOH (80.4%), FO-MeOH (75.0%) and FO-water (71.1%). A decrease of the dielectric constant increased the EE of FO, promoting triglyceride-polymer interactions instead of oil-in-water emulsion retention. FO release profile in aqueous model was similar for all FO-microparticles, releasing only the surface FO, according to Higuchi model. Oxidative stability of FO significantly improved by spray-drying with MeOH, both in surface and encapsulated oil fractions. In conclusion, encapsulation of FO by solvent spray-drying can be proposed as an alternative technology for encapsulation of hydrophobic molecules.