Sweet corn cob as a functional ingredient in bakery products.

Gluten free (GF) products are often inferior in quality attributes, nutritional content and consumer acceptability. The use of GF by-products is a novel strategy to improve the structure and nutritional profile of these products. Sweet corn cob (SCC) is a by-product of sweet corn processing containing a considerable amount of fibre and ferulic acid. The effect of baking on ferulic acid content, colour, texture and physical characteristics on muffins incorporated with SCC flour (SCCF) as a value-added food ingredient was investigated using a GF model system. The freeze-dried SCCF, containing ferulic acid (6.02 mg g-1) was used to replace the rice flour at varying levels of 10, 20, and 30%. In general, SCCF increased dietary fibre and free ferulic acid content of muffins. Inclusion of 20% SCCF showed an increase in terms of the height of the muffin and number of air cells in the crumb, along with a decrease in the hardness of muffins. Muffins with SCCF showed higher mean overall liking scores than rice flour muffin.

Water-soluble precursors of beef flavour: I. Effect of diet and breed.

The effects of diet and breed on the concentration of water-soluble flavour precursors, namely sugars, free amino acids, ribonucleotides, creatinine, carnosine and creatine, were studied in beef longissimus lumborum muscle. Diet had a significant effect on the concentration of free amino acids, with animals fed on grass silage having higher free amino acid levels than animals fed on a concentrate diet, whereas animals fed concentrates had a higher total reducing sugar content. Differences between a beef breed (Aberdeen Angus×Holstein-Friesian) and a dairy breed (Holstein-Friesian) were generally small.

Water-soluble precursors of beef flavour. Part II: Effect of post-mortem conditioning.

Changes in glycolytic metabolites, nucleotide degradation products, free amino acids and other amino compounds were monitored in beef muscle (M. longissimus lumborum), stored for 21days at 4°C, in order to evaluate how post-mortem conditioning may affect flavour formation in beef. The major effects observed in sugar-related substances were the dephosphorylation of the phosphates of glucose, fructose and mannose, to yield their free sugars, as well as the breakdown of inosine 5'-monophosphate, to give a sixfold increase in ribose. Total reducing sugars increased by only 15% during conditioning, while glycogen levels remained unchanged from 2days post-slaughter. Free amino acids increased during conditioning, particularly between days 7 and 14. Phenylalanine, methionine, lysine, leucine and isoleucine were the amino acids showing the greatest increase with conditioning time, with methionine, in particular, showing a sevenfold increase during the conditioning period. The effects of these precursor changes on cooked beef flavour are discussed.

Comparison of volatile compounds isolated from the skin and flesh of four potato cultivars after baking.

Four potato cultivars, Cara, Nadine, Fianna, and Marfona, were selected. Potatoes were baked in their skins prior to separating the skin and flesh and preparing extracts of the volatile flavor compounds using a modified Likens--Nickerson apparatus. The concentrated extracts were analyzed by gas chromatography--mass spectrometry. Volatiles were identified and classified according to their origin, that is, lipid, sugar degradation and/or Maillard reaction not involving sulfur amino acids, sulfur compounds, methoxypyrazines, and other compounds. Quantitative and qualitative differences were observed between isolates from flesh and skins and among cultivars grown at different sites. Strongest isolates from skin were obtained for Nadine. For flesh, Cara gave isolates approximately 10-fold more concentrated than the other three cultivars. For skin, sugar degradation and/or the Maillard reaction was by far the most important source in all cultivars except Nadine, for which 62% of the volatiles were accounted for by the sesquiterpene solavetivone. Lipid and sugar degradation and/or the Maillard reaction were the main origins of volatiles in flesh. Calculated aroma values for a selection of the key potato volatiles identified reinforce the effects of cultivar and growing site on baked potato flavor.

Determination of volatile components in fresh, frozen, and freeze-dried Padrón-type peppers by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry using dynamic headspace sampling and microwave desorption.

"Padrón-type" peppers are a small variety of Capsicum annuum cultivated mainly in Galicia, Spain. To compare the effects of freezing and freeze-drying on the volatile components of Padrón-type peppers, preserved samples are analyzed by means of dynamic headspace sampling on an adsorbent followed by microwave desorption into a gas chromatograph equipped with a mass spectrometric detector. Sixty-five compounds are identified, including hydrocarbons, terpenes, alcohols, phenols, ethers, aldehydes, ketones, esters, pyrroles, pyrazines, and sulfurous compounds. Fresh whole, homogenized, and freeze-dried peppers have characteristic volatile-component profiles, whereas frozen peppers have a highly variable volatile-component profile.

Effects of blanching, freezing and freeze-drying on the fatty acid contents of green beans.

GC-FID was used to monitor changes over time in palmitic, stearic, arachidic, oleic, linoleic and linoleic acid contents of green beans subjected to various preservation treatments. In beans stored in polyethylene bags at -22 degrees C without prior blanching, all fatty acid contents dropped appreciably within the first month of storage, regardless of whether the beans had been hand- or vacuum-packed. In beans which had been freeze-dried then stored at room temperature in an airtight container, polyunsaturated fatty acid contents dropped appreciably only after 2 months.