Nutritional composition and dietary intake of composite dishes traditionally consumed in Italy

Evaluation of the Effect of an Olive Phenolic Extract on the Secondary Shelf Life of a Fresh Pesto

Recent advances in the olive oil sector aim to develop sustainable strategies for the valorisation of mechanical extraction co-products as a rich source of bioactive compounds with antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. In this work, we studied the effectiveness of a phenolic extract (PE) from olive vegetation water (OVW) as a new antioxidant of natural origin for improving the quality and extending the secondary shelf life (SSL) of a fresh basil pesto sold as a served loose product at the deli counter, simulating the storage conditions after packaging, opening, and serving. For that, the PE was mixed with the oily phase of fresh pesto in two different concentrations and compared to a control pesto (CTRL) made with the addition of common additives (ascorbic acid (E300) and sorbic acid (E200)). The physicochemical parameters, phenolic and volatile composition, sensory profiles, and antioxidant capacity of the experimental pesto samples were evaluated after opening. The results proved that the enrichment with the PE improved the stability of the pesto and, hence, its overall quality. The PE provided higher protection than the CTRL against primary and secondary oxidation at both concentrations tested and delayed the accumulation of the volatile compounds responsible for the 'rancid' off-flavour up to 7 days after first opening, while also preserving higher levels of the pesto phytonutrients (such as the rosmarinic, caffeic, and chicoric acids and α-tocopherol). These results show that the generation of food waste in households, catering chains, retail, and/or restaurants can be reduced, improving the sustainability of the food industry and the competitiveness of the olive oil sector.

Food Composition Databases (FCDBs): A Bibliometric Analysis

Food composition databases (FCDBs) are important tools that provide information on the nutritional content of foods. Previously, it was largely unclear what nutritional contents and which FCDBs were involved in highly cited papers. The bibliometric study aimed to identify the most productive authors, institutions, and journals. The chemicals/chemical compounds with high averaged citations and FCDBs used by highly cited papers were identified. In July 2023, the online database Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) was queried to identify papers related to FCDBs. A total of 803 papers were identified and analyzed. The first paper indexed in WoSCC was published in 1992 by Pennington, which described the usefulness of FCDB for researchers to identify core foods for their own studies. In that paper, the FCDB described was the USDA 1987-88 NFCS (the United States Department of Agriculture 1987-88 Nationwide Food Consumption Survey). The most productive author was Dr. Paul M. Finglas, the Head of the Food Databanks National Capability at the Quadram Institute (Norwich, UK) and the Managing Director of EuroFIR. His most cited paper among this dataset was about the development of an online Irish food composition database together with EuroFIR. The most productive institutions were the USDA and the World Health Organization (WHO) instead of universities. Flavonoid was the most recurring chemical class among the highly cited ones. The anti-oxidative properties and protective effects against heart disease and cancer of flavonoids might be some of the reasons for their popularity in research. Among the highly cited papers, the most heavily used FCDBs were the USDA database for the flavonoid content of selected foods, Fineli, the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference (USNDB), EuroFIR eBASIS-Bioactive Substances in Food Information Systems, and Phenol-Explorer. High-quality national and international FCDBs should be promoted and made more accessible to the research and public communities to promote better nutrition and public health on a global scale.

Development of an Unified Food Composition Database for the European Project "Stance4Health"

The European Commission funded project Stance4Health (S4H) aims to develop a complete personalised nutrition service. In order to succeed, sources of information on nutritional composition and other characteristics of foods need to be as comprehensive as possible. Food composition tables or databases (FCT/FCDB) are the most commonly used tools for this purpose. The aim of this study is to describe the harmonisation efforts carried out to obtain the Stance4Health FCDB. A total of 10 FCT/FCDB were selected from different countries and organizations. Data were classified using FoodEx2 and INFOODS tagnames to harmonise the information. Hazard analysis and critical control points analysis was applied as the quality control method. Data were processed by spreadsheets and MySQL. S4H’s FCDB is composed of 880 elements, including nutrients and bioactive compounds. A total of 2648 unified foods were used to complete the missing values of the national FCDB used. Recipes and dishes were estimated following EuroFIR standards via linked tables. S4H’s FCDB will be part of the smartphone app developed in the framework of the Stance4Health European project, which will be used in different personalized nutrition intervention studies. S4H FCDB has great perspectives, being one of the most complete in terms of number of harmonized foods, nutrients and bioactive compounds included.

A preliminary study on the quality of street vended foods around a university in Kunming, China

The street vended foods (SVF) are very popular in China, particularly in highly adolescents populated regions such as schools. Food quality is a critical global issue, but there are few studies describe the quality assessment of SVF. In this study, the quality of SVF around a university in Kunming was evaluated, including the microbial quality, proximate composition, oil quality, and heavy metal content. Microbial results showed that the aerobic plate count (APC) and Escherichia coli (E. coli) counts ranged from 1.94 to 7.43 log CFU/g or ml, and 0.53 to 1.48 log CFU/g or ml, respectively. A portion of fried snack samples exceed the standard limit of acid value (AV) and peroxide value (POV), and the same result was observed in carbonyl group value (CGV), thiobarbituric acid (TBA) value, viscosity, and conductivity. The proximate composition of the fried snack samples varied widely, while the fat content was generally higher. The heavy metal analysis showed most samples met the safety standards, with the content of 12-51, 1-19, 12-73, and 11-88 μg/kg for As, Hg, Cd, and Pb, respectively. In conclusion, although the overall results of this study were satisfying, more attention should be given to the quality of SVF. Consequently, there is a need for additional measures to protect consumers, particularly young adults in college, from foodborne disease.

Effects of Ramadan Observance on Dietary Intake and Body Composition of Adolescent Athletes: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

To evaluate the effects of Ramadan observance on dietary intake, body mass and body composition of adolescent athletes (design: systematic review and meta-analysis; data sources: PubMed and Web of Science; eligibility criteria for selecting studies: single-group, pre-post, with or without control-group studies, conducted in athletes aged <19 years, training at least 3 times/week, and published in any language before 12 February 2020). Studies assessing body mass and/or body composition and/or dietary intake were deemed eligible. The methodological quality was assessed using ‘QualSyst’. Of the twelve selected articles evaluating body mass and/or body composition, one was of strong quality and eleven were rated as moderate. Ten articles evaluated dietary intake; four were rated as strong and the remaining moderate in quality. Continuation of training during Ramadan did not change body mass from before to the first week (trivial effect size (ES) = −0.011, p = 0.899) or from before to the fourth week of Ramadan (trivial ES = 0.069, p = 0.277). Additionally, Ramadan observance did not change body fat content from before to the first week (trivial ES = −0.005, p = 0.947) and from before to the fourth week of Ramadan (trivial ES = -0.057, p = 0.947). Lean body mass remained unchanged from before to the fourth week of Ramadan (trivial ES = −0.025, p = 0.876). Dietary data showed the intake of energy (small ES = -0.272, p = 0.182), fat (trivial ES = 0.044, p = 0.842), protein (trivial ES = 0.069, p = 0.720), carbohydrate (trivial ES = 0.075, p = 0.606) and water (trivial ES = −0.115, p = 0.624) remained essentially unchanged during as compared to before Ramadan. Continued training of adolescent athletes at least three times/week during Ramadan observance has no effect on body mass, body composition or dietary intake.

Definition of the Traditional Mexican Diet and Its Role in Health: A Systematic Review

Promoting traditional diets could potentially reduce the current high rates of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) globally. While the traditional Mexican diet (TMexD) could be specifically promoted in Mexico, a concise definition of the TMexD and evidence of its association with NCDs are needed before its promotion. To evaluate what constitutes this diet pattern, we aimed to systematically review, for the first time, how the TMexD has been described in the literature to date. A secondary aim was to examine whether the TMexD, as described by available definitions, is associated with NCD outcomes. We searched for records describing a whole TMexD up to July 2019 in 12 electronic databases, reference lists, a relevant journal, and by contacting experts on the topic. We reported the results using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. We included 61 records for the definition of the diet and six for the association with NCD outcomes. The food groups characterising the TMexD that were consistently mentioned in all the study subgroups were grains and tubers, legumes, and vegetables; specific foods included maize, beans, chile, squash, tomato, and onion. Other groups also mentioned, although with lesser frequency, were maize products, fruits, beverages, fish and seafood, meats, sweets and sweeteners, and herbs and condiments. Only a few studies reported on the frequency of consumption or the amounts in which these foods were consumed in the TMexD. It was not possible to reach strong conclusions for the association between adherence to the TMexD and NCD outcomes. The TMexD was weakly associated with developing breast cancer, not associated with triglyceride levels, and inconsistently associated with obesity and diabetes outcomes. However, results were limited by the small number of studies (n = 6), of which most were of observational nature and evaluated diets using different TMexD definitions. These findings provide systematically identified evidence of the characteristics of the TMexD. More studies are needed to ascertain the exact quantities by which foods were consumed in the TMexD in order to establish whether this dietary pattern is associated with health and should be promoted within the Mexican population.

Antioxidant Properties of Four Commonly Consumed Popular Italian Dishes

Four popular dishes belonging to Italian cuisine and widely consumed in the country were experimentally prepared in a dedicated lab-kitchen following a validated and standardized protocol. This study provides their antioxidant properties evaluating the contribution of extractable and non-extractable bioactive compounds, and identifying the assessment of interactions between their natural active compounds and the food matrix. Ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) values in aqueous-organic extract ranged from the highest antioxidant activity in torta di mele (10.72 µmol/g d.m.) to that in besciamella (2.47 µmol/g d.m.); in residue, pasta alla carbonara reached the highest value (73.83 µmol/g d.m.) following by that in pasta alla amatriciana (68.64 µmol/g d.m.). Total polyphenol content (TPC) ranged in aqueous-organic extracts between 36.50 and 64.28 mg/100 g d.m. and in residue from 425.84 to 1747.35 mg/100 g d.m. Our findings may contribute to the updating of the Italian Food Composition Database, by providing for the first time a value for the antioxidant properties. This could contribute to encourage the consumption of recipes rich in key nutrients and bioactive molecules. This information is useful and important for determining the association between diet and a healthy status.