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BACKGROUND: This investigation provides an important insight into Eurasian consumers' food safety beliefs and trust issues influenced by the COVID‐19 pandemic. An online survey was conducted in 15 European and Asian countries involving more than 4000 consumers. RESULTS: It has confirmed that different socioeconomic characteristics, cultural aspects and education levels shape food safety perceptions within Eurasian countries. The COVID‐19 pandemic influenced their beliefs and trust in food safety, which is relatively low on average. However, it is significantly higher for European consumers (especially European Union ones) compared to their Asian counterparts. Both Asian and European respondents agreed that food fraud and climate changes represent a food safety issue. However, European consumers were less concerned regarding the food safety of genetically modified foods and meat and dairy analogs/hybrids. Asian consumers were, to a greater extent, worried about the risk of getting COVID‐19 from food, restaurants, food retail establishments and home food deliveries. CONCLUSION: Eurasian consumers have put their greatest extent of trust, when food safety assurance is concerned, into food scientists and food producers holding a food safety certificate. Broadly, they are uncertain to what extent their federal governments and food inspectors are competent, able and efficient in ensuring food safety. Higher education of Eurasian consumers was followed by increased food safety confidence in all parts of the food chain. © 2023 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Tomato is one of the most important agricultural crops and it is characterized by a wide bioactive compound profile. However, little information is reported on its comprehensive polyphenol profile. In this work, 13 commercial tomato cultivars for industrial transformation were screened by ultra‐high‐pressure liquid chromatography coupled to quadrupole‐time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC‐QTOF‐MS) for both free and bound phenolic profiles. Thereafter, the in vitro antioxidant activity of each cultivar was assessed by ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and oxygen radical absorbance activity (ORAC) assays. Multivariate statistics, i.e. orthogonal projection to latent structures discriminant analysis (OPLS‐DA), were then used to model samples according to their distinct phenolic signatures, thus providing compounds that better discriminated between the distributions of the cultivars that were considered. RESULTS: More than 350 phenolic compounds could be identified across the samples that were considered: flavonoids (such as flavones and flavanols), hydroxycinnamic acids, lignans, and lower‐molecular‐weight phenolics were the most frequently observed classes of phenolics in tomato berries. Anthocyanins were the most abundant class among bound phenolics (being highest in the Leader F1 and Defender F1 cultivars), followed by tyrosols (mainly in Heinz cultivars). However, flavones and hydroxybenzoic acids were the most represented discriminant phenolics in the bound fraction. CONCLUSIONS: Untargeted metabolomics allowed significant differences in phenolic composition to be outlined across the tomato cultivars that were analyzed. Such differences were particularly evident regarding the free‐to‐bound phenolic ratio, hence allowing differences in the bioaccessibility of phenolics to be postulated. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Fruit juices and other beverages constitute an important source of bioactive compounds, but thermal processing may reduce their contents thus decreasing natural nutritive value of foods. This has been recently led to the use of non‐thermal technologies, especially pulsed electric fields (PEF) as an interesting alternative to thermal pasteurization of beverages. Reported results show that PEF is a useful for pasteurization of fruit juices that can minimize changes in physicochemical and nutritional properties with retention of higher amounts of health‐related phytochemicals. This study presents an overview of the effect of PEF on the physicochemical (e.g., Brix, pH, viscosity, acidity, color, aroma, and flavor, etc.) and nutritional (e.g., fatty acids and free amino acids, bioactive compounds, antioxidant capacity, etc.) properties of beverages. Practical applications: Pulsed electric fields is suitable technological option for pasteurization, able to preserve valued bioactive compounds in beverages. Over the last decade, PEF has attracted a significant interest from various food industries and found numerous applications. However, chemical profile of food matrices has great influence on PEF, hence success of the treatment has to be evaluated and reported for each particular food. Accordingly, this review made systematic overview of the effects of PEF processing on the physicochemistry and nutrition with focus on beverages manufactured from various raw materials. Provided data can be applied for steering future uses of the PEF in processing, as well as directions of the future research with this useful technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mandarins are a member of the Citrus genus and are the focus of growing commercial interest, with satsuma mandarins ( Citrus unshiu) and the common mandarin ( Citrus reticulata Blanco) being the most important mandarin varieties. The possible health benefits and functional properties of those fruits are often associated with the antioxidative function of vitamin C, carotenoids, and phenolic compounds. While most mandarins are consumed fresh, many are processed into juices (mostly cloudy), usually via thermal processing which can lead to the creation of off-flavors and may diminish nutritional quality. The aim of this review is to summarize the most significant and recent information on the safety, sensorial properties, and nutritional benefits of mandarins and their processing into juice. The article also discusses recent information regarding the bioaccessibility of valuable, mandarin specific, compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study addressed the changes in polyphenolic stability and antioxidant capacity in fresh-cut apples packaged in modified atmosphere (MAP) as a result of (i) minimal processing parameters (type of cultivar, anti-browning treatments, and the length of storage); (ii) superficial browning; (iii) ultrasound treatment; and (iv) microbial growth during storage at 4 °C for 14 days. Studied cultivars were Cripps Pink and Golden Delicious. Anti-browning agents were ascorbic with citric acid and sole Ca-ascorbate that were both combined with the ultrasound. Identified phenolic compounds in all samples were chlorogenic and p-coumaroylquinic acid, quercetin, epicatechin, and phloridzin. Cripps Pink was richer on flavonoids and had the higher antioxidant capacity than Golden Delicious. Application of any anti-browning treatments did not influence quantities of phenolic compounds, but they showed an improved antioxidant capacity in comparison with untreated samples. Phenolic compounds were stable and antioxidant capacity decreased during storage. Microbial growth had no association with the majority of phenolic compounds (except epicatechin), where it was possible that microorganisms oxidized epicatechin to quercetin together with apple respiratory processes. Practical applications Fresh-cut production represents large portion of the international food markets as consumers increasingly demand ready-to-eat products. However, these products have a very short shelf-life with strong impacts on economic gains from such production. Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) is a very popular industrial preservation technique for prolonging freshness of ready-to-eat apples and other foods. Polyphenolics naturally present in apples have various health benefits and favorable influence on nutritive value. Currently, there is a scarcity of available data that simultaneously associates changes in polyphenolic content with minimal processing; apple respiration; storage and superficial browning. This type of data has both, economic and nutritive value for the fresh-cut production as it is associated with extension of the shelf-life, plus it is directly related with the superficial browning in this perishable produce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives were to compare differences in color change (Δ [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives in this study were to model/predict simultaneous influences of apple O2-consumption/CO2-production rates [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bioactive polyphenolic compounds are present in Stevia rebaudiana leaves and pressurized hot water was applied for their extraction. The extraction was carried out at a constant pressure of 10.34 MPa and the effects of extraction parameters, temperature (100–160°C), time (5 and 10 min), and cycles (1–3) on the polyphenolic composition and content were determined [Correction added on 6 January 2020, after first online publication: the preceding sentence has been updated to reflect the correct temperature from "(10–160°C)" to "(100–160°C)".]. A total of 33 polyphenolic compounds of four major categories namely phenolic acids, flavonols, flavones, and flavanols were determined in stevia extracts using UPLC‐ESI‐MS2, but the main polyphenolics were mono‐ and diacyl caffeoylquinic acids and quercetin glycosides. The observed pressurized hot water extraction parameters had a statistically significant effect on extraction yield of all analyzed stevia polyphenol subclasses. Cumulative effects of temperature and cycle number did not cause a significant difference in the extraction yield of flavan‐3‐ols. There was no difference in phenolic acids and flavonols with prolonged static extraction time at the highest temperature. Increasing the cycle number minimizes the effect of static time prolongation. The most suitable extraction conditions of stevia phenolic acids and flavanols were found to be at the 130°C and for flavonols and flavones at 160°C at the same extraction time of 10 min and 3 cycles. Practical Applications: The major application of stevia extracts and stevioside is their use as a sweetener and dietary supplement. Apart from the sweet content, Stevia rebaudiana has numerous compounds with bioactive potential such as flavonoids and phenolic acids, sterols, triterpenoids, chlorophylls, alkaloids, lipids, essential oils, and trace elements. Past few years, stevia has attracted significant scientific interest as a natural antioxidant agent. Therefore, in this study, pressurized hot water extraction was optimized using water as generally recognized as safe solvent in order to establish an effective method for the production of stevia leaf extract rich in polyphenols. UPLC‐MS/MS analysis showed 33 different phenolic compounds belonging to the classes of phenolic acids, flavonols, flavones, and flavanols with mono‐ and diacyl caffeoylquinic acids and quercetin glycosides in the highest concentrations, indicating high potential of stevia leaves' extract for use in food and pharmaceutical industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]