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The aim of this study was to evaluate the ability of ultrasound inspection and quality determinations to characterize two commercial categories of dry-cured pork loin, labelled as green (GL) and red (RL). For this objective, ultrasound inspection was carried out for two different frequencies (500 and 1000 kHz), considering parameters of ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV), frequency components related to the fast Fourier transform (FFT), and variables related to the attenuation. Physicochemical (moisture and fat content, water activity, instrumental color), instrumental texture (TPA) and sensory analyses (QDA) were also carried out. Moreover, quality and ultrasonic parameters were subjected to a correlation analysis (Pearson). Several physicochemical, instrumental texture and sensory parameters allowed to discriminate the dry-cured loin category. Moreover, high significant correlations were found among quality and acoustics parameters. Thus, ultrasound inspection can determine quality parameters indirectly without the limitations of traditional methodologies, postulating as a tool for characterizing dry-cured loin samples of different category with a promising predictive nature. This work has showed new findings for dry-cured meat products that may be of interest to the meat industry.

10 páginas, 8 figuras, 2 tablas, Air-coupled ultrasound could be considered a suitable on-line technique for the non-invasive industrial testing of potato products manufactured in slices such as dried, fried or baked potato chips. Thus, the aim of the present study is to test the feasibility of air-coupled ultrasound to monitor the modifications in the physicochemical parameters of potato slices caused by drying. For that purpose, the potato slices (6 mm) were air dried (60 °C) for different drying times (15, 90, 180, 300 and 420 min). Air-coupled ultrasonic measurements were taken using through-transmission mode (250 kHz) and different compositional and textural parameters were measured. During drying, the ultrasonic velocity and the impedance increased significantly (p < 0.05) from 509 m/s (raw) to 673 m/s (dried for 420 min) and from 0.544 MRayl (raw) to 0.844 MRayl (dried for 420 min), respectively. Furthermore, a reduction was observed in the material attenuation, which was computed by the increase in the variation of the transmission coefficient with frequency (ΔTC). A principal component regression (PCR) model was successfully trained and validated and it demonstrated the potential capacity of the computed ultrasonic parameters to predict the apparent elastic modulus (E) (R = 0.96) and the Total Relaxation Capacity (TRC) (R = 0.99) during the drying of potato slices. The ultrasonic analysis and experimental set-up proposed in this study may be easily implemented and tested with other products, such as dried, fried or extruded snacks based on fruits or vegetables, for industrial quality control purposes., The authors acknowledge the financial support of the Universitat Politécnica de Valencia (Project 20200421)

This study aims to evaluate the capability of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and computer vision techniques to classify fresh (raw F) (n = 12) and frozen-thawed (FT) (n = 12) beef and predict physico-chemical, texture and sensory characteristics by optimization the methodology for image analysis (algorithm) and data analysis (regressor), testing different algorithm-regressor combinations. The accuracy of the classification and prediction results especially depend on the algorithm. Different optimum combinations were found for classification (Fractal with CForest, RF or SVM) and prediction of quality parameters of raw FT (Fractal-CForest or Fractal-RF) and cooked FT samples (Classic-RF). Thus, the computational analysis of MRI, especially the algorithm to analyze the image, may be set as a function of the aim (classification or prediction) and of the type of sample (raw or cooked), while the analysed characteristic is not relevant. This study firstly showed the capability of MRI to classify beef (raw F vs. raw FT) and to determine quality characteristics in a non-destructive way.

Background The consumption of omega-3 fatty acids has many beneficial effects for human health, but the intake of foods rich in these fatty acids is not enough to achieve the recommended quantity per person and per day, and their direct addition in foods cause oxidation and unacceptable rancidity and off-flavor. Taking account of all these aspects, this study was aimed to develop stable microcapsules of fish oil (omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids) and lycopene (antioxidant) and to investigate their effect on different spreads. Results The inclusion of different proportions of lycopene in fish oil did not show great benefits in the quality characteristics of emulsions and microcapsules. After the addition of fish oil and fish oil + lycopene microcapsules to dry-cured ham and cheese spreads, no significant differences were found in the proximal composition and oxidative stability, whereas fatty acids composition and sensory analysis were influenced. The eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids content increased with the fish oil content in both products, but it decreased significantly after storage in the cheese spreads. Addition of microcapsules did not significantly influence on quantitative-descriptive and acceptability sensory analyses in dry-cured spreads, but it negatively affected the flavor of cheese spreading creams. Conclusion There is no need to add antioxidants to improve the stability of the fish oil microcapsules in the present study, which are appropriate as eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid vehicles to enrich meat-derived spreading creams. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry.

This study aims to evaluate the ability of the Near Infrared Reflectance spectroscopy (NIRs) technique to analyse texture-related characteristics of sous-vide pork loins at different times of cooking. For that, pork loins were sous-vide at 70 °C for 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8 h. Cooked samples were analysed by means of NIRs, instrumental (cooking loss, pH, moisture, hydrolysed collagen and texture profile analysis) and sensory analysis. Classification and predictive techniques of data mining were applied on the obtained data. Sous-vide loins were correctly classified as a function of time of cooking and their texture-related characteristics were predicted accurately, achieving correlation coefficients (R) higher than 0.5 and Mean Absolute Scaled Errors lower than 1 for most parameters. Thus, it is demonstrated the capability of NIRs to analyse most texture-related parameters of warm loin samples, and it may be recommended as a rapid and automatic techniques to stablish optimal cooking conditions of food.

The aim of the present work was to sensorially characterize different commercial categories of Iberian dry-cured loins (varying genetic and feeding background) using a novel dynamic sensory technique, and to explore consumers preferences applying a rapid method. The samples (green label—GL, Cebo de Campo Ibérico, red label—RL, Bellota 50% Ibérico, and black label—BL, Bellota 100%) were analyzed by (i) Check-all-that-apply (CATA) with the evaluation of an ‘Ideal’ dry-cured loin and the overall liking, and by (ii) multiple-intake Temporal Dominance of Sensations (TDS). The CATA results indicated that the sensory characteristics of RL samples were closer to those of the ‘Ideal’ loin. Furthermore, juiciness, marbling, cured flavor, chewiness, persistence, and brightness were selected as ‘must-have’ attributes. Juiciness cured flavor and red color were considered as drivers of liking. TDS results showed that flavor attributes presented the highest dominance rates, with saltiness being the most dominant attribute along BL sample evaluation, and with cured and paprika flavor for GL and RL samples. These sensory technique results displayed the ability to sensorily characterize dry-cured loins, providing different, complementary, and valuable information.

The use of byproducts generated by the food industry is a strategy that can have advantages in economic, technological, nutritional, and environmental terms. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of the addition of byproducts of chicken slaughter (skin and abdominal fat) on the quality of fresh sausage stored under freezing. Partial chemical characterization of the byproducts was performed. Three batches of chicken sausage were prepared with skin, abdominal fat, and with skin and abdominal fat added; thereafter were stored for 135 d in freezer. Partial chemical composition, physical characteristics, microbiological quality, and product acceptance were determined. Skin and abdominal fat are rich sources of fat. However, the addition of skin provided to sausage higher protein content, hardness, water retention capacity, and less cooking loss compared to added abdominal fat treatments. In contrast, the addition of abdominal fat provided higher lipid content to the sausages and displaying higher acceptability. The addition of byproducts in fresh sausage manufacture would be a great strategy to increase the chicken sausage value, with physicochemical quality improvement, and without sensory acceptability issues.

This paper describes a non-invasive ultrasound method to analyze and develop the usefulness of ultrasound testing of both raw and cooked samples of pork loins (with different cooking conditions), and in different measurement conditions (frozen and thawed). Besides studying ultrasound pulse velocity (UPV), other ultrasound parameters were included such as FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) and attenuation, neither of which being commonly studied in this kind of work. The experimental study was carried out on pork loin pieces with 3 cm thickness, using a pair of transducers in through-transmission mode (frequency range up to 100 kHz), and another one in pulseecho mode (frequency range up to 1000 kHz). The ultrasound parameters studied showed good discrimination between samples in the different conditions of measurement and cooking. These results consolidate ultrasound testing as a non-destructive method well suited to this kind of meat product, both raw and cooked.

Napping combined with ultra-flash profile (UFP) is a rapid descriptive sensory method which allows discriminating between the samples. Several researches have used napping-UFP as an alternative to other conventional techniques due to the reduction in cost and time. The objective of this work was to study the applicability of napping-UFP to evaluate the influence of cooking methods and conditions on sensory characteristics of pork loin and cod (Gadus morhua). Moreover, quantitative descriptive analysis (QDA) was carried out, and comparison between these techniques was presented and discussed. Pork loin samples were oven-cooked at 150 and 180 °C for 45, 60 and 75 min; and confited during 120, 180 and 240 min. Cod samples were oven-cooked at 150 and 180 °C during 10, 15 and 20 min and boiled for 5, 10 and 15 min. Compared to QDA, napping-UFP provided additional information related to the acceptability of samples since participants spontaneously described the similarities and dissimilarities between cod and pork samples. Comparison of napping and QDA revealed that both techniques allowed obtaining a good discrimination among tested samples particularly in relation to the temperature effect, resulting in acceptable Escoufier’s coefficient values between both techniques.

The basic objective of the study was to confirm the usefulness of non-destructive ultrasonic testing in evaluating different edible oil samples. The experimental study was carried out for three types of edible oils (olive, sunflower, and corn) in which a 1.0 MHz ultrasound transducer was immersed. Density and viscosity values of the samples were determined simultaneously with the ultrasound tests. By themselves, ultrasound inspection, density, and viscosity, were able to characterize and distinguish each type from the others, but only the ultrasound inspection has a non-destructive nature. Moreover, significant correlations among density and viscosity with the acoustic parameters were found. The results postulate that ultrasound inspection is a fast and non-destructive tool to characterize and discriminate different types of edible oils.

Emotional responses elicited by certain types of food can be influenced by past experiences, frequency of consumption, culture, and other personal preferences. The present research aimed i) to investigate the impact of culture (Brazilian and Spaniard) on consumers' emotional responses and acceptability of different food stimuli, and ii) to explore the influence of evoked contexts. Brazilian (n = 437) and Spanish (n = 397) participants were exposed to three visual food stimuli (image of chocolate, potato chips, and yogurt) in an online survey and reported their emotional responses. Sociodemographic data, liking, and frequency of consumption were also collected. The evoked context in our study were designed and proposed, for each product and culture, based on four dimensions (consumption time, location, social setting, and hungry state). The evoked emotional lexicon was different for each food stimulus and was clearly influenced by the cultural factor. However, there are more similarities between cultures when evaluating the same product category. The evoked contexts were appropriated and influenced the citing frequency of some emotion terms, including positive ones. The most cited emotion terms tended to positively impact product liking ratings, acting as drivers of liking. Consumption level was positively related to liking regardless of cultural interactions for both chocolate and potato chips stimuli. In conclusion, the cultural background demonstrated to be an important impact factor to be considered for understanding the effects of product, consumption occasions, and degree of liking, on emotional responses to foods. These findings offer new possibilities to be explored in marketing messages for interventions or stimuli that guide food choices.

The objective of this work was to characterize different commercial categories of pork loin non-destructively by inspection using low-intensity ultrasound at different frequencies. To this end, such ultrasound parameters as the ultrasound pulse velocity (UPV) and variables related to the attenuation and to the frequency components obtained from the fast Fourier transform (FFT) were considered. The acoustic parameters and those obtained using traditional instrumental analyses (physicochemical and texture) were subjected to a Pearson correlation analysis. Several ultrasound parameters allowed the two categories explored to be distinguished. Also, the acoustic determinations yielded many significant correlations with the rest of the parameters studied. The results show that ultrasound can be postulated as an instrument for characterizing and distinguishing samples of different categories of loin, and that it has a promising predictive character.

Background: The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of red wine-based marination on the oxidative stability and overall quality of roasted beef strip steaks. Four treatments were considered, according to the type of wine (300 mL dealcoholized wine/kilogram meat): 'Cabernet Sauvignon', 'Tempranillo', 'Isabel' (ISA), and a control. The formation of potentially harmful protein oxidation products during roasting, including protein carbonyls and dityrosines, was inhibited by bioactive components of the wine.; Results: ISA marinades were particularly resistant to protein oxidation, which could be due the particular composition of this wine in phenolic compounds. Wine-based marination was also effective in controlling the formation of lipid-derived volatile compounds, such as hexanal, octane-2,5-dione, and heptan-2-one, which led to a reduced perception of rancidity by panelists. Additionally, wines contributed to spicing roasted beef with wine-derived flavors from esters, alcohols, and lactones.; Conclusions: Hence, marination may be a feasible means to alleviate the potential negative effects that oxidative reactions cause to meat proteins, improve beef quality, and diversify beef cuts into a variety of safer and more flavored meat products. Among wines, ISA appeared to be most promising in terms of antioxidant protection; however, the limited consumer acceptance of steaks treated with this wine may be regarded as a drawback to be sorted out in future studies. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.; © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.

The main objectives of this study were to evaluate the use of near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to classify pork loins under different methods and cooking conditions, and to predict sensory attributes of this product.; Results: Samples were oven cooked at two temperatures (150 and 180 °C) for different times (45, 60 and 75 min) and confit cooked for different times (120, 180 and 240 min). All cooked loin samples were subjected to a Quantitative Descriptive Analysis by a trained panel. For classification, principal component analysis was performed based on the NIRS database, showing a good discrimination between loins samples subjected to different cooking conditions. Regarding prediction, a data mining technique (multiple linear regression) was applied on a database constructed with data from NIRS and sensory analysis.; Conclusion: The correlation coefficient and the mean absolute error obtained suggest that the calculated prediction equations of this study are valid to predict the changes in the sensory attributes depending on the cooking method and conditions used for pork loins. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.; © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.

The ripening process of dry-cured meat products is characterised by the development of fungi on the product’s surface. This population plays a beneficial role, but, uncontrolled moulds represent a health risk, since some of them may produce mycotoxins, such as ochratoxin A (OTA). The aim of the present work is to assess the potential of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) for the detection of OTA-producing mould species on dry-cured ham-based agar. The collected spectra were used to develop Support Vector Machines–Discriminant Analysis (SVM-DA) models by a hierarchical approach. Firstly, an SVM-DA model was tested to discriminate OTA and non-OTA producers, then, two models were tested to discriminate species among the OTA producers and the non-OTA producers. OTA and non-OTA-producing moulds were discriminated with 85% sensitivity and 86% specificity in the prediction. Furthermore, the SVM-DA model could differentiate non-OTA-producing species with a 95% sensitivity and specificity. Promising results were obtained for the prediction of the four OTA-producing species tested, with a 69% and 90% sensitivity and specificity, respectively. The preliminary approach demonstrated the high potential of NIR spectroscopy, coupled with Chemometrics, to be used as a real-time automated routine monitorization of dry-cured ham surfaces.

The relationship between the sensory attributes and the ultrasound parameters of pork loin samples cooked under different conditions was studied. The pork loin samples were oven-cooked or confit, applying different temperatures and cooking times. Sensory attributes were determined by quantitative descriptive analysis (QDA) with trained panel, evaluating aspects of appearance, odour, texture, and flavour. The determined ultrasound parameters were the ultrasound pulse velocity (UPV) and variables related to attenuation and to the frequency components obtained from the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). The present correlation study showed that the sensory attributes related to a sample's physical properties were strongly and significantly correlated with the ultrasound parameters, especially with those related to the FFT and attenuation. Thus, ultrasound inspection can be postulated as a viable tool for studies of the correlation and prediction of sensory attributes, to possibly replace and/or complement other methods that cannot offer the advantages of the ultrasound technique.

Product reformulation for obtaining "free-from" or "healthy choice" versions may confer significant changes in sensory characteristics which could not meet consumer expectations in terms of sensory perception. Therefore, this paper aims to evaluate the influence of formulations of different product categories on their dynamic sensory profile and consumer acceptability. A sensory panel of 23 semi-trained assessors evaluated two product categories, chocolate and milk coffee, using Temporal Dominance of Sensations (TDS) over three consecutive intakes/sips (multiple-intake TDS) on two replications. TDS allowed us to describe the dynamic profile of classic products over the three intakes and to identify differences in the sensory temporal profile compared to their 'healthier choice' reformulated versions. For the chocolate category, increasing the cocoa and the reduction of lactose content mainly influenced the dominance of sweetness, dairy, cocoa, crunchy and bitterness attributes. No sugar addition and absence of caffeine (decaffeinated version) in ready to drink milk coffee beverage modified temporal perception of sweetness, bitterness, coffee flavor and smoothness texture. Higher overall liking averages were associated with the dominant attributes of chocolate with a higher level of cacao and milk coffee decaffeinated. The obtained results of the present work suggest that the multiple-intake TDS technique can be applied for the evaluation of different food categories, helping to develop healthier products and predicting the liking.