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Funding Information: This work was supported by national funds from PDR2020-101-031501_59 n°–101 GreenTASTE: “Development of new food products based on unripened industrial tomatoes”. E.M.G., A.C.R. and M.L. acknowledge financial support from FCT, through the strategic project UIDB/04035/2020, which was granted to GeoBioTec Research Institute. C.A. acknowledges financial support from FCT, through the strategic project UIDB/00329/2020, which was granted to cE3c-Centre of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa. M.A. also acknowledges financial support from FCT, through the strategic project UIDB/04129/2020, which was granted to LEAF, i.e., the Linking Landscape, Environment, Agriculture and Food Research Unit. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 by the authors. In this study, the lactic fermentation of immature tomatoes as a tool for food ingredient production was evaluated as a circular economy-oriented alternative for valorising industrial tomatoes that are unsuitable for processing and which have wasted away in large quantities in the field. Two lactic acid bacteria (LAB) were assessed as starter cultures in an immature tomato pulp fermentation to produce functional food ingredients with probiotic potential. The first trial evaluated the probiotic character of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum (LAB97, isolated from immature tomato microbiota) and Weissella paramesenteroides (C1090, from the INIAV collection) through in vitro gastrointestinal digestion simulation. The results showed that LAB97 and C1090 met the probiotic potential viability criterion by maintaining 6 log10 CFU/mL counts after in vitro simulation. The second trial assessed the LAB starters’ fermentative ability. Partially decontaminated (110 °C/2 min) immature tomato pulp was used to prepare the individually inoculated samples (Id: LAB97 and C1090). Non-inoculated samples, both with and without thermal treatment (Id: CTR-TT and CTR-NTT, respectively), were prepared as the controls. Fermentation was undertaken (25 °C, 100 rpm) for 14 days. Throughout storage (0, 24, 48, 72 h, 7, and 14 days), all the samples were tested for LAB and Y&M counts, titratable acidity (TA), solid soluble content (SSC), total phenolic content (TPC), antioxidant capacity (AOx), as well as for organic acids and phenolic profiles, and CIELab colour and sensory evaluation (14th day). The LAB growth reached ca. 9 log10 CFU/mL for all samples after 72 h. The LAB97 samples had an earlier and higher acidification rate than the remaining ones, and they were highly correlated to lactic acid increments. The inoculated samples showed a faster and higher decrease rate in their SSC levels when compared to the controls. A nearly two-fold increase (p < 0.05) during the fermentation, over time, was observed in all samples’ AOx and TPC (p < 0.05, r = 0.93; similar pattern). The LAB97 samples obtained the best sensory acceptance for flavour and overall appreciation scores when compared to the others. In conclusion, the L. plantarum LAB97 starter culture was selected as a novel probiotic candidate to obtain a potential probiotic ingredient from immature tomato fruits. publishersversion published

Publisher Copyright: © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). The drying process is an essential thermal process for preserving vegetables and can be used in developing dried products as healthy alternative snacks. The effects of air-drying conditions using a convection dryer with hot air at different temperatures (60◦, 65◦, 70◦, 75◦, and 80◦ C, in the range 5–200 min, at a fixed air speed of 2.3 m/s) were tested on the quality of slices (2.0 ± 0.1 mm) of dried sweet potato (Bellevue PBR). For each time and temperature, drying condition, physicochemical parameters (moisture content, CIELab color, texture parameters, total phenolic and carotenoid contents) and a sensory evaluation by a panel at the last drying period (200 min) were assessed. Drying time was shown to have a more significant effect than temperature on the quality of dried sweet potato as a snack, except for carotenoid content. Given the raw tuber content, thermal degradation (p < 0.05) of total phenolic compounds (about 70%), regardless of tested conditions, contrasted with the higher stability of total carotenoids (

Funding Information: This study had the support of Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) through the PhD grant awarded to C.A. (SFRH/BD/62211/2009). C.A. also acknowledges financial support from FCT, through the strategic project UIDB/00329/2020 granted to cE3c-Centre of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa. M.A. and M.M.-M. also acknowledge financial support from FCT, through the strategic project UIDB/04129/2020 granted to LEAF-Linking Landscape, Environment, Agriculture and Food Research Unit. E.M.G. acknowledges financial support from FCT, through the strategic project UIDB/04035/2020 granted to GeoBioTec Research Institute. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Fresh-cut fruits and vegetables, as near-fresh foods, are a quick and easy solution to a healthy and balanced diet. The rapid degradation of nutritional and sensory quality during the processing and storage of a product is critical and plant-type-dependent. The introduction of disruptive technological solutions in fresh-cut processing, which could maintain fresh-like quality with less environmental impact, is an emerging research concept. The application of abiotic stress treatments (heat shock and UV-C) induces metabolic responses and microbial effects in plant tissues, potentially slowing down several quality senescence pathways. The previously selected combined and single effects of heat shock (100 °C/45 s; in the whole root) and UV-C (2.5 kJ/m2) treatments and two packaging conditions (oriented polypropylene (OPP) vs. micro-perforated OPP films) on controlling critical degradation pathways of fresh-cut carrots and on promoting bioactive and sensory quality during storage (5 °C, 14 days) were studied. Among the tested combinations, synergistic effects on the quality retention of fresh-cut carrots were only attained for applying heat shock associated with micro-perforated OPP film packaging. Its effects on reducing (3.3 Log10 CFU/g) the initial contamination and controlling microbiological spoilage (counts below the threshold limit of 7.5 Log10 CFU/g), increasing the bioactive content (38% and 72% in total phenolic content and chlorogenic acid, respectively), and preserving fresh quality attributes prove to be a viable alternative technology for shredded carrot processing. publishersversion published

There is a growing interest in Corema album (L.) D. Don fruits due to the unique white colour, mildly acidic lemony flavour and health-promoting properties associated with its bioactive composition. This study performs a physical–chemical characterisation of cultivated C. album fruits from a multi-origin clonal field. The field comprises ten wild populations with distinct geographical origins, grown under the same edaphoclimatic conditions. We analysed fruits CIELab colour parameters, texture profile (TPA), pH, acidity (TA, g.100 mL−1), soluble solids content (SSC, %) and total phenolic content (TPC, mg CAE.100 g−1). Our results showed differences between fruits physical–chemical attributes. Variation patterns in fruits SSC and hardness suggest that the differences might be related to the original geographical location of the populations. The determined TPC levels in all samples were very encouraging at a bioactive level, ranging from 185.3 to 355.6 mg CAE.100 g−1. Fruits from Mira and Pego populations stood out from the ten geographical provenances. Mira fruit samples had higher sweetness and lower acidity, while the Pego ones had firmer fruits and higher phenolic content. The multi-origin clonal field allowed us to offer an interesting scientific comparative background, highlighting the large potential of these berries for introduction in the commercial market. Not only our results support the potential of white crowberry as a new crop; the detected differences also indicate a hidden capacity for small fruit market diversification.

Funding Information: Funding: This research was funded by national funds from PDR2020-101-031501_59 no.—101 Green-Taste: “Development of new food products based on unripened industrial tomatoes”. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Lactic fermentation of unripe green tomatoes as a tool to produce food ingredients is a viable alternative for adding value to industrial tomatoes unsuitable for processing and left in large quantities in the fields. Fermentation using starter cultures isolated from the fruit (plant-matrix adapted) can have advantages over allochthonous strains in obtaining fermented products with sensory acceptability and potentially probiotic characteristics. This paper details the characterisation of the unripe green tomato lactic microbiota to screen LAB strains for use as starter cultures in fermentation processes, along with LAB strains available from INIAV’s collection. Morphological, biochemical (API system), and genomic (16S rDNA gene sequencing) identification showed that the dominant LAB genera in unripe green tomato are Lactiplantibacillus, Leuconostoc, and Weissella. Among nine tested strains, autochthonous Lactiplantibacillus plantarum and allochthonous Weissella paramesenteroides showed tolerance to added solanine (200 ppm) and the best in vitro probiotic potential. The results indicate that the two LAB strains are promising candidates for manufacturing probiotic fermented foods from unripe green tomatoes. publishersversion published