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The influence of thermal treatment (frying of plantain) on the micronutrients ascorbic acid, potassium and carotenoids is evaluated. Cylinders (diameter 30 mm, thickness 10 mm) of plantain ( Musa AAB ‘barraganete’) were fried at four thermal treatments (120–180°C and from 24 to 4 min) to obtain products with approximately the same water content (≈0.8±0.02 kg/kg 1 ) and fat content (≈0.15±0.06 kg/kg). The thermal study used the cook value and the mean cook value as indicators of the effect of several different treatment temperatures and times on quality. Deep-fat frying had no significant effect on carotenoid contents at any frying conditions, and on potassium content, except at 120°C and 24 min (loss ≤ 11%). There was a significant, but not complete, loss (≤45%) of ascorbic acid. The process with the greatest effect was low temperature and long time (120°C/24 min), as observed for potassium and ascorbic acid. These results are in agreement with other studies that demonstrated short thermal treatments at high temperatures protect food nutritional quality, as shown by the cook value and the mean cook value. In our work, deep-fat frying of plantain preserved most of the micronutrient contents that were evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was aimed at developing a tool to represent the evolution of nutritional profile of food during processing with input data mined from previous published papers or database on composition and reactivity of nutrients, and from minimal experimentations. Tomato-based products, that is tomato sauce, concentrate and paste, were chosen to evaluate the developed model. The SAIN-LIM system was used to assess the nutritional profile of the tomato products throughout the process steps, including seven constituents: five basic nutrients (i.e. proteins, fibres, vitamin C, calcium and iron) and two microconstituents found in tomato: b-carotene and lycopene. The SAIN-LIM nutritional profiles obtained with this model were compared to that calculated from experimental data. Calculated and experimental nutritional scores showed that process steps involved in tomato-based products did not affect substantially their nutritional quality. Observed differences were mainly attributed to the kinetic parameter selection and raw product variability. The conclusion offers suggestions to extend the model to other product/process combinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The physicochemical, nutritional, and functional variations of Myrtillocactus geometrizans and Myrtillocactus schenckii, were assessed. Variations of characteristics among species and geographic origin were lower compared to prickly pear. Titratable acidity, and total soluble solids varied by 7.7%, and 11%, respectively. Variations of protein (18.5%) and fibre (5.2%) contents were lower when compared to prickly pear. Iron and copper contents make Myrtillocactus a good source of minerals contributing 16% and 20% of daily requirements. Myrtillocactus also could be an outstanding source of fibre (up to 36.9%). Gallic and caffeic acids, and vanillin were identified by HPLC. Betalains, soluble phenolics, and vitamin C contribute to the high antioxidant activity (TEAC) which, if compared with commonly consumed fruits, was higher. The potential for the production of high-quality industrialised products derived from Myrtillocactus is feasible, as long as compositional variations from batch to batch are kept in check. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]