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BACKGROUND: Children with COVID-19 have a milder clinical course than adults. We describe the spectrum of cardiovascular manifestations during a COVID-19 outbreak in Emilia-Romagna, Italy.METHODS: Cross-sectional multicenter study including all diagnosis of KD, myocarditis and multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) from February to April,2020. KD patients were compared to those diagnosed before the epidemic.RESULTS: KD: 8 patients (6/8 boys, all negative for SARS-CoV-2); complete presentation in 5/8; 7/8 IVIG-responders; 3/8 showed transient coronary lesions (CALs).MYOCARDITIS: one 5-year-old girl negative for SARS-CoV-2, positive for Parvovirus B19. She responded to IVIG.MIS-C: 4 SARS-CoV-2 positive boys (3 patients with positive swab and serology, 1 patient with negative swab and positive serology). Three presented myocardial dysfunction and pericardial effusion, one developed multicoronary aneurysms and hyperinflammation; all responded to treatment. The fourth boy had mitral and aortic regurgitation that rapidly regressed after steroids.CONCLUSIONS: KD, myocarditis and MIS-C were distinguishable cardiovascular manifestations. KD did not show a more aggressive form compared to previous years: coronary involvement was frequent, but always transient. MIS-C and myocarditis rapidly responded to treatment without cardiac sequelae despite high markers of myocardial injury at onset suggesting a myocardial depression due to systemic inflammation rather than focal necrosis. Evidence of actual or previous SARS-CoV-2 infection was documented only in patients with MIS-C.

Ultraviolet irradiation (UV-C) is proven to be effective to inactivate microorganisms. The present study investigates the effect of sublethal UV-C rays on the membrane fatty acid profile of four Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from air, patient, food and animal. Our results show that S. aureus isolated from patients and air are the most sensitive to UV-C rays and that their inactivation achieves a greater than 2-log reduction after a UV-C exposure of 210 mJ cm−2. However, the strain isolated from food is the most resistant one. The fatty acid analysis indicates that this strain (food) reveals a decrease of branched chain fatty acids (BCFA iso and anteiso) and an increase of straight chain saturated fatty acids (SCFA).

The present study was carried out to evaluate the effects of ultraviolet radiations (UV-C) on the fatty acids composition of three serovars of Salmonella: S. typhimurium, S. hadar and S. zanzibar. Results obtained show that UV-C treatment increases significantly (P ≤ 0.05) the percentage of cyclic fatty acids. The atomic force microscopy was used to study the morphology and cell surface of irradiated strains. Results show that UV-C rays induce morphological changes and alter the bacterial cell surface (presence of grooves and irregularities).

Cinetica della fermentazione alcolica e arresti di fermentazione (Maria Elisabetta Guerzoni, Diana Isabella Serrazanetti) ............................................................ “ 57 4.1 Introduzione .......................................................................................................................... “ 57 4.2 Dipendenza dal ceppo .......................................................................................................... “ 58 4.3 Risposta agli stress ................................................................................................................ “ 60 4.3.1 Stress osmotico .......................................................................................................... “ 60 4.3.2 Stress nutrizionale ...................................................................................................... “ 61 4.4 Importanza e frequenza degli arresti di fermentazione ......................................................... “ 62 4.5 Possibili fattori causali delle fermentazioni problematiche ................................................... “ 63 4.6 Ioni e squilibro ionico ............................................................................................................ “ 65 4.7 Temperatura e processi fermentativi ..................................................................................... “ 67 4.8 Etanolo e membrane cellulari ............................................................................................... “ 69 4.9 Conclusioni ............................................................................................................................ “ 71 Bibliografia ............................................................................................................................ “ 72 Il Volume, a cui hanno collaborato ricercatori italiani noti per i loro studi nel campo, vuole fissare lo stato dell’arte sottolineando gli aspetti più rilevanti della ricerca. Tra gli argomenti principali trattati nel testo figurano l’ecologia microbica delle uve e dei mosti d’uva, le interazioni e gli aspetti metabolici positivi e negativi della crescita microbica sulla qualità e tipicità dei vini e sulla produzione di alcuni vini speciali. Particolare attenzione è stata data alla tassonomia, fisiologia, metabolismo, genomica di Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Principali argomenti trattati nel Volume: La fermentazione spontanea – Saccharomyces cerevisiae – Saccharomyces cerevisiae: metabolismo primario e produzione di aromi nel vino – Cinetica della fermentazione alcolica e arresti di fermentazione – La rifermentazione dei vini – I vini ad invecchiamento biologico – I lieviti non-Saccharomyces – Batteri lattici nel vino – I batteri acetici – Ricerca, identificazione e caratterizzazione dei lieviti vinari – Uso di colture starter e impiego di lieviti e batteri lattici in cantina – Botrytis cinerea, marciume nobile e marciume grigio.

Background and objectives: The high nutritional value and low cost of soybean products make them a suitable solution for malnutrition problems for poor people living on grain centred diets. Tofu, a fundamental part of Asian food culture, is a traditional oriental soybean food and it may be the most popular food made of soy worldwide. Thousands of studies (in vivo and in vitro, with animals and human subjects) have shown that soybeans and soy components have many health-promoting effects; some of them were attributed to the isoflavones. In particular, various forms of isoflavones have been shown to possess different antioxidant activities. The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) fermentation on the free and bound phenolic fraction of tofu. Methods: The fermentation process was established using specific strains of lactic acid bacteria. Free and bound phenolic compounds from soybean, traditional tofu and tofu obtained by soymilk fermentation were studied by HPLC-DAD-ESI-MS. Results: Important effects of fermentation were seen on isoflavone profile: in fact, isoflavones content of fermented tofu showed significant differences compared to soybean and to traditional tofu. In particular, fifteen isoflavones were identified as aglycones and glycosides: the aglycone forms were significantly higher in fermented tofu compared to the traditional one. The ratio of aglycones/glycosylated isoflavones was 0.34 and 2.55 for the traditional and fermented tofu, respectively. Soy and traditional tofu presented the same content of bound phenolic compounds (mainly phenolic acids), instead fermented tofu showed a bound phenolic content 34 % higher than traditional tofu. Conclusions: These results suggest that fermentation by LAB plays an essential role in the increase of the content of aglycone isoflavones and bound phenolic compounds with important biologically implications on human health.

Soy foods have long been a staple of the human diet in Asia and tofu may be the most popular food made of soy worldwide. Tofu is prepared from soymilk curd and it can also be further processed (grilled, frozen, or fermented) modifying taste, texture and end-uses compared to traditional tofu. Fermentation also prevent undesired microbial and chemical reactions improving the stability and the quality of the product. Moreover, in addition to be natural, nutritious and safe, epidemiological studies have shown that fermented soybean products exhibit healthy effects. In fact, soybean and its products contains biologically active compounds including isoflavones, essential fatty acids, sterols, phospholipids and tocopherols which may contribute to prevent chronic diseases such as hormone-dependent cancers, cardiovascular diseases and osteoporosis. Due to the influence of processing on the bioactive compounds content of soy food products, soybean, traditional tofu and tofu obtained by soymilk fermentation were studied by GC–FID and HPLC coupled with fluorimetric, light scattering and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry detector, in order to analyse their lipidic profile (fatty acids, tocopherols and sterols) and isoflavones content and composition. In particular, for isoflavones analysis, a new method was set up. Fermentation was performed using specific strains of lactic acid bacteria (LAB), such as Lactobacillus casei and Lactobacillus acidophilus. Fatty acids profile of soybean and tofu samples were very similar, even in term of trans fatty acids and omega-3 fatty acids, so fermentation cannot differentiate tofu from soybean by fatty acid composition. The most abundant fatty acid was linoleic acid, followed by oleic acid, palmitic acid and α-linolenic acid, as reported by other authors. The processing conditions did not significantly affect neither tocopherol composition of tofu (traditional and fermented) compared to soybean and in all products the main tocopherol was γ-tocopherol followed by δ-tocopherol and α- tocopherol. As concerning phytosterol content, ß-sitosterol was the main sterol found with the phytosterol composition that was similar in soybean and traditional and fermented tofu. The main effects of fermentation were on isoflavone profile: in fact, significantly differences were seen in fermented tofu isoflavones content compared to soybean and to traditional tofu. In particular, fifteen isoflavones were identified as aglycones and glycosides: the aglycone forms were significantly higher in fermented tofu compared to the traditional one. These results suggest that fermentation by LAB cannot discriminate the fatty acid, tocopherol and phytosterol composition of fermented tofu from the traditional one and from soybean, but it plays an essential role not only on shelf-life extend, but also in the increase of the content of aglycone isoflavones with important biologically implications on human health.

Bacteriophage attacks to starters in the dairy industry cause enormous economic losses. Phage inactivation has always been a matter of study; however, even combining different control strategies, complete removal of phages is not possible and the real aim consists in maintaining their concentration under a critical threshold. This chapter deals with three novel technologies such as pulsed electric field, high hydrostatic pressure and high pressure homogenization. These non-thermal methods are considered the most promising in food processing due to their better preservation of flavor, essential nutrients and vitamins with respect to heat treatments. Aspects such as the principles of the technologies, applications, treatment parameters and factors that influence the inactivation extent, as well as microbial inactivation, are developed below for each technology. For this last aspect and due to the scarce available information regarding phage inactivation, not only the effect of these novel technologies on dairy bacteriophages is referred to, but also on other phages, viruses and even on others microorganisms.

In tale capitolo sono descritte le principali tecnologie attualmente utilizzate nel'industria alimentare per la prevenzione dei rischi da patogeni ed il controllo dello sviluppo di microrganismi degradativi. Le strategie di intervento che possono essere adottate sono basate principalmente su combinazione di fattori chimico-fisici, compositivi e di processo, il cui uso calibrato può consentire l'ottenimento della stabilità o della sicurezza desiderata senza compromettere la qualità organolettica e nutrizionale del prodotto. In particolare le tecnologie descritte nel capitolo includono i trattamenti termici, le alte pressioni idrostatiche e di omogerneizzazione, la microfiltrazione, i campi elettrici pulsati, l'irraggiamento, il gas plasma, il riscaldamento ohmico, nonchè l'uso di sostanze chimiche e di enzimi.

Yarrowia lipolytica is a very important yeast because many strains from this yeast are able to produce the extracelular lipases. Cold active lipase is one of the important and widely used enzymes whose spectrum of applications has widened in many industries such as in detergent formulations. food industry, leather processing, environmental bioremediations. and fine chemical synthesis as well as in pharmaceutical industries. Cold active lipases are largely distributed in microorganisms surviving at low temperatures. near 4 degrees C. Although a number of lipase producing sources are available. only a few bacteria and yeasts were exploited for the production of active lipases. Attempts have been made from time to time to isolate cold active lipases from these microorganisms having high activity at low temperatures. These lipases show great interests in different applications of food and chemistry industry. In this study, it was evaluated the lipolytic activity of lipases from different strains of Yarrowia lipolytica in the critical conditions. The aim of this research was to evaluate the ability of different Yarrowia lipolytica strains, having different origin. to grow and to produce the lipases at low temperature (4 degrees C). 13 Lipases from Yarrowia lipolytica coded as PO1, PO11. RO3, RO15, Y10, Y22. LP PAST to la, LC TL TO 4b, LP TQ to 1a, LN2, 1 II YL 4, 16B and 27D. were used for enzymatic hydrolysis of two crude exotic fats, like: white palm kernel fat and shea fat. The conditions of hydrolysis was a low temperature (4 degrees C) and low values water activity (aw 0.98 and 0.96). The lipolytic activity of lipases was evaluated by measuring the diameters of hydrolysis zone. At 4 degrees C and aw 0.98, the Yarrowia lipolytica strains such as : RO3, 1 II YL4 and LC TL to 4b produced the cold active lipases that had the higher lipolytic activity on the palm kernel fat. In the same conditions, lipases from yeast strains like: RO3, RO15 and 1 II YL4 demonstrated a strong lipolytic activity on the shea fat At aw 0.96, the lipase produced by the same strains of Yarrowia lipolytica shows a higher specificity of palm kernel fat and shea fa

In recent years, a number of new technologies has emerged as processing strategies alternative to the conventional thermal treatments; these include the use of Pulsed Electric Field (PEF), High Hydrostatic Pressure (HHP), High Pressure Homogenization (HPH), Ultrasounds, Oscillating Magnetic Fields and High-Intensity Light Pulses. Each technology is endowed with specific and sometimes unique advantages over the existing technologies in terms of microbial inactivation and/or effects on food constituents (i.e. proteins, naturally and microbial enzymes, vitamins, bioactive molecules and others). However, PEF, HHP and HPH, because already tested by food industry, and especially dairy sector, are the most promising for the production of functional and probiotic foods. Consequently, their possible applications in this field are deeply discussed. In fact, the scope of the present chapter is to integrate the available information, thereby providing an overall view on the actual situation and future of food processing and health promoting foods. However, the attention will be particularly focused on dairy products due to their role as functional foods and their ability as probiotic carriers. Also beverages such as fruit juices may represent an ideal delivery medium for probiotic cultures but few evidences, regarding the use of new technologies on probiotic juices, are available. In fact, the most of the literature deals with the application of novel technologies on probiotic milk, cheeses, yogurts and fermented milks. As far as probiotic meat based products, there are still some hurdles in developing and marketing novel probiotic products since such products are unconventional and consumers in many countries recognize meat and meat products to be bad for health. However accumulation of scientific data prove the increasing interest in this kind of product but the experimental evidences regard the item of the functional modification through i) the modification of fatty acid and cholesterol levels in meat, ii) the addition of vegetal oils to meat products, iii) the addition of soy, iv) the addition of natural extracts with antioxidant properties, v) the sodium chloride control, vi) the addition of fish oils, vii) the addition of fiber. For our Knowledge, no scientific evidence is reported for the production of probitic meat based product through HP processes. A grate interest has raised also for new technologies able to produce enzymes generating prebiotic compounds. For example, there is an increasing attention for the production and immobilization of β-Galactosidase which catalyses the formation of the prebiotic galacto-oligosaccharides.

The present study intends to analyse the superficial decontamination power of gas plasma generated at atmospheric conditions by a Resistive Barrier Discharge (RBD) device. Different atmospheric conditions and treatment times were considered. The plasma oxidation power was assessed by measuring the absorbance associated with the primary and secondary oxidation products of sunflower oil. Moreover, the inactivation of natural microflora and some pathogens on the outer skins of fresh fruit and surface of the shell eggs was investigated. Main results indicated that the treatment time was positively correlated to the primary oxidation products, while the Relative Humidity levels showed to play a role in the production of the secondary ones. The efficiency of plasma treatment to decontaminate both fresh pears and table eggs was highly dependent on the exposure time and RH values.

The influence of diet on the health of host may be mediated by changes that occur in the composition and metabolism of the gut microbiota. Indeed, the nutritional, trophic and protective activities of this complex ecosystem have been demonstrated. In this work, changes related to different dietary interventions were studied evaluating both gut microbiota composition, by 16S rRNA-based PCR-DGGE, and faecal metabolite profiling, by 1H NMR spectroscopic and GC-MS SPME. Three groups of Wistar rats were used, each receiving one of the following diets: wheat bread (WB), Kamut® khorasan bread (KB) and sourdough fermented Kamut® khorasan bread (SKB). Cluster analysis of DGGE profiles, using universal eubacterial primer set, showed higher inter-individual variations and no groupings according to the intervention were found. An in-depth analysis focused on Lactobacillus genus was carried out. qPCRrevealed a significant increase of Lactobacillus upon SKB intake, whereas no significant variation occurred after feeding with WB and KB. Cluster analysis of DGGE profiles, obtained with Lactobacillus genus-specific primers, demonstrated a peculiar groupings according to the feeding and allowed to assign specific DGGE bands that characterise the three intervention groups. The data obtained with both techniques were processed separately by means of canonical analysis of principal components (CAP) in order to focus on the effects of the diets. When applied to the NMR data, a single CAP component clearly separated the WB and SKB diet samples, with KB appearing in between. In particular, the major differences accounted for organic acids, such as lactate and propionate, as well as amino acids, such as lysine. When CAP was applied to GC-MS SPME data, two components were necessary to cluster the WB, KB and SKB diet samples. Butyric acid, 2-methyl-3-pentanol, acetic acid, 3-hydroxy-2-butanone and 2,3-butanedione were responsible for this separation. On the basis of these results, we can conclude that an integrated view is a useful approach to assess the efficacy of different nutritional interventions.

Anche se la panificazione, intesa come macinatura dei cereali, impastamento e cottura può essere datata almeno al 6000 a.C., la lievitazione del pane, così come viene intesa anche oggi, non può essere databile prima del 500 a.C. Infatti prerequisiti fondamentali per tale processo sono: lo sviluppo di grani idonei, la presenza di appropriate quantità di glutine e la consapevolezza anche empirica del ruolo dell’inoculo con un prefermento. Mentre nei settori delle bevande fermentate e particolarmente del vino e birra, è molto attiva la ricerca sulla caratterizzazione e selezione di ceppi, disegnati su misura sui prodotti che si vogliono ottenere (Pretorius et al. 2003), tali ricerche sono meno sviluppate per i lieviti da panificazione, anche se l’esistenza di una notevole biodiversità in termini di produzione di metaboliti e precursori di aromi e di rilascio di nutrienti può costituire una opportunità interessante per il settore dei prodotti da forno che oggi è sempre più indirizzato verso la diversificazione e la valorizzazione dei caratteri nutrizionali e salutistici. Anche se tutti i lieviti derivano la loro energia chimica, sottoforma di ATP dal breakdown dei composti organici, esiste una grande diversità su come le diverse specie generano e comsumano energia da questi substrati. Inoltre alcuni lieviti usano fonti di carbonio non convenzionali. Il lievito per panificazione, costituito prevalentemente da ceppi di S. cerevisiae deve possedere una efficiente attività respiratoria durante la fase di produzione per produrre vantaggiosamente massa cellulare da substrati a basso costo. Deve inoltre possedere la capacità di produrre, in fase di lievitazione, considerevoli quantità di anidride carbonica, per via fermentativa, dai diversi zuccheri presenti nell’impasto. Inoltre deve produrre metaboliti aromatici o precursori di aroma.

A new method for a simultaneous determination of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), other amino acids and precursors produced by microrganisms, is proposed.