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This study assessed the impact of growth-related myopathies-white striping (WS), wooden breast (WB), and spaghetti meat (SM)-on the technological properties, lipid and protein oxidation, chemical composition, and profiles of fatty acids (FAs), amino acids, minerals, and sensory attributes of pectoralis major muscles in broiler chickens. Breasts with myopathies had similar pH and lightness but exhibited lower redness and yellowness in the case of WB defect compared to normal meat ( p < 0.05). The WB samples also showed higher cooking losses than normal meat and increased shear force compared to the SM samples ( p < 0.01). Moreover, WB meat showed lower protein content ( p < 0.001) than the normal and SM samples but the highest glycine content ( p < 0.05). The WB meat also exhibited significant alterations in FA composition, with higher levels ( p < 0.05) of C18:2n6, C22:6n3, n3 PUFA, n6 PUFA, and total PUFA compared to the normal and SM samples. The presence of myopathies did not influence the meat mineral composition, oxidative pattern, or sensory properties. In conclusion, growth-related myopathies in broiler chickens impact the technological quality and chemical composition of their breast meat, with WB showing the most significant alterations in protein content and FA composition. These changes indicate potential challenges to processing and nutritional quality, though sensory attributes remain largely unaffected.

Background/Objectives: Collard green ( Brassica oleracea var. viridis ) is widely cultivated for its adaptability and nutritional benefits. This study examines the nutritional composition and chlorophyll content of the "Couve-Manteiga" cultivar grown in Italy, emphasizing its potential application in convenience foods, such as fresh-cut, fifth-range, and freeze-dried products, to enhance chlorophyll intake in the population. Methods: The leaves of collard greens were analyzed for proximate composition, mineral content, amino acid and fatty acid profiles, and chlorophyll levels. Chlorophyll retention was measured after sous vide cooking and freeze-drying to assess the efficacy of these preservation methods. The chlorophyll content of different product formats was quantified, and potential dietary contributions were estimated based on consumption data. Results: Collard greens exhibited a low caloric value (30.66 kcal/100 g), with high levels of dietary fiber (3.39 g/100 g), protein (3.01 g/100 g), calcium (333.09 mg/100 g), and potassium (215.53 mg/100 g). The amino acid profile revealed an essential to non-essential amino acid ratio of 0.72. Chlorophyll retention was notably high in both freeze-dried (97.66%) and sous-vide cooked products (83.5%), indicating the effectiveness of these methods in preserving chlorophyll content compared to fresh-cut leaves. Conclusions: The results suggest that convenience foods made from collard green leaves provide an accessible means to boost chlorophyll intake and enhance daily nutrition, offering a practical solution for increasing the consumption of this nutrient-rich vegetable.

Red wine colloids, crucial in determining wine quality and stability, are understudied due to inadequate techniques for studying them effectively in the natural wine environment. Recently, Asymmetrical Flow Field-flow Fractionation (AF4) with online multidetection has emerged as a novel analytical tool for quantifying, fractionating, and characterizing red wine colloids in their native state. This study aimed to characterize the colloidal composition of 24 monovarietal Italian wines produced without filtration, oak contact, fining treatments, malolactic fermentation, macerating enzymes or ageing on yeast lees. AF4 analysis allowed quantification and characterization of wine colloids based on light scattering signal (MALS; gyration radius - Rg), size (hydrodynamic radius - Rh) and absorbance (A 280 & A 520 nm). The results showed that each wine contained up to five distinct colloids' populations, varying in size and gyration radii. Despite possessing very similar Rh, most colloids exhibited great differences in compactness, as indicated by their varying Rg values. Comparing the A 280 signal of whole wines to those of wines containing only species larger than 5 kDa (considered colloids) allowed to calculate the percentage of molecules involved in colloidal particles assembly, ranging from 1 to 44 % of the total A 280 absorbing compounds, reflecting the diversity among wines. The A 520 signal indicated the presence of polymeric pigments in the colloidal fraction. Notably, colored colloids all had Rg > 20 nm, indicating their association with other colloidal-forming compounds. This observation led to the conclusion that, apart from free anthocyanins and polymeric pigments, the color of red wines is also due to colloidal particles formed by the latter bound to proteins, with their quantity being highly variable across wines of different origin. These findings, which highlight the fundamental role of proteins in shaping the colloidal status of red wines, were utilized to propose an updated hypothetical model for colloidal aggregation in red wine., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Andrea Zattoni, Barbara Roda, Pierluigi Reschiglian and Valentina Marassi are associates of the academic spinoff company byFlow Srl (Bologna, Italy). The company mission includes know-how transfer, development, and application of novel technologies and methodologies for the analysis and characterization of samples of nano-biotechnological interest., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Astringency is an essential sensory attribute of red wine closely related to the saliva precipitation upon contact with the wine. In this study a data matrix of 52 physico-chemical parameters was used to predict the Saliva Precipitation Index (SPI) in 110 Italian mono-varietal red wines using partial least squares regression (PLSr) with variable selection by Variable Importance for Projection (VIP) and the significance of regression coefficients. The final PLSr model, evaluated using a test data set, had 3 components and yielded an R 2 test of 0.630 and an RMSE test of 0.994, with 19 independent variables whose regression coefficients were all significant at p  < 0.05. Variables selected in the final model according to the decreasing magnitude of their absolute regression coefficient include the following: Procyanidin B1, Epicatechin terminal unit, Total aldehydes, Protein content, Vanillin assay, 520 nm, Polysaccharide content, Epigallocatechin PHL, Tartaric acid, Volatile acidity, Titratable acidity, Catechin terminal unit, Proanthocyanidin assay, pH, Tannin-Fe/Anthocyanin, Buffer capacity, Epigallocatechin PHL gallate, Catechin + epicatechin PHL, and Tannin-Fe. These results can be used to better understand the physico-chemical relationship underlying astringency in red wine., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2023 The Authors.)

In sparkling winemaking, only a few yeast strains are regularly used for the secondary in-bottle alcoholic fermentation (SiBAF). Recently, advances in yeast development programs have yielded new breeds of interspecific wine yeast hybrids that ferment efficiently while producing novel flavors and aromas. In this work, the chemical and sensorial impacts of the use of interspecific yeast hybrids for SiBAF were studied using three commercial English base wines prepared for SiBAF using two commercial and four novel interspecific hybrids. After 12 months of lees aging, the chemical and macromolecular composition, phenolic profile, foaming, viscosity and sensory properties of the resulting 13 wines were assessed. Chemically, the yeast strains did not result in significant differences in the main wine parameters, while some differences in their macromolecular contents and sensory characteristics were noticeable. The foamability was mostly unaffected by the strain used; however, some effect on the foam stability was noticeable, likely due to the differences in polysaccharides released into the wines by the yeast strains. The wines exhibited different sensory characteristics in terms of aroma and bouquet, balance, finish, overall liking and preference, but these were mostly attributable to the differences in the base wines rather than the strain used for SiBAF. Novel interspecific yeast hybrids can be used for the elaboration of sparkling wines, as they provided wines with chemical characteristics, flavor and aroma attributes similar to those of commonly used commercial Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains.

The Italian grape pomace distillate grappa is often refined by ageing in wooden barrels. Chemical changes of the volatile profile of two samples produced from a Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot blend and Prosecco pomace both at two ethanol contents (55% and 68%) were studied during one-year ageing in cherry and oak barriques. Grappa variety, ethanol content and barrel type strongly affected the volatiles profile of the distillates. Oak-aged grappa contained 10-fold the wood volatiles of the cherry-aged one, but the latter had higher levels of syringaldehyde, coniferaldehyde, and 3,4,5-trimethoxyphenol; 55% ethanol extracted higher levels of wood compounds and ethoxy-compounds were higher in the 68%-ethanol distillates. Prosecco grappa extracted higher wood compounds and showed no significant changes in the levels of fruity/floral esters and terpenols. Findings of this study can be also useful in the development of new ageing processes of distillates for which cherry barrels are still not used (e.g., brandy and whisky)., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)