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One of the major changes in dietary habits of the last half-century has been the increase of meat-based products consumption. This increase has contributed to a diet rich in saturated fats, which can result in adverse health effects. A recent trend in food industry is the development of new meat products based on traditional ones, though having less saturated fats and adding healthy ingredients. In this work, the growth and mycotoxin production of three mycotoxigenic species that colonize meat products was evaluated in a new formulation of cured salami, where rigid pork fat was replaced by O/W structured emulsions based on sunflower oil. Together with the traditional formulation (TS), two degrees of rigid pork fat substitution were analysed, 50% (SF1) and total substitution (SF2). To evaluate fungal and mycotoxins contamination, salami produced in industrial environment were grinded and mixed with agar. This medium was inoculated with the toxigenic species Aspergillus nomius, Aspergillus westerdijkiae and Penicillium nordicum. At the end of the incubation period, fungal growth did not show significant differences between the three analysed samples for A. nomius; for P. nordicum results show a variation of approximately ± 10% of SF1 e SF2 in relation to TS; as for A. westerdijkiae SF1 and SF2 showed growth inhibitions up to 20% and 40%, respectively, when compared with TS samples. Despite fungal growth not being affected in the different, mycotoxin analysis revealed an almost complete inhibition of aflatoxin production by A. nomius in the SF2 medium and up to 90% for SF1, when compared with traditional salami. OTA production by P. nordicum was hindered by 15 to 30% for SF2 and up to 20% for SF1; and A. westerdijkiae OTA production was reduced by approximately 15%, in SF2 medium and up to 10% for SF1 medium, when comparing with traditional salami. Fatty acid profile shows a reduction of total fat of approximately 30% for SF1 and 60% for SF2, when compared with the traditional salami. More expressive differences are observed in palmitic, stearic, and oleic acid, where concentrations drop to half in SF2 samples. It is hypothesized that reduction of these fatty acids may be related to the reduced levels of mycotoxins, specially, in SF2 samples. Further studies are being developed to determine the factors responsible for mycotoxin inhibition in these new formulations., Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Study supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (grant UIDB/04469/2020) and by project BetterFat4Meat (POCI-01-0247-FEDER-039718)., info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Oleogels are systems traditionally produced by the self-assembly of materials called gelators, which are responsible for inducing viscosity and solid-like capabilities to oil-based systems. The emergent interest concerning oil structuring strategies in food applications is related to oleogels' capacity to undergo structural and textural tailoring, and the possibility of their use in delivery of bioactive compounds., This research was supported by Norte Regional Operational Program 2014–2020 (Norte2020) through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) Nanotechnology based functional solutions (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000019). This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit and COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145FEDER-006684) and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020—Programa Operacional Regional do Norte. The authors acknowledge the Project RECI/BBB-EBI/0179/2012 (FCOMP01-0124-FEDER-027462). Artur Martins is recipient of a fellowship supported by a doctoral advanced training (call NORTE- 69-2015-15) funded by the European Social Fund under the scope of Norte2020—Programa Operacional Regional do Norte., info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Food products are digested in different ways ; rigidity and different textures are characteristics that will influence how digestion will occur. Absorption of lipids and lipid-soluble components from food is quite complex and factors like lipid composition, breakdown of food matrices, emulsion droplet size and lipid solubilization within mixed micelles of bile salts will influence the digestive process (Dickinson, 2014) . In this work, two types of edible oleogels loaded with beta-carotene (0.01 % w/w) have been developed. The oleogels were produced through the gelling process of long chain triglycerides (oil phase) with a sterol-mix (formed by gamma-oryzanol and beta-sitosterol) or beeswax as the two oil gelators. We report on the morphological and textural characteristics, as well as on the cytotoxicity and digestive behaviour of the oleogels during a digestion simulation (i.e. mouth, stomach and small intestine) using a static harmonized in-vitro digestion method (Minekus et al., 2014). Textural results showed that sterol-based oleogels have an average hardness of 0.6 N, which is approximately 4 times higher than the values recorded for beeswax oleogels. Both gels presented adhesiveness values without significative differences. In-vitro digestion allowed concluding that both types of oleogels showed structural disintegration, namely during the final two steps that correspond to gastric and intestinal phase (as evaluated by visual inspection and fluorescence microscopy analysis). In addition, beeswax oleogels’ structure was less resilient than oryzanol oleogels. Cytotoxicity tests, using a human epithelial cell line (Caco-2) with PrestoBlue assay, showed that both undigested sterol-and beeswax-based oleogels (without beta-carotene) were not cytotoxic, up to 48 hours of contact . Beeswax-based oleogels loaded with beta-carotene showed the same non-toxic behaviour under the same conditions. Future work will be performed aiming at establishing the rel ationship between gels’ disintegration and beta-carotene bioavailability, info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

[Excerpt] The proposed work aims to functionalize leathers for footwear industry with antimicrobial properties based on Ag-TiO2 nanoparticles. The synthesis of nanoparticles was carried out through an innovative and optimized method. This hydrothermal method is simple and inexpensive and prepares well crystalline materials. The structural characteristics were evaluated by X-ray powder diffraction and the results showed that the TiO2 nanoparticles are in the anatase phase, with dimensions below 10 nm. Leather samples were functionalized with TiO2 and Ag-TiO2 nanoparticles, and it was possible to prove that these nanoparticles do not change the surface chemical composition of the leathers. These results were achieved by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy which showed the maintenance of characteristic chemical bands of leathers (-CH3 stretching vibration). [...], info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The production of extracellular aspartic peptidase by the fungi Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus awamori was carried out in a shake flask and in stirred tank submerged fermentations using tuna cooked wastewater, an industrial effluent, as nitrogen source for culture medium. In stirred tank fermentation, biomass production of 6 g/l and 2 arbitrary units was obtained. In addition, the partitioning of extracellular aspartic peptidases from cell-free. A. awamori broth culture produced in a stirred tank reactor was carried out in aqueous-two phase systems formed by polyethylene glycol and potassium phosphate. Previous results showed that aspartic peptidases have a high affinity for the PEG-rich phase. A Kp of 4.5 for ATPS PEG 1450-Pi; in ATPS PEG 8000-Pi, Kp value of the range of 2 to 2.5 was obtained. A purification factor 2 was obtained. The method appears to be suitable as a first step for the purification of these proteins from these complex medium.Key words: Tuna cooked wastewater, aspartic peptidases, aqueous two-phase system.

Fucoidans are highly sulfated polysaccharides of brown algae widely used in fields as food and beverage, pharmacy, health medicine and cosmetics, due to their important biological properties as antitumoral, anticoagulant and antiviral activities. Enzymes with known specificities that catalyze the degradation of fucoidan are important tool for studying the relation between structure and biological role of this class of polysaccharide; however, there are few published reports on this topic. The aim of the present work was produce fungal enzymes with specific activity towards fucoidan sulfated matrix by submerged fermentation using combined induction media. Fermentation assays were performed with Aspergillus niger PSH, microorganism previously shown to have potential for fucoidan degradation. The tested media were Czapek Dox and Pontecorvo, supplemented with two carbon sources: A primary source composed by fucoidan Laminaria japonica (10 gL-1) and a secondary source composed by glucose, sucrose, lactose, fructose or sodium acetate, (5 gL-1) urea (5 gL-1) was used as nitrogen supply. The experiments were carried out in 100 mL Erlenmeyer flasks at 140 rpm, 30 ºC, and 1 x 106 spores ml-1 of conidial concentration. Biomass production, substrate consumption, extracellular and intracellular activity and protein content were evaluated. Kinetic parameters adjusted to Velhurst-Pearl and Luedeking y Piret models were estimated. Fungal growth was highest with sucrose in Czapek and Pontecorvo media (5.04 and 3.62 gL-1, respectively); the degradation of fucoidan was highest in Czapek media (1gL-1), also in this media with sucrose and fructose sources the consumption reached were 80%. Fucoidan hydrolytic enzymes were expressed only with sucrose (9.4 UL-1) and lactose (6.6 UL-1) in Czapek media. Intracellular activity was not detected. The present study demonstrated that the used fungal strain is able to synthesize fucoidan hydrolytic enzymes. These are the first results describing the production of enzymes from terrestrial fungus with ability to degrade fucoidan., info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion