M.T. Veciana-Nogués

Determination of water-soluble vitamins in infant milk by high-performance liquid chromatography

A rapid, simple and reliable liquid chromatographic method has been developed for the simultaneous determination of nicotinamide, thiamin, riboflavin, pyridoxine, pyridoxal, pyridoxamine, cyanocobalamine and folic acid in liquid and powdered infant milk. Ion-pair chromatography with a reversed-phase C18 column is used. Six vitamins were resolved in a single analysis; total analysis time never exceeded 55 min. A mobile phase of methanol-water (15:85), 5 mM octanesulfonic acid, with 0.5% triethylamine at pH 3.6 and a flow-rate of 1.0 ml/min gave the most satisfactory separation of these vitamins using a UV detector set at different wavelengths. Sample preparation involves acidification to precipitate proteins, and centrifugation followed by gravity filtration. Linearity, precision, recovery and sensitivity were always satisfactory. Detection limits ranged from 0.02 to 0.10 microgram/ml and determination limits ranged from 0.03 to 0.25 microgram/ml.

Determination of ATP related compounds in fresh and canned tuna fish by HPLC

Abstract Reliability of two HPLC methods to determine ATP, ADP, AMP, IMP, inosine and hypoxanthine in fish was studied after modifying mobile phase composition to improve resolution. Both methods included the same extraction procedure, and used a C18 column and UV detection. Mobile phases were neutral phosphate buffer in both methods but one of them used tetrabutylammonium hydrogen sulphate as ionic supressor. Both procedures gave acceptable results, although the addition of the ionic suppressor led to various advantages, such as improved recovery, precision, and sensitivity. Furthermore, chromatographic procedure without ionic suppressor showed a lack of specificity in canned tuna samples, since an unknown peak appeared at ATP retention time. In addition, IMP, Ino and Hx stability in fish samples and in fish samples extracts stored at -18 °C were studied and no changes on their contents were observed throughout 26 weeks.

Control of biogenic amines in fermented sausages: role of starter cultures

Biogenic amines show biological activity and exert undesirable physiological effects when absorbed at high concentrations. Biogenic amines are mainly formed by microbial decarboxylation of amino acids and thus are usually present in a wide range of foods, fermented sausages being one of the major biogenic amine sources. The use of selected starter cultures is one of the best technological measures to control aminogenesis during meat fermentation. Although with variable effectiveness, several works show the ability of some starters to render biogenic amine-free sausages. In this paper, the effect of different starter culture is reviewed and the factors determining their performance discussed.

Biologically active amines in fermented and non-fermented commercial soybean products from the Spanish market

Biologically active amines were determined in commercial soybean products. The antioxidant polyamines were found in both non-fermented and fermented soybean products. Natto and tempeh showed the highest content of polyamines (75-124 and 11-24 mg/kg of spermidine and spermine, respectively). On the other hand, the bacterial-related biogenic amines, tyramine, histamine, tryptamine and β-phenylethylamine, were detected in practically all fermented products with a high variability. The highest contents were found in sufu, tamari and soybean paste. Extremely high tyramine and histamine contents, 1700 and 700 mg/kg, respectively, found in some sufu samples could be unhealthy. However, biogenic amines observed in the other soybean products should not be a risk for healthy consumers. However, individuals who take monoamine and diamine oxidase inhibitors drugs should be strongly recommended to avoid this kind of products in order to suffer no adverse health effects. These biogenic amines were not detected in non-fermented soybean products.

Effect of ultra high pressure homogenization treatment on the bioactive compounds of soya milk.

Ultra high pressure homogenization (UHPH) is a useful novel technology to obtain safe and high-quality liquid foods. The effect of UHPH at 200 and 300 MPa in combination with different inlet temperatures (Tin) (55, 65 and 75 °C) on the bioactive compounds of soya milk was studied. Total phytosterols increased with the higher combination of pressure and temperature. The main phytosterol was β-sitosterol, followed by stigmasterol and campesterol. Total tocopherols in UHPH-treated soya milks decreased as the temperature and pressure increased. UHPH treatment also affected the different chemical forms of tocopherols. No biogenic amines were detected in any of the analyzed soya milks. Meanwhile, the polyamines SPD and SPM were found in all soya milks, being stable to the UHPH treatment. Total isoflavones increased with the higher combination of pressure and temperature. No differences in the isoflavone profile were found, with β-glucoside conjugates being the predominant form.

Determination of available lysine in infant milk formulae by high-performance liquid chromatography.

A high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method to determine available lysine is proposed. Available lysine was measured by an optimised fluorodinitrobenzene method on the basis of the reactivity of the free epsilon-amino group of the lysine. The classical acid hydrolysis has been improved and shortened from the usual time of 12 h to 2 h 30 min using an oil bath. Optimal resolution and quantitation of Nn-dinitrophenyllysine was obtained with a Nova-Pak C18 column using an isocratic elution with 35% methanol and 65% 0.01 M sodium acetate buffer (pH 4.5) and a flow-rate of 1 ml/min. Satisfactory results were obtained for the reliability of the method in terms of linearity from 0.1 to 5.0 mg/l of lysine-free base, precision (R.S.D. values between 4.3% and 7.8%), recovery (91.5%) and sensitivity (detection limit of 0.02 mg/l). The proposed method has also been checked for lack of interferences from other dinitrophenyl-amino acids.

Ultra‐high‐pressure homogenization (UHPH) system for producing high‐quality vegetable‐based beverages: physicochemical, microbiological, nutritional and toxicological characteristics

BACKGROUND A relatively new technology based on a continuous system of ultra-high-pressure homogenization (UHPH) was used for producing high-quality soy and almond beverages as an alternative to conventional heat treatments (pasteurization and UHT). The aim of this study was to compare those treatments by analyzing the most relevant quality parameters with a broad vision from the production to the potential toxicological changes, passing through the main nutritional characteristics. RESULTS UHPH treatment at 200 MPa, 55 °C T(in) produced a higher reduction of microorganisms than pasteurization. UHPH treatment at 300 MPa, 75 °C T(in) led to complete inactivation of microorganisms, similar to UHT treatment. A much better colloidal stability was observed in both UHPH-treated almond and soy beverages compared with those processed by conventional heat treatments. UHPH treatments led to the same increase in digestibility as heat treatments and did not produce a reduction in the availability of lysine. In addition, UHPH samples of soy beverage seem to be less allergenic based on their lower gut immune response in comparison with heat-treated samples. CONCLUSION UHPH treatments could be used to produce high-quality commercial vegetable beverages with different quality standards (fresh or long-life storage) according to consumer preference.

Changes of isoflavones and protein quality in soymilk pasteurised by ultra-high-pressure homogenisation throughout storage

Ultra high pressure homogenisation (UHPH) is an emerging technology to obtain fine and stable soymilk emulsions. Very little information is available about the stability of this kind of product during storage. Changes of isoflavone profile, protein digestibility and lysine availability in pasteurised-UHPH soymilks were studied for 21 days at 4 °C in comparison to heat-pasteurised soymilks. Neither heat nor UHPH treatments affected the isoflavone profile, as the percentage of each chemical form, in comparison with unprocessed-soymilk. During storage, there was a conversion of isoflavone forms to aglycones, being higher in heat-processed samples. In addition, UHPH samples showed a lesser percentage of blocked lysine during storage. No differences were observed in the evolution of protein digestibility among samples. Therefore, UHPH treatment seems to produce a better product, due to lower amounts of aglycones, and higher protein nutritional quality than heat treatment.

Isoflavone profile and protein quality during storage of sterilised soymilk treated by ultra high pressure homogenisation

The application of ultra high pressure homogenisation (UHPH) treatments is useful to obtain fine and stable soymilk emulsions. Changes of isoflavones, protein digestibility and lysine availability during 4 months of storage at 20 ± 2°C in soymilk treated by UHPH (300 MPa and 75°C of inlet temperature) were studied in comparison to UHT-sterilised soymilk (142°C, 6s). Results indicated that although there was a significantly higher extractability of isoflavones in UHT (about 38%) than in UHPH-treated samples (about 15%), similar total contents were found at the end of storage. The interconversion of isoflavones into β-glucosides was faster in UHT than in UHPH-treated soymilk. Similar evolution of protein digestibility in both UHPH and UHT-treated soymilks was found, being slightly higher in the initial UHT (88.4%) than in UHPH-treated samples (83.3%). No great differences were observed in the % of blocked lysine among samples after treatments, neither in their evolution throughout storage.