Roma Giuliani

Study on Different Emulsifiers to Retain Fatty Fraction During Extrusion of Fatty Flours

ABSTRACT Doughs made from wheat and almond flours, water, and five types of emulsifiers commonly used in confectionary and bakery products (soy lecithin, sucrose esters, mono-glycerides, mono- and di-glycerides of fatty acids, and diacetyl tartaric acid esters of monoglycerides [DATEM]) were studied. To evaluate the additive ability to retain the fatty fraction during the extrusion process, electrical conductivity was measured and fat loss (%) that occurs during extrusion processing was determined. The electrical conductivity measurements showed that the lower and better concentration of soy lecithin and mixed mono- and di-glycerides of fatty acids to obtain an oil-water emulsion was 0.2 g/100 g of dough, while for sucrose esters and mono-glycerides of fatty acids, it was 0.7 g/100 g of dough. No efficacy for DATEM was observed. The fat loss results showed that sucrose esters were the most suitable emulsifiers for retaining the fatty fraction during extrusion processing, even at a very low amounts (2 g/kg...

Ripening Stage Effects on Mechanical and Functional Properties of Pastry Filled with Sweet Cherries (Prunus avium, 'Ferrovia' Cultivar)

Sweet cherry is a precious fruit for the wealth of minerals, vitamins and other important protecting, detoxifying and purifying principles. These features make it interesting in terms of nutritional and health point of view. Many studies have demonstrated the beneficial effects on prevention of cardiovascular and articular diseases, due to anti-inflammatory and analgesic action of sweet cherry. However, because of its seasonality, it needs technological treatments to be preserved (jam, puree or semi-finished products for pastry), that could compromise its nutritional quality. The aim of this work was to study the effects of ripening stage and technological tratments on mechanical and functional properties of pastries filled with sweet cherries during storage at room temperature. Results showed that the different ripeness of cherries influenced the mechanical properties of samples: pastries filled with overripe cherries resulted more hard (97 vs. 79 N), less cohesive (0.19 vs. 0.25) and springy (6.4 vs. 8.5 mm) than medium harvest cherries. The antioxidant capacity of medium harvest sweet cherries did not change after both technological treatments and storage (0.93 vs. 0.89 TEAC micromol/g dry basis). These results highlight the importance of ripening stage of processed fruit used as ingredient in complex food in order to obtain a product with good functional and quality properties.

Effects of Drying Processing Conditions on the Quality of Uncooked and Cooked Pasta Made Up of Nonconventional Raw Material

Drying process plays a fundamental role in pasta making. The greatest number of studies have been focused on the optimization of drying conditions for semolina pasta, and the obtained results have been applied in a similar way on pasta made up of nonconventional raw materials without considering a processing optimization. The aim of this research was to evaluate the influence of different drying treatments (low, medium, and high temperature) on the quality of uncooked and cooked soft wheat pasta enriched with oat flour. Results of total organic matter and dried residue showed no significant difference between samples dried by medium and high temperature treatments. Moreover, these last samples showed a slight improvement in cooking quality over samples dried at low temperature (total organic matter results were 1.31 versus 1.66 g/100 g of dried pasta). This study revealed that the improvement of cooking quality of pasta enriched with oat flour did not require the application of high drying temperature (>8...

Vegetable "Salami" with high nutritional and functional properties.

Vegetables are strongly recommended in human diet since their consumption is closely related to the decrease of cardiovascular diseases. Despite these advantages, many people do not like vegetables as it, as opposed to some foods that are very attractive for their sensorial characteristics but nutritionally unbalanced. Among them, ‘Salami’ are typical Italian fermented products made up of pork meat and back-fat that are very appreciated for their flavour and taste but present a high content of fatty saturated acids and cholesterol. This research aimed at the study and realization of new fermented vegetable Salami, with an appropriately balanced composition of nutrients and able to simulate the meat Salami in terms of colour and consistency. Those characteristics were obtained by choosing vegetables with good sensory and structural characteristics and optimizing the ripening processing that, for this type of Salami, was 18 days at 25 ° C and 75% RU in early days and 45% RU in the final stage of ripening. During ripening stage, lactic bacteria concentration was more than 108 CFU/g. This value represents the minimum threshold to consider a food as probiotic in vitro. The chromatic characteristics of vegetable Salami during ripening showed a reduction of L* (from 50.27 to 39.02) and b* indexes (from 44.92 to 30.59) caused by the gradual dehydration of vegetable matrix. As a matter of fact, a sudden increase of shear stress, hardness, chewiness and springiness of the slices was recorded as a function of maturation.