In 2014, the EFSA NDA Panel concluded that UV-treated baker's yeast containing up to 3.5 Mio IU of vitamin D/100 g, is safe under the proposed conditions of use for yeast-leavened breads, rolls and fine bakery wares, and food supplements. Following a request from the European Commission, the EFSA Panel on Nutrition, Novel Foods and Food Allergens (NDA) was asked to deliver an opinion on an application for an extension of the use of UV-treated baker's yeast as a novel food (NF) pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2015/2283. In this extension of use, the applicant proposed a broad range of food categories to which the NF can be added. On the basis of the proposed uses and maximum use levels, the Panel estimated the potential exposure to vitamin D from the NF and the potential combined exposure to vitamin D including also exposure from the background diet and food supplements. The Panel notes that the upper level (UL) for one age group, i.e. children aged 4-10 years, is exceeded by 4%, when summing up the highest P95 estimate for the background diet (including food supplements) and the highest P95 estimate for vitamin D from the NF under the proposed uses and maximum use levels. The Panel notes, however, the highly conservative approach for estimating the potential intake of vitamin D from the NF, given that the applicant has proposed 34 FoodEx2 level 2 food categories. Thus, the Panel considers that the UL for children aged between 4 and 10 years is highly unlikely to be exceeded. The Panel concludes that the NF is safe under the proposed conditions of use.

Wheat bran is a conventional by-product of the wheat milling industry mainly used for animal feed. It is a rich and inexpensive source of phytonutrients, so is in demand for fibre-rich food products but creates quality issues when incorporated into bread. The purpose of this study was to characterize the physicochemical properties and phytochemical composition of different size durum bran fractions and show how they impact bread quality. Durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) was milled to create a coarse bran fraction (CB), which was further ground into a finer fraction (FB) which was sieved using four screens with apertures 425, 315, 250, 180, and <180 ?m to create a particle size range of 1497 to 115 ?m. All fractions contained phytosterol with highest in the 180 and FB, while total phenolic acids and antioxidant capacity was highest in CB and 425. Use of the fractions in a leavened common wheat (T. aestivum L.) bread formula at 10% incorporation negatively impacted bread loaf volume, colour, and texture compared to standard loaves, with CB having the least impact. Results suggest that to combine the highest phytochemical content with minimal impact on bread quality, bran particle size should be considered, with CB being the best choice.

abstract

The oil industry produces large volume of waste, olive mill waste water (OMWW) and olive paste (OP), which represents a disposal and a potential environmental pollution problem. They are also promising sources of valuable compounds that can be recovered and used. The effects of OMWW and OP addition to bread and pasta, separately and combined, were studied. Both sensory and chemical properties as related to phenols content and antioxidant activity of raw materials, and fortified bread and pasta were evaluated. Results suggested that the enrichment of bread and pasta with OMWW slightly improved the chemical quality without compromising the sensory properties. While, foods enrichment with OP had considerably improved chemical quality, the sensory acceptability was worse due to the bitter and spicy taste of OP. To choose the best cereal food between bread and pasta to be enriched, a mathematical model, the whole quality index (WQI), was used. Bread was better than pasta for re-using olive oil by-products. Between OMWW and OP, the latter was more suitable for food fortification, despite the sensory problems of the enriched product. Also, when the two by-products were combined, the best product continued to be the bread.

Chenopodium quinoa Willd or 'quinoa' is a pseudocereal from South America that is becoming more and more interesting in Europe, Asia and the United States because it is a good source of different nutrients, it is rich in antioxidants compounds and it offers an alternative to normal cereals in coeliac diet because its seeds are gluten-free. Although a lot of studies focus on the advantage of consuming alternative products rich in fiber, a few studies document the changes that affected food products due to the inclusion of fiber alternatives, such as inulin, a linear fructose polysaccharide with variable degree of polymerization (DP), that also has beneficial effects on human health. Currently, the inulin used is extracted exclusively from chicory roots and is characterized by a DP of about 20 units of fructose. Considerable quantities of inulin are extractable from the roots of Cynara cardunculus L., characterized by a high DP up to 100 units of fructose. We have focused on determining the quality characteristics of cereal-based foods enriched with quinoa flour and inulin with different degree of polymerization in order to obtain new fortified breads and pasta with lowering glicemic index effect.

Introduction: To comply with EC regulation, it is the responsibility of the food business operator to control microbial hazards in foods under foreseeable conditions of production, storage, purchase, and use. For that matter, predictive mathematical models and challenge testing are recognized approaches used to validate control measures within the HACCP system, as well as to assess microbiological food safety and quality. Purpose: This work aimed at the industrial application and transfer from mathematical models validated for pathogens to Bacillus spp., in order to assess potential rope spoilage in bread. Methods: Growth cardinal values are microbiologically relevant parameters. Even though time consuming, the determination of such values enable the determination of growth/no growth boundaries for given food product formulation and storage conditions (pH, water activity (aw), temperature). Based on known cardinal values of Bacillus spp. strains, challenge testing was performed with artificial spore inoculation into bread dough. After baking, the enumeration of Bacillus spp. from bread in storage (30°C) was performed. Growth kinetics were ?tted to mathematical models to further enable in silico simulations during bread shelf-life for storage scenarios mimicking Mediterranean temperature. Results: Growth/no growth boundaries clearly showed variable growth abilities in bread for the different Bacillus strains selected. A challenge test was performed with the strain isolated from wheat grain that showsed wider growth abilities regarding low aw. In silico simulations were performed to quantify Bacillus spp. populations during shelf-life and to determine the probability of overpassing a given ?ve log/g contamination. Growth simulationsunderline that rope spoilage showed rapid evolution and, mainly, occurs in the summer season in Mediterranean countries. Significance: To facilitate the practical use of generic and recognized mathematical models, several user-friendly tools exist for growth prediction. Besides the importance of using real-life strains, this study further underlined the importance of characterized collections for the selection of the bacterial strain(s) to be used in the challenge test to ensure food quality and safety during shelf-life.

During the last years the interest on the recovery, recycling and upgrading of residues from plant food processing, has increased drastically. Generally, food industries produce large volume of by products, both solid and liquid, which represent a problem for disposal and for environmental pollution. Nevertheless, they are also promising sources of bioactive compounds that can be recovered and used as valuable substances by developing new enriched food, such pasta and bread. Because bread and pasta are foods consumed every day, they can be considered as a carrier of functional substances that have a beneficial role on consumer health. Therefore, the aim of this study was to study the impact of agronomic by-product incorporation, such as olive cake flours, on the sensorial qualities of cereal-based food as pasta and bread. Commercial durum wheat semolina for pasta and commercial soft wheat flour for bread, were mixed with 10% w/w of two different olive cake flours. The bioactive compounds present in olive cake, pasta and bread were identified and characterized, and their stability, after the processing, was evaluated. Pasta and bread based on durum wheat semolina and wheat flour (100%), respectively were produced without olive cake flours and used as controls. Dry spaghetti and bread samples were submitted to a panel of 10 trained tasters in order to evaluate the sensorial attributes, since the incorporation of the olive cake flours, could determined a decline of sensory quality. Besides, the effect of olive cake flours particle size on the quality of food, was also studied, thus demonstrating that samples enriched with fine particle size showed the greatest overall quality score.

Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. durum) is typically used to produce pasta. In some parts of the world, it is used to make bread but with inferior loaf volume and texture compared with common wheat bread. This study describes the effect on technological properties of pasta and bread made from durum wheat cv. Svevo (recurrent parent (S), HMW-GS null, 7+8) and two isogenic genotypes carrying pairs of additional subunits 5+10 (S 5+10) or 2+12 (S 2+12), normally present at the Glu-D1 locus in bread wheat. The semolina was re-ground to flour, mixed in various proportions with bakers flour and used to prepare loaves. The dough properties of the S 5+10 line were markedly different from Svevo, having overstrong, stable dough, low wet gluten and elasticity; S 2+12 also displayed stronger dough. Pasta prepared from these genotypes showed lower cooked firmness (adjusted for protein differences), ranked Svevo > S 5+10 = S 2+12. There were no other differences in pasta cooking quality. Bread loaf volume and loaf score decreased as more bakers flour was replaced by durum flour, but the decline varied with the genetic material and dosage. The greatest reduction in loaf volume occurred using S 5+10 and the least with S 2+12, which was similar to Svevo. Bake score was reduced with S 5+10 only. The best loaf was made using Svevo. This work shows that it is possible to manipulate the processing properties of pasta and durum-bread-wheat blends by altering the glutenin subunit composition. This represents an efficient tool to finely manipulate gluten quality in durum wheat.

Different spore-forming bacterial species contaminate durum wheat semolina which may affect final bread quality.

Italian industrial pasta and durum wheat typical breads must be prepared using exclusively durum wheat semolina. Previously, a microsatellite sequence specific of the wheat D-genome had been chosen for traceability of soft wheat in semolina and bread samples, using qualitative and quantitative Sybr green-based real-time experiments. In this work, we describe an improved method based on the same soft wheat genomic region by means of a quantitative real-time PCR using a dual-labeled probe. Standard curves based on dilutions of 100% soft wheat flour, pasta, or bread were constructed. Durum wheat semolina, pasta, and bread samples were prepared with increasing amounts of soft wheat to verify the accuracy of the method. Results show that reliable quantifications were obtained especially for the samples containing a lower amount of soft wheat DNA, fulfilling the need to verify labeling of pasta and typical durum wheat breads.

The food industry is constantly looking for new natural antimicrobials to prevent food spoilage and to respond to consumer demands for high quality minimally processed foods. Among the natural preserving systems, lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have been shown to improve the shelf-life of several food products, including bakeries. In our study, the ability of several LAB strains isolated from sourdoughs to prevent fungal contamination of bakery products was assessed, and the culture filtrates of two strains of Lactobacillus plantarum (ITM21B and ITM20B) resulted able to inhibit almost completely a variety of fungal species namely Aspergillus, Penicillium, Eurotium, Endomyces, Monilia and Fusarium spp., which are responsible for contamination of bakery products. Purification of the culture filtrate of strain ITM21B was then carried out and resulted in the identification of two novel antifungal compounds that is 4-hydroxy-phenyllactic acid (OH-PLA) and phenyllactic acid (PLA) to which most of the antifungal activity of the strain should be attributed (1). The inhibitory activity of PLA was evaluated against 23 fungal strains isolated from bakery products, flours and cereals and a fungicidal effect against 19 strains at levels ? 10 mg/ml was observed. Interestingly, less than 7.5 mg/ml of PLA was required to obtain at least 90% of growth inhibition for all strains including some potential toxigenic species such as Aspergillus ochraceus, A. flavus, Penicillium roqueforti, P. verrucosum and P. citrinum (2). The fungicidal activity of PLA indicates a clear advantage of the application of PLA to reduce fungal mass in food systems. For these reasons the ability of LAB to produce PLA was evaluated by HPLC analysis in 29 strains belonging to 12 species widely used in the production of fermented foods. Metabolite production was demonstrated for all strains of the species Lactobacillus plantarum, L. alimentarius, L. rhamnosus, L. sanfranciscensis, L. hilgardii, Leuconostoc citreum, and for some strains of Lactobacillus brevis, L. acidophilus and Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp. mesenteroides. The improvement of PLA production was investigated in L. plantarum ITM21B: the increase of phenylalanine concentration in the presence of low amounts of tyrosine resulted in a higher level of the metabolite (3). Starting from these observations we can suppose that the antimicrobial activity of L. plantarum ITM21B could not be ascribed only to PLA, therefore investigations are in progress to establish all the potential of the metabolite pool by exploiting the ability of the strain to inhibit food contaminants and human pathogens, both bacteria and yeasts. For example, a 100% growth inhibition of Candida albicans was obtained by using the pool metabolite of the selected strain. Interesting results were also obtained by using a particular procedure of bread-making, patented in Italy (4), which allowed to obtain a complete inhibition of Bacillus spore's germination. The same procedure was used to reduce mould contamination: in this case fungal spores of Aspergillus niger were inoculated after baking on bread slices. The ability of PLA as well as of L. plantarum ITM21B to inhibit or to delay the growth of a variety of microbial contaminants offers new perspectives for the application of these antimicrobials in bakery products and other foods.