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Dear Colleagues,

The term “food quality” represents a multi-faceted concept that comprises a wide range of food characteristics aside from sensory properties, ranging from health-related properties (e.g., nutritional and nutraceutical aspects) to safety concerns (e.g., the absence of contamination, fraud, or chemical changes during processing and storage) and socio-cultural considerations (e.g., geographical origin). If a sensory evaluation often meets consumers’ expectations and subjective acceptance criteria, other features can be scientifically (and thus objectively) evaluated. For this purpose, a number of analytical strategies have been successfully exploited, and new approaches are continuously being developed, which increasingly pose a challenge to the scientific community.

This Special Issue aims to collect valuable contributions to these topics, in the form of both original research papers and review articles.

Dr. Simona Piccolella
Prof. Dr. Severina Pacifico
Guest Editors

Dr. Marialuisa Formato
Guest Editor Assistant

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 4297 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Impact of the Post-Harvest Period on the Chemical and Sensorial Properties of planifolia and pompona Vanillas

by Anaïck Ravier, Pauline Chalut, Saida Belarbi, Cyrille Santerre, Nadine Vallet and Zeineb Nhouchi

Molecules 2024, 29(4), 839; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules29040839 - 14 Feb 2024

Viewed by 763

Abstract

Vanilla production in Guadeloupe is expanding. The main species grown is Vanilla planifolia, but other species such as Vanilla pompona are also present and required by industries. To upgrade the value of vanilla production on this Caribbean Island, this study was performed to evaluate the aromatic specifies of these vanilla species according to the length of the post-harvest period (2 months and 9 months). For this purpose, Vanilla planifolia and Vanilla pompona were compared through scald and scarification transformation processes, as well as two different refining times (T1 and T2). For chemical characterization, 0.1 g of vanilla bean seeds was used for SMPE/GC-MS measurements, while 0.05 g of vanilla samples was subjected to infusion in milk (0.15%) for sensory evaluation. The latter involved generation of terms of aroma through olfaction and gustation sessions. The chemical results showed a significant difference between the two species, where vanillin was mostly present in Vanilla planifolia, unlike Vanilla pompona, where it was mainly rich in 4-methoxybenzyl alcohol. Interestingly, the second refining time was characterized by the appearance of two major components, 1,3-octadien and acetic acid. For sensory analysis, all the vanillas exhibited a high diversity of aromas including “sweet”, ”gourmand”, “spicy” flavors and so on. The application of factorial correspondence analysis (FAC) as well as the agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) showed differences between the vanilla samples according to both the species and refining time. The combination of these analyses makes it possible to establish a chemical and organoleptic profile of vanillas. Varietal and processing factors both have a major impact on the aroma profile of vanillas. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Food Chemistry: Food Quality and New Analytical Approaches II)

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19 pages, 1388 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Microfluidic Analysis for the Determination of Protein Content in Different Types of Plant-Based Drinks

by Fruzsina Balogh-Hartmann, Csilla Páger, Anita Bufa, Ibolya Madarászné Horváth, Zsófia Verzár, Tamás Marosvölgyi and Lilla Makszin

Molecules 2023, 28(18), 6684; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules28186684 - 18 Sep 2023

Viewed by 1221

Abstract

The widespread consumption of plant-based drinks, driven by health and dietary reasons (including cow’s milk allergy, lactose intolerance, milk protein intolerance, following a vegetarian or vegan diet) necessitates automated and accurate test methods. Our study demonstrates the simultaneous determination of protein components and total protein concentrations in plant-based milk alternatives using a rapid and reproducible microchip gel electrophoretic method. As expected, the electrophoretic profiles of each plant-based drink differed. Based on our analyses and statistical evaluation, it can be determined that the protein profiles of different plant-based beverages do not differ significantly between different manufacturers or different expiry dates. The measured total protein content was compared with the nominal values, i.e., the values stated on the beverage labels. As the number of consumers of functional and specialized plant-based milk alternatives continues to rise, it is important to prioritize methods that provide qualitative and quantitative information on protein composition and other nutrients. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Food Chemistry: Food Quality and New Analytical Approaches II)

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