Increasing levels of fibre and mineral (Fe, Ca, and K) in chicken meatballs added dragon fruit peel and oyster mushroom

The removal of the peel on dragon fruit fruits is a common step in food production for reasons of aesthetics and hygiene. One way to recycle dragon fruit peel is to make chicken meatball. Chicken meatball in Indonesia, which is called bakso are produced from ground chicken mixed with flour, spices and other mashed ingredients. The mixture is then formed into balls and boiled until cooked. Chicken meatballs contain mostly animal ingredients, so the quality needs to be improved by adding vegetable ingredients. The addition of vegetable ingredients is intended to increase the content of dietary fibre. The fruit fibres used in this study were dragon fruit peel and the vegetable ingredients was oyster mushrooms. The results showed that chicken meatball with higher concentration of dragon fruit peel has higher level of soluble dietary fibre, insoluble dietary fibre, and total dietary fibre content. This indicates that dragon fruit peel has higher levels of soluble dietary fibre, insoluble dietary fibre, and dietary fibre than oyster mushrooms. The addition of dragon fruit peel and oyster mushrooms causes an increase in iron and calcium mineral levels in chicken meatball products, but oyster mushrooms contribute more to increase these minerals. With these nutritious chicken meatballs, dragon fruit peel can be processed to become food that has economic value. Therefore, dragon fruit peel and oyster mushrooms can be used as a good ingredient in the formulation of chicken meatball.

Influence of Raspberry and Its Dietary Fractions on the In vitro Activity of the Colonic Microbiota from Normal and Overweight Subjects

Raspberry is a source of dietary fibre and phenolic compounds, which are metabolised by the gut microbiota, resulting in the production of short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and phenolic catabolites; but the formation of these compounds depends on the microbiota composition. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the raspberry and its fractions (phenolic extract, total and insoluble dietary fibre) affect the microbial activity depending on the body weight condition. For this, in vitro fermentations of raspberry fractions were carried out using faeces from normal-weight (NW) and overweight volunteers (OW) during 48 h, and phenolic catabolites and SCFAs were analysed at 0, 6, 24 and 48 h. The whole raspberry and the phenolic extract produced greater quantities of urolithins and total SCFAs when compared with fibre fractions, reaching the highest amount between 24 and 48 h. The body weight condition was an important factor, since faeces from NW led to greater production of urolithins from non-extractable phenolic compounds bound to fibre fractions, whereas in OW the urolithins production was higher from the fractions with more extractable polyphenols. In summary, the whole raspberry has been shown to have a prebiotic effect, mainly due to its phenolic compounds content rather than its fibre content.

Effect of Processing Treatments on Functional Properties of Garden Cress (Lepidium sativum L.) Seeds

Lepidium sativum L. commonly known as garden cress, is a member of the Brassicaceae family. Garden cress is multipurpose plant that has been reported in various ayurvedic texts for its therapeutic and functional properties. Garden cress is one of traditional medicinal plant loaded with nutrients. In the present study, garden cress seeds were quantitatively analyzed as whole, roasted, popped and germinated forms, for selected functional properties viz. total phenols, condensed tannin content and Insoluble dietary fibre profile. The results revealed that different processing treatments improved the nutraceutical properties of garden cress seeds by increasing their total polyphenols and condensed tannins content and also its antioxidant activities. Germinated cress seeds had the highest significant per cent rise of 24.42 mg/100g total phenols in comparison to raw seeds. There was more than 50 per cent rise (52.17%) in condensed tannins content during 48 hrs. of germination giving value of 0.35 mg/100g. Roasted seeds contained maximum cellulose (19.26%) content followed by germinated (14.10%), raw (9.26%) and popped seeds (5.92%).

Delivery of Phenolic Compounds, Peptides and β-Glucan to the Gastrointestinal Tract by Incorporating Dietary Fibre-Rich Mushrooms into Sorghum Biscuits

Sorghum biscuits were enriched with mushroom powders (Lentinula edodes, Auricularia auricula and Tremella fuciformis) at 5%, 10% and 15% substitution levels. An in vitro gastrointestinal digestion was used to evaluate the effect of this enrichment on the phenolic content and soluble peptide content as well as antioxidant activities of the gastric or intestinal supernatants (bio-accessible fractions), and the remaining portions of phenolic compounds, antioxidants and β-glucan in the undigested residue (non-digestible fraction). The phenolic content of the gastric and intestinal supernatants obtained from digested mushroom-enriched biscuits was found to be higher than that of control biscuit, and the phenolic content was positively correlated to the antioxidant activities in each fraction (p < 0.001). L. edodes and T. fuciformis enrichment increased the soluble protein content (small peptide) of sorghum biscuits after in vitro digestion. All mushroom enrichment increased the total phenolic content and β-glucan content of the undigested residue and they were positively correlated (p < 0.001). The insoluble dietary fibre of biscuits was positively correlated with β-glucan content (p < 0.001) of undigested residue. These findings suggested that enriching food with mushroom derived dietary fibre increases the bioavailability of the non-digestible β-glucan and phenolic compounds.

The nutritional and functional properties of noodles prepared from sorghum, mung bean and sago flours

Noodles are popular carbohydrate-rich food products generally made from wheat flour. This study developed a new type of noodle out of local resources namely sorghum flour, mung bean, and sago starch with the following formula variations: F1 (20:30:50), F2 (30:30:40), F3 (40:30: 30), F4 (50:30:20) and F5 (60:30:10). The nutritional and functional property of each formula then analysed. All formulas fulfilled the daily dietary intake recommendations, which contain approximately 9.64-11.83% protein, 0.17-0.33% fat, 86.76-88.74% carbohydrate, with total calories of 397-399 kcal/100 g. F1 has the highest dietary fibre content (13.16%), with 4.2% soluble dietary fibre (SDF) and 9.48% insoluble dietary fibre (IDF). The resistant starch content of all formulas was relatively high, between 16.35-21.57%. Based on the results of this study, sorghum flour, mung bean and sago starch flour-based noodles can be a good source of daily nutrition which also include functional compounds such as dietary fibre and resistant starch.

Date Seed, Oat Bran and Quinoa Flours as Elements of Overall Muffin Quality

Muffins are desirable bakery products both for their sensorial properties and for ease to be baked with numerous ingredients. Flours of date seed (D), oat bran (O) and quinoa (Q) with different insoluble dietary fibre contents were used in this study, as substitutions to wheat flour either individually (10%, w/w) or as combinations (5% each, w/w) in muffin samples. Suggested combined usage of ingredients aimed to increase the dietary fibre content of muffins while pertaining their overall quality attributes. Total moisture, ash and protein, dietary fibre, weight loss %, volume, specific volume, weight, colour and textural parameters were tested. Results revealed that, quinoa and oat bran flour substituted samples (QO) had the highest cake volume (84.5 ml) and specific volume (2.63 ml/g). Date seed and quinoa flour substitution (DQ) was the best combination with the closest hardness values to control (muffins with 100% wheat flour) samples (0.6 N), rather than an increase. Springiness (2.40 N) and cohesiveness (0.81 mm) were also close to that of control. Samples having date seed flour and quinoa (DQ) and date seed flour and oat bran flour (DO), had also the highest fibre contents, respectively. Thus, combining different fibrous ingredients instead of using them individually efficiently prevented the muffin quality loss. The best combination achieved was the date seed flour with quinoa flour (DQ) giving promising results to achieve healthier muffin production.

Proximate composition analysis of chicken burgers from night market stalls and selected fast-food restaurants

This study was aimed to determine and compare the proximate composition of chicken burgers from night market stalls and selected fast-food restaurants. The methods used for determination of proximate composition were AOAC Official Methods 973.48, 960.39, 991.43, 990.19 and 999.11 for protein, fat, fibre, moisture and ash, respectively except total available carbohydrate. The energy content of all samples was calculated based on 4, 4 and 9 kcal/100 g for carbohydrate, protein and fat, respectively. The protein content of burger samples from fast-food restaurant ranged 14.48-18.6%, whereas the samples from night market stalls had protein content ranged 13.26%-19%. Fat contents of burger samples from fast-food restaurant and night market stalls were 18.57-19.11% and 26.33- 28.0%, respectively. There were statistically significant differences (p<0.05) in the percentage of insoluble dietary fibre, but no significant differences were found for soluble and total dietary fibres in the burger samples between night market stalls and the restaurants. Night-stall burger samples had higher fibre content (0.14-0.20%) than the fastfood restaurant samples which ranged 0.11-0.16%. Burger samples from the fast-food restaurant had higher carbohydrate content ranged between 17.77% and 18.55% compared to night stall samples (7.70-8.94%). Also, the energy content of all burger samples ranged 296–360 kcal. There were significant differences for the protein, fat, carbohydrate, energy and ash content of the burger samples between night market stalls and fast-food restaurants but not for moisture and fibre content. The findings indicated that the nutritional composition of burger samples varied among different locations where a variation in preparation method was observed

In Vitro Glycemic Response of Indigenous Pigmented Rice Cultivars from South India and Influence of Different Carbohydrate Components

Staple diet patterns such as white rice consumption play an important part in the occurrence of chronic lifestyle-related disease like diabetes. This study intended to identify pigmented rice cultivars from India as an alternative to white rice. Nine carbohydrate components were quantified in six red and two black pigmented rice varieties. In vitro starch digestibility was also analyzed and the predicted glycemic index (pGI) was estimated. The relationship between the carbohydrate components and the pGI of the rice varieties was analyzed. The rice varieties, Kattuyanam and Chennangi exhibited high levels of insoluble dietary fibre, total dietary fibre and amylose. High soluble dietary fibre contents were observed in Poonghar and Aruvadam kuruvai. The levels of resistant starch and slowly digestible starch were found to be the highest in Karupakavuni. The results indicated Kattuyanam, Chennangi, Karungkuruvai, and Poonghar to be low pGI rice varieties (< 55). The three varieties, Kesari, Karupakavuni, and Aruvadam kuruvai were categorized under the medium pGI category (56-69). Mapillai samba had a high pGI of 70 which could be due to processing (partially milled and parboiled), but had significantly lower pGI than the white rice, Sona masuri (GI – 76). The dietary fibre components, resistant starch, slowly digestible starch, and the amylose content were negatively correlated with the pGI. Among these components, the insoluble dietary fibre, total dietary fibre, and resistant starch with significantly high (p ≤0.01) correlation were found to be the major determining factors of pGI in the studied pigmented rice cultivars. The inclusion of the identified pigmented rice varieties with low to medium glycemic response in the diet could become a key role in the dietary management of diabetes, especially among the rice-eating population.