Instituto Politécnico de Viseu
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Food Waste: Consumer perspective.
Publication . Ribeiro, Paulo; Anjos, Ofélia; Gonçalves Oliveira Valente da Cruz-Lopes, Luísa Paula; Guiné, Raquel de Pinho Ferreira
This research was developed to investigate people’s attitudes towards food waste and how these possibly change according to sociodemographic groups. The consumer study was carried out in 16 countries (Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and United States of America), and involved 11916 participants. The main questions related to food waste were: Q1. When I cook I have in mind the quantities to avoid food waste; Q2. It is important to me that the food I eat comes from my own country; Q3. I avoid going to restaurants that do not have a recovery policy of food surplus. The questionnaire as applied online and for the treatment of the data, the SPSS was used, considering a level of significance of 5% in all tests. Parametric tests (T-test and ANOVA) were used to compare means between groups. A classification tree analysis was also performed, following the Classification and Regression Trees (CRT) algorithm with cross-validation.
The results allowed confirming that the country was the most influential factor of all variables considered, and statistically significant differences were between groups for practically all sociodemographic variables, in terms of avoiding food waste when cooking at home, choosing foods locally and preferring restaurants that promote food recovery. In conclusion, this work showed an interesting perspective of how sociodemographic and geographic variability can shape consumer’s attitudes regarding food waste.
Sustainable valorisation of local resources to promote food security: palm wine & tiger nuts
Publication . Onyeodili, Adindu; Okafor, Gabriel; Okoyeuzu, Chigozie; Nduka, Onyekachukwu; Okechukwu, Queency; Hassani, Mouandhe; Juchniewicz, Szymon; Leicht, Katarzyna; Okpala, Charles; Korzeniowska, Małgorzata; de Pinho Ferreira Guiné, Raquel
The need to utilize valuable natural resources and turn them into valuable food products is rising both for economic as well as sustainable purposes. The utilization of valuable local products helps deal with pollution, with scarcity of natural resources while also being able to provide possible alternative solutions to traditional foods and beverages, that help fight the problem of food insecurity in some areas of the globe.
This work explores the utilization of palm wine and tiger nut “milk”, to, through a fermentative process, obtain a safe alcoholic beverage, free from microbial contamination. This will allow to valorize natural resources while also preventing food insecurity.
The raw materials were obtained from Nigeria, and appropriately prepared and stored until further utilization. In brief, the sugar syrup was prepared by dissolution of fermentable sugar (sucrose), heating and cooling processes, while the tiger nut “milk” was obtained from the nuts by soaking, blending and filtering. The preparation of the fermented beverage was carried out until reaching an alcohol content between 5 and 8%. The proximate composition of the product was determined following standard chemical methodologies. Microbial as well as sensorial analyses were also conducted.
The results showed that, based on all the analyses made, including proximate composition, physicochemical properties, microbiological analyses and sensory evaluation, the sensory scores confirm that the palm wine analogue obtained competes favorably with the natural palm wine. In this way it can be used as a valuable replacement, while also exploring the utilization of alternative resources.
Physicochemical and Microbiological Properties of Hazelnuts from Three Varieties Cultivated in Portugal
Publication . Ferrão, Ana Cristina; Guiné, Raquel; Silva, Marco; Lopes, Arminda; Correia, Paula
Hazelnut is an important crop worldwide, and the characteristics of the fruits are quite variable according to a number of factors, including variety and cultivation conditions, which in turn can vary according to harvest year. This study aimed to investigate some physical and chemical characteristics of three hazelnut varieties grown in Portugal (Grada de Viseu, Tonda di Giffoni and Butler) along two different harvesting years (2021 and 2022). Also, the microbial quality was investigated for its relevance to the conservation of the fruits. The physical properties evaluated were biometric characteristics and colour, the chemical components analysed were moisture, lipids, protein, ash and fibre, and the microbial properties investigated were the microorganisms, moulds and yeasts. The results showed that, generically, statistically significant differences were found between the three varieties under study on several properties investigated. The kernel was confirmed as the lighter part of all hazelnuts, and when comparing between varieties, Tonda di Giffoni presented the lighter fruits in both harvesting years. With respect to weight, the Tonda di Giffoni variety was the lightest in both harvest years. Moisture content was observed to be higher than the recommended limits for two of the samples (Grada de Viseu in 2021: 6.01 ± 0.26 g/100 g and Butler in 2022: 6.02 ± 0.37 g/100 g), although the difference was marginal given that the recommended limit is 6%. Not surprisingly, lipids were the major chemical component, ranging from 66.46 ± 1.67 to 70.14 ± 1.75 g/100 g in 2021 and from 64.38 ± 1.67 to 77.77 g/100 g in 2022. It was further observed that the three varieties presented a satisfactory microbiological quality. Finally, applying factor analysis with principal components and Varimax rotation, a solution that explains 92.8% of the variance was obtained. This study provided information that is relevant for the characterisation and evaluation of variability according to the year of hazelnuts of three varieties cultivated in Portugal.
Influence of storage conditions on the physicochemical, sensory and microbiological characteristics of hazelnuts: preliminary results
Publication . Ferrão, Ana Cristina; Guiné, Raquel; Silva, Marco; Correia, Paula
Bee Brood as a Food for Human Consumption: An Integrative Review of Phytochemical and Nutritional Composition
Publication . Guiné, Raquel; Florença, Sofia G.; Barroca, Maria João; Costa, Cristina Amaro da
The utilisation of edible insects for human nutrition is a long-standing practice in many parts of the globe, and is being gradually introduced into countries without an entomophagic tradition as well. These unconventional sources of protein of animal origin have arisen as a sustainable alternative to other animal protein sources, such as meat. This review intends to present the compilation of data in the scientific literature on the chemical composition and nutritional value of the bee brood of A. mellifera species and subspecies as edible foods. For this, a comprehensive search of the scientific literature was carried out using the databases ScienceDirect, Scopus, Pub-Med, BOn, and SciELO. Appropriate keywords were used for the search to reach the research works that addressed the topics of the review. The results showed that bee brood has considerable quantities of protein, fat and carbohydrates. The most abundant amino acids are leucine and lysine (these two being essential amino acids) and aspartic acid, glutamic acid, and proline (these three being non-essential amino acids). As for the fatty acids, bee broods contain approximately equal fractions of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids, while the polyunsaturated fatty acids are negligible. The dietary minerals present in higher quantities are potassium, phosphorus, and magnesium, and the most abundant vitamins are vitamin C and niacin; choline is also present, although it is not a true vitamin. Although bee brood from A. mellifera has potential for human consumption as a nutrient-rich food, there are still many aspects that need to be further studied in the future, such as safety and hazards linked to possible regular consumption.