Browsing by Author "Bartkiene, E."
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- Acheta Domesticus - Novel food ingredient: influence on cereal products quality and aclylamide contentPublication . Bartkiene, E.; Klupsaite, D.; Starkute, V.; Mockus, E.; Cernauskas, D.; Rocha, J. M.; Ozogul, F.; Guiné, RaquelIn some countries, the use of insects as food is traditional. However, in Europe, this alternative source of nutrients is still new, and consumers react differently to this offer. With the regulation of some raw materials prepared from insects in Europe, a need has arisen for their adaptation in the food industry. Today it is important to understand that consumers in Europe are not ready to choose insects as a main food source. However, the inclusion of raw materials prepared from insects into traditional food product formulas could be promising. Despite the fact that raw materials prepared from insects are considered to be of high biological value, when incorporating them into traditional food formulas, it is important to control not only the nutritional value and sensory properties of the final product, but also to anticipate what undesirable changes may occur during technological processes. One of such undesirable phenomena could be the assumption that enriching cereal products with raw materials high in protein might influence changes in the concentration of Maillard reaction products. We decided to start our research with an assessment of the acceptability of newly proposed raw materials – insects - by consumers. In the following stages, Acheta domesticus flour (unfermented and fermented with Lactiplantibacillus plantarum No. 122 and Lacticaseibacillus casei No. 210 strains) was used to enrich bread and biscuits, and their impact on product quality parameters and acrylamide concentration was assessed. Additionally, various parameters of unfermented and fermented Acheta domesticus flour were evaluated (pH, lactic acid bacteria count, color coordinates, fatty acid, volatile compound, and biogenic amine concentration). The tested product groups were prepared by adding to the main recipe different quantities of unfermented and fermented Acheta domesticus flour (into the main wheat bread formula - 10, 20, 30%; into the main biscuits formula (280 g of wheat flour, 100 g of margarine, 50 g of saccharose, 3 g of vanilla sugar, 50 g of eggs, 1.5 g of salt and 2.0 g of baking powder - 40, 80, and 100 g). An assessment of the acceptability of insects by consumers showed that 70.7% of the respondents had never eaten insects. A fermentation experiment demonstrated that in most cases, fermentation reduced the biogenic amine concentration in Acheta domesticus flour and influenced the volatile compound profile in both Acheta domesticus flour and cereal products (wheat bread and biscuits). Most of the wheat bread sample groups prepared with untreated and fermented Acheta domesticus flour showed higher acrylamide content compared to the control bread group, except for the group with 10% fermented Acheta domesticus flour. However, the opposite tendency was found for biscuit samples. The lowest acrylamide concentration (84.1 µg kg-1) was observed in biscuit samples containing 40 g of No. 210 fermented Acheta domesticus flour.Due to the decrease in acrylamide concentration in biscuits, fermented Acheta domesticus flour can be recommended for the manufacture of such products. For wheat bread preparation, 10% fermented Acheta domesticus flour is recommended, as most wheat bread sample groups prepared with untreated and fermented Acheta domesticus flour showed higher acrylamide content compared to the control bread sample groups.
- Analysis of factors that influence eating habits in different countriesPublication . Kalnina, I.; Straumite, E.; Klava, D.; Kruma, Z.; Bartkiene, E.; Isoldi, K.K.; Correia, Paula; Ferreira, Manuela; Guiné, Raquel P. F.Individual eating habits are influenced by a number of factors, including both internal variables such as physiology and emotion, as well as environmental factors such as food availability and cultural norms. Given the public health impact of dietary habits (choice, quality, amount, frequency) on health outcomes, it is important to understand what factors influence eating habits on a societal level. The aim of this research was to determine factors that influence eating habits and compare these factors between four different countries – Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal and the USA. An eating motivation questionnaire was used to measure eating habits in 3,348 respondents from different regions and countries. There were ten parts - demographical information, anthropometric data and behavioral and health related elements, sources of information about healthy eating, factors related to food choices according to motivations (health, emotional, economic, availability, social, cultural, environmental, political, marketing and commercials). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and self-reported motivation was compared across countries. Health was the primary motivator of food selection in this sample (71% of respondents), whereas 34% reported that emotional factors impact their dietary habits and 35% reported that economic factors determine their food selection. A large number of respondents (44%) disagreed or strongly disagree or disagreed with the idea that marketing impacts their dietary habits. Portugal had the highest number of participants (86%), reporting that they agreed or strongly agreed with having health-related motivations for food selection, with Latvia (65%) and Lithuania (76%) showing more moderate levels of endorsement of healthy eating motivations, and the USA having the fewest respondents (52%) endorsing health-related motivations. Respondents from Portugal were more likely than respondents from the other countries to deny having emotional, economic and marketing motivations in food selection. From results can conclude that consumers are motivated by healthiness factors when making food choices (71% of respondents), but marketing, economic and emotional factors positively impact only 30% of consumers, other respondents completely disagreed or was indifferent to these types of motivations. Baltic countries (Latvia and Lithuania) were similar to each other, but Portugal and USA were completely different. Portugal strongly agreed with healthy motivations and disagreed with all other motivations, whereas USA and also Baltic countries had more equal division of opinions regarding impact of different motivations.
- Analysis of food buying behavior: A multinational study frameworkPublication . Guiné, Raquel P. F.; Ferreira, Manuela; Correia, Paula; Bartkiene, E.; Szucs, V.; Tarcea, M.; Ranilović, J.; Černelič-Bizjak, M.; Isoldi, K.; EL-Kenawy, A.; Ferreira, V.; Klava, D.; Korzeniowska, M.; Vittadini, E.; Leal, M.; Frez-Muñoz, L.; Papageorgiou, M.; Djekić, I.To make everyday food choices is a complex pro- cess, involving decisions which are influenced by distinct aspects associated with, among other fac- tors, purchasing ease, competitiveness of the mar- ket, advertising campaigns and marketing strategies, to mention a few related with aspects linked to com- mercialization. Hence, the objective of this study, which is integrated in the EATMOT project, was to as- sess some factors that influence food buying and food choice, in particular related with aspects such as price,convenience and marketing, as a function of some sociodemographic and geographic variables, namely, age, gender, marital status, level of education, living environment and country of residence. This study involved a questionnaire survey undertak- en on 11,960 participants from 16 countries. The in- strument used in this study was validated and trans- lated into the different languages of the participating countries, following double sided translation-checking methodology. The participants were from: Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and United States of America. The sample was selected by convenience and the partici- pation in the study was voluntary, being the question- naire applied only to adult citizens. Basic descriptive statistics were used for data analysis and the associ- ations between variables were investigated by cross- tabs and chi square tests. Additionally, a tree classifi- cation analysis was performed to assess the relative importance of each of the sociodemographic variables (gender, age group, level of education, country, living environment or marital status). The analysis followed the Classification and Regression Trees (CRT) algorithm with cross validation and the minimum number of cas- es considered for parent or child nodes was 100 and 50, respectively. For all data analysis, the software SPSS from IBM Inc. (version 25) was used and the level of sig- nificance considered was 5%. Results showed statistically significant differences (p < 0.0005) between groups for all sociodemographic vari- ables (gender, age, education, marital status, living en- vironment, country) in terms of the value attributed to convenience, price and marketing when buying foods. In most cases, the associations between the variables were considered very weak, although with a little high- er values for the associations between the country and variables “value convenience” (V = 0.179), “value price” (V = 0.158) and “value marketing” (V = 0.167). Tree clas- sification analysis confirmed for all three dependent variables that the most influential factor was country. This work highlighted that people in different coun - tries and from different sociodemographic groups show different motivations for buying food products.
- Antimicrobial, Antioxidant, Sensory Properties, and Emotions Induced for the Consumers of Nutraceutical Beverages Developed from Technological Functionalised Food Industry By-ProductsPublication . Zokaityte, E.; Lele, V.; Starkute, V.; Zavistanaviciute, P.; Cernauskas, D.; Klupsaite, D.; Ruzauskas, M.; Alisauskaite, J.; Baltrusaitytė, A.; Dapsas, M.; Siriakovaite, K.; Trunce, S.; Guiné, Raquel; Viskelis, P.; Steibliene, V.; Bartkiene, E.This study aims to develop nutraceutical beverages containing food processing by-products in their formulation, and determine the opinion of consumers. This is done by testing whether they know that the main ingredients of the product are by-products, performing an overall acceptability test of the developed beverages, and evaluating the emotions induced by the newly developed beverages for consumers. The main ingredients used for the preparation of added-value beverages were fermented milk permeate (containing galactooligosaccharides), extruded and fermented wheat bran (WB) (containing ≥6.0 log 10 CFU g −1 viable antimicrobial properties showing lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains), and different fruit/berry by-products (FBB) (as a source of compounds showing antioxidant properties). The definition of the quantities of bioactive ingredients was based on the overall acceptability of the prepared beverages, as well as on emotions induced in consumers by the tested beverages. Functional properties of the developed beverages were proofed by the evaluation of their antimicrobial and antioxidant properties, as well as viable LAB count during storage. Desirable changes in extruded and fermented WB were obtained: Fermentation reduced sugar concentration and pH in samples with predominant lactic acid isomer L(+). In addition, the viable LAB count in the substrate was higher than 6.0 log 10 CFU g −1 , and no enterobacteria remained. By comparing the overall acceptability of the beverages enriched with WB, the highest overall acceptability was shown for the samples prepared with 10 g of the extruded and fermented WB (7.9 points). FBB showed desirable antimicrobial activity: Shepherd inhibited—2, sea buckthorn—3, blueberries—5, and raspberries—7 pathogens from the 10 tested. Comparing different beverage groups prepared with different types of FBB, in most cases (except sea buckthorn), by increasing FBB content the beverages overall acceptability was increased, and the highest score (on average, 9.5 points) was obtained for the samples prepared with 5.0 and 7.5 g of blueberries FBB. Moreover, a very strong positive correlation (r = 0.8525) was found between overall acceptability and emotion “happy” induced in consumers by the prepared beverages enriched with extruded and fermented WB and FBB. By comparing the samples prepared with the addition of WB with samples prepared with WB and FBB, it was observed that most FBB increased total phenolic compounds (TPC) content (on average, by 9.0%), except in the case of samples prepared with sea buckthorn. A very high positive correlation (r = 0.9919) was established between TPC and antioxidant activity. Finally, it can be stated that the newly developed nutraceutical beverages were acceptable for consumers, induced positive emotions, and possessed desirable antimicrobial and antioxidant properties, while being prepared in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner.
- Apple Fermented Products: An Overview of Technology, Properties and Health EffectsPublication . Guiné, Raquel P. F.; Barroca, Maria João; Coldea, T. E.; Bartkiene, E.; Anjos, O.As an easily adapted culture, with overloaded production in some parts of the globe, ap- ples and their by-products are being redirected to pharmaceutical, canning and beverages indus- tries, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. Fermentation is generally considered to increase the bioa- vailability of bioactive compounds found in apple, by impacting, through a high degree of changes, the product’s properties, including composition and health-promoting attributes, as well as their sensory profile. Probiotic apple beverages and apple vinegar are generally considered as safe and healthy products by the consumers. Recently, contributions to human health, both in vivo and in vitro studies, of non-alcoholic fermented apple-based products have been described. This review highlighted the advances in the process optimization of apple-based products considering vinegar, cider, pomace, probiotic beverages and spirits’ technologies. The different processing impacts on physical-chemical, nutritional and sensory profiles of these products are also presented. Addition- ally, the harmful effects of toxic compounds and strategies to limit their content in cider and apple spirits are illustrated. New trends of fermented apple-based products applicability in tangential in- dustries are summarized.
- Consumer perception about edible insects’ relation with environment and sustainabilityPublication . Guiné, Raquel P. F.; Klava, D.; Straumite, E.; Kruma, Z.; Florença, S. G.; Anjos, O.; Djekic, I.; Chuck-Hernandez, C.; Matek Saric, M.; Bartkiene, E.; Boustani, N. M.; Papageorgiou, M.; Baro, J. M. F.; Korzeniowska, M.; Cernelic-Bizjak, M.; Tarcea, M.; Damarli, E.; Ferreira, V.The interest in adopting more sustainable diets can be a driver for consumers to engage the consumption of edible insects, even in countries where they are not culturally accepted as food. This work aimed to study the perceptions and knowledge of consumers in different countries towards edible insects and their relation with environment and sustainability. The present investigation was based on a questionnaire survey (11 questions) and this descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out on a non-probabilistic sample of 7221 participants from 14 countries. The participants in the survey revealed high knowledge (over 50%) about the sustainability issues related with edible insects as food. The sociodemographic variables education, sex and age are influential, by decreasing order of importance. Regarding living environment, rural areas have the lowest percentage of informed participants. Comparing countries, statistically significant differences were observed for all questions, making this the most important predictor for information about sustainability of edible insects. This is expected, having in mind that cultural influences are highly variable among the set of countries included in the study, with a high number of European countries, but also with Latin American countries like Mexico or Brazil, or Middle East countries like Turkey or Lebanon.
- Estudo Internacional do nível de conhecimento sobre insetos comestíveisPublication . Guiné, Raquel P. F.; Florença, Sofia De Guiné E; Ferreira, Manuela; Costa, Cristina Amaro Da; Correia, Paula; Cardoso, Ana Paula; Campos, Sofia; Anjos, Ofélia; Chuck-Hernandez, C.; Saric, M.; Papageorgiou, M.; Baro, J.; Korzeniowska, M.; Bizjak, M.; Bartkiene, E.; Tarcea, M.; Boustani, N.; Djekić, I.; Klava, D.; Damarli, E.Resumo: Introdução – O consumo de insetos é uma prática tradicional ao longo da história humana, mas o seu consumo é muito variável de acordo com a região do globo. Objetivos – Pretendeu-se investigar o nível de conhecimento sobre insetos comestíveis numa amostra de participantes de treze países. Métodos – Os dados foram recolhidos em 2021 por questionário online. Obtiveram-se 6899 respostas válidas. Para a análise dos dados usou-se análise fatorial, análise de clusters e testes qui-quadrado. Resultados – Foram usados 27 itens para medir o conhecimento, utilizando uma escala do tipo Likert de cinco pontos. Aplicando análise fatorial obteve-se uma solução que explica 55% da variância total observada. Esta inclui 4 fatores que retiveram 22 dos 27 itens iniciais: F1 = Sustentabilidade (8 it); F2 = Nutrição (8 it); F3 = Fatores de Produção (2 it); F4 = Preocupações com a Saúde (4 it). A análise de clusters produziu três grupos de participantes (indivíduos 'receosos', 'agricultores' e 'ecológicos'). A caracterização dos clusters revelou que a idade não influenciou a inclusão nos clusters, enquanto sexo, escolaridade, país, meio onde reside, área profissional e rendimento influenciaram a composição dos clusters. Conclusões – O nível de conhecimento sobre insetos comestíveis é altamente variável de acordo com as características individuais e localização geográfica. Por outro lado, a segmentação permitiu identificar 3 tipos de indivíduos, 'receosos', 'agricultores' e 'ecológicos'.
- Food choices as influenced by environmental concerns: study involving participants from 16 countriesPublication . Guiné, Raquel; Ferreira, Manuela; Correia, Paula; Leal, M.; Ferreira, V.; Rumbak, I.; El-Kenawy, A.; Papageorgiou, M.; Szucs, V.; Vittadini, E.; Klava, D.; Bartkiene, E.; Munoz, L.; Korzeniowska, M.; Tarcea, M.; Djekić, I.; Bizjak, M.; Isoldi, K.The activities related to food production, processing, handling, transportation, storage and disposal of food products have an important impact on sustainability. Hence, people’s food choices also contribute for the definition of the extension of this impact and therefore this work aimed at studying some motivations that influence people’s eating habits. This was an observational, cross-sectional study, undertaken on a non-probabilistic sample of 11960 participants form 16 countries (Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Romania, United States of America). The survey was undertaken by means of a questionnaire of self-response, applied only to adult citizens. The results obtained indicated that a great number of participants admit to shape their food choices according to some environmental concerns, like, for example, they prefer foods from the season or those that comply with sustainable processing and packaging. Regarding the food surplus, this seems a priority to avoid at home, but not so much when it comes to restaurants. Factor analysis indicated two types of concerns: Purely Environmental Concerns (PEC) and Sustainability allied to Quality Concerns (SQC), and cluster analysis showed that 54% of the participants tend to make their food choices considering both types of concerns, which is very expressive and positive towards sustainability of the food chain.
- Information, Perceptions and Motivations for Healthy Eating on a Group of European CountriesPublication . Guiné, Raquel; Correia, Paula; Ferreira, Manuela; Duarte, João; Cardoso, Ana Paula; Bartkiene, E.; Lele, v.; Starkute, v.; Juodeikiene, G.; Adomaitiene, V.; Steibliene, V.; Zadeike, D.; Szűcs, V.; Hámori, J.; Bizjak, M. C.; Stubelj, M.; Klava, D.; Straumite, E.; Kruma, Z.; Tarcea, M.; Fazakas, Z.; Buicu, F.; Ruta, F.; Rus, V.This is an original research work that is a part of the EATMOT project, which aims to study the eating motivations of different nature in a set of countries all over the world. In this work will be presented some results of the project, regarding three major areas: perceptions about healthy eating, sources of information about healthy diet and healthy motivations for food choice. This is a longitudinal observational study carried out on a non- probabilistic sample with 4870 participants residing in 6 European countries: Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania and Slovenia. Analysis of the data was performed using descriptive statistics and t-test for independent samples or ANOVA with Post-Hoc Tukey HSD, depending on the case. The results obtained allowed concluding that most of the participants have some knowledge about what a healthy diet entails, but still one third did not manifest an opinion for the questions related to healthy eating. Regarding the sources of information about healthy eating, internet was the source more frequently used by a significant part of the participants, while hospitals and health centres were quite irrelevant. This raises some concerns because the internet mighht not always be a reliable source of information. Finally, it was found that the health factors were more influential for the food choices in older people, females, widowed, retired and people working or studying in the area of nutrition.
- Investigation of the Level of Knowledge in Different Countries about Edible Insects: Cluster SegmentationPublication . Guiné, Raquel P. F.; Florença, S. G.; Costa, Cristina Amaro Da; Correia, Paula; Ferreira, Manuela; Cardoso, Ana Paula; Campos, Sofia; Anjos, Ofélia; Chuck-Hernández, C.; Sarić, M. M.; Djekic, I.; Papageorgiou, M.; Baro, J. M. F.; Korzeniowska, M.; Černelič-Bizjak, M.; Bartkiene, E.; Tarcea, M.; Boustani, N. M.; Klava, D.; Damarli, E.This study aimed to investigate the level of knowledge about edible insects (EIs) in a sample of people from thirteen countries (Croatia, Greece, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, and Turkey). Data collection was based on a questionnaire survey applied through online tools between July and November 2021. For data analysis, techniques such as factor analysis, cluster analysis, and chi-square tests were used, with a significance level of 5%. A total of 27 items were used to measure knowledge on a five-point Likert scale. Applying factor analysis with principal components and Varimax rotation, a solution that explains about 55% of variance was obtained. This accounts for four factors that retained 22 of the 27 initial items: F1 = Sustainability (8 items), F2 = Nutrition (8 items), F3 = Production Factors (2 items), and F4 = Health Concerns (4 items). Internal consistency was evaluated through Cronbach’s alpha. The cluster analysis consisted of the application of hierarchical methods followed by k-means and produced three clusters (1—‘fearful’, 2—‘farming,’ and 3—‘ecological’ individuals). The characterisation of the clusters revealed that age did not influence cluster membership, while sex, education, country, living environment, professional area, and income all influenced the composition of the clusters. While participants from Mexico and Spain were fewer in the ‘fearful’ cluster, in those from Greece, Latvia, Lebanon, and Turkey, the situation was opposed. Participants from rural areas were mostly in cluster 2, which also included a higher percentage of participants with lower income. Participants from professional areas linked with biology, food, and nutrition were mostly in cluster 3. In this way, we concluded that the level of knowledge about EIs is highly variable according to the individual characteristics, namely that the social and cultural influences of the different countries lead to distinct levels of knowledge and interpretation of information, thus producing divergent approaches to the consumption of insects—some more reluctant and measuring possible risks. In contrast, others consider EIs a good and sustainable protein-food alternative.