Communicating Function and Co-Creating Healthy Food: Designing a Functional Food Product Together with Consumers

Functional food is lately an interesting topic from the new product development perspective; complex motivation and expectations of consumers regarding it present a challenge when new products are designed. Co-creation is an interesting alternative to the standard practices by the R & D departments since it directly involves consumers in the various stages of the creation process. This work aims to describe experiences of engaging consumers in different development stages of a functional food product within a project realized at a food research institute. Four consecutive studies were conducted: the first study explored current trends in Serbia regarding the way consumers use functional food and are informed about it; the second study described development of a raspberry seeds extract with antioxidant and anti-proliferative activity confirmed in vitro; the third study tested the same extract in a sample of consumers, validating its usability in food products; and the fourth study described a co-creation session with 18 participants, during which a number of activities were realized to stimulate idea generation. Rather than the final product idea itself, this work is valuable because of detailed insights into the various phases of the co-creation process. It is shown that consumers and food researchers can together engage in the new food product development process as long as the communication between them is rich and with mutual understanding.

Alternative Methods of Bioactive Compounds and Oils Extraction from Berry Fruit By-Products—A Review

Berry fruit by-products are a source of polyphenol compounds and highly nutritious oils and can be reused to fulfill the requirements of the circular economy model. One of the methods of obtaining polyphenol-rich extracts or oils is extraction. Applying conventional solvent extraction techniques may be insufficient to reach high polyphenol or lipid fraction yields and selectivity of specific compounds. Alternative extraction methods, mainly ultrasound-assisted extraction, pulsed electric field-assisted extraction, microwave-assisted extraction and supercritical fluid extraction, are ways to improve the efficiency of the isolation of bioactive compounds or oils from berry fruit by-products. Additionally, non-conventional techniques are considered as green extraction methods, as they consume less energy, solvent volume and time. The aim of this review is to summarize the studies on alternative extraction methods and their relationship to the composition of extracts or oils obtained from berry waste products.

Simultaneous Hydrolysis of Ellagitannins and Extraction of Ellagic Acid from Defatted Raspberry Seeds Using Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents (NADES)

Defatted raspberry seeds were used as an alternative source of antioxidants and ellagic acid (EA) extracted using Natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES). In the preliminary study, the best NADES combination (citric acid-betaine) and the most influential variables (temperature, time, and NADES/plant ratio) were selected for the further optimization process. All samples were analyzed in terms of total polyphenol, EA content, and antioxidant activity. Two sets of optimal conditions were generated by response surface methodology. The first set (Opt1) was designed for higher conversion of ellagitannins to EA while the latter set (Opt2) for higher EA content/100 g extract. Opt1 and Opt2 had higher values for all investigated responses compared to 80% ethanolic extract but had a lower conversion rate of ellagitannins to EA compared to acidified methanol extract. The third set of parameters (Opt3) selected beyond the initial experimental domain was used to obtain a sample with the highest EA content/100 g extract. Due to their nature, NADES extracts are ready to use and could have various technological roles in products since they are antioxidants, acidifiers, and colorants. NADES raspberry extracts exhibited higher anti-proliferative activity compared to ethanolic extracts in terms of EC50 values. However, the main contributor of anti-cancer activity in NADES raspberry extracts were individual NADES compounds and/or their newly formed NADES structure.