High-Quality Gluten-Free Sponge Cakes without Sucrose: Inulin-Type Fructans as Sugar Alternatives

Fructan-type prebiotic dietary fibers: Clinical studies reporting health impacts and recent advances in their technological application in bakery, dairy, meat products and beverages

Fructooligosaccharides (FOS) and inulin are the most used fructans in food manufacturing, including bakery, dairy, meat products and beverages. In this context, this review investigated the recent findings concerning health claims associated with a diet supplemented with fructans according to human trial results. Fructans have been applied in different food classes due to their proven benefits to human health. Human clinical trials have revealed several effects of fructans supplementation on health such as improved glycemic control, growth of beneficial gut bacteria, weight management, positive influence on immune function, and others. These dietary fibers have a wide range of compounds with different molecular sizes, implying a great variety of technological properties depending on the food application of interest. Inulin has been mainly applied as a fat substitute and prebiotic ingredient. In general, inulin reduces the energy content and improves the structure, viscosity, emulsion, and water retention parameters of food products. Meanwhile, FOS have been more successful when used as a sucrose substitute and prebiotic ingredient. However, overall, FOS and inulin are promising alternatives for the development of structured systems dedicated to increase the functionality of foods and beverages besides reducing fat in bakery, dairy, and meat products.

Current status and future prospects of sensory and consumer research approaches to gluten-free bakery and pasta products

Sensory and consumer research performs a pivotal role in gluten-free (GF) food research and development due to consumer dissatisfaction about currently available products, despite the continued growth of this market and promising research developments. Nowadays, almost half of the original articles about GF products include sensory analysis. A current overview is needed to help both food scientists and industry indentify current trends and forward-looking approaches. This current review has gathered information concerning sensory and consumer research for GF bakery and pasta products, from studies published in the last decade, and then discusses future challenges in the light of recent advances. Among the promising approaches, projective techniques that collect data using social media can provide quick, spontaneous and direct opinions from GF consumers. They can also be used to evaluate trends and cross-cultural or global insights. Participatory methods have highlighted the importance of label information and may further explore the behavior of GF consumers in more realistic environments, as well as to evaluate the intrinsic GF food factors in GF consumer opinions, emotions, behavior and choices. This review details current issues occurring in sensory analysis of GF products, which still need to be resolved. The combination of affective and analytical methods allows for a better characterization of the samples and such sensory analysis of GF products in the future could guide product development and quality control, overcoming technological, nutritional, and shelf-life issues.

Inulin Functionalized "Giuncata" Cheese as a Source of Prebiotic Fibers

The development of functional foods in the dairy sector represents a flourishing field of technological research. In this study, an Italian fresh cheese as "giuncata" was enriched with inulin, a dietary fiber, with the aim of developing a product with improved nutritional properties in terms of prebiotic action on intestinal microbiota. An inulin concentration of ~4% w/w was determined in the fresh cheese after the fortification process, enabling the claim of being a "source of dietary fiber" (inulin > 3 g/100 g) according to the European regulation. The addition of inulin has no effect on the pH of cheese and does not relevantly influence its color as well as the total fat content (fat reduction ~0.61%) in comparison to the control. Mechanical properties of the cheese were also not markedly affected as evidenced from rheological and tensile testing analyses. Indeed, the incorporation of inulin in "giuncata" only exerts a slight "softening effect" resulting in a slightly lower consistency and mechanical resistance in comparison to the control. Overall, this study demonstrates the feasibility of producing a fiber-enriched dairy functional food from a large consumed fresh and soft cheese as "giuncata".

Nutritional Quality of Gluten-Free Bakery Products Labeled Ketogenic and/or Low-Carb Sold in the Global Market

Gluten-free and ketogenic bakery products are gaining momentum. This study aims to develop a better understanding of the nutritional quality of gluten-free bakery products labeled ketogenic and/or low-carb. For this reason, the products available on the global market that were labeled ketogenic and/or low-carb (n = 757) were retrieved and compared to standard gluten-free products (n = 509). Overall, nutritionally, no significant differences were found among ketogenic and/or low-carb products due the high intra-variability of each type, but they differed from standard products. Compared to standard products, all ketogenic and/or low carb, irrespective of categories, showed lower carbohydrates that derived chiefly from fibers and, to a lesser extent, from sugars. They also had higher protein contents (p < 0.05) compared to standard products. Fats was higher (p < 0.05) in ketogenic and/or low-carb baking mixes, savory biscuits, and sweet biscuits than in their standard counterparts. Saturated fats were higher (p < 0.05) in low-carb savory biscuits and breads, as well as in ketogenic sweet biscuits than in the same standard products. Overall, median values of the nutrients align with the definition of the ketogenic diet. Nevertheless, several products did not align with any of the ketogenic definitions. Therefore, consumers need to carefully read the nutritional facts and not rely on mentions such as low-cab and ketogenic to make their decision of purchase/consumption.

Recent approaches for the quantitative analysis of functional oligosaccharides used in the food industry: A review

Functional oligosaccharides (OS) are diverse groups of carbohydrates that confer several health benefits stemming from their prebiotic activity. Commonly used oligosaccharides, fructooligosaccharides and galactooligosaccharides, are used in a wide range of applications from food ingredients to mimic the prebiotic activity of human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) in infant formula to sugar and fat replacers in dairy and bakery products. However, while consumption of these compounds is associated with several positive health effects, increased consumption can cause intestinal discomfort and aggravation of intestinal bowel syndrome symptoms. Hence, it is essential to develop rapid and reliable techniques to quantify OS for quality control and proper assessment of their functionality in food and food products. The present review will focus on recent analytical techniques used to quantify OS in different matrices such as food and beverage products.