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New Insights in Quality Evaluation of Plant-Derived Foods
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New Insights in Quality Evaluation of Plant-Derived Foods

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Phytochemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 January 2024) | Viewed by 3213

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Ivo Vaz de Oliveira

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Centre for the Research and Technology of Agro‐Environmental and Biological Sciences—CITAB, Universidade de Trás‐os‐Montes e Alto Douro, UTAD, Quinta de Prados, 5000‐801 Vila Real, Portugal
Interests: plant physiology; food quality; food composition; agricultural and biological sciences; bioactive compounds; waste and by-product exploitation; phenolic compounds; antioxidant properties; fatty acids
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Sílvia Martins Afonso

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Centre for the Research and Technology of Agro‐Environmental and Biological Sciences—CITAB, Institute for Innovation, Capacity Building and Sustainability of Agri-Food Production (Inov4Agro), Universidade de Trás‐os‐Montes e Alto Douro, UTAD, Quinta de Prados, 5000‐801 Vila Real, Portugal
Interests: plant physiology; food quality; food composition; agricultural and biological sciences; bioactive compounds; waste and by-product exploitation; phenolic compounds; antioxidant properties
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The preference for plant-derived foods (even though not exclusively) is known to provide both health and environmental benefits. However, it must be acknowledged that not all plant-derived foods present the same quality to consumers. Hence, traditional and novel tools to ensure high-quality standards have to be applied to these types of foods. At the same time, the definition of quality may be different from product to product and must be studied accordingly. Therefore, the content in bioactive compounds, fat amount or fatty acid profiles, vitamins, carbohydrates, volatile compounds, but also microbial safety or sensorial characteristics, are some of the parameters that can provide an insight into plant-derived food quality. Innovative processing types (e.g., non-thermal technologies and novel thermal processing technologies) also need to be looked at from a food quality point of view. Of course, all these types of foods are usually subject to some kind of postharvest processing or storage, which can alter their properties. This has also led to the need to study how these procedures change the characteristics of the original food.

This Special Issue on “New Insights in Quality Evaluation of Plant-Derived Foods” invites researchers to contribute with original research or review articles that focus on this main topic of quality assessment of plant-derived foods. This includes novel approaches to this line of research, but also the use of established methodologies to novel plant foods, understudied species, or new data on known plant foods. 

Dr. Ivo Vaz de Oliveira
Dr. Sílvia Martins Martins Afonso
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • food quality
  • quality evaluation
  • processing and storage
  • compositional characterization
  • chemometrics
  • microbial food safety
  • sensorial characteristics
  • postharvest

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 7013 KiB  
Article
Almond By-Products Substrates as Sustainable Amendments for Green Bean Cultivation
by Vânia Silva, Ivo Oliveira, José Alberto Pereira and Berta Gonçalves
Plants 2024, 13(4), 540; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13040540 - 16 Feb 2024
Viewed by 534
Abstract
Almond processing generates a high quantity of by-products, presenting the untapped potential for alternative applications and improved sustainability in production. This study aimed to evaluate whether the incorporation of almond by-products (hulls/shells) can improve the biochemical characteristics of green bean pods when used [...] Read more.
Almond processing generates a high quantity of by-products, presenting the untapped potential for alternative applications and improved sustainability in production. This study aimed to evaluate whether the incorporation of almond by-products (hulls/shells) can improve the biochemical characteristics of green bean pods when used as an alternative to traditional growing media in green bean plants. Four substrates were prepared: the Control substrate (C): 70% peat + 30% perlite; substrate (AS): 70% peat + 30% shells; substrate (AH): 70% peat + 30% perlite + 1 cm hulls as mulch; substrate (MIX): 70% peat + 15% shells + 15% hulls. Plants were grown in each of these substrates and subjected to two irrigation levels, 100% and 50% of their water-holding capacity. Biochemical parameters (photosynthetic pigments, total phenolics, flavonoids, ortho-diphenols, soluble proteins, antioxidant capacity) and color were evaluated in the harvested pods. Results showed that pods from plants growing in AH substrate presented statistically significant higher values in their total phenolic content, while AS and MIX substrates did not reveal significant benefits. Summarily, this study highlights the potential of almond hulls as a promising medium for green bean cultivation, particularly when employed as mulch. Further research is recommended to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the application of almond by-products as natural fertilizers/mulch. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Insights in Quality Evaluation of Plant-Derived Foods)
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16 pages, 1678 KiB  
Article
Monitoring Changes in the Volatile Profile of Ecuadorian Cocoa during Different Steps in Traditional On-Farm Processing
by Cyntia Yadira Erazo Solorzano, Diego Armando Tuárez García, Carlos Edison Zambrano, José Manuel Moreno-Rojas and Raquel Rodríguez Solana
Plants 2023, 12(22), 3904; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12223904 - 20 Nov 2023
Viewed by 904
Abstract
The present work was conducted to evaluate the volatile profile of Ecuadorian Forastero, CCN-51, ETT103 and LR14 cocoa beans during traditional fermentation in laurel wood boxes followed by a sun-drying process. Fifty-six volatiles were identified with HS-SPME-GC–MS. Aldehydes, alcohols and ketones were the [...] Read more.
The present work was conducted to evaluate the volatile profile of Ecuadorian Forastero, CCN-51, ETT103 and LR14 cocoa beans during traditional fermentation in laurel wood boxes followed by a sun-drying process. Fifty-six volatiles were identified with HS-SPME-GC–MS. Aldehydes, alcohols and ketones were the compounds that mainly characterized the fresh cocoa. The main compounds formed during the anaerobic fermentation step were esters and acids, while in the aerobic fermentation step, an increase in ester-, aldehyde- and acid-type compounds was observed. Finally, after the drying step, a notable increase in the acid (i.e., acetic acid) content was the predominant trend. According to the genotypes, ETT103 presented high contents of terpenes, alcohols, aldehydes and ketones and low contents of unfavorable acid compounds. The CCN-51 and LR14 (Trinitarian) varieties stood out for their highest amounts in acids (i.e., acetic acid) at the end of primary processing. Finally, the Forastero cocoa beans were highlighted for their low acid and high trimethylpyrazine contents. According to the chemometric and Venn diagram analyses, ETT-103 was an interestingly high-aromatic-quality variety for cocoa gourmet preparations. The results also showed the need for good control of the processing steps (using prefermentative treatments, starter cultures, etc.) on Ecuadorian genotypes of Trinitarian origin. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Insights in Quality Evaluation of Plant-Derived Foods)
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14 pages, 7109 KiB  
Article
Low-Cost Sensor for Lycopene Content Measurement in Tomato Based on Raspberry Pi 4
by Marcos-Jesús Villaseñor-Aguilar, José-Alfredo Padilla-Medina, Juan Prado-Olivarez, José-Erinque Botello-Álvarez, Micael-Gerardo Bravo-Sánchez and Alejandro-Israel Barranco-Gutiérrez
Plants 2023, 12(14), 2683; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12142683 - 18 Jul 2023
Viewed by 1405
Abstract
Measuring lycopene in tomatoes is fundamental to the agrifood industry because of its health benefits. It is one of the leading quality criteria for consuming this fruit. Traditionally, the amount determination of this carotenoid is performed using the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) technique. [...] Read more.
Measuring lycopene in tomatoes is fundamental to the agrifood industry because of its health benefits. It is one of the leading quality criteria for consuming this fruit. Traditionally, the amount determination of this carotenoid is performed using the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) technique. This is a very reliable and accurate method, but it has several disadvantages, such as long analysis time, high cost, and destruction of the sample. In this sense, this work proposes a low-cost sensor that correlates the lycopene content in tomato with the color present in its epicarp. A Raspberry Pi 4 programmed with Python language was used to develop the lycopene prediction model. Various regression models were evaluated using neural networks, fuzzy logic, and linear regression. The best model was the fuzzy nonlinear regression as the RGB input, with a correlation of R2 = 0.99 and a mean error of 1.9 × 10−5. This work was able to demonstrate that it is possible to determine the lycopene content using a digital camera and a low-cost integrated system in a non-invasive way. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Insights in Quality Evaluation of Plant-Derived Foods)
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