Nutritive and Antinutritive Values of Ready-to-use Foods Based on Local Ingredients for the Recovery of Moderate Acute Malnourished Children in Cote d Ivoire

Moderate acute malnutrition is one of the most common nutritional disorders among young children in Côte d'Ivoire. For treating this condition, ready-to-use foods have been found to be the most effective. However, their high cost and the recurrent stock breaks lead to national unavailability whose local production can fill and ensure sustainable care. This study has been set to assess the nutritional and anti-nutrient value of ready-to-use foods formulated with locally available ingredients. For doing this, four formulae meeting the recommended nutritive needs for moderately acutely malnourished children aged 6 to 59 months have been produced using traditional methods and household equipment. The cocoa (LF-1 and LF-3) and cashew (LF-2 and LF-4) formulae contained rice, soy, sugar, oil, and egg. The latter has been added to FL-3 and FL-4. All formulae presented biochemical compositions (proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and energy except fiber and ash) close to Plumpy’Sup®.

Nutritional evaluation and transcriptome analyses of short-time germinated seeds in soybean (Glycine max L. Merri.)

Germination is a common practice for nutrition improvement in many crops. In soybean, the nutrient value and genome-wide gene expression pattern of whole seeds germinated for short-time has not been fully investigated. In this study, protein content (PC), water soluble protein content (WSPC), isoflavone compositions were evaluated at 0 and 36 h after germination (HAG), respectively. The results showed that at 36HAG, PC was slightly decreased (P > 0.05) in ZD41, J58 and JHD, WSPC and free isoflavone (aglycones: daidzein, genistein, and glycitein) were significantly increased (P < 0.05), while total isoflavone content was unchanged. Transcriptomic analysis identified 5240, 6840 and 15,766 DEGs in different time point comparisons, respectively. GO and KEGG analysis showed that photosynthesis process was significantly activated from 18HAG, and alternative splicing might play an important role during germination in a complex manner. Response to hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) was found to be down regulated significantly from 18 to 36HAG, suggesting that H2O2 might play an important role in germination. Expression pattern analysis showed the synthesis of storage proteins was slowing down, while the genes coding for protein degradation (peptidase and protease) were up regulated as time went by during germination. For genes involved in isoflavone metabolism pathway, UGT (7-O-glucosyltransferase) coding genes were significantly up regulated (40 up-DEGs vs 27 down-DEGs), while MAT (7-O-glucoside-6′′-O-malonyltransferase) coding genes were down regulated, which might explain the increase of aglycones after germination. This study provided a universal transcriptomic atlas for whole soybean seeds germination in terms of nutrition and gene regulation mechanism.

Evaluation of nuts morphology and composition of fatty acids in certain Iranian Pistacia vera L. (Anacardiaceae) cultivars

<p>Fruits of various Pistachio (<em>Pistacia vera</em> L.) cultivars are widely used in food industries for its inimitable color, taste and nutrient value.<strong> </strong>We elevated fruit morphology and kernel fatty acids composition of eleven Iranian cultivars of pistachio. Oils of kernels were extracted using cold press method, and composition of the oil fatty acids in the methyl ester form was detected using gas chromatography (GC). For morphological study, nine qualitative and quantitative traits were evaluated. The quantitative ones widely differed among the studied cultivars, and ANOVA test revealed the significant variations (<em>p</em> = 0.00) for all of them. Moreover, the qualitative traits varied among the cultivars. We characterized 11 fatty acid components representing about 99.56 to 100 % of the total oil composition. The principal fatty acids for all the cultivars were: oleic, linoleic and palmitic acids, while their amounts differed among the cultivars. In this regard, unsaturated fatty acids comprised the major oil part, 87.46 to 88.89 %. Oleic acid (53.11-70.99 %) and palmitic acid (9.09 to 10.55 %) were detected as the unsaturated and saturated fatty acids in all the evaluated cultivars. The quality index of oils were determined according to oleic/ linoleic acids ratio, which highly varied among the cultivars. According to UPGMA tree and PCO plot, we divided the investigated cultivars into four chemotypes, and each of them was characterized by the certain oil composition.</p>

Genic microsatellite marker characterization and development in little millet (Panicum sumatrense) using transcriptome sequencing

Little millet is a climate-resilient and high-nutrient value plant. The lack of molecular markers severely limits the adoption of modern genomic approaches in millet breeding studies. Here the transcriptome of three samples were sequenced. A total of 4443 genic-SSR motifs were identified in 30,220 unigene sequences. SSRs were found at a rate of 12.25 percent, with an average of one SSR locus per 10 kb. Among different repeat motifs, tri-nucleotide repeat (66.67) was the most abundant one, followed by di- (27.39P), and tetra- (3.83P) repeats. CDS contained fewer motifs with the majority of tri-nucleotides, while 3′ and 5′ UTR carry more motifs but have shorter repeats. Functional annotation of unigenes containing microsatellites, revealed that most of them were linked to metabolism, gene expression regulation, and response to environmental stresses. Fifty primers were randomly chosen and validated in five little millet and 20 minor millet genotypes; 48% showed polymorphism, with a high transferability (70%) rate. Identified microsatellites can be a noteworthy resource for future research into QTL-based breeding, genetic resource conservation, MAS selection, and evolutionary genetics.

Effects on Nitrogen and Phosphorus in Agricultural Soils Following the Application of Slurry Amended with Additives

This poster elucidates the experiments related to the first objective of a PhD focussed on the use of amended organic fertilisers (manures/slurries) in agricultural soils. Nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) are the most yield-limiting nutrients in many soils. Manures and slurries could represent valid alternatives to inorganic fertilisers to replenish nutrient offtake via harvested crops. Inoculation of slurry using additives, such as Slurrybugs™ and Slurrybooster™, can enhance the nutrient value of slurry, due to the action of microorganism and enzymes within the additives.

Nutritional, Textural, and Sensory Quality of Aloe Vera Leaf Gel Powder Fortified Plain Cake

Aloe Vera leaves have great potential as an economic supplement with an adequate nutritional profile. The current study aimed to fortify plain (loaf) cakes with Aloe Vera leaf gel (AVG) powder. AVG was freeze-dried to produce Aloe Vera powder (ALP), and four plain (loaf) cakes were prepared with different proportions of ALP (0, 4, 6, and 8%). ALP contained significantly (p < 0.05) more protein (22.23 vs. 12.24), ash (19.83 vs. 0.64), and iron (175 vs. 3.05) than refined wheat flour (RWF). Along with total polyphenols and total flavonoids, ALP demonstrated good antioxidant activity. ALP-cakes and RWF-cakes were also evaluated for their nutritional and functional properties. The addition of 6 and 8% ALP to the formulation increased total polyphenols, total flavonoids, and antioxidant activity in plain (loaf) cakes. Hardness and chewiness increased in ALP-cakes but decreased in RWF-cakes, while cohesiveness and springiness decreased in ALP-cakes. In conclusion, the best formulation was a 4% ALP incorporated cake, and ALP can be supplemented in plain cakes at a rate of up to 8% to improve nutrient value. This is the first study to evaluate the quality characteristics of fortified plain (loaf) cakes using ALP.

Domain Heuristic Fusion of Multi-Word Embeddings for Nutrient Value Prediction

Being both a poison and a cure for many lifestyle and non-communicable diseases, food is inscribing itself into the prime focus of precise medicine. The monitoring of few groups of nutrients is crucial for some patients, and methods for easing their calculations are emerging. Our proposed machine learning pipeline deals with nutrient prediction based on learned vector representations on short text–recipe names. In this study, we explored how the prediction results change when, instead of using the vector representations of the recipe description, we use the embeddings of the list of ingredients. The nutrient content of one food depends on its ingredients; therefore, the text of the ingredients contains more relevant information. We define a domain-specific heuristic for merging the embeddings of the ingredients, which combines the quantities of each ingredient in order to use them as features in machine learning models for nutrient prediction. The results from the experiments indicate that the prediction results improve when using the domain-specific heuristic. The prediction models for protein prediction were highly effective, with accuracies up to 97.98%. Implementing a domain-specific heuristic for combining multi-word embeddings yields better results than using conventional merging heuristics, with up to 60% more accuracy in some cases.

Perspectives from healthcare professionals on the nutritional adequacy of plant-based dairy alternatives: Results of a mixed methods inquiry

Background Healthcare professionals are important sources of nutrition and health information for Americans. As plant-based (PB) dairy alternative products increase in popularity, concerns have been raised about their nutritional adequacy, and whether consumers understand that they are not nutritionally equal to dairy. Healthcare professionals directly advise consumers on dietary choices, therefore we sought to examine their understanding and opinions of PB dairy alternatives. Methods We analyzed comments submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by health professionals (n = 191) in 2018–2019 in response to a request for public comment on the nutrition and use of dairy terms like “milk”, “cheese”, and “yogurt" on PB product labels. Survey data from healthcare professionals (n = 417) was collected in 2020–2021. Comments and survey responses to open-ended questions were coded using template analysis and thematically analyzed. Multivariate logistic regression models examined perceptions across health professional characteristics for close-ended survey responses. Results Three-fourths of health professionals believe consumers are confused about the nutritional differences between dairy and PB dairy alternatives. Over half (53%) do not believe either product is nutritionally superior to the other. Many believe dairy products have higher nutrient value, but also believe PB dairy alternatives can be part of a healthful diet. Compared to other types of health professionals, dietetics professionals demonstrated a more accurate understanding of the nutritional value of both products and were more likely to believe nutrients like protein (OR 2.02; 95% CI 1.22–3.34, p = 0.006) and vitamin D (OR 2.46; 95% CI 1.48–4.09, p = 0.001) may be nutrients of concern for PB dairy alternative consumers. They were also more likely to believe consumers are confused about these products (OR 3.44; 95% CI 1.65–7.21; p = 0.001). Health professionals who submitted comments to the FDA showed stronger opinions in favor of PB dairy alternatives. Conclusions Although PB dairy alternatives have nutritional value in certain diets, responses from health professionals suggest that changing their labeling may reduce confusion. Improved nutrition education among health professionals may also be necessary, and health professionals participating in the federal rulemaking process may not be representative of the views held by all U.S. healthcare professionals.