Chapters authored
Prebiotics and Probiotics - Potential Benefits in Human Nutrition and Health
The growing interest of using probiotic bacteria into foods has lately increased due to its beneficial effects on intestinal microbiota. This fact has motivated researchers and the food industry to develop new functional products, such as probiotics. The probiotic fruit juices can be a good alternative for new foodstuff production mainly for people with galactosemia and lactose intolerance. Among the microencapsulation techniques of probiotics in juices, spray drying and freeze drying are two of the most used with 220 and 228 publications found in Science Direct, 8 and 0 Web Science, and 5 and 0 in SCOPUS, respectively. Several studies have reported the addition of probiotics in different fruit juices to produce functional beverages; however, there are no reports on the use of three or more probiotic microorganisms in mixed beverage. Our research group has been directing studies in this area in order to provide results of scientific interest and to food industry.
Part of the book: Prebiotics and Probiotics
Effects of Pretreatments with Ethanol and Ultrasound on Convective Drying of BRS Vitória Grapes
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of ethanol and ultrasound as pretreatment to improve the convective drying of the BRS Vitória grape. The drying kinetics, rehydration, quality parameters, and phenolic compounds were evaluated. Before drying, grapes cv. BRS Vitória was ultrasound treated using two separate means, with ethanol (99.5% v/v) and distilled water. After pretreatment, the grapes were dried at 60°C and 0.1 m/s. The Logarithmic model provided a better prediction to describe the drying of grapes. Peleg’s model showed satisfactory adjustments to predict rehydration. Compared to the Control, pretreatment using the combination of ultrasound and ethanol decreased the drying time of the grapes by 61%. The pretreatments did not influence in quality parameters. In contrast, phenolic retention was observed in samples with ethanol. These results open new perspectives on the drying process and product quality by combining ethanol and ultrasound.
Part of the book: A Comprehensive Review of the Versatile Dehydration Processes