Sami El Khatib

By Sami El Khatib and Mariam Muhieddine

Having high nutritional value and low cultivation costs, pumpkin fruit makes a great candidate to be used by the food industry as a functional ingredient. To prolong its shelf life and widen the array of its potential uses in food products, drying and powdering have been applied, producing pumpkin flour. Several studies have been done to optimize the drying method of pumpkin in order to preserve or reduce the loss of its nutritional constituents and color changes during drying and storage. As vacuum freeze drying produces great quality pumpkin powder and best preserves the β-carotene and phenolic contents of the fruit, it is considered an expensive technique that could be inconvenient to be used in developing countries or for cost-reduction purposes. Air drying is a cheaper technique but results in less nutrient preservation than vacuum drying. This highlights the role of pretreatments in order to reduce the loss of nutrients and produce better quality pumpkin flour. Hot water blanching followed by metabisulfite pretreatment results in the best carotenoid stability and preservation of phenolic compounds in the produced powder. Incorporation of pumpkin powder in wheat bread could increase its nutritional value by increasing the levels of dietary fiber, pro-vitamin A β-carotene, calcium, iron, and zinc and by decreasing the carbohydrate and caloric contents.

Part of the book: The Health Benefits of Foods

By Sami El Khatib and Malak Abou Shahine

Vitamins and minerals are crucial for human health. Any deficiency can lead to major diseases; however, the most prevalent one is the vitamin D deficiency. Due to its high risk in the Middle East and Lebanon, besides its major effects, solutions to decrease this deficiency are taken nowadays. Vitamin D food fortification is the most popular solution taken now. Liposomes showed highest efficiency in vitamin D fortification. However, a study must be done in order to deduce the amounts needed in the targeted population. Therefore, before fortification starts, FDA regulations must be reviewed. Several foods succeeded in fortification with vitamin D and increasing its levels such as milk and cheddar cheese. Stability and flavors showed good results over fortification, while according to the odor, water sources showed more aroma depth than oil sources. The AOAC methods for vitamin D amount in fortified foods must be applied. Dietary 25(OH)D3 was 7.14-fold more effective at raising serum 25(OH)D than dietary vitamin D3.

Part of the book: Vitamin D Deficiency