– Determined a new method to establish the antioxidant capacity of extra virgin olive oil

A group of scientists from the Nutrition and Food Science Department from the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Granada have reported the beneficial effects of extra virgin olive oil on human health, determining in vitro and in vivo the antioxidant power that the examined extra virgin olive oil samples present. With this work, researchers have found out a more effective method nowadays in order to establish the antioxidant capacity of extra virgin olive oil.

Research has been directed by doctors M. Carmen López Martínez, Herminia López García de La Serrana and José Javier Quesada Granados, and its main author is Cristina Samaniego Sánchez. The scientists have prepared four methods that let us know know the antioxidant capacity and he beneficial effect of the extra virgin olive oil obtained from olives of the Picual variety.

Work in vitro
In order to carry out this work, they determined the best method to calculate the in vitro antioxidant capacity in oil samples. They concluded that, among all the applied methods, the ABTS was the most suitable in order to study this kind of samples as it shows the correlation with the total polyphenol index in a better way. Moreover, scientists observed that the reproducibility of the results of these methods is good and that the variation coefficients obtained by the different methods are acceptable, which makes it possible to conclude, generally, that the four studied methods could be applied to measure the antioxidant oil capacity.

Scientists from Granada are not discarding the idea of registering some patents related to this research soon, since they already have experience in getting patents related to other studies on food, such as alcoholic drinks. Their research is applicable to every kind of olive oil, and these methods could be used in the areas where olive groves are cultivated, regardless of the variety of olive used in the oil obtaining process.
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– Most new mothers agree that early diet is important for the long term health of their babies

A survey of new mums in five different European countries has found that most of them (85 – 90%) agreed that the way they fed their babies was important for their babies’ long term health. The preliminary results of the survey were recently presented at the International Symposium on Early Nutrition Programming held in Granada, Spain.

Dr Heather Gage, from the University of Surrey, who presented the survey findings on behalf of an international group of researchers, said: “The number of new mothers who thought that the way they fed their babies had long term health implications was quite high considering this is a new and developing area of science. Especially as we have shown previously that it is not yet reflected in official advice to parents.”

The survey was carried out in five countries across Europe: England, Finland, Germany, Hungary and Spain. Around 2000 first time mothers with healthy babies were asked about the way they intended to feed their babies and what were their beliefs about the associations between infant feeding and lifelong health.

Almost all mothers (95%) agreed that the way they fed their babies was important for their health in their first year of life. However, when mothers were asked about specific long term health conditions such as obesity, high blood pressure and cancer, they tended to think early diet was less important suggesting that they are not so clear about how diet might impact later health.

Dr Gage went on to say: “Once we have looked at our results in more detail, we hope we will be able to identify gaps in new mothers’ understanding of the importance of early diet in different countries and recommend guidance on what sort of advice should be given in each country.”

The mothers will be followed up when their babies are 8 months old to ask them about their milk feeding and weaning experiences.
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– New computer applications allow to classify Iberian pig meat automatically

Fast identification of animal meat for human consumption is especially interesting as it is a guarantee of quality for consumers and producers. Consumption of Iberian pig meat is traditional in Spain as an exponent of good taste and maximum gastronomic quality. In the last years, a booming economic sector is growing around such animal species, already exceeding the Spanish borders: Iberian ham, dried meat, cold meats and cold cuts are already been exported all over the world.

Up to now, they had been using methods based on traditional processes like tasting and genetic assessment by means of molecular analysis methods to assess the quality and purity of Iberian pig meat and its possible contamination with other less-valuable breeds. Scientists of the University of Granada (departments of Pathological Anatomy and Chemical Engineering) have developed new techniques by combining technologies from different scientific and technical fields, which allow an immediate classification of Iberian pig meat, guaranteeing the quality of these products.

Different articles published in the “Journal of Food Engineering” and a doctoral thesis support the recognition of the new advances. More than four years of work have led to the reading of the thesis “New computer applications for the classification of Iberian pig meat by using morphometry and spectral reflectance”, by Fernando García del Moral Martín, under the la direction of doctors Francisco O’Valle Ravassa and Leopoldo Martínez Nieto.

Combined techniques
The work has two essential areas. “First -García del Moral says-, we have addressed the “histological quantification by artificial vision of 6 animal species: White pig of the Large White hybrid breed, Iberian pig, lamb, cow of the Galician Blonde breed, Kobe ox and pigeon. The designed application permitted to quantify automatically the intramuscular connective tissue and the retraction of the muscular fibres in images taken by a system or artificial vision coupled to a microscopy”.

Second, the study has developed non-invasive techniques with a high analysis potential, such as spectral reflectance in the visible range and close infrared of the spectrum. They have worked with 30 porcine animals, 15 of white breed and 15 more of pure Iberian breed. They have carried out, in all of them, the quantification of the spectral reflectance on the masseter muscle of the animal’s jawbone”.

Thanks to the combination of spectral radiometry and artificial vision techniques conceived in this doctoral thesis, they have been able to design computer samples of neuronal networks which correctly classify the meat samples, in all cases, with a success rate over 97%.

Applied research work
The described work, both the thesis and the scientific papers, have been inserted in the project “Improvement of the Iberian pig meat’s gastronomic quality: a textural, physical-chemical, histological and culinary study”. The study is now at a more advanced stage which means the transference of research results to the productive sector. Actually, the project has been possible thanks to the support of the Technological Corporation of Andalusia, the Stock Cooperative Society Valle de los Pedroches (COVAP) and Bodegas Campos.

At present, they are carrying out a more advanced study with 66 Iberian pigs applying the above mentioned techniques in order to identify the genetic purity of the Iberian phenotype expressed in animals, as well as to improve the control, security and quality levels in the productive chain according to the “from the farm to the table” philosophy.
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