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GREEN-IT "Bioresources for Sustainability"
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Development and Evaluation of Gluten-Free Rice Biscuits
Publication . Pereira, Cristiana L.; Sousa, Inês; Roseiro, Cristina; Lageiro, Manuela; Lourenço, Vanda M.; Brites, Carla; GeoBioTec - Geobiociências, Geoengenharias e Geotecnologias; Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia (FCT); DCT - Departamento de Ciências da Terra; DM - Departamento de Matemática; Bioresources 4 Sustainability (GREEN-IT); MDPI - Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Biscuits are widely consumed snacks traditionally made from wheat flour, which poses challenges for individuals with gluten intolerance and/or diabetes due to their high glycaemic index (GI). This study explored the production of gluten-free biscuits using rice flour from two varieties, Type III (Basmati) and Ariete (Long A), incorporating varying proportions of rice bran as a substitute for milled and brown rice flour. Results show that biscuits made with rice bran had lower starch digestibility and reduced GI (57.06–62.75) compared to control biscuits (66.23–66.95). Rice bran also increased bioactive compounds, such as phytic acid (0.16 to 1.96 g/100 g), γ-oryzanol (0.20 to 86.56 mg/100 g), and γ-aminobutyric acid (6.78 to 16.23 mg/100 g), known for their benefits to diabetes metabolism. Physicochemical analysis further revealed higher protein (6.49%) and lower starch content (30.07%) in rice bran biscuits than in control biscuits (4.20% and 47.38%, respectively). The control biscuits exhibited the highest spread ratio (5.90 and 6.35) and the Ariete variety produced less brittle biscuits (168.30 N), although the addition of bran increased brittleness under cutting force (54.55 N). Sensory evaluation of four rice biscuit formulations showed no significant differences in consumer preferences, regardless of flour type, bran proportion, or rice variety. Among the formulations, the Type III biscuits with an equal blend of milled flour and rice bran stood out, offering improved nutritional quality and a promising option for gluten-free, low-GI diets for consumers seeking healthier alternatives. This formulation also proved a strong balance across key nutritional and bioactive parameters, when compared to a commercial wellness biscuit.
Integration of spectroscopic techniques and machine learning for optimizing Phaeodactylum tricornutum cell and fucoxanthin productivity
Publication . Reynolds-Brandão, Pedro; Quintas-Nunes, Francisco; D.F. Bertrand, Constança; Martins, Rodrigo M.; Crespo, Maria T.B.; Galinha, Cláudia F.; Nascimento, Francisco X.; Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier (ITQB); LAQV@REQUIMTE; DQ - Departamento de Química; Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia (FCT); Elsevier
The development of sustainable and controlled microalgae bioprocesses relies on robust and rapid monitoring tools that facilitate continuous process optimization, ensuring high productivity and minimizing response times. In this work, we analyse the influence of medium formulation on the growth and productivity of axenic Phaeodactylum tricornutum cultures and use the resulting data to develop machine learning (ML) models based on spectroscopy. Our culture assays produced a comprehensive dataset of 255 observations, enabling us to train 55 (24+31) robust models that predict cells or fucoxanthin directly from either absorbance or 2D-fluorescence spectroscopy. We demonstrate that medium formulation significantly affects cell and fucoxanthin concentrations, and that these effects can be effectively monitored using the developed models, free of overfitting. On a separate data subset, the models demonstrated high accuracy (cell: R2 = 0.98, RMSEP = 2.41x106 cells/mL; fucoxanthin: R2 = 0.91 and RMSEP = 0.65 ppm), providing a practical, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly alternative to standard analytical methods.
Breeding in bread-making wheat varieties for Mediterranean climate
Publication . Maçãs, Benvindo; Costa, Rita; Gomes, Conceição; Bagulho, Ana Sofia; Pinheiro, Nuno; Moreira, José; Costa, Armindo; Patanita, Manuel; Dores, José; Rodrigo, Sara; GeoBioTec - Geobiociências, Geoengenharias e Geotecnologias; Frontiers Media
Introduction: Being one of the “big three” most cultivated cereals in the world, wheat plays a crucial role in ensuring global food/nutrition security, supplying close to 20% of the global needs for calories and proteins. However, the increasingly large fluctuations between years in temperatures and precipitation due to climate change cause important variations in wheat production worldwide. This fact makes wheat breeding programs a tool that, far from going out of fashion, is becoming the most important solution to develop varieties that can provide humanity with the sufficient amount of food it demands without forgetting the objective of quality. Material and methods: The National Institute of Agricultural and Veterinary Research in Portugal has carried out a long-term experiment (9 years) in different locations to test four different bread-making wheat cultivars, each representing important variations in germplasm. Wheat yield and quality traits obtained by official methods were recorded in 18 different environments regarding temperature and precipitation. Results and discussion: According to the ANOVA and PCA, protein content, wet gluten, dough tenacity, and extensibility were found to be highly affected by the environment. Paiva cultivar presented a higher yield in almost all the tested environments, but its quality traits varied enormously. Contrary behavior was recorded for Valbona cultivar. Antequera cultivar, with a production ranging between 4.7 and 9.3 tons/ha and a protein content between 11 and 16.8%, seems to be the most resilient cultivar regarding both productivity and quality of the flour with reference to changes in the main climate traits. The most ancient cultivar, Roxo, released in 1996, showed the worst results in this experiment, supporting the need to continue working in wheat breeding to meet the unavoidable changes in the environment.
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Entidade financiadora
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Programa de financiamento
6817 - DCRRNI ID
Número da atribuição
UIDB/04551/2020