b Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l'analisi dell'economia agraria-Centro di Ricerca Zootecnia e Acquacoltura (CREA-ZA), Via Forlani 3, 26866 S. Angelo Lodigiano (LO), Italy.

Beers are differentiated mainly according to their visual appearance and their fermentation process. The main quality characteristics of beer are appearance, aroma, flavor, and mouthfeel. Important visual attributes of beer are foam appearance (volume and persistence), as well as the color and clarity. To replace manual inspection, automatic, objective, rapid and repeatable external quality inspection systems, such as computer vision, are becoming very important and necessary. Computer vision is a non-contact optical technique, suitable for the non-destructive evaluation of the food product quality. Currently, the main application of computer vision occurs in automated inspection and measurement, allowing manufacturers to keep control of product quality. This paper presents an overview of the applications and the latest achievements of the computer vision methods in determining the external quality attributes of beer.

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Apple peel, a food industry by-product, is rich in fibre, polyphenols and minerals, and is a potentially attractive ingredient for bakery products. To evaluate the effect of wheat cookies enrichment with apple peel powder six types of cookies with increasing apple peel powder percentage (0%, 4%, 8%, 16%, 24% and 32%) were produced. The traits analysed were: pasting parameters; chemical properties (moisture, ash, lipid, protein, fibre and total polyphenols content); antioxidant capacity (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl and ferric reducing antioxidant power methods); physical attributes (width, thickness, volume and CIE lab colour); and sensory characteristics (external appearance, internal structure, texture, odour, taste and aroma). Statistical analysis included analysis of variance followed by Fisher's least significant difference test ( p < 0.05). The apple peel powder-enriched cookies had significantly higher moisture, ash, lipid, fibre, total polyphenols and antioxidant capacity than the control bread wheat cookies. The addition of apple peel powder did not modify the physical characteristics and improved the sensorial quality of the products. The addition of 24% apple peel powder gave the cookies with the best overall quality.

Short-dough cookies are one of the most popular cereal-based products in the world, but usually they are considered as foods with a low nutritional value. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the possibility of replacing part of the wheat flour (WF) with hulless barley flour (HLBF), in order to improve the functional properties and nutritional value of the cookies. Cookies were prepared from composite flours in the ratios HLBF:WF 0:100, 25:75, 50:50, 75:25, and 100:0. The results show that as the HLBF content in the composite flour increases, the viscosity of the corresponding HLBF:WF slurries also increases, due to the high dietary fiber content (especially the high β-glucan content), which is significantly higher when HLBF is included in the formulation. The addition of HLBF decreases the spread factor of the cookies, and increases their softness compared to the control cookies (100% WF), but these changes are not statistically significant up to 50% HLBF addition. The color of the HLBF:WF cookies is not significantly affected. A significant increase in total phenolic content (TPC) and increased antioxidant capacity (AOC) are observed in the HLBF:WF cookies. In addition, sensory evaluation confirms that WF can be replaced by up to 50% with HLBF without significant deterioration of the organoleptic properties of the cookies. It can be concluded that hulless barley serves as a promising raw material if the nutritional and functional properties of cereal-based products are to be improved.