Honey is one of the oldest sweetening foods and has economic importance, making this product attractive to adulteration with cheap sugars. This can cause a critical problem in the honey industry and a possible health risk. The present work has the aim of evaluating the authenticity of honey commercialized in two different provinces of Ecuador (Pichincha and Loja) by performing physicochemical and spectroscopic analyses. For this study 25 samples were collected from different places and markets and characterized by water, sucrose, reducing sugars and electric conductivity measurement. Also, their Raman and Infrared (IR) spectra were recorded and analysed using a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) in order to verify the quality of the honeys. In addition, a screening of several pesticides was performed in order to verify possible chemical threats to human health and honey bees. It was found that 8 samples have a deviation from the Standard established parameters. Two of them have a high difference in the content of sucrose and reducing sugars, which are located deviated from all the other samples in the PCA of the applied vibrational spectroscopy (IR/Raman), shaping two clear clusters. The results show that Raman and IR spectroscopy is appropriate techniques for the quality control of honey and correlates well with the physicochemical analyses.

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Purpose The purpose of this paper was to develop a loaf bread enriched with naranjilla (lulo) fruit (shells, seeds and pulp) and determine the technical quality, sensory acceptability and bioavailability (by in vitro digestion) of antioxidant components. Design/methodology/approach Loaf bread was prepared by using a no-time bread-making process. The crumb moisture, specific volume, crust and crumb color, texture profile analysis, analysis of the crumbs' alveoli, sensory evaluation, in vitro simulation of gastrointestinal digestion and antioxidant capacity were determined. Data were analyzed with one-way ANOVA (α = 0.05). Findings The specific volume was reduced by 21% (4.62 cm3/g, p < 0.0001), and the hardness was increased by 70% (2.9 N, p < 0.0001). Enrichment of the bread with naranjilla fruit (NF) contributes a yellowish coloration to the bread, which was very well accepted by the consumers and could be considered a natural colorant alternative. Moreover, the sensory evaluation indicated that the analyzed attributes (appearance, color, odor, taste, firmness and overall quality) of the naranjilla bread presented scores higher than 6.5 of 9 points hedonic scale. Naranjilla in the bread formulation had good acceptability by consumers. Naranjilla-enriched bread had an increase in total phenolic (TP)compounds and total carotenoids. In the product without digestion, naranjilla bread increased 1.7 times for TP, 50 times for CT and 1.3 times for TEAC, compared to the control bread (p < 0.0001). The percentage of bioaccessibility for fresh bread without digestion was 39.2 and 53.9% for the control and naranjilla bread, respectively. The addition of NF contributes to a higher TP compounds content and favors its bioavailability. Practical implications For bread production, fruits that do not meet the quality standards to be consumed as a natural fruit can be used. In this way, these fruits can contribute as a potential use to reduce agro-industrial waste and as a natural colorant. Originality/value Naranjilla is a native fruit from the subtropical Andean regions, which has high ascorbic acid concentrations, making it a fruit rich in antioxidants. Naranjilla-enriched bread contributes with beneficial compounds for the consumer.

El arroz es un cultivo de importancia en Ecuador y uno de los cereales más consumidos en este país. Sin embargo, bajo ciertas condiciones, puede contaminarse y contener toxinas exógenas como las micotoxinas. En este sentido, la presente investigación se realizó con la finalidad de levantar información sobre la presencia de las micotoxinas zearalenona y aflatoxina total en arroz sin cáscara, mediante el uso del método inmunológico ELISA, debido a que estos contaminantes comprometen la inocuidad de los alimentos y representan un riesgo para la salud pública. Para ello, se tomaron 41 muestras de los cantones con mayor superficie sembrada de arroz del Ecuador y se analizaron con el método de inmunoensayo ELISA competitivo. Los resultados revelaron la presencia de zearalenona en rangos de concentración entre 1-20 μg/kg para el 34 % de las muestras y de 41-60 μg/kg para el 2 % de las muestras; por otro lado, no se detectó la presencia de aflatoxina total en las muestras recolectadas. Se concluye que se detectó la presencia de la micotoxina zearalenona en varias muestras de arroz, pero ventajosamente todas las muestras positivas arrojaron valores por debajo del límite máximo establecido por la Unión Europea (Reglamento (CE) N° 1881/2006 de la Comisión) de 100 μg/kg para zearalenona y de 4 μg/kg para aflatoxina total.