Given the importance of the cookies of type Maria worldwide, and considering the absence of any scientific study setting out their main features, it becomes important to identify the differentiating characteristics of several commercialized brands, in particular related to the chemical, physical and sensory characteristics. In this way, the aim of this work was to study and compare eight different brands of cookies of type Maria. The elemental chemical analysis (moisture, ash, protein, fat, fibre and carbohydrates contents), determination of physical parameters (volume, density, texture and colour) and sensory evaluation of studied cookies were performed. Multivariate statistical methods (Pearson correlation, principal component analysis and cluster analysis) were applied to estimating relationships in analysed data. The results for the elemental analysis showed that the samples were very similar in terms of some components, like for example ashes, while quite different in terms of other components, such as moisture and fat contents. With respect to texture and colour the samples showed, in general, some important differences. In terms of sensory evaluation, the sample C was the one that in most sensory tests gathered the preference of the panellists. The cluster analysis showed that the sample A was much different from the other samples. The results of principal component analysis showed that the main component explains 32.6 % of the total variance, and is strongly related to variables associated to colour.

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BACKGROUND: Diet and nutrition are major determinants of public health and are associated with a large number of diseases. Therefore, in order to plan actions to promote global health it is crucial to understand people's food choices.OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was the development and validation of a new instrument, a questionnaire to measure psycho-social motivations associated with food choices and eating practices. METHODS:A descriptive cross-sectional study was undertaken on a non-probabilistic sample of 382 adult participants. The questionnaires were applied after informed consent only to adults (aged 18 or over) and the data were collected from January to April 2017 among the Portuguese population. The analysis has been conducted to explore the item-item correlation and the reliability of this new instrument. RESULTS:The results indicated satisfactory correlations between the items of the different variables, except for Variable D (Social and cultural motivations) that did not show strong and significant correlations for almost any items. Considering all the items in each of the variables studied, Cronbach's alpha values ranged from 0.32 for the marketing and commercial motivations to 0.64 for the economical and availability motivations. When some items were removed from the variables, the values of Cronbach's alpha increased and ranged from 0.66 for social and cultural motivations to 0.78 for health, environmental and political motivations, and for marketing and commercial motivations.CONCLUSION: This work suggested that this questionnaire could be considered a suitable tool for exploring food choice determinants.

Many aspects linked to personal characteristics, society and culture constitute some of the motivators that drive food choice. The aim of this work was to determine in what extent the eating behaviors of individuals are shaped by six different types of determinants, namely: health, emotions, price and availability, society and culture, environment and politics, and marketing and commercials. This is a descriptive cross-sectional study, involving a non-probabilistic sample of 11,960 participants from 16 countries. The objective of this work was to validate the questionnaire, so as to make it suitable for application in different contexts and different countries. For that, six scales were considered for validation by confirmatory factor analysis with structural equation modelling. The obtained results showed that the six individual scales evaluated presented good or very good fitting indices, with saturation in goodness-of-fit index in all cases. The values of chi-square ratio were 6.921 (for health), 0.987 (environment), 0.610 (emotions) and 0.000 in the remaining cases (convenience, society, marketing). Furthermore, the fit was perfect, with saturation for all indices, in three of the six models (convenience, society and marketing). The results of this wok allowed the validation of the six scales, and the assessing of different types of factors that can influence food choices and eating behaviors, namely in the categories: health, emotions, price and availability, society and culture, environment and politics, and marketing and commercials.

Physalis (Physalis peruviana L.), also known as cape gooseberry or ground-cherry, plays an important role in nutrition as an excellent base for dietetic products. Highly valued for its unique flavour, texture and colour, recent research has shown that physalis fruit is rich in many beneficial compounds. In this study, the diameter and mass of physalis fruits were measured, which can be used to calculate other biometric characteristics of the fruit, such as: surface area, volume or density. Other physical properties were measured, namely the colour coordinates, by means of a Chroma meter, whilst the textural parameters firmness and elasticity were measured with a texturometer. The following values were calculated for the physalis fruits analysed in the present work: 1.69 cm for average diameter; 8.98 cm

Morphology and structure of starch from fruits of two acorns species, Quercus rotundifolia Lam. (QR) and Quercus suber Lam. (QS), isolated by enzymatic (ENZ) and alkaline (A3S) methods were studied. Acorn starches granules presented a round and oval shape, consisting of medium/small granules, with a mean granule size ranging between 9 and 13 µm. Isolated acorn starches appear as light grayish-brown in naked eye, with high values of L* for starches isolated by the ENZ method, and QR starches were duller than QS. No differences were observed for all the samples in FTIR spectra results. Acorn starches showed a C-type pattern, with a relative crystallinity between 43.1 and 46.6%. The 13C CP/MAS NMR spectra are different for the used isolation methods but are similar for both acorn species. However, acorn-isolated starches presented a predominant A-type allomorph packing type, and the A3S starches showed a higher degree of crystalline material. Those differences in the structure of acorn starches would be helpful to better understand the relationships among structure and functional properties for a possible potential industrial application of chestnut starches.

22Purpose: A healthy diet has been recognized as one of the most important factors associated with the 23 maintenance of human health as well as to help preventing the development of some chronic 24 diseases. Therefore, this work aimed at studying the perceptions of a sample of university people 25 regarding a healthy diet. Author version2 Methodology: It was undertaken a descriptive cross-sectional study on a non-probabilistic sample of 27 382 participants. The data was collected among a sample of Portuguese university people and 28 measured if people´s perceptions were compliant with a healthy diet. 29 Findings:The results revealed that the participants' perceptions were, in general, compliant with a 30 healthy diet (scores between 0.5 and 1.5, on a scale from -2 to +2). However, were found significant 31 differences between age groups (p=0.004), with a higher average score for young adults, and also 32 between groups with different levels of education (p=0.025), with a higher score for university 33 degree. The variable chronic diseases also showed significant differences (p=0.017), so that people 34 who did not have any chronic diseases obtained a higher score. 35Originality/Value: This study is considered important because it provides evidences about the 36 relation between nutrition knowledge and the perceptions towards a healthy diet. The study allowed 37 concluding that the participants were aware about some nutritional aspects of their diets and, 38 therefore, their perceptions were compliant with a healthy diet. This finding is very relevant, because 39 it could be a support for health policy initiatives directed at promoting healthy eating behaviours. 40 41

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