Quinoa bitterness: causes and solutions for improving product acceptability

Abstract

Awareness of the several agronomic, environmental, and health benefits of quinoa has led to a constant increase in its production and consumption not only in South America, where it is a native crop, but also in Europe and the USA. However, producing wheat or gluten-free based products enriched with quinoa alters some quality characteristics, including sensory acceptance. Several anti-nutritional factors such as saponins are concentrated in the grain pericarp. These bitter and astringent substances may interfere with the digestion and absorption of various nutrients. Developing processes to decrease or modify the bitterness of quinoa can enhance palatability, and thus consumption, of quinoa. In addition to the production of sweet varieties of quinoa, other processes have been proposed. Some of them (i.e. washing, pearling and the combination of the two) have a direct effect on saponins, either by solubilization and/or the mechanical removal of seed layers. Others, such as fermentation or germination, are able to mask the bitterness with aroma compounds and/or sugar formation. This review presents the major sources of the undesirable sensory attributes of quinoa, including bitterness, and various ways of counteracting the negative characteristics of quinoa. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.

Quinoa Secondary Metabolites and Their Biological Activities or Functions

“…About 29 phenolic acid analogues have been identified in quinoa. According to their structural features, they can be classified as benzoic acid analogues (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16) and cinnamic acid analogues (17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29). Benzoic acid (1) was derived from cinnamic acid (19) in planta in the biosynthetic pathway of phenolic acids [24].…”

“…To our knowledge, there are many reviews on quinoa, most of them are focused on the nutritional, functional and antinutritional aspects [16][17][18], abiotic stress responses [19], biodiversity and sustainability [20], or only a specific topic of quinoa secondary metabolites and their biological activities such as steroids [21,22] and triterpenoid saponins [23], but no review covers almost all secondary metabolites and their biological activities. In this review, we summarize and discuss quinoa secondary metabolites on their structural diversity, biological activities or functions during the past 40 years.…”

Effects of Whole and Malted Quinoa Flour Addition on Gluten‐Free Muffins Quality

“…At the same time, secondary metabolites with bioactivity are synthesized, which results in an increase of antioxidant activity. The final stage consists of applying a heat treatment to stop the metabolic processes and develop pleasant flavors and aromas, both highly attractive in subsequent food processing (Mäkinen, Zannini, & Arendt, 2013;Naga Sai Srujana, Anila Kumari, Uma Maheswari, Suneetha Devi, & Jessie Suneetha, 2017;Suárez-Estrella, Torri, Pagani, & Marti, 2018).…”

Identification of volatile compounds and odour activity values in quinoa porridge by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

“…The seeds of quinoa are rich in omega‐6, omega‐3 oil and vitamin E, and contain a much higher content of iron, copper, manganese and zinc than rice . Saponins, which are glycosides, are present in the grain pericarp and, despite other numerous nutritional properties, must be removed before consumption because of their bitter taste.…”