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The shelf life of the typical Italian snack “tarallini” depends on the recipe and on the cooking and storage conditions. In this work, the lipid shelf life of tarallini was measured using an OXITEST® instrument, an accelerated oxidation test. The setup of OXITEST® was for the sample amount and the sample particle size. Homemade tarallini prepared using sunflower oil, extra virgin olive oil and a blend of extra virgin olive oil and lard was cooked twice and tested. The results showed a good ability of OXITEST® to discriminate between lipid unsaturation and cooking time, providing information on the lipid shelf life of complex food matrices, such as tarallini.

The year 2015 will certainly be remembered as the Year of the Universal Exposition (EXPO) hosted in Milan, Italy, focusing on a hot theme in the current scenario: “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”. This event has drawn a wide international attention towards Italy as a country with peculiar and valuable food traditions, thus strengthening its reputation as “gastronomic capital of the world” rich in protected designation of origin products (PDOs) and characterised by a longstanding food culture.

The most common food using hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) is hempseed oil (HSO) because it is a rich source of nutrients with nutritional and functional beneficial effects for human body. Harvesting time can affect the quality of HSO, consequently the aim of this study was to evaluate the composition of lipid fraction, fatty acids, tocopherols and sterols, during ripening. Two cultivars, Futura 75 and Carmagnola, were collected at three ripening stages during August and September 2015 and their lipid composition was determined by analytical techniques. Among the fatty acid identified, the linoleic acid was the preponderant, followed by oleic, a-linolenic and palmitic acid. Linoleic:a-linolenic acid and polyunsaturated:saturated fatty acid ratios decreased and increased, respectively, in both varieties with ripening. y-tocopherol was the preponderant tocopherol identified, Futura 75 showed the highest content in the middle of maturation while Carmagnola at the beginning. B-sitosterol was the predominant sterol identified in both varieties, followed by campesterol, 5-avenasterol, stigmasterol and 7-stigmasterol. Total sterol content increased and decreased with ripening in Futura 75 and Carmagnola, respectively. The study confirms that ripening stage affects the quality of hempseed oil, important parameter to consider for hemp seed producers.

The phenolic compounds in ten rocket salad samples were determined in this study using micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC). A detailed method optimisation plan was performed to separate the phenols in rocket salad with the following four separation parameters: buffer concentration, buffer pH, applied voltage and temperature. the best results in terms of peak resolution and reproducibility among separations were obtained with a MEKC running buffer (pH 9.0) composed of 40 mM sodium tetraborate and 15 mM SDS. Using this new MEKC method, it was possible to separate the flavonoids in less than 5 min. The results obtained by MEKC analysis were compared with the data obtained by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with DAD and MS detectors. the polyphenols study by HPLC-DAD-MS allowed the identification of two different classes of compounds. Quercetin and kaempferol derivatives were determined in the Diplotaxis and Eruca species, respectively. A positive correlation of phenolic compounds identified by MEKC and HPLC was found. --Key words: rocket salads, Eruca vesicaria (L.) Cav. subsp. Sativa, Diplotaxis tenuifolia L., capillary electrophoresis, phenolic compounds, HPLC-DAD-MS--

Chemical characterisation was carried out on 12 virgin olive oil samples obtained from seven olive cultivars (Bosana, Carolea, Nocellara del Belice, Pizz'e Carroga, Semidana, Tonda and Zinzala cvs.). The olives came from different groves in Sardinia (Italy) and Corsica (France) that were processed by different types of continuous mills. Several qualitative parameters were evaluated (free acidity, peroxide value, and UV spectrophotometric indices) and analyses of major (fatty acids and triacylglycerol compositions) and minor components (chlorophylls, carotenoids, tocopherols and phenolic compounds) was also carried out. The oxidative stability index (OSI) and ABTS[round bullet, filled]- test values were determined to evaluate the oxidative stability and antioxidant activity of the phenolic fraction, respectively. The results were subjected to a discriminative study by principal component analysis (PCA) to characterise the different oils. A first PCA using only the triglyceride compounds and a second using the minor polar compounds and their antioxidant activity was performed. The triglyceride composition was found to be particularly useful in discriminating the oil samples.

Results concerning the production of spaghetti enriched in long chain (LC) n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and, in particular, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexanoic acid (DHA) are reported. Pasta enrichment was obtained by adding different amounts of integrator (0.6, 1.2, and 1.8%) containing EPA (C20:5 n-3) and DHA (C22:6 n-3) in a microencapsulated form to commercial semolina. The addition of 1.2% integrator yielded spaghetti that provides approximately 20% of the recommended daily intake of LC n-3 PUFA with high sensorial acceptability and low loss of LC n-3 PUFA after cooking (<10%). Thus, spaghetti fortified with EPA+DHA could be used to increase consumption of LC n-3 PUFA and to decrease the dietary n-6/n-3 ratio.