The consumer acceptance of novel vegetable-enriched bread products as a potential vehicle to increase vegetable consumption

Currently UK fruit and vegetable intakes are below recommendations. Bread is a staple food consumed by ~95% of adults in western countries. In addition, bread provides an ideal matrix by which functionality can be delivered to the consumer in an accepted food. Therefore, enriching bread with vegetables may be an effective strategy to increase vegetable consumption. This study evaluated consumer acceptance, purchase intent and intention of product replacement of bread enriched with red beetroot, carrot with coriander, red pepper with tomato or white beetroot (80g vegetable per serving of 200g) compared to white control bread (0g vegetable). Consumers (n=120) rated their liking of the breads overall, as well as their liking of appearance, flavour and texture using nine-point hedonic scales. Product replacement and purchase intent of the breads was rated using five-point scales. The effect of providing consumers with health information about the breads was also evaluated. There were significant differences in overall liking (P<0.0001), as well as liking of appearance (P<0.0001), flavour (P=0.0002) and texture (P=0.04), between the breads. However, the significant differences resulted from the red beetroot bread which was significantly (P<0.05) less liked compared to control bread. There were no significant differences in overall liking between any of the other vegetable-enriched breads compared with the control bread (no vegetable inclusion), apart from the red beetroot bread which was significantly less liked. The provision of health information about the breads did not increase consumer liking of the vegetable-enriched breads. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that vegetable-enriched bread appeared to be an acceptable strategy to increase vegetable intake, however, liking depended on vegetable type.

Effects of chronic consumption of fruit and vegetable puree-based drinks on vasodilation, plasma oxidative stability and antioxidant status

Background: Fruit and vegetable-rich diets are associated with a reduced cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. This protective effect may be a result of the phytochemicals present within fruits and vegetables (F&V). However, there can be considerable variation in the content of phytochemical composition of whole F&V depending on growing location, cultivar, season and agricultural practices, etc. Therefore, the present study investigated the effects of consuming fruits and vegetables as puree-based drinks (FVPD) daily on vasodilation, phytochemical bioavailability, antioxidant status and other CVD risk factors. FVPD was chosen to provide a standardised source of F&V material that could be delivered from the same batch to all subjects during each treatment arm of the study. Methods: Thirty-nine subjects completed the randomised, controlled, cross-over dietary intervention. Subjects were randomised to consume 200 mL of FVPD (or fruit-flavoured control), daily for 6 weeks with an 8-week washout period between treatments. Dietary intake was measured using two 5-day diet records during each cross-over arm of the study. Blood and urine samples were collected before and after each intervention and vasodilation assessed in 19 subjects using laser Doppler imaging with iontophoresis. Results: FVPD significantly increased dietary vitamin C and carotenoids (P < 0.001), and concomitantly increased plasma α- and β-carotene (P < 0.001) with a near-significant increase in endothelium-dependent vasodilation (P = 0.060). Conclusions: Overall, the findings obtained in the present study showed that FVPD were a useful vehicle to increase fruit and vegetable intake, significantly increasing dietary and plasma phytochemical concentrations with a trend towards increased endothelium-dependent vasodilation.

Acute ingestion of beetroot bread increases endothelium-independent vasodilation and lowers diastolic blood pressure in healthy men: a randomized controlled trial

Dietary nitrate, from beetroot, has been reported to lower blood pressure (BP) by the sequential reduction of nitrate to nitrite and further to NO in the circulation. However, the impact of beetroot on microvascular vasodilation and arterial stiffness is unknown. In addition, beetroot is consumed by only 4.5% of the UK population, whereas bread is a staple component of the diet. Thus, we investigated the acute effects of beetroot bread (BB) on microvascular vasodilation, arterial stiffness, and BP in healthy participants. Twenty-three healthy men received 200 g bread containing 100 g beetroot (1.1 mmol nitrate) or 200 g control white bread (CB; 0 g beetroot, 0.01 mmol nitrate) in an acute, randomized, open-label, controlled crossover trial. The primary outcome was postprandial microvascular vasodilation measured by laser Doppler iontophoresis and the secondary outcomes were arterial stiffness measured by Pulse Wave Analysis and Velocity and ambulatory BP measured at regular intervals for a total period of 6 h. Plasma nitrate and nitrite were measured at regular intervals for a total period of 7 h. The incremental area under the curve (0-6 h after ingestion of bread) for endothelium-independent vasodilation was greater (P = 0.017) and lower for diastolic BP (DBP; P = 0.032) but not systolic (P = 0.99) BP after BB compared with CB. These effects occurred in conjunction with increases in plasma and urinary nitrate (P < 0.0001) and nitrite (P < 0.001). BB acutely increased endothelium-independent vasodilation and decreased DBP. Therefore, enriching bread with beetroot may be a suitable vehicle to increase intakes of cardioprotective beetroot in the diet and may provide new therapeutic perspectives in the management of hypertension.

Production and evaluation of dry alginate-chitosan microcapsules as an enteric delivery vehicle for probiotic bacteria

This study investigates the production of alginate microcapsules, which have been coated with the polysaccharide chitosan, and evaluates some of their properties with the intention of improving the gastrointestinal viability of a probiotic (Bifidobacterium breve) by encapsulation in this system. The microcapsules were dried by a variety of methods, and the most suitable was chosen. The work described in this Article is the first report detailing the effects of drying on the properties of these microcapsules and the viability of the bacteria within relative to wet microcapsules. The pH range over which chitosan and alginate form polyelectrolyte complexes was explored by spectrophotometry, and this extended into swelling studies on the microcapsules over a range of pHs associated with the gastrointestinal tract. It was shown that chitosan stabilizes the alginate microcapsules at pHs above 3, extending the stability of the capsules under these conditions. The effect of chitosan exposure time on the coating thickness was investigated for the first time by confocal laser scanning microscopy, and its penetration into the alginate matrix was shown to be particularly slow. Coating with chitosan was found to increase the survival of B. breve in simulated gastric fluid as well as prolong its release upon exposure to intestinal pH.