Un’analisi statistico – economica dell’impatto delle norme WHO su nutrizione e salute

I comportamenti nutrizionali stanno assumendo sempre maggiore rilievo all’interno delle politiche comunitarie e questo sottolinea che la dieta sta avendo, negli ultimi anni, una maggiore importanza come fattore di causa e allo stesso tempo prevenzione nella diffusione di malattie croniche come il cancro, malattie cardiovascolari, diabete, osteoporosi e disturbi dentali. Numerosi studi mostrano infatti che i tassi di obesità sono triplicati nelle ultime due decadi e si è stimato che, se i livelli di obesità continueranno a crescere allo stesso tasso del 1990, nel 2010 il numero di persone obese raggiungerà i 150 milioni tra gli adulti e i 15 milioni tra bambini e adolescenti. I governi nazionali stanno quindi cercando di risolvere questo problema, a cui sono inoltre legati alti costi nazionali, tramite l’implementazione di politiche nutrizionali. Analisi di tipo cross-section sono già state evidenziate da studiosi come Schmidhuber e Traill (2006), i quali hanno effettuato un’analisi di convergenza a livello europeo per esaminare la distanza tra le calorie immesse da 426 prodotti diversi. In quest’analisi hanno così dimostrato la presenza di una similarità distinta e crescente tra i paesi europei per quanto riguarda la composizione della dieta. Srinivasan et al. invece hanno osservato la relazione esistente tra ogni singolo prodotto alimentare consumato e le norme nutrizionali dell’ Organizzazione Mondiale della Sanità (World Health Organization, WHO) Lo scopo di questa tesi è quello di evidenziare il problema a livello di aggregati nutritivi e di specifiche componenti nutrizionali come zucchero, frutta e verdura e non relativamente ad ogni singolo prodotto consumato. A questo proposito ci si è basati sulla costruzione di un indicatore (Recommendation Compliance Index) in modo da poter misurare le distanze tra la dieta media e le raccomandazioni del WHO. Lo scopo è quindi quello di riuscire a quantificare il fenomeno del peggioramento della dieta in diverse aree del mondo negli ultimi quattro decenni, tramite un’analisi panel, basandosi sui dati sui nutrienti consumati, provenienti dal database della FAO (e precisamente dal dataset Food Balance Sheets – FBS). Nella prima fase si introduce il problema dell’obesità e delle malattie croniche correlate, evidenziando dati statistici in diversi paesi europei e mondiali. Si sottolineano inoltre le diverse azioni dei governi e del WHO, tramite l’attuazione di campagne contro l’obesità e in favore di una vita più salutare e di una maggiore attività fisica. Nella seconda fase si è costruito un indicatore aggregato (Recommendation Compliance Index) in modo da analizzare le caratteristiche nella dieta dei diversi Paesi a livello mondiale rispetto alle norme del WHO. L’indicatore si basa sui dati ottenuti da FAOSTAT ed è calcolato per 149 paesi del database dell’FBS per il periodo 1961-2002. Nell’analisi si sono utilizzati i dati sulle percentuali di energia prodotta dalle varie componenti nutritive, quali grassi, grassi saturi e transaturi, zuccheri, carboidrati, proteine e le quantità di frutta e verdura consumate. Inoltre si è applicato un test statistico per testare se il valore del RCI è significativamente cambiato nel tempo, prendendo in considerazione gruppi di Paesi (Paesi OECD, Paesi in via di sviluppo e sottosviluppati). Si è voluto poi valutare la presenza o meno di un processo di convergenza, applicando l’analisi di σ-convergenza per osservare ad esempio se la variabilità è diminuita nel tempo in modo significativo. Infine si è applicato l’indicatore ad un livello micro, utilizzando il database del National Diet and Nutrition Survey, che raccoglie dati di macrocomponenti nutritive e misure antropometriche della popolazione inglese dai 16 ai 64 anni per il periodo 2000-2001. Si sono quindi effettuate analisi descrittive nonché analisi di correlazione, regressione lineare e ordinale per osservare le relazioni tra l’indicatore, i macronutrienti, il reddito e le misure antropometriche dell’ Indice di Massa Corporea (Body Mass Index, BMI) e del rapporto vita-fianchi (Waist-hip ratio, WHR).

Fattori relazionali e di coordinamento nella filiera agro-alimentare: una valutazione della governance relazionale nel settore lattiero caseario sardo

Characteristics of modern food demand force retailers to acquire more information about product process along the food supply chain to ensure that product are in accordance with consumer preference. Therefore, the product process involves more information flows between buyer and supplier which requires collaborative efforts. These changes translate into several studies on the inter-organizational relationship in agri-food systems. Studies on inter-organizational relationships have been conducted in various academic disciplines, including sociology, psychology, law, economics, marketing, management, and combination of these. Inter-organizational relationships is an interaction between organizations which involved firms horizontally, as well as, vertically. In this study we deal with vertical, buyer-seller relationship which are sometimes referred to chain relationships. We define vertical business relationship in the agriculture-food based sector as “agri-food chain relationships”. The focus is on sustainable inter-organizational relationships in a way that they can be scientifically investigated. We study characteristics which ensure that a relationship is long-lasting and rewarding for all involved parties in the sardinian dairy. We test the theoretical model using structural equation modeling. The results suggest that the most important determinant for the relationships is technology and the price isn’t significant for the relationship governance.

Perfluoroalkylated substances in food matrices: development of mass spectrometry based analytical methods and preliminary monitoring

Perfluoroalkylated substances are a group of chemicals that have been largely employed during the last 60 years in several applications, widely spreading and accumulating in the environment due to their extreme resistance to degradation. As a consequence, they have been found also in various types of food as well as in drinking water, proving that they can easily reach humans through the diet. The available information concerning their adverse effects on health has recently increased the interest towards these contaminants and highlighted the importance of investigating all the potential sources of human exposure, among which diet was proved to be the most relevant. This need has been underlined by the European Union through Recommendation 2010/161/EU: in this document, Member States were called to monitor their presence of in food, producing accurate estimations of human exposure. The purpose of the research presented in this thesis, which is the result of a partnership between an Italian and a French laboratory, was to develop reliable tools for the analysis of these pollutants in food, to be used for generating data on potentially contaminated matrices. An efficient method based on liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry for the detection of 16 different perfluorinated compounds in milk has been validated in accordance with current European regulation guidelines (2002/657/EC) and is currently under evaluation for ISO 17025 accreditation. The proposed technique was applied to cow, powder and human breast milk samples from Italy and France to produce a preliminary monitoring on the presence of these contaminants. In accordance with the above mentioned European Recommendation, this project led also to the development of a promising technique for the quantification of some precursors of these substances in fish. This method showed extremely satisfying performances in terms of linearity and limits of detection, and will be useful for future surveys.

Determination of bioactive and potentially toxic compounds in food: raw material analysis and shelf life evaluation

"Bioactive compounds" are extranutritional constituents that typically occur in small quantities in food. They are being intensively studied to evaluate their effects on health. Bioactive compounds include both water soluble compounds, such as phenolics, and lipidic substances such as n-3 fatty acids, tocopherols and sterols. Phenolic compounds, tocopherols and sterols are present in all plants and have been studied extensively in cereals, nuts and oil. n-3 fatty acids are present in fish and all around the vegetable kingdom. The aim of the present work was the determination of bioactive and potentially toxic compounds in cereal based foods and nuts. The first section of this study was focused on the determination of bioactive compounds in cereals. Because of that the different forms of phytosterols were investigated in hexaploid and tetraploid wheats. Hexaploid cultivars were the best source of esterified sterols (40.7% and 37.3% of total sterols for Triticum aestivum and Triticum spelta, respectively). Significant amounts of free sterols (65.5% and 60.7% of total sterols for Triticum durum and Triticum dicoccon, respectively) were found in the tetraploid cultivars. Then, free and bound phenolic compounds were identified in barley flours. HPLCESI/ MSD analysis in negative and positive ion mode established that barley free flavan-3- ols and proanthocyanidins were four dimers and four trimers having (epi)catechin and/or (epi)gallocatechin (C and/or GC) subunits. Hydroxycinnamic acids and their derivatives were the main bound phenols in barley flours. The results obtained demonstrated that barley flours were rich in phenolic compounds that showed high antioxidant activity. The study also examined the relationships between phenolic compounds and lipid oxidation of bakery. To this purpose, the investigated barley flours were used in the bakery production. The formulated oven products presented an interesting content of phenolic compounds, but they were not able to contain the lipid oxidation. Furthermore, the influence of conventional packaging on lipid oxidation of pasta was evaluated in n-3 enriched spaghetti and egg spaghetti. The results proved that conventional packaging was not appropriated to preserve pasta from lipid oxidation; in fact, pasta that was exposed to light showed a high content of potentially toxic compounds derived from lipid oxidation (such as peroxide, oxidized fatty acids and COPs). In the second section, the content of sterols, phenolic compounds, n-3 fatty acids and tocopherols in walnuts were reported. Rapid analytical techniques were used to analyze the lipid fraction and to characterize phenolic compounds in walnuts. Total lipid chromatogram was used for the simultaneous determination of the profile of sterols and tocopherols. Linoleic and linolenic acids were the most representative n-6 and n-3 essential dietary fatty acids present in these nuts. Walnuts contained substantial amounts of γ- and δ-tocopherol, which explained their antioxidant properties. Sitosterol, Δ5-avenasterol and campesterol were the major free sterols found. Capillary electrophoresis coupled to DAD and microTOF was utilized to determine phenolic content of walnut. A new compound in walnut ((2E,4E)- 8-hydroxy-2,7-dimethyl-2,4-decadiene-1,10-dioic acid 6-O-β-D-glucopiranosyl ester, [M−H]− 403.161m/z) with a structure similar to glansreginins was also identified. Phenolic compounds corresponded to 14–28% of total polar compounds quantified. Aglycone and glycosylated ellagic acid represented the principal components and account for 64–75% of total phenols in walnuts. However, the sum of glansreginins A, B and ((2E,4E)-8-hydroxy- 2,7-dimethyl-2,4-decadiene-1,10-dioic acid 6-O-β-D-glucopiranosyl ester was in the range of 72–86% of total quantified compounds.

Development of new therapeutic approaches in the treatments of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases: functional food and nutraceuticals vs synthetic peptides based vaccines

Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) are intestinal chronic relapsing diseases which ethiopathogenesis remains uncertain. Several group have attempted to study the role of factors involved such as genetic susceptibility, environmental factors such as smoke, diet, sex, immunological factors as well as the microbioma. None of the treatments available satisfy several criteria at the same time such as safety, long-term remission, histopatological healing, and specificity. We used two different approaches for the development of new therapeutic treatment for Inflammatory Bowel Disease. The first is focused on the understanding of the potential role of functional food and nutraceuticals nutrients in the treatment of IBD. To do so, we investigated the role of Curcuma longa in the treatment of chemical induced colitis in mice model. Since Curcma Longa has been investigated for its antinflammatory role related to the TNFα pathway as well investigators have reported few cases of patients with ulcerative colites treated with this herbs, we harbored the hypothesis of a role of Curcuma Longa in the treatment f IBD as well as we decided to assess its role in intestinal motility. The second part is based on an immunological approach to develop new drugs to induce suppression in Crohn’s disease or to induce mucosa immunity such as in colonrectal tumor. The main idea behind this approach is that we could manipulate relevant cell-cell interactions using synthetic peptides. We demonstrated the role of the unique interaction between molecules expressed on intestinal epithelial cells such as CD1d and CEACAM5 and on CD8+ T cells. In normal condition this interaction has a role for the expansion of the suppressor CD8+ T cells. Here, we characterized this interaction, we defined which are the epitope involved in the binding and we attempted to develop synthetic peptides from the N domain of CEACAM5 in order to manipulate it.

NMR Based Foodomics to Investigate the Digestibility of Protein-Rich Food Products

Nowadays, in developed countries, the excessive food intake, in conjunction with a decreased physical activity, has led to an increase in lifestyle-related diseases, such as obesity, cardiovascular diseases, type -2 diabetes, a range of cancer types and arthritis. The socio-economic importance of such lifestyle-related diseases has encouraged countries to increase their efforts in research, and many projects have been initiated recently in research that focuses on the relationship between food and health. Thanks to these efforts and to the growing availability of technologies, the food companies are beginning to develop healthier food. The necessity of rapid and affordable methods, helping the food industries in the ingredient selection has stimulated the development of in vitro systems that simulate the physiological functions to which the food components are submitted when administrated in vivo. One of the most promising tool now available appears the in vitro digestion, which aims at predicting, in a comparative way among analogue food products, the bioaccessibility of the nutrients of interest.. The adoption of the foodomics approach has been chosen in this work to evaluate the modifications occurring during the in vitro digestion of selected protein-rich food products. The measure of the proteins breakdown was performed via NMR spectroscopy, the only techniques capable of observing, directly in the simulated gastric and duodenal fluids, the soluble oligo- and polypeptides released during the in vitro digestion process. The overall approach pioneered along this PhD work, has been discussed and promoted in a large scientific community, with specialists networked under the INFOGEST COST Action, which recently released a harmonized protocol for the in vitro digestion. NMR spectroscopy, when used in tandem with the in vitro digestion, generates a new concept, which provides an additional attribute to describe the food quality: the comparative digestibility, which measures the improvement of the nutrients bioaccessibility.

Emerging plant-based proteins: comparison from extraction to functional properties and food application

The increasing demand for alternatives to meat food products, which is linked to ethical and environmental reasons, highlights the necessity of using different protein sources. Plant proteins provide a valid option, thanks to the relative low costs, high availability and wide supply sources. The current process used to produce plant concentrates and isolates is the alkaline extraction followed by isoelectric precipitation. However, despite the high purity of the proteins, it presents some drawbacks. Innovative protein extraction processes are emerging, with the aim of reducing the environmental impact and the costs, as well as improving the functional properties. In this study, the traditional wet protein extraction and another simplified wet process were used to obtain protein-rich extracts out of different plants. The sources considered in the project were de-oiled sunflower and canola, chickpea, lentils, and the camelina meal, an emerging oleaginous seed interesting for its high content of omega 3. The extracts obtained from the two processes were then analysed for their capacities to hold water and fat, to form gel and a stable foam. Results highlighted strong differences concerning the protein content, yield and functionalities. The extracts obtained with the alkaline process confirmed the literature data about the four plant sources (sunflower, canola, chickpea and lentils) and allow to obtain a camelina concentrate with a protein content of 63 % and a protein recovery of 41 %. The second easiest process was not effective to obtain a protein enrichment in oleaginous sources, whereas an enrichment of 10 and 15 % was obtained in chickpea and lentils, respectively. The functional properties were also completely different: the easiest process produced protein ingredients completely water-soluble at pH 7, with a discrete foaming capacity compared to the extracts obtained with alkaline process. These characteristics could make these extracts suitable for the plant milk-analogue products.

Chemiluminescence – based bioanalytical devices for astrobiological, food safety and clinical applications

At the intersection of biology, chemistry, and engineering, biosensors are a multidisciplinary innovation that provide a cost-effective alternative to traditional laboratory techniques. Due to their advantages, biosensors are used in medical diagnostics, environmental monitoring, food safety and many other fields. The first part of the thesis is concerned with learning the state of the art of paper-based immunosensors with bioluminescent (BL) and chemiluminescent (CL) detection. The use of biospecific assays combined with CL detection and paper-based technology offers an optimal approach to creating analytical tools for on-site applications and we have focused on the specific areas that need to be considered more in order to ensure a future practical implementation of these methods in routine analyses. The subsequent part of the thesis addresses the development of an autonomous lab-on-chip platform for performing chemiluminescent-based bioassays in space environment, exploiting a CubeSat platform for astrobiological investigations. An origami-inspired microfluidic paper-based analytical device has been developed with the purpose of assesses its performance in space and to evaluate its functionality and the resilience of the (bio)molecules when exposed to a radiation-rich environment. Subsequently, we designed a paper-based assay to detect traces of ovalbumin in food samples, creating a user-friendly immunosensing platform. To this purpose, we developed an origami device that exploits a competitive immunoassay coupled with chemiluminescence detection and magnetic microbeads used to immobilize ovalbumin on paper. Finally, with the aim of exploring the use of biomimetic materials, an hydrogel-based chemiluminescence biosensor for the detection of H2O2 and glucose was developed. A guanosine hydrogel was prepared and loaded with luminol and hemin, miming a DNAzyme activity. Subsequently, the hydrogel was modified by incorporating glucose oxidase enzyme to enable glucose biosensing. The emitted photons were detected using a portable device equipped with a smartphone's CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) camera for CL emission detection.