Flavio Luis Schmidt completed his graduation, Master and PhD in Food Science at the University of Campinas/Brazil. Currently, he is a teacher/researcher at the same university, supervising graduation, master and PhD students in Fruits and Vegetable Laboratory with emphasis in beverage, fermentation and coffee products.

Carbonic maceration is a post-harvest fermentation process used by coffee producers to increase the product quality and added value to the product. As this is a new process, there is little information about the microbiota involved. To understand that, 3 fermentation processes were carried out in 2 Brazilian farms. The coffees cherries were fermented on different containers and sampled every 24 hours, up to the end of fermentation (at least 6 days). The samples were frozen and sent to metagenomic analysis. In the laboratory, the sample was mixed with saline solution until the fruit break the bark and exposure the beans and handly homogenized. The genetic material was extracted from this liquid and a two-step PCR was used to prepare the library and the sequencing was done in a MiSeq system, using the standard Illumina primers. For bacterial analysis, the genetic material used came from the 16S rRNA gene, and for fungus from the ITS1 gene. A huge number of 140 species of bacteria and 209 fungi species were identified in the samples, with at least 5504 fungus and 4090 bacteria sequences in a single sample. The most prominent identified sequences were from Enterobacteriaceae, Cladosporiaceae, and Saccharomycetaceae family, respectively for bacterias, fungus and yeasts. Different species of fermentative microorganisms were identified, including Acetobacter, Lactobacillus and Saccharomyces. The metagenomic analysis brought very complete information about the microbial population present on these fermentation processes and is the first step to understand the chemical changes in the coffee beans.

Ana Valeria Ulhano Braga has completed her graduation in Biological Sciences in 2010 as well as she completed her Master Degree in Food Technology at the University of Campinas in 2016 and then started her PhD in the laboratory of Fruit and Vegetable, where she studies coffee fermentation processes.

Coffee is the most consumed beverage in the world, and Brazil is its largest producer. The quality of green coffee is directly influenced by the agriculture practices, harvest, and post-harvest procedures, drying and storage conditions. In the last few years, many producers introduced carbonic maceration to increase quality parameters. In this process, there is no growing of filamentous fungi and the fermentation can be longer than in an open atmosphere. A preliminary test of this process showed a huge increase in beverage quality: the SCA (Specialty Coffee Association) evaluation varied from 78 for the control to 86 points for a 6-day fermented coffee. Based on these results, the other 14 fermentation processes were carried out in 2 Brazil farms, being 2 with Robusta and 12 with Abica species of different varieties, yellow and red Catuai, yellow and red Icatu, Mundo Novo, Tupi, and Obata. The fermentation was carried out in different size containers from 20 to 1000L, monitoring the ambient and coffee temperatures. After fermentation, the coffee was dried and all the samples were sensory evaluated by 3 Q-graders certified by SCA. Among samples, 12 processes increased in SCA scores up to 6, 2 points, showing more complex flavor attributes. The carbonic maceration is a simple fermentation process that can increase the quality of coffee beverage and it is important for the producers and the economy since it adds value to the product.

Beatrix Szabo-Notin has qualified as a Food Engineer in 2008 at Corvinus University of Budapest. She deals with the food rheology, effect of different food texture modifiers on the food texture properties.

Apple pomace a cheap by-product of apple juice production is rich in pectin, antioxidants and flavor compounds. It could be used for several applications such as pectin recovery jam and jelly production enzyme production, animal feed, organic acid production, ethanol production as a source of aroma compounds and natural antioxidants. Due to its high pectin content apple pomace could be used as a natural texture modifier in food products after a simple drying process. Our aim was to prepare and examine baking stable fruit products made with different kinds of texture modifier and apple pomace. Strawberry jellies were prepared with pectin, combined apple pomace with pectin, and nothing but xanthan. Therefore, also made apricot “Extra” jam with pectin, combined apple pomace with pectin, and nothing but gelatin. The products were compared them to each other by studying their rheological, structural, baking and sensual characteristics. Rheological measurements were performed using a Physica MCR 51 rheometer (Anton Paar GmbH, Austria). The amplitude sweep method was carried out at 20 °C, increasing strain value from 0.5 to 200%, at constant angular frequency (10 rad s-1), using five replicates per sample. Samples were changed after each parallel measuring in order to avoid the change in rheological properties. Results were recorded and analyzed using Rheoplus software ver 3.2. Using apple pomace as a gelling agent increases the nutritional value of jams because of its high antioxidant content, increases the marketing value of jams by decreasing the amount of food additives and also enhances to decrease the waste production of industrial apple processing technologies. It would be important to make more experiments to establish the ideal pectin-apple pomace ratio, and, in the interest of the sensual features’ improvement, it is advisable to use apple pomace with smaller granules.

Dora Szekely has her expertise in food packaging materials and systems.

The manufacture of biodegradable and edible films for food packaging application has gained increased interest as an alternative to conventional food packaging polymers due to the sustainable nature. Heightened consumer demand for enhanced keeping quality and freshness of foods has given rise to the concept of such packaging that can maintain product quality and freshness, improve sensory properties, or enhance product safety and shelf life. Research on the use of edible films as packaging materials continues because of the potential for these films to enhance food quality, food safety, and product shelf life. Packaging films can be successfully produced from all gelatin sources and the behaviour and characteristics of gelatin-based films can be altered through the incorporation of other food ingredients to produce composite films possessing enhanced physical and mechanical properties. Our gelatin films were prepared with addition of glycerol and water, which resulted greater elongation but lower tensile strength values. The apple samples were coated with the prepared suspensions. Shelf-life was evaluated using parameters such as changes in weight loss, appearance and antioxidant capacity and total polyphenol content. The coating significantly reduced the harvested fruit weight loss and maintained the general appearance and hence acceptability during the investigation period in comparison to non-coating apple samples.

Eliska Servusova has completed her graduation from the Veterinary and Pharmaceutical University in Brno. She is pursuing her Doctorate in Food Hygiene and Technology. She is working at the Veterinary Research Institute, Food and Feed Safety. They deal with the issue of food adulteration.

In this study, systems for the identification of four tuna species (skipjack tuna Katsuwonus pelamis, yellowfin tuna Thunnus albacares, bullet tuna Auxis sp. and atlantic bonito Sarda sp.) were developed. First, raw samples of these species and an internal control mixture confirming the fish muscle of the species Thunnus sp. Raw muscle, mixture and samples were isolated with DNeasy mericon Food Kit (Qiagen GmbH, Germany). The raw samples were assayed for DNA concentration and purity using a spectrophotometer. Primers and probe sequences were specifically designed to identify selected species. Next, primers and a probe for the endogenous 12S rRNA gene were designed to determine the presence of amplifiable fish (especially tuna) DNA in the sample. The species specificity of the designed primers and probes on DNA samples of various tuna and bonito species was also verified. Detection limit for selected species and determination coefficient R2 and real-time PCR test were determined. To evaluate the developed real-time PCR methods, 70 commercial tuna products were analyzed. These commercial products were acquired on local markets in the Czech Republic. Most often, they were canned in their own juice, oil, with various ingredients, spread, pate, various tuna salads and tuna dishes. The sample range also included three pet food products.

Simona Jancikova is pursuing her PhD at the University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno and she studies Food Hygiene. Her PhD thesis is about usage of edible packaging or films with the addition of natural extracts and essential oils with the application of packaging on fruit and vegetables. She is a co-author of article about furcellaran/hydrolysate gelatin/rosemary extract composition which was published in the International Journal of Biological Macromolecules. Now she is continuing her research in the field of edible packaging.

Aim: The aim of the study was to monitor the colour changes of apple pieces after application of different coatings. The materials for the study were Granny Smith apples (bought in retail shop: Tesco s.r.o.). The experimentally produced coatings consisted out of distilled water, pectin and hemp flour extracts (HFE). Materials and Methodology: The samples were following: CONTROL (without packaging), PHFE1 (1% pectin and 5% HFE), PHFE3 (3% pectin and HFE) and PHFE5 (5% pectin and 5% HFE). Pectin and hemp flour were bought from retail shops Gresik and DM drogerie, respectively. The color measuring was done by personal camera EOS 600D (Canon, JPN). The sample scanning was completed under standard light conditions with 2 lamps Delux L-1 x 18 W lamps (OSRAM, GER). The shooting was done by the manual: exposure time 1/80, aperture F 5.0, image size L, sensitivity ISO 100. The color measuring (RGB-red, green, blue; mean intensity and hue typical) was done at the beginning of the experiment and after time intervals of 2, 7 and 14 days. The samples were stored under two storage conditions: room temperature (+25ºC) and also in the refrigerator (+4ºC). The color of apples’ surface and inner tissue were monitored. Results: The storage conditions had impact on all samples, because all measured properties were significantly different (p<0.05). When the mean intensity is compared the samples are not so different the differences are among measuring of RGB. The results revealed that the highest impact on samples color changes had PHEF5 coating. The lower impact coatings had on inner tissue than on surfaces. The principal component analysis (PCA) showed significant (p<0.05) differences, forming separate groups: group I (CONTROL and PHFE1), group II (PHFE3) and group III (PHFE5). Conclusions: It can be said that used 3% and 5% pectin with hemp flour extract had impact on the color changes.