Composition nutritional importance

As shown in Table (2), vegetable oils contain variable levels of unsaponifiable matter (3) of variable composition and characteristics (4). The refining process, which is necessary to remove undesirable pigments and fatty acid oxidation products such as peroxides and their degradation products from vegetable oils to make them suitable for consumption, unfortunately, brings about loss of valuable nutrients and natural antioxidants (5-7). The technical and nutritional importance... 

Nordeide, M.B. Harloy, A. Foiling, M. Lied, E. Oshaug A. Nutrient composition and nutritional importance of green leaves and wild food resources in an agricultural district, Koutiala, in Southern Mali. International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition. 1996, 47, 455-468. 

Table 9.2. Approximate Composition of Nutritionally Important Carbohydrate-Containing Fractions of Soybeans, Soybean Meals, and Soybean Hulls ...

The detailed overview on the nutritional composition and health promoting components of hazelnut provided in this chapter summarizes the existing knowledge and appreciation for the use of hazelnut and its products in a variety of food and specialty products. Besides nutritional value and health aspects, the presence of taste- and aroma-active components contribute to the sensory characteristics of products. Thus, better taste and aroma/flavor of hazelnut may increase the consumption of this nutritionally important nut, as discussed in this chapter. In addition, characteristics of raw (natural) hazelnut as well as its health promotion and disease prevention aspects are given in detail. Aroma-active components of roasted hazelnut are also discussed. 

This chapter reviews the production and use of microalgae within aquaculture hatcheries. The compositional diversity of microalgae is firstly discussed, with emphasis on the concentrations of nutritionally important... 

Fig. 4.1 Percentage compositions of the nutritionally-important PUFAs docosa-hexaenoic acid (DHA 22 6n-3), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA 20 5n-3) and arachi-donic acid (ARA 20 4n-6) of microalgae commonly used in aquaculture hatcheries. Data from various studies undertaken at CSIRO Laboratories (Volkman et al, 1989, 1993 Dunstan et al., 1994, 2005 Mansour et al, 2005).

Introduction of solids of suitable type, quantity and composition are important in the prevention of the two major nutritional problems protein-energy malnutrition and obesity. 

The sacroplasmic proteins myoglobin and hemoglobin are responsible for much of the color in meat. Species vary tremendously in the amount of sacroplasmic proteins within skeletal muscle with catde, sheep, pigs, and poultry Hsted in declining order of sarcoplasmic protein content. Fat is also an important component of meat products. The amount of fat in a portion of meat varies depending on the species, anatomy, and state of nutrition of the animal. The properties of processed meat products are greatiy dependent on the properties of the fat included. Certain species, such as sheep, have a relatively higher proportion of saturated fat, whereas other species, such as poultry, have a relatively lower proportion of saturated fat. It is well known that the characteristic davors of meat from different species are in part determined by their fat composition. 

Slaughter performance (important for butcher) slaughter yield, balanced carcass weight, composition of carcass Meat quality (important for consumer) measurable or sensory meat quality criteria (appearance, colour, tenderness, juiciness, flavour, roast and boil capacity, biochemical values (e.g. pH-value)), and nutritional value... 

Important intrinsic quality criteria currently determining the market potential of new apple cultivars are related to the sensory quality such as fruit firmness (crispness) and the sugar and acidity contents. On the other hand, the nutritional composition (e.g. the vitamin or antioxidant contents) is currently not used as a criterion in the choice of cultivars, neither in conventional nor in organic fruit production. The difference in the content of such components between fruit species is in most cases more relevant than between cultivars of the same species (e.g. vitamin C content of oranges versus apples). 

Many methods are available for determining food antioxidant capacity, which is an important topic in food and nutrition research. However, there is a great need to standardize these methods because the frequent lack of an actual substrate in the procedure, the system composition, and the method of inducing oxidation could limit their accuracy. In fact, antioxidant activities in complex systems cannot be evaluated satisfactorily using a single test, and several test procedures may be required. The search for more specific assays that can be more directly related to oxidative deterioration of foods and biological systems should be the objective of future investigations. 

Because composition and nutritional properties of the major food legumes and oilseeds have been reported in numerous technical journals and books (listed above), the section devoted to composition and chemistry highlights lesser-known but potentially important sources of plant protein that have not received the same attention. Some of these food crops have been cultivated for many years so that they are not "new" sources. Such crops as winged bean, sweet potato, tropical seeds, fruits and leaves, yams and cucurbits are potential sources of protein in areas where they are grown. These are discussed in greater detail in the remaining five chapters. 

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