Monika Mieszczakowska-Frąc

Date syrup is a product processed from date (Phoenix dactylifera L.) flesh through a multi-unit operation process. This nutritious liquid is rich in carbohydrates, dietary fibres, polyphenols, minerals, and vitamins, and may provide functional and bioactive compounds with potential health-promoting properties. In this review, a summary of current literature related to the technological aspects of date syrup production was given with a focus on traditional, conventional, and novel extraction methods. Further, a systematic analysis of available data describing the compositional quality of date syrup based on biochemical, functional, antioxidant, and pro-healthy properties was highlighted. Finally, the potential applications of date-based syrup in several fields of food industry were discussed by highlighting the importance of using date syrup as an emerging alternative for sugar substitution in numerous food products and formulations.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of protein-based (zein) and polysaccharide-based (carboxymethylcellulose, CMC) edible coatings and citric acid (CA) applied prior to freeze-drying on the quality parameters of Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus L.) slices from ‘Albik’ and ‘Rubik’ cultivars. Freeze-drying increased inulin extraction efficiency (57–61 g 100 g⁻¹ vs. 44–45 g 100 g⁻¹ in fresh samples). In the ‘Albik’ cv., CMC and CA coatings significantly minimized L-ascorbic acid losses, with a 10–20% reduction vs. control. For the same cultivar, enhanced polyphenol retention was observed (up to 13%) when CA coating was applied, while the use of zein reduced vitamin C content in both cultivars. Sensory analysis (PCA, 92.4% variance) revealed that CMC improved appearance, texture, and overall acceptability, while zein imparted an off-taste, odor, and fragility. Image texture analysis showed elevated parameters (e.g., HMean) post freeze-drying, with CA inducing the greatest structural changes and zein yielding samples most similar to raw material. Machine learning classification (quadratic/linear SVM, 10-fold CV) achieved 91.5% (‘Albik’) and 81.9% (‘Rubik’) accuracy, perfectly distinguishing raw slices (100%). These findings demonstrate that CMC and CA coatings optimize bioactive retention, sensory quality, and textural differentiation in freeze-dried Jerusalem artichoke, supporting their application in functional food production.

Berries are a valuable source of health-promoting substances, including vitamins, microelements, and polyphenols. Optimising the extraction efficiency of these compounds during processing is crucial to minimise their loss into the waste stream. Ultrasound technology is recognised as a sustainable and promising tool for improving extraction; however, previous literature has not sufficiently addressed the optimal point of its application in fruit puree processing, and its impact on the sensory properties of the final product has only occasionally been explored. As one of the first reports, this study aimed to determine the optimal moment for ultrasound application within a puree production scheme. In the second stage of the experiment, four recipes based on strawberry and haskap berry were tested. The results demonstrated the potential for enhancing sensory quality of puree by using an ultrasound treatment. It was found that the ultrasound-treated purees showed significantly higher pectin levels and improved rheological properties, while the content of anthocyanins and L-ascorbic acid remained mainly unchanged. This indicates that the non-thermal nature of ultrasound treatment can induce positive changes from a sensory and rheological point of view without causing the degradation of health-promoting compounds, offering a viable strategy for improving berry puree quality.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the changes in the fruit quality of blackcurrant ‘Tihope’ cv. during storage in regular atmosphere (RA), controlled atmosphere (CA), and modified atmosphere packaging (MAP). Flesh firmness (elasticity), total soluble solids, titratable acidity, content of vitamin C, polyphenols, sugars, and antioxidant capacity were measured at harvest, after storage, and after shelf life (1 day at 18 °C or 2 days at 10 °C). The incidence of storage disorders and diseases was also monitored. Additionally, the sensory quality of the stored fruit was also analysed. The fruit of the ‘Tihope’ cultivar can be stored at 0 °C, in a regular atmosphere, up to 20 days without any negative effect on its quality. Storage in a controlled atmosphere or in MAP packaging allows the extension of the storage period of blackcurrants even up to 33 days, thereby delaying the occurrence of fruit damage and loss of firmness. Fruit stored 33 days in CA showed almost 2.5 times higher firmness than fruit stored in RA. After storage, vitamin C, polyphenols, sugars, and antioxidant activity remained at a high level similar to those in the harvest period.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the changes in the fruit quality of blackcurrant ‘Tihope’ cv. during storage in regular atmosphere (RA), controlled atmosphere (CA), and in modified atmosphere packaging (MAP). Flesh firmness (elasticity), total soluble solids, titratable acidity, content of vitamin C, polyphenols, sugars, and antioxidant capacity were measured at harvest, after storage, and after shelf life (1 day at 18 °C or 2 days at 10 °C). The incidence of storage disorders and diseases was also monitored. Additionally, the sensory quality of the stored fruit was also analysed. The fruit of the 'Tihope' cultivar can be stored at 0 °C, in a regular atmosphere, up to 20 days without any negative effect on its quality. Storage in a controlled atmosphere or in MAP packaging allows the extension of the storage period of blackcurrants even up to 33 days, thereby delaying the occurrence of fruit damage and loss of firmness. After storage, vitamin C, polyphenols, sugars, and antioxidant activity remained at a high level similar to the harvest period.

Red bell pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) is a valuable source of health-promoting phytochemicals and essential minerals. This study investigated the impact of using geothermal mineral water versus tap water as the fermentation medium on the nutritional, physicochemical, and sensory properties of two red bell peppers (cultivars ‘Yecla F₁’ and ‘Salomon F₁’). The results showed that fermentation caused a significant decrease in the content of L-ascorbic acid (by 30–50%), carotenoids (~30%) and polyphenols (by 25–30%), with lower nutrient losses observed in peppers fermented with geothermal water. In addition, fermentation with geothermal water increased the calcium, magnesium, and potassium contents of the peppers compared to tap water. Sensory analysis showed that the pepper cultivars had a greater impact on the overall sensory quality than the fermentation medium or the evaluation time, although geothermal water had a positive effect on the texture of the fermented peppers. These results suggest that geothermal water may be a beneficial alternative to traditional water sources in vegetable fermentation, improving both the nutritional and sensory properties of the final product.

In this study, two known date fruit cultivars (‘Mejhoul’ and ‘Boufeggous’) were pre-treated using convective and infrared drying, and then subjected to cold storage at +4 °C using two levels of relative humidity (RH): 55% and 65%. The quality of the date fruit was assessed based on selected phenolic compounds, sugars, color, hardness, weight loss, and some image features at 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8 months. The results exhibited non-similar patterns in the changes of phenolic compounds according to cultivar and relative humidity level. The highly significant changes were observed for “Quercetin-Xyloside” that decreased drastically after two months of storage, especially for the ‘Mejhoul’ cultivar. Also, “Gallic acid” indicated a progressive and significant increase during storage. Other phenolic compounds, mainly “Quercetin-derivatives”, “Chlorogenic acid derivatives”, and “Ferulic acid”, showed fluctuating values among treatments and during the whole period of storage. For sugar compounds, it was noticed that glucose and fructose were affected by drying technique and relative humidity, especially for the ‘Boufeggous’ cultivar. Weight loss increased significantly for ‘Mejhoul’ cultivar stored at high relative humidity (65%), and ‘Boufeggous’ evolved in the opposite way for samples stored at lower RH (55%). For color, the browning index exhibited a significant and progressive increase among all treatments considered in this study; this pattern was more pronounced for date cultivars stored at high relative humidity (65%). The evaluation of hardness indicated a softening phenomenon during storage, especially for the ‘Mejhoul’ cultivar stored at 65% of RH. Moreover, the correlation of image features with weight loss and some color attributes indicated high correlation, and the estimation of the behavior of dates under storage could be predicted using accurate image features.

The strawberry is the most widely consumed berry in Europe, with a high content of minerals and bioactive compounds. During drying, the bioactive compounds are concentrated, but also partially degraded due to the interaction of high temperature and oxygen, among other factors. In this study, the effect of ultrasound support during the drying of strawberry slices of two cultivars, ‘Florence’ and ‘Alba’, was investigated. The effect of ultrasound application on the rate of drying, the retention of phenolic compounds and ascorbic acid, as well as the total colour difference, was measured. The time of ultrasonic-assisted drying was shorter than unassisted drying for the ‘Florence’ and ‘Alba’ cultivars, respectively, 35.7% and 34.6%. In addition, the dried product obtained with ultrasound had comparable antioxidant activity and polyphenol content. It was also shown that ultrasound can be successfully used in convective dryers without major equipment modifications.

In contrast to previous studies investigating the effect of freezing at low temperatures, this work aimed to evaluate the quality of ‘Mejhoul’ during the long-term storage of 8 months under freezing at −10 °C and −18 °C. Based on numerous physicochemical attributes and image features, the behavior of ‘Mejhoul’ was assessed at 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8 months of frozen storage. The quality characteristics examined included polyphenols, sugars, color parameters, hardness, water loss, defects, and image features. The results exhibited a significant increase in water activity after eight months of frozen storage. pH increased in a similar way for both storage conditions, while titratable acidity decreased significantly. All color attributes (L*, a*, and b*) were not influenced by frozen storage, while hardness decreased significantly after eight months. Phenolic acids decreased significantly at the end of frozen storage for both freezing temperatures. However, total polyphenols, flavonoids, total sugars, glucose, and fructose were not affected by the prolonged frozen storage. Furthermore, this investigation showed a slight water gain at both storage temperatures, with a pronounced occurrence rate of skin separation for ‘Mejhoul’ stored at −18 °C. Finally, the clustering analysis exhibited a high linkage distance between the examined groups at frozen storage at −10 °C compared to −18 °C.

The behavior of parthenocarpic and non-parthenocarpic cucumber during lacto-fermentation may be different. The research material consisted of two parthenocarpic cucumber cultivars ‘Malika’ F1 and ‘Magellan’ F1 and two conventional non-parthenocarpic cucumber cultivars ‘Zefir’ and ‘Ikar’. Raw material was subjected to spontaneous lacto-fermentation for 56 days and changes in cucumber flesh were assessed after selected periods of the process using texture features from images acquired using a flatbed scanner. The machine learning models based on image textures were built to discriminate raw material (0 days) and samples lacto-fermented for 3, 7, 10, 14, 28, and 56 days. For parthenocarpic cucumbers, an average accuracy of up to 88.0% for a model built based on selected image textures using Cubic SVM was obtained for ‘Malika’ F ₁ and 91.3% (Cubic SVM) for ‘Magellan’ F ₁ . Whereas in the case of non-parthenocarpic cultivars, an average classification accuracy of 95.4% (Medium Neural Network) was observed for ‘Zefir’ and 93.1% (Cubic SVM) for ‘Ikar’. The greatest differences between individual samples were found in the case of non-parthenocarpic cucumber. An accuracy of 100% was determined for raw material and samples after 3 and 56 days of lacto-fermentation for both non-parthenocarpic cultivars. In the case of parthenocarpic cucumber cultivars, only raw material was correctly distinguished from lacto-fermented samples in 100%. The developed approach can be used in practice to determine the effect of lacto-fermentation on cucumber flesh in an objective and non-destructive manner and to select the most desirable cultivars for this process.