Mediterranean Diet (MedD) is one of the cultural heritages of UNESCO.  However, for the young generation, adherence to MedDiet has decreased significantly. To reattract these consumers, reformulating traditional Med food is considered as a strategy. One of the main contributors to the MedD is definitely tomato. Tomatoes and their derived products are known to have strong antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer activities. According to the 2019 statistics of <i>Mediterranean International Association of the Processing Tomato</i> (AMITOM)<sup>7</sup>, ~38 % of world tomato production took place in Mediterranean countries. Another important feature of the MedD is the olive oil. Although it is mostly consumed in the form of oil; the fruit itself is also very nutritive. The phenolics present in the olive are perfect ingredients to design functional foods. In this study, a functional food with Med ingredients have been designed.  A salty tomato bar enriched with a specialized olive powder have been produced and characterized.  Olive powder has been prepared by using high pressure homogenization followed by microwave vacuum drying. The snack bar was dried using a microwave vacuum dryer at different processing conditions. Antioxidant capacity, phenolic content of the olive powder and the snack bar was determined. In addition, lycopene content of the final samples was determined.  Rheological and textural analysis were performed as well. Time Domain NMR, Magnetic Resonance Imaging were used to investigate the water absorption behavior of the formulated foods for shelf life analysis.

Reformulating traditional Mediterranean foods: A functional tomato product

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.