Food Chemistry, Nutrition and Safety

Biography

Biography: Meriem Amrane-Abider

Abstract

The consumption of processed foods rises in tandem with global population growth. In the food processing industry, the use of food additives such as preservatives is an obvious way to increase shelf life. Nevertheless, a discussion concerning artificial food additives has emerged lately, weighing public health and food safety concerns. Therefore, scientific research has recently focused on finding a safe and healthy substitute. Several plants have been used to extract bioactive compounds as natural additives. Opuntia ficus indica (OFI) is one of the plants best known for its composition and virtues. Nevertheless, a thorough investigation of its capacity to prevent oxidation and lengthen foods shelf lives is necessary. In this framework, the current investigation is situated, the phenolic compounds of Opuntia ficus-indica peel and seeds were extracted using microwave-assisted extraction as a fast and ecological method. Their antioxidant effects in vitro and as food additives were evaluated. The findings confirmed that both OFI peels and seeds are sources of phenolic compounds, total phenolic compounds, and flavonoids (peels: 23.01 ± 0.33, 6.05 ± 0.44, mg equivalent standard/g, respectively) and (seeds: 5.22 ± 0.12, 2.5 ± 0.44 mg equivalent standard/g, respectively). High levels of in vitro antioxidant activities were observed (DPPH radicals of 90% and 81% and βcarotene bleaching of 94% and 95% for OFI peels and seeds, respectively). Margarine and mayonnaise were both selected because of their high fat content and propensity for oxidation, making them suitable for testing OFI antioxidants as a natural alternative. The rancimat test shows that both OFI peels and seed extracts improve the foods’ stability for 3.2 h and 5 h with margarine and 2.5 h and 3 h with mayonnaise, respectively. The present investigation supports the use of extracts from OFI peels and seeds as a natural alternative to synthetic additives.