César Ozuna

Universidad de Guanajuato · Departamento de Alimentos

Mexican cuisine has a long history of using endemic edible flowers (EEF) as a nutritious ingredient. In fact, many traditional EEF recipes exist across the country, but what is still unknown is people’s actual experience with EEF. This study investigated the current knowledge and consumption of the edible flowers of squash, coral tree, yucca, agave...

Recovering biocompounds from industrial by-products is crucial to avoid food waste. Microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) has been employed to recover some biocompounds from vegetal matrices using ethanol and his solutions as solvent. Optimization of MAE conditions over total soluble polyphenols (TSP) and antioxidant capacity (DPPH and FRAP) from avo...

The presence of arsenic (As) in irrigation water is a threat to agricultural crops as well as human health. The presence of arsenic and phosphorous in irrigation water influences the behavior of bioaccumulation, biotransfer, and total bioactive compounds in the distinct parts of the onion structure. The present work evaluates the behavior of the bi...

The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the effect of thermal treatment (TT: 121 ± 2 °C, 15 min) on the composition of commercial sweeteners diluted in water (10 °Brix). Additionally, we evaluated the impact of this TT on metabolic responses in C57BL/6 mice during a 24-week treatment. The sweeteners included in this study were sucrose (SC), gluco...

El aprovechamiento de subproductos agroindustriales como la cascara de plátano se ve limitada por la oxidación de sus componentes aún cuando se emplean tecnologías emergentes para el desarrollo de productos. El objetivo fue diseñar un pretratamiento antioxidante empleando la metodología de superficie de respuesta y secar la cascara con aire calient...

The presence of arsenic (As) in irrigation water is a threat to agricultural crops as well as human health. The presence of arsenic and phosphorous in irrigation water influences the behavior of bioaccumulation, biotransfer, and total bioactive compounds in the distinct parts of the onion structure. The present work evaluates the behavior of the bi...

Sustainable agriculture is the most desired solution to ensure food security for the growing world population and to face climate change. Furthermore, sustainable agriculture seeks alternatives to harmful pesticides and chemical fertilizers. This review presents an overview of recent scientific research and potential applications of volatile organi...

Sprouts, mainly from cereals, legumes, and some pseudo‐cereals, are rich in nutrients and contain biocompounds, making them attractive for consumption. This research study aimed to develop treatments with UV‐C light in soybean and amaranth sprouts and evaluate their effect on biocompounds content, compared with chlorine treatments. UV‐C treatments...

The aim of this research was to evaluate the influence of strawberry variety on the effectiveness of ozone application on the harvested fruit during 12 days of storage. Batches (400 g) of strawberries of the San Andreas (SA) and Camino Real (CR) varieties were stored at 10 ± 0.2 °C and exposed to gaseous ozone (0, 0.3, and 1.0 ppm) for 24 h. After...

Nowadays, overweight and obesity are increasing in young people, resulting in several health problems. New scientific evidence shows that consuming too much fructose, a basic type of sugar, can cause some of these problems. Sugary foods such as soft drinks are sweetened with syrups that have very high fructose content. Drinking too much of these be...

Atta mexicana (chicatanas) are ants consumed in some parts of Mexico. It has been reported that these ants are mainly consumed for their taste and through tradition. There is still scarce information for the main reasons that drive people to consume them. The objective of this work was to analyse the consumption patterns of chicatanas from surveys...

Mexico is a multi‐diverse country where insect consumption has been associated with traditional practices. Nevertheless, there are no studies regarding differences in entomophagy within the country to get specific insights into consumers' perceptions. A total of 3125 Mexicans answered a national survey related to demographic indicators and aspects...

Traditional Mexican cuisine has made use of endemic edible flowers in its dishes for centuries. The Mexican edible flowers that have the most presence in traditional recipe books seem to be rich in good quality protein and bioactive compounds with antioxidant activity that might be beneficial to human health. However, to our knowledge, there is cur...

Non-thermal technologies allow for the nutritional and sensory properties of foods to be preserved, something that consumers demand. Combining their use with antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) provides potential methods for food preservation that could have advantages over the use of chemical preservatives and thermal technologies. The aim of this revie...

Mexican edible flowers are generally not consumed raw, but little attention has been paid to the ways in which traditional Mexican cuisine treats the different flower species in terms of dish types in which they appear, cooking methods and times, ingredient pairings, and other variables. The aim of the present work was to study the cooking process...

Agave syrup (AS) has recently gained popularity in the market for healthy, organic, functional, and diabetic foods. This trend is due to its natural origin and putative nutraceutical properties. However, the use of AS can be questioned regarding its elevated fructose concentration and its adverse effects on human health, rendering it similar to hig...

Reducing the content of sucrose and fat in gluten-free products by means of replacers, such as agavin-type fructans (ATF), represents a challenge for the bakery industry, which is still developing products to satisfy the needs of celiac consumers. The aim of this work was to optimize the use of ATF from Agave tequilana Weber var. azul as fat and su...

Arsenic (As) is a natural contaminant that exists naturally in the earth crust and it is toxic to plant cells. Studies involving the absorption of As by plants have already been described previously. Recently, researchers have intended to understand the molecular and physiological mechanisms that intervene and interact in As absorption. The study o...

Probiotics are live microorganisms that promote the selective growth of beneficial bacteria in birds and can be an effective alternative to growth-promoting antibiotics (GPAs) in poultry. The present study was conducted to determine the effects of dietary probiotics in the diet of early phase laying hens on laying performance, egg quality, blood pa...

Bacteriocins and power ultrasound (PU) are two technologies that could be explored conjointly as a potential food preservative. Currently, there is no information on the use of thurincin H (bacteriocin) in food matrices, neither on its own nor in combination with PU. This study aimed to evaluate the synergy of thurincin H and PU on the inactivation...

Actualmente, el consumo de flores a nivel global ha ido en incremento debido a diversas razones, incluyendo sus propiedades nutrimentales. El estado de Guanajuato posee una gran diversidad de flores comestibles endémicas de México y estas son parte de la gastronomía de la región. El objetivo principal de este trabajo fue investigar el conocimiento,...

The aim of this research was to evaluate the influence of the exposure time of gaseous ozone on the chromatic properties of strawberries during 8 days of storage. To reach this objective, batches of 400±7 g of fruit were stored at 10 ± 0.2 °C in plastic boxes and then exposed to gaseous ozone (1 ppm) for 0 h (A0), 2 h (A2), 15 h (A15), 24 h (A24) a...

Objective: To give an overview of the current situation of Mexican genuine cheeses (MGCs), their characteristics and their production processing conditions (milk origin, coagulation agent, type of ripening and maturation). Methodology: Information on about twenty MGCs available in scientific articles, databases, and Internet pages was collected, an...

The aim of this work was to analyze the influence of brewing temperature and coffee particle size on the evolution of physicochemical, bioactive, and antioxidant properties of Mexican cold brew coffee (CBC). The brewing process was carried out at two extraction temperatures (10±0.5°C and 25±0.5°C) and two particle sizes: medium (MG, 0.70 1.70 mm) a...

Natural sweeteners, such as agave syrup, might be a healthy alternative to sucrose used in sweet bakery products linked to obesity. We evaluated the effect of sucrose replacement by agave syrup on rheological and microstructural properties of muffin batter and on physical and sensorial properties of the baked product. Muffins were formulated by rep...

In recent decades, there has been a rise in the use of edible flowers in the world cuisine in order to make visually plain dishes more appealing. However, there is much more to flowers than just beauty. The traditional Mexican cuisine has made use of edible flowers for centuries and probably even millennia; in fact, many present-day Mexican dishes...

The development of farming technologies that allow the production of agricultural products free of chemical compounds that are harmful to the agricultural environment as well as the consumers is a challenge that several research groups have addressed. In several case studies the effect of various treatments of organic fertilization on quality varia...

Mexico is one of the world leaders in the production of coffee, but research on bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity in Mexican coffee has been extremely limited and, importantly, the effect of organic farming on these properties has not been widely studied. Spent coffee grounds (SCG), the main by-product of coffee brewing, represent a seri...

The aim of this work was to study the effect of power ultrasound (PUS) application on physicochemical, antioxidant, and microbiological properties of a juice blend from oranges and celery stalks. Juice samples were sonicated in an ultrasonic bath (20 kHz, 5.57 ± 0.87 kW/m³, 20 ± 5 °C) at different sonication times (0, 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, and 90 min...

Gluten replacement is one of the most challenging issues for the bakery industry. The aim of this work was to optimize rice, sorghum, and amaranth flour levels in the development of gluten‐free and additive‐free sweet bread of muffin type. Using response surface methodology, optimal values of 50%, 39%, and 11% for rice, sorghum, and amaranth flour,...

El objetivo del presente trabajo, presentado en el Primer Congreso de Cambio Climático y Sustentabilidad en Guanajuato, México, fue investigar las propiedades fisicoquímicas y bioactivas de algunas flores comestibles empleadas en la gastronomía mexicana. Para ello, en el estado de Guanajuato se recolectaron flores de A. salmiana, A. vera, E. americ...

The performance of palm olein (PO) with different antioxidants during the repeated frying of tortilla chips was analyzed. Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) at concentration of 200 mg/kg (primary synthetic antioxidant), ascorbyl palmitate (AP) at 100 mg/kg (secondary synthetic antioxidant), and their blend (in the same concentration than individual add...

El consumo del café se ha relacionado con los beneficios que tiene esta bebida para la salud del consumidor debido a su alto contenido en compuestos bioactivos y capacidad antioxidante (Kwak et al., 2018). Sin embargo, diversos factores como el método de cultivo y el tipo tostado al que es sometido el grano pueden influir en las propiedades bioacti...

Mexico is one of the world leaders in the production of coffee. However, research on bioactive compound content and antioxidant activity of Mexican coffee is extremely scarce. Importantly, the effect of organic farming on these properties is also largely understudied in coffee brew (CB) as well as in the spent coffee grounds (SCG), which are the ma...

Dielectric properties (DPs) of two beverages, tamarind and a green drink (based on mix fruits of pineapple, guava, lemon, and nopal), were studied. The DPs were determined using the open‐ended coaxial probe method in the frequency range from 0.25 to 25 GHz at 10, 30, 50, and 70 °C. The dielectric constant decreased when both frequency and temperatu...

Microwave-assisted treatments for the pasteurization of a tamarind and green (formulated with pineapple, nopal, guava, and lemon juice) beverages were studied. The beverages were treated with microwaves (490 W, 2450 MHz) in batches of 480 mL until reach the target temperature for the inactivation of the enzyme pectinmethylesterase (90 °C, with hold...

Abstract Propolis is a resin gathered by honey bees from trees and shrubs but it used in the beehive as building material or as an antibiotic paste. The aim of this study was to determine the content of flavonoids and phenols, as well as the antioxidant capacity of propolis from various regions of Guanajuato, Mexico. The content of flavonoids and p...

The ongoing demand for high-quality processed foods which would preserve their natural and fresh-like characteristics has awakened a growing interest in non-thermal technologies. Thanks to their ability to inactivate microorganisms under mild conditions, these technologies avoid drawbacks usually attributed to the use of thermal treatments, such as...

The consumption of rabbit meat is scarce in Mexico, despite its good taste and high protein content. Acid marination may be an option to introduce this meat into new markets and add value to this food. The use of ultrasound has been reported as an accelerator in the impregnation process and improving the product quality. The objective of this study...

The existence of high content of arsenic exceeding international regulations stablished for irrigation water can be the main factor for the relationship of arsenic content found in soil and crops of many countries around the world such as Bangladesh, Mexico and Spain. The drinking water is not the only source of consumption of arsenic in human diet...

Electric treatment applied to seeds and sprouts can change their phytochemical composition. However, only a handful of studies have investigated the effects of treating seeds with electric current prior to their germination on the enzymatic antioxidant system of their sprouts. The aim of this study was to determine the changes in bioactive compound...

Seeds from Cucurbitaceae plants (squashes, pumpkins, melons, etc.) have been used both as protein-rich food ingredients and nutraceutical agents by many indigenous cultures for millennia. However, relatively little is known about the bioactive components (e.g., peptides) of the Cucurbitaceae seed proteins (CSP) and their specific effects on human h...

Se evaluó la extracción ácida (ácido cítrico; pH=3) asistida con ultrasonidos de pectina de muestras de guayaba. Una extracción con Hidrólisis Ácida (HA) y una con Hidrólisis Ácida Asistida con Ultrasonidos (HAUS) fueron llevadas a cabo a tres diferentes tiempos (10, 30 y 40 minutos) a temperatura constante (75±0.1°C). Para los ultrasonidos, un máx...

The adsorption kinetics at the air-water interface of protein isolate from fish viscera are being modelled using fuzzy logic. The surface activity and the adsorption rate of the protein at pH 5 and 7 and protein concentrations between 0.05 and 2.0% (w/v) were experimentally determined. The suggested model had presented good fitting statistics and a...

The adsorption kinetics at the air-water interface of protein isolate from viscera of Brycon siebenthalae were modelled using fuzzy logic. The surface activity and the adsorption rate of the protein at pH 5 as well as protein concentrations between 0.1 and 2.0% (w/v) were experimentally determined. The suggested model presented good fitting statist...

In recent years, the research on functional peptide generation for the development of functional foods has focused, among other issues, on the enhancement of enzymatic hydrolysis by means of high-intensity ultrasound (HIU) application. It has been suggested that the use of HIU in pretreatment and during the hydrolysis process can modify protein con...

In meat brining, the concentration of brine could affect both water and NaCl transport and, consequently, the total length of the treatment and the final quality of the product. In the present work, the kinetics of water and NaCl transport during the brining of pork loin slices in different brine concentrations (50, 100, 150, 200, 240 and 280 kg/m3...

The search for an alternative means of reconstituting dried and salted products prior to consumption is of relevance for the food industry. New techniques should speed up the process while causing minimum impact on product quality. Thereby, the aim of this work was to evaluate both the effect of high-intensity ultrasound application on the desaltin...

Nowadays, High Intensity Ultrasound (US) has gained a considerable interest in food technology due to its ability to induce mass transfer intensification. When travelling through a medium, US causes a series of effects that can affect both the external and internal resistance to mass transfer, but it can also influence the structure and the quality...

Low-temperature convective drying could be considered an affordable alternative to conventional freeze-drying for foodstuffs. The process intensification should be based on non-thermal technologies, such as power ultrasound. Thereby, the aim of this work was to evaluate the air-borne application of power ultrasound on the low-temperature drying of...

The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of high intensity ultrasound and NaCl concentration on the brining kinetics (5 ± 1 °C) of pork loin as well as its influence on the textural and microstructural changes. In order to identify the effect of both factors on NaCl and moisture transport, kinetics were analyzed by taking the diffusion theor...

The overall aim of this study was to assess the influence of the ultrasound application during air drying of salted cod at low temperature on the rehydration capacity and the final product structure. For that purpose, drying experiments (0°C and 2 m/s) of salted cod slabs (length 50 x width 30 x thickness 10 mm) were carried out with (AIR+US, 20.5...

The main aim of this work was to evaluate the application of power ultrasound on the drying of salted cod at low temperature. For that purpose, drying experiments of salted cod slabs (length 50 x width 30 x thickness 5 mm) were conducted in a convective dryer with air recirculation, temperature and air velocity control, and an ultrasonically activa...

The drying rate of vegetables is limited by internal moisture diffusion and convective transport mechanisms. The increase of drying air temperature leads to faster water mobility; however, it provokes quality loss in the product and presents a higher energy demand. Therefore, the search for new strategies to improve water mobility during convective...

The main aim of this work was to test a diffusion model to describe atmospheric freeze drying (AFD) and hot air drying (HAD) kinetics of different products. HAD (50 ºC and 2 ms-1) and AFD (-14 ºC, 2 ms-1) experiments were carried out for eggplant, apple and carrot cubes (side 10 mm). Kinetics were described using a diffusion model neglecting the ex...

Modeling constitutes a fundamental tool with which to analyze the influence of ultrasound on mass transfer phenomena during drying. In this work, the study of the effect of power ultrasound application on the drying kinetics of eggplant was addressed by using different models based on theoretical (diffusion) or empirical approaches. Drying kinetics...

Dehydration constitutes a traditional preservation method for fruits and vegetables and it represents a very important operation in food processing. The way how water is removed from food affects the final product quality, thus the characteristics of dried products are dependent on the drying technique used. The main objective of the present study...

The application of power ultrasound could constitute a way to improve traditional convective drying systems. There still exists a lack of knowledge on this technology in order to address industrial applications. The aim of this work was to identify the influence of the textural properties of different vegetable products on the ultrasonic assisted c...