2018Agro3

On-line application form

Supervisor mail:
ferrerma@unizar.es

Title of the research project:

Use of special barleys for food purposes

Description of the research project:

Barley is valued for its low content of fat, high in carbohydrates, a good protein balance, minerals, vitamins, antioxidants and fiber. In the last years, a special interest has arisen in using barley as a source of bioactive compounds in human diets. The main focus has been put in ??glucans as soluble fiber. The FDA issued in 2006 reported a Health Claim associating barley consumption with reduced coronary heart disease. EFSA published in 2011 that barley and oat ??glucans improve blood cholesterol concentration, increase satiety reducing energy intake and postprandial glycaemic response, and improve digestive function. Other bioactive compounds, such as arabinoxylans, phenolic compounds, anthocyanins with antioxidant activity, as well as the role of Betaglucans in enhancing immunological responses are now?a?days receiving increasing attention.

Barley has been increasingly incorporated in human nutrition either as a whole grain or as a food ingredient. However, the incorporation of barley to foodstuffs, concomitantly to providing nutritional and health?related benefits, also alters processing and handling of foods as well as their organoleptic characteristics. Those effects depend both on the characteristics of the barley or barley constituents (type, variety, extraction rate of milled fractions or isolates) and on the technological processes.

Objectives:

In this project, hull?less and coloured?grain barley genotypes characterized by high content of ??glucans or high content in antioxidants (particularly anthocyanins) will be selected to produce functional foods and health promoting ingredients.

1. Bakery: Use of barley has a significant impact on water absorption, dough viscoelastic and pasting properties and consequently, in bread quality. On the other hand, the technological process (flour treatment, dough handling, fermentation and baking) may contribute to degradation or preservation of valuable components. The aim of the study will be to investigate the effects of different barley flour fractions and isolates on the quality of enriched dough and bread.
2. Breakfast cereals and snacks: Previous studies show that barley can be successfully used in flakes and extruded products even if incorporated in high levels. However, both the barley components and food processing have a significant effect on the quality and will be studied in this research.
3. Production and characterization of malts: The objectives of this study will be to produce kilned and roasted malts from high ??glucans and coloured barley genotypes to monitor changes in bioactive compounds composition (??glucans, arabinoxylans, anthocyanins and other phenolic compounds) and to determine their antioxidant activity in order to explore their potential use as food supplement.

Researchers belong to the BETAGLUCANOS Campus Iberus Food and Nutrition Action Group. We have focused on the development of naked grain barley varieties with high contents of bioactive compounds and in the production of extract and grain fractions with high concentration of bioactive components.

However, at present, it is necessary to develop, from these raw materials, foodstuffs that could be included in a healthy daily diet. This is the specific objective of this thesis proposal and of the BETAGLUCANOS Action Group.

PHD Programme:

Doctoral Program in Food Quality, Safety and Technology
University of Zaragoza

Supervisor short biography:

Ana Ferrer is a food technologist with a PhD from the University of Zaragoza (Spain). She is a professor in the area of Food Technology at the University of Zaragoza (Spain) since 2003. She lectures mainly Food Science and Food Processing in Human Nutrition. She is a member of the IA2 (AgriFood Institute of Aragon) in the Plants Food Research Group T07_17R.

Her research projects focus on strategies for the nutritional and sensory improvement of cereal-based products to meet consumers’ demands. This research has been recognized with the support of several investigation projects from national competitive calls. She is co-author of scientific publications in international journals and conferences. She has also experience on collaborative research projects with food companies. Research activities on functional characterization of ingredients, physical properties, food nutrition and sensory and consumers evaluation are carried out to investigate conventional and specific targeted cereal-based products.

Gross annual salary:

22.000-26.000 €

The employment contract in each recruiting institution will apply internal rules so final retribution might slightly differ.

Working hours:
37,5 hours a week

Dedication:
Full time