Duska Curic

Duska Curic
University of Zagreb · Department of Food Technology

PhD

About

87
Publications
48,736
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Introduction
Skills and Expertise
Additional affiliations
February 1982 - January 2015
University of Zagreb
Position
  • Professor (Full)

Publications

Publications (87)
Article
Full-text available
Lignocellulosic biomass can be converted to energy via several routes. One of them is hydrolysis to sugars with subsequent transformation to fuels and chemicals. Due to the crystalline structure of lignocellulose, pretreatment is a prerequisite to achieving increased enzymatic hydrolysis’ rates. The objective of this study was to determine the opti...
Article
Full-text available
Sourdough fermentation is rarely used for gluten-free flatbread (GFFB), a product that is challenging to produce, especially when using high-fiber ingredients that bring nutritional benefits but lead to physical deterioration. The aim of this study was therefore to evaluate the fermentation performance of carob flour (CSPF), proso millet flour (PMF...
Article
Full-text available
Legume flours can nutritionally enrich gluten-free bread but can also negatively affect its flavour. Although sourdough fermentation can improve bread flavour, its application to legume–cereal gluten-free matrices has been scarcely investigated. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of partial replacement (25%) of wholemeal rice with y...
Article
Full-text available
The process of three-dimensional (3D) printing is of greatest interest to food science and engineering community because it offers numerous opportunities for innovative food design, new product formulations and personalized nutrition. Of particular interest are food inks based on cereal flours or starches, whose unique rheological properties make t...
Article
Zahvaljujući znanstvenim istraživanjima i dokazima koji govore u prilog tomu da su prehrana i zdravlje usko povezani, potrošači se okreću skupini prehrambenih proizvoda koje nazivamo funkcionalnim, a kojoj pripadaju i obogaćeni proizvodi. Tjestenina je popularna i pogodna namirnica za obogaćivanje dodatkom različitih sastojaka. Cilj ovog rada bio j...
Article
Full-text available
We investigated the influence of cryogenic grinding on the quality of rapeseed cake. Rapeseed cake is a good source of valuable proteins (30%) and oil (14%), with a balanced fatty acid composition and a fair amount of sterols, which may reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases. However, the presence of antinutritive compounds prevents its use as...
Article
Full-text available
Cereal bran possesses enzymes and antinutrients which should be reduced for their usability as a food ingredient high in dietary fiber, minerals, and antioxidants. This study investigated the influence of high-intensity ultrasound on enzymatic and antioxidant activities, phytic acid content (PA), and functional and rheological properties of oat and...
Preprint
Full-text available
Oat and barley bran are high in dietary fiber (β-glucans), minerals, and antioxidants, have high activity of enzymes, but possess also antinutrients. This study aimed to investigate the influence of high-intensity ultrasound on enzyme and antioxidant activities, phytic acid content, as well as functional and rheological properties of oat and barley...
Article
Full-text available
Research background. Millet bran is a by-product rich in dietary fibre, micronutrients and bioactive compounds which are often deficient in a gluten-free diet. Previously, cryogenic grinding has been shown to improve the functionality of bran to some extent, although it offered limited benefits for bread making. This study aims to investigate the e...
Article
Interest in healthier snacks is on the rise. 3D printing of healthier snacks enables the use of alternative ingredients such as grain by-products, but also presents challenges such as dough darkening and post-process deformations. This work aimed to investigate the influence of the amount of oil (10–30% on flour basis), xylanase activity (17–57 U/g...
Article
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Since there are no products in the European market labelled as low-FODMAP (low in fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols), patients with irritable bowel syndrome and non-celiac wheat sensitivity often consume gluten-free products. These naturally contain little FODMAP, but have poorer sensory properties and lower...
Article
Food personalization and customization is now easier due to 3D printing, but the printing performance of gluten-free cereal material has hardly been explored. This research investigated the suitability of four gluten-free powder blends for snack 3D printing. The blends were analyzed for their powder properties, and a selected blend served as a mode...
Article
Gluten free bakery products often contain high levels of starch and refined rice flour, ingredients that are hypoallergenic but of low nutritive value. Pumpkin seed cake is a gluten free, nutrient‐dense by‐product of the oil industry, unfortunately still mainly used as animal feed. This study aimed to optimize the use pumpkin seed cake (10‐30 %) fl...
Article
Full-text available
The Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) is designed to respond promptly to the health risks associated with food, food contact materials or feed by enabling fast exchange of information between bodies and institutions involved in the system. Mycotoxins, secondary metabolites produced by moulds, are common contaminants found in cereals and...
Article
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The aim of this study was to analyse RASFF notifications on allergens in cereals and cereal-based products in the period from 01/01/2015 to 31/12/2019. Allergies caused by food intake due to the presence of an allergen can pose a serious danger to the health of consumers. In order to promptly respond to any health risks related to food, food contac...
Article
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Bran can enrich snacks with dietary fibre but contains fructans that trigger symptoms in people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). This study aimed to investigate the bioprocessing of wheat and amaranth bran for degrading fructans and its application (at 20% flour-based) in 3D-printed snacks. Bran was bioprocessed with Saccharomyces cerevisiae al...
Article
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Flavor is one of the most important, but also the least researched parameter of bread quality. Numerous volatile compounds that contribute to the flavor profile of bread are usually extracted by the headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) method. The development of a reliable and sensitive HS-SPME method requires the selection and optimizat...
Article
Full-text available
3D printing is an emerging technology that offers the ability to produce tailor-made foods. This work addresses the physical properties of 3D-printed snacks enriched with wheat bran as a function of flour type (oat, barley), addition of acidity regulators (citric acid, sodium bicarbonate), printing temperature (20 °C, 30 °C, 40 °C), and bran pre-pr...
Article
Gluten-free bread is often characterised by poor nutritional value and bioactive profile. Legume flours have potential for its enrichment, but the effect of sourdough fermentation of legume matrices on the phenolics and antioxidant capacity of bread is scarcely investigated. Thus, this study aimed was to determine the effect of partial replacement...
Article
Wheat bran has a short shelf life, which could be prolonged by reducing the activity of enzymes in lipid degradation. In this study, high-intensity ultrasound treatment (400 W, 80% amplitude, 15 min), with or without cooling, was investigated for reducing the activity of lipase and peroxidase of wheat bran. Lipid stability parameters (free fatty ac...
Article
Full-text available
Buckwheat hulls (BWH) are a lignocellulosic material with valuable nutrient contents, especially rutin and dietary fibre, which are worth exploring from a food industry perspective. BWH are also a voluminous material that is difficult to grind to very fine particle sizes, which can be achieved under cryogenic conditions. Therefore, we investigated...
Article
Cereal by‐products can negatively affect sensory properties and shelf life of foods if they are not pre‐processed in order to alter their physico‐chemical properties. Cryo‐grinding is an innovative method for processing cereal by‐products; therefore, we investigated the effect of adding cryo‐ground proso millet bran (10%) and buckwheat hulls (2%) o...
Article
Wheat bran is a by‐product rich in bioactive compounds, but possess a strong polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity, which can act undesirably on product quality. This study aimed to optimize the particle size (500, 255, 10 µm) of wheat bran and time and amplitude of high‐intensity ultrasound (HIU) treatment on the PPO activity, total phenolics, antioxi...
Article
Full-text available
Research background: Carob is widely cultivated Mediterranean plant, but its flour is scarcely used in bread making. Previous studies investigated the quality of wheat bread with added carob flour showing discrepant results. This study aims to investigate the fermentation performance, antioxidant activity, rheological behaviour and baking applicat...
Article
Full-text available
This study presents the results of conventional aqueous (CE) and non-conventional ultrasound-assisted (UAE) extractions of polyphenolic compounds from lees extracts of red wine varieties (Merlot and Vranac). The effect of ultrasound extraction time (t, s), and amplitude (A,%) from a 400 W ultrasound processor with different ultrasonic probes diamet...
Article
Full-text available
In the present work, the effect of high pressure processing (HPP) (0, 100, 200 and 300 MPa) and different treatment time (5 and 10 minutes) on the moisture uptake, cooking yield, colour and texture, as well as microbial population of chicken breast fillets was investigated. The application of high hydrostatic pressure resulted in a modification of...
Article
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Technological value of wheat grain and flour, are affected by the a) genotype, b) environment, and c) agronomic management. China, the biggest wheat producer, due to lack of quality germ-plasm still import HRW from the US. The Chinese government considers food self-sufficiency as "a matter of national security", and its great goal is to stop import...
Article
This study aimed to valorise the underutilised by-product of proso millet decortication. Millet bran was sieved into three fractions with substantially different nutritional profile. The fraction with diameter <500 μm had the highest nutrient density (14% protein, 26% starch, 36% dietary fibre, 9% fat, and 3 mg GAE/g phenolics (d.w.)) and was analy...
Article
Full-text available
Pumpkin seed cake, a by‐product of pumpkin seed oil production, is a potential source of nutraceuticals, which remain unexploited by current management practices. This research assessed its bioactive potential and investigated the effect of cryogenic grinding pretreatment on extractability of various nonpolar and polar bioactive molecules. Notable...
Article
Full-text available
Acrolein is a toxic compound present in food. It can be formed by bacterial species isolated from sourdough or applied as sourdough starter cultures, such as Lactobacillus reuteri. To the best of our knowledge, the content of acrolein in sourdough bread has not yet been determined, neither has a method for its quantification in such a sample been p...
Article
Full-text available
Cilj ovog istraživanja bio je ispitati fizikalno-kemijska i senzorska svojstva plodova više sorti kupina, jagoda, malina i borovnica uzgojenih u neposrednoj okolici Zagreba tijekom 7 dana skladištenja pri 4 °C u svrhu boljeg poznavanja svojstava sorti uzgojenih u Hrvatskoj. Shodno tome, 1., 4. i 7. dan skladištenja provedeno je određivanje topljive...
Article
Tjestenina predstavlja idealan matriks za dodavanje različitih izvora nutrijenata. Obogaćivanjem se tjestenini, osim nutritivnih, mijenjaju i senzorske karakteristike. Cilj ovog rada bio je utvrditi prihvatljivost svježih i svježih kuhanih uzoraka širokih rezanaca obogaćenih različitim udjelima proteina graška i proteina konoplje od strane potrošač...
Article
Full-text available
Millet is an unexploited cereal with potential in the food industry due to its nutritional value and resistance to harsh climate conditions. Nutritious millet byproducts have a potential application in the development of functional cereal products, but require processing in order to improve their physical and nutritional quality. Therefore, we inve...
Article
Cilj ovoga istraživanja bio je odrediti parametre kvalitete svježeg pilećeg mesa nakon tretmana ultrazvukom visokog intenziteta. Rezultati su pokazali da ne postoji značajna razlika u ukupnom broju bakterija između tretmana u ultrazvučnoj kupelji kroz 5 i 15 minuta u ispitanim uzorcima pilećeg mesa te da tretman ultrazvukom nema trajan učinak na un...
Article
Full-text available
Since 1980s, several methods for the determination of lignans in food samples have been developed depending on the types of lignans and foods analysed, but mostly on flaxseed as a reference food. In this work, specific steps in flaxseed preparation for lignan secoisolariciresinol analysis by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method were examined...
Article
Full-text available
Driven by the bakery industry urge to satisfy consumer demand for fresh, diverse and high quality bakery products, we investigated the influence of barley sourdough and vacuum cooling on shelf life quality of partially baked bread stored in modified atmosphere packaging at ambient conditions. Barley sourdough was fermented with Lactobacillus reuter...
Article
Market reports show an increasing interest for healthy biscuits, with omega-3 and lignan rich flaxseeds being highlighted as key ingredients. Usage of milled flaxseed in comparison to the whole seed might improve bioaccessibility of lignans and omega-3, but also accelerate lipid oxidation, thus diminishing the consumers’ acceptability. This researc...
Article
Purpose: Cookies were not generally viewed as functional contributors to well-being as they are primarily perceived as confectionery products. The purpose was to evaluate the potential of flaxseed-enriched cookies as carriers of lignans and omega-3 fatty acids – functional compounds that are lacking in the Western diet. Design/methodology/approach...
Conference Paper
Cookies are widespread confectionary cereal based product. Recently it was recognized that cookies can be easily transformed into nutritionally valuable functional product, while retaining the taste. However, this type of functional product can live on the market only if consumers adopt it. Therefore we investigated purchase habits of Croatian cons...
Article
Full-text available
A need for food that contributes to individual nutrition and health status, and also to the sustainability of the planet, is rising as a consequence of consumer’s awareness of foods nutritional value and origin. This behaviour is mostly expressed through the preference toward organically grown and wholesome food. Science to some extent supports thi...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Bread can be a good source of nutrients as well as non-nutrient compounds. This study was designed to assess the effect of adding of sourdough and whey proteins to wholemeal (WM) bread produced by bake-off technology on chemical composition and bioavailability of proteins, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and iron content in Wistar rats....
Article
The aim of this study was to examine the effect of addition of fresh sourdough and whey proteins to partially baked and frozen wholemeal wheat-flour rolls on the glycaemic index (GI). The study was performed on healthy humans (n = 15). Each human tested five types of wholemeal wheat rolls: (1) fully baked, non-frozen (FBNF), (2) partially baked and...
Article
Partially baked frozen (PBF) process prolongs bread shelf life, but diminishes its volume and crumb texture. Therefore, we investigated the possibility of using sourdough for the quality improvement in PBF wholewheat bread. Sourdough was fermented with either Lactobacillus plantarum, Lb. brevis or Leuconostoc mesenteroides mixed with yeast Candida...
Article
Many attempts have been made to increase the nutritional value of bread by adding dietary fibre. However, fibre enrichment is usually associated with various technological problems. The aim of this study was to optimise the composition of a blend of inulin, pectin and guar gum to enrich the fibre content of partially baked frozen bread without impa...
Article
Full-text available
Gluten-free bread often has low nutritive value, high glycemic index (GI) and short shelf-life. The aim of this research was to investigate the influence of sourdough addition on GI, quality parameters and firming kinetics of gluten-free bread produced by partially baked frozen technology. Sourdough was fermented with a commercial starter of Lactob...
Article
Since 1980s, several methods for the determination of lignans in food samples have been developed depending on the types of lignans and foods analysed, but mostly on flaxseed as a reference food. In this work, specific steps in flaxseed preparation for lignan secoisolariciresinol analysis by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method were examined...
Article
Different enzymes and other proteins are used to improve the quality of gluten-free breads, but their combinations and relative amounts need to be optimised to reduce product cost and improve overall consumer acceptability. This paper aimed to investigate the feasibility of using extruded flours (rice, potato, corn, buckwheat) in combination with v...
Article
The volume change of partially fermented dough exposed to refrigeration has been investigated. Lean dough pieces (70 g) were exposed to pre-fermentation at 30 °C during selected time to reach expansion ratios of 2, 3 and 4. The pre-fermented dough were exposed to cooling at 4 °C for 2 h. Dough pieces were then frozen, thawed and baked. The evolutio...
Article
Whole grain cereals are an important source of bioavailable lignans, the group of compounds with potential anti-cancerogenic, antioxidant, anti-proliferative, pro-apoptotic, and antiangiogenic properties. The aim of this work was to develop a sensitive method for determination of wheat bran lignans. The analysis of lignans secoisolariciresinol, hyd...
Article
Full-text available
Different lactic acid bacteria starters were used to prepare sourdough to make partially-baked frozen wholemeal wheat bread. The sourdough was prepared with a pure culture of Lactobacillus plantarum or with commercial starters containing Lactobacillus brevis combined with Saccharomyces cerevisiae var. chevalieri (LV4), Lactobacillus fermentum (PL1)...
Article
Rheological properties of gluten-free dough (GFD) as well as conventional gluten containing dough (CGD) during processing were measured. Both CGD and GFD were examined in terms of mechanical spectrum, in the frequency range 0.1–10 Hz, at constant deformation γ = 0.01, at different temperatures. As a result changes in viscoelasticity of dough during...
Article
Full-text available
Biologically active folate forms are reduced metabolites of folic acid - tetrahydrofolates. Tetrahydrofolate acts as a carrier of one-carbon units in biochemical reactions that lead to the synthesis of the purines and the pyrimidines, which are the base constituents of deoxyribonucleic acid. In another important reaction, 5-methyltetrahydrofolate d...
Article
Full-text available
The purpose of this study was to define an impact of the cultivar, year and cultivation area of the standard Croatian winter wheat on the bread-making quality. The bread-making quality of cultivars ‘Divana’, ‘Žitarka’ and ‘Sana’ from the crop years 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006, and from Zagreb and Osijek location was analyzed. Wheat from the cul...
Article
Full-text available
The objective of this study was to determine amino acid content, urease activity and trypsin inhibitor activity in soybean grain for polygastric animals’ feed aft er toasting with the aim to introduce thick layer in toasting technology. Hence, soybean was toasted both in thick and thin layer at 130 oC during 10 minutes. In order to properly monitor...
Conference Paper
The interruption of fermentation during the bread making process and eventually the freezing of prefermented dough offers some advantages such as flexibility for bread production. However, the freezing of pre fermented frozen dough is a challenging process in that the fermented dough is a fragile structure that is exposed to collapse during chillin...
Article
Packaging requirements for fresh bakery goods are often minimal as many of the products are for immediate consumption. However, packaging can be an important factor in extending the shelf life of other cereal-based goods (toast, frozen products, biscuits, cakes, pastas). Some amount of the texture changes and flavor loss manifest over the shelf lif...
Article
This survey concerns industrial bread making and has been carried out within the European project entitled EU-FRESHBAKE (October 2006 to October 2009), which concerns the bake-off technology. This technology consists in producing bread at industrial level (frozen most of the time) and to retail the bread in “baking stations” or in small vending sho...
Article
In order to improve technological properties of corn kernel for ethanol production, samples were treated with a hydrothermal pre-treatment of cooking (steaming), prior to drying. Two types of cooking process parameters were applied; steam pressure of 0.5 bars during a 10 min period, and steam pressure of 1.5 bars during a 30 min period. Afterwards,...
Article
In order to obtain high protein bread, enrichment of wheat flour with defatted soybean flour (DSF) was investigated. For laboratory bread making, the following were added to wheat flour: 30 or 40 % (w/w flour) extruded blend of corn meal (CM) and DSF prepared in two ratios (w/w) 75 % CM / 25 % DSF (blend 1) and 62.5 % CM / 37.5 % DSF (blend 2). All...
Article
To obtain a high protein bread, wheat flour was enriched with defatted soybean flour (DSF) by adding a 30 or 40% (w/w flour) extruded blend of corn meal (CM) and DSF prepared in two ratios (w/w): 75% CM/25% DSF (blend 1) and 62.5% CM/37.5% DSF (blend 2). All bread samples had high protein content (>14 g/100 g dry matter), high protein digestibility...
Article
Full-text available
Mixing of powders is a common operation in any industry. Most powders are known to be cohesive, many agglomerate spontaneously when exposed to humid atmosphere or elevated storage temperature. Agitation of the powder (especially powders with different bulk densities) may result in migration of smaller particles downwards and of larger ones upwards....
Article
Full-text available
The objective of this work was the optimization of extrusion process for the production of extruded cornmeal (ECM) that may be used in the production of corn bread by a direct procedure. The extrusion process variables, barrel temperature, Et (111–159C), moisture content, Mc (12.10–24.77%) and screw speed, Ss (160–460 rpm), were considered and thei...
Article
Full-text available
Bread quality index was established using the instrumental analysis of bread parameters that influence the consumers’ acceptability. The instrumental methods that describe bread appearance, structure and texture have been chosen in order to enable the identification and quantification of main discrepancies of wheat bread produced by different proce...
Article
Full-text available
Bioethanol is today most commonly produced from corn grain and sugar cane. It is expected that there will be limits to the supply of these raw materials in the near future. Therefore, lignocellulosic biomass, namely agricultural and forest waste, is seen as an attractive feedstock for future supplies of ethanol. Lignocellulosic biomass consists of...
Article
Results are presented from the ongoing EU-FRESHBAKE project on manufacture of bread using bake off technology. Topics covered include: use of refrigeration and freezing to prolong shelf life of bakery products; main techniques used in bake off technology (unfermented frozen dough, partially baked unfrozen and partially baked frozen bread); survey o...
Article
Full-text available
The most common disease caused by cereal protein ingestion is celiac disease. This can be treated only by a diet that excludes all foods containing wheat, barley, rye and oat proteins. Corn meal (CM) and defatted soybean fl our (DSF) blend processed by High Temperature Short Time (HTST) extrusion cooking for gluten-free bread production was investi...
Article
Full-text available
Recipes determine the quality of livestock feed and the hydraulic adders are one of the elements determining if the given recipe will be carried out. Generally, construction of existing adders does not allow accomplishment of that aim i.e. they do not meet recipe requirements. Consequently, researches which determined deviations in ingredient addin...
Article
This paper deals with pellet production of nutritive and medicinal feed miscture for fish, used in treatment of Botriocefalose disease of carp, with an emphasis on firmness of the obtained pellets. By applying the results of this investigation, pellet production could become economically and ecologically more acceptable. Smaller portion of broken p...