About
206
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Introduction
Associate Professor w/ Habilitation at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto and integrated researcher at GreenUPorto - Sustainable Agrifood Production Research Centre.
Director of the MSc and Vice-director of the PhD on Consumer Sciences and Nutrition (FCUP/FCNAUP)
Areas of research: application of fast sensory profiling, dynamic profiling, food evoked emotions and food choice criteria.
Additional affiliations
Education
October 1994 - May 1999
College of Biotechnology Catholic University of Portugal
Field of study
- Biotechnology (w/ specialization in Food Science and Engineering)
October 1988 - September 1993
College of Biotechnology Catholic University of Portugal
Field of study
- Food Engineering
Publications
Publications (206)
Fractionation of edible insects and their rearing by-products can lead to expanded industrial applications and extraction of value-added products. The main goal of this study was to extract chitin and synthesise chitosan from three different insect sources – Tenebrio molitor larvae, adult Acheta domesticus and A. domesticus rearing by-products (leg...
The European Commission recently authorised the inclusion of insect meal in poultry feed. Black soldier fly larvae meal (BSF) has comparable nutritional value to soybean meal (SBM) and higher calcium content, making it an attractive alternative protein source for laying hens While a few studies have explored this objective, inconsistent results hav...
Meeting global targets for healthier and more sustainable diets calls for a substantial reduction of meat consumption in Western nations, especially red and processed meat. This requires a transition to the large-scale production, marketing, and adoption of alternative proteins. The current state of development of new plant- and insect-based foods...
The environmental concerns associated with excess meat consumption have emphasized the need for sustainable alternatives. Edible insects offer a promising alternative due to their environmental efficiency and nutritious profile, but their widespread adoption in Western diets remains a challenge. The objective of the study was to investigate the imp...
The presence of vines across diverse landscapes and peoples led to the production of different wine styles with a variety of sensory characteristics. In the 20th Century, these styles were sorted into Old (i.e., European) versus New World (i.e., from other continents) to facilitate communication. Geographic origin has been playing a prominent role...
Large amounts of money, time and effort are devoted to sensory and consumer research in food and beverage companies in an attempt to maximize the chances of new products succeeding in the marketplace. Many new products fail due to lack of consumer interest. Answers to what causes this and what can be done about it are complex and remain unclear. Th...
Large amounts of money, time and effort are devoted to sensory and consumer research in food and beverage companies in an attempt to maximize the chances of new products succeeding in the marketplace. Many new products fail due to lack of consumer interest. Answers to what causes this and what can be done about it are complex and remain unclear. Th...
An increasing number of consumers demand healthier, more convenient, and sustainable food products, including rice, a staple worldwide. Food manufacturers have responded to this trend by considering food’s intrinsic and extrinsic aspects. This study evaluated the importance of variety, processing, and claims on willingness to try ready-to-eat rice...
Sensory analysis methodologies are performed in sensory booths designed to minimise external stimuli, lacking ecological validity. Immersive environments are used to introduce contextual cues, but there is a lack of studies using mixed reality systems. The main goal of this study was to evaluate an augmented virtuality (AV) system where participant...
Design thinking (DT) has been a subject of extensive debate and application across diverse knowledge domains, including the realm of food; nonetheless, its precise definition remains unclear. This systematic review comprised two components. Firstly, it examined the evolving understanding of DT by aggregating pertinent studies selected based on thei...
Consumers are interested in sustainable and safe food with positive sensory attributes, either minimally processed or incorporating sustainable processes. However, the introduction of new food technologies may generate concern among consumers. This study aims to identify ways to decrease consumers' risk perception of new technologies: High pressure...
Consumers are preferring more “natural” foods, made of “healthier” and “familiar” components - the “clean-label” trend. As the population ages, understanding the older adult consumer segment becomes increasingly important. This study aims to identify the factors influencing the acceptability and liking of clean-label products in older adults living...
The fractionation of edible insects is one of the major topics related to using insects as food. Developing adequate protein recovery methods is essential to guarantee acceptable incorporation of insect protein fractions into functional food products, which in turn is essential to the development of insect-based products with higher consumer accept...
There is scarce research on the use of black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) meal in the diets of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) reared in a real farm. Thus, the current study aimed to evaluate the effect of feeding BSFL meal to salmon in terms of fillet quality and sensory analysis at farm level conditions. Fish were fed a total of three diets (pellet si...
Current consumption drivers, particularly those related to health and wellbeing, have been influencing trends for the lower consumption of cereals, particularly rice, due to their typical high glycaemic index (GIs) and consequent impacts on obesity. To satisfy this consumer concern, more food innovations that promote healthy eating habits are requi...
Visual assessment triggers physiological, emotional, and cognitive responses in consumer behavior. This confluence of signals can be influenced by context, which plays a crucial role in eating behavior. The strategies used to evoke scenarios that enhance ecological validity in sensory experiences have evolved in the last years to include immersive...
For food applications, the processing conditions applied to edible insects should present low energy requirements and environmental impact, while also assuring high quality and safety. The main goal of this study was to assess how different blanching, storage and drying conditions influence the quality and safety of Tenebrio molitor larvae. The dif...
Low consumer acceptance of edible insects and insect‐based products is one of the main barriers to the successful implementation of entomophagy in Western countries. This rejection is mainly caused by consumers’ negative emotional responses, psychological/personality traits, and attitudes toward food choices. However, as the role of intrinsic produ...
Chefs often say "You eat with your eyes first.". This means that, while taste, smell, and 11 vision are distinct senses, visual stimuli generate expectations through learned associations, and 12 these expectations exert cognitive top-down influences that can and sometimes do alter assessments 13 of taste and flavour. This study investigates the int...
Portugal, the largest rice consumer in Europe, is witnessing an increase in imported rice, prompting a need to understand the underlying reasons for this rise. The Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) has been adapted to particular cases, however, the procedure isn't standardized. A method based on Design Thinking -a user-centred problem-solving approac...
Background
Despite drought and nitrogen (N) deficit being two of the most important crops’ growth limiting factors, only few studies have explored tomato phenotypic variability in response to both abiotic stresses.
Aims
In this study, we aimed to perform a phenotypic evaluation and an analysis of the growth traits of 40 tomato genotypes (mostly fo...
Rice is an important source of γ-oryzanol (GO) and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which are bioactive compounds that may benefit blood lipid and pressure control. Both GO and GABA can be improved by germination and fermentation. Fermentation with A. oryzae produces Koji, a rice-based starter for Amazake, a naturally sweet beverage. Germinated rice (br...
Portugal is the greatest European rice consumer. Thus, incorporating whole rice and rice bran in innovative rice products is challenging. An experimental method based on the creativity association theory was applied. A group of nine students performed simple brainstorming to generate recipe ideas. Following the Design Thinking approach, a group of...
Consumer acceptance is based on liking, palatability and overall perceived quality, affecting choice and consumption. Sensory characteristics of foods are important for acceptability, while food environment (e.g., the physical surroundings, or who we are eating with) and cognitive (e.g., expectations) dimensions also have an impact on liking and ac...
Background
Plant- and insect-based foods are promising alternative protein sources. Previous studies have shown that introducing plant-based foods to the diet can reduce meat intake, but no such intervention has explored the effects of insect-based foods.
Methods
This study aims to integrate alternative proteins to main meals of 80 Danish families...
An International Altered Taste Consortium (I-eAT) is proposed that seeks to utilise gastronomic and biopsychosocial insights to understand and help people who experience taste alterations. Altered eating experiences and a changed experience of taste is a common and disabling trans-diagnostic, multi-causal entity which has for too long been poorly u...
The consumption of edible insects (EI) is traditional in many parts of the world, but not in others. In fact, despite globalization and the multiple advantages pointed out about the consumption of EI, there are still many countries where entomophagy is seen with disgust and aversion. This systematic review aimed to examine the motivations that infl...
It is necessary to develop products with desirable sensory properties in order to increase the acceptance of insect-based products by Western consumers. In this work, the impact of defatting on the sensory properties of cereal bars with yellow mealworm (Tenebrio molitor) larvae, in addition to the impact of different drying methods and different sp...
Rice and cereal consumption has become a concern for consumers due to usually high glycaemic indexes (GI), which is a critical issue for a balanced and healthy diet. Therefore, the development of new products with low GI is an important target of the industry, particularly in countries with high consumption. This study assesses consumers’ perceptio...
Entomophagy - intentional consumption of insects - is practiced in several regions of the world, particularly in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In the Western world, edible insects have been growing in popularity as novel food and feed. The main objective of this cross-cultural study, performed in Portugal and Norway, was to evaluate the determina...
Thinking of the present gastronomic trends is inevitable when talking about innovation in haute pastry. Launching a successful product that meets consumers’ high expectations despite the rising demand for new creations is increasingly complex. For this reason, sensory analysis studies are more and more interested in studying the emotional response...
Virtual reality is becoming an opportunity for multidisciplinary collaboration, including sensory science. The main objective of this work was to compare visual expectations generated by five real cakes evaluated in a laboratory testing booth with their virtual versions in a virtualized sensory booth. Real cakes were designed following the current...
Background: Many foods have an antioxidant activity, and nutrition may mitigate COVID-19. Some countries with a low COVID-19 mortality have a relatively high consumption of cabbage or fermented foods. To test the potential role of fermented foods and cabbage in COVID-19 mortality in Europe, we performed an ecological study. Methods: The EFSA Compre...
Synthetic vitamin E is commonly used in aquafeeds to prevent oxidative stress in fish and delay feed and flesh oxidation during storage, but consumers’ preferences tend towards natural antioxidant sources. The potential of vegetable antioxidants-rich coproducts, dried tomato (TO), carrot (CA) and coriander (CO) was compared to that of synthetic vit...
Foodborne diseases (FBD) generate a substantial burden on society and individual; however, it is not clear how consumers perceive the impact of different consequences of FBD on individual lifestyles. This study aims to investigate consumer risk perceptions of FBD, considering different consequences and scenarios. A cross-sectional study was carried...
Sea urchin gonads are considered a prized seafood product. Their market price depends on quality and appearance, mainly evaluated through colour. The desirable yellow-orange colour is determined by carotenoids deposition in the gonads, mainly the accumulation of echinenone, which depends on availability, uptake and bioconversion of β-carotene from...
Paracentrotus lividus gonads are receiving increasing interest for their unique sensory attributes. However, the sensory profile of this highly demanded gourmet product has not yet been well described, and doing so may potentially benefit the gonads’ marketability and acceptability. The main goal of this study was to build a sensory profile of sea...
The Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) was applied to assess the motivations for daily food choices and associated factors in a Brazilian sample. Data were collected from January to July 2019 from 525 individuals over 18 years old recruited face-to-face in different places (e.g., university, public squares, health posts), using a convenient, intention...
O Temporal-Check-All-That-Apply (TCATA) e Temporal-Check-All-That-Apply Fading (TCATA Fading) são dois métodos dinâmicos, o TCATA Fading emergiu do TCATA, apresentando o desvanecimento automático (fading) da seleção de atributos. Este estudo teve como principal objetivo a comparação entre os métodos de TCATA e TCATA Fading, com dois tempos de fadin...
Every year, agri-food industries in industrialised countries produce approximately 1.3 billion tonnes of food loss and waste. The adoption of a circular economy policy has received special attention by the agri-food industries, allowing for the creation and development of new food products made of by-products that would otherwise be wasted or used...
Thinking of present gastronomic trends is inevitable when talking about innovation in Haute Pastry. Despite the rising demand for new creations, launching a successful product that meets the high expectations of consumers is increasingly complex. For this reason, sensory analysis studies are more and more interested in studying the emotions generat...
The main goal of this research was to explore and understand Chefs' perceptions regarding sea urchin gonads sensorial features, production and use, with an emphasis on echinoculture. This study used a mixed methodology, where three groups of chefs were interviewed: Michelin star, from Ericeira and from Algarve, these being the two main regions of s...
This article aims to review the current literature pertaining to the effects of eating local seasonal food on sustainable consumption. To this end, we examined definitions of seasonal and local food, the methodological approaches adopted to study the impact of seasonal consumption on sustainability, and sustainability dimensions investigated in jou...
Objective
To determine nutritional adequacy of school lunch and to assess the impact of food waste on nutrient intake of primary school children.
Design
The weighing method was used for evaluating initial servings and plate waste for lunch. Energy and nutritional content of meals served, consumed and wasted were estimated using the software Food P...
On an international level Codex Alimentarius is the main standard-setting body for the production and the commercialisation of food and feed. Founded in 1963 upon joint initiative of two other international organisations, notably FAO and the World Health Organization (WHO), its main mission consists in the development of technical standards with th...
Insects currently represent 70–75% of all animal species living on earth (Katayama et al. 2007). The class of invertebrates Insecta of the phylum Arthropoda consists of over one million known species, while approximately five million species are in fact thought to exist in total. There are currently about 23 different insect orders, amongst which C...
A characterisation of the global market for insect as food and feed is no easy job as comprehensive business studies are still lacking in light of the fact that the sector operates differently across the world and that, in certain geographical areas, edible insects, in particular, are a relatively recent novelty.
There is no question that the potential of the production and commercialisation of edible insects in terms of food security and sustainability (see Sects. 2.3 and 2.4) has produced a considerable impact on the EU market and its regulatory framework over the last decade.
The demand for healthy, satiating, and convenient products is growing, with ready-to-eat expanded snacks being the preferred. These are produced made by extrusion, which is a versatile and efficient technology, with an immense potential to develop new food products. In addition to satisfy consumer requests, it is interesting to add alternative
prot...
Within most Western societies, insects are considered to be a novel food with rising popularity as an alternative to conventional food sources, due to strong environmental pressures, fast population growth, food insecurity and growing demand for animal-derived food. Although insects are already consumed in several parts of the world, acceptance of...
Forecasts point out an exponential growth in the global population, which raises concerns over the ability of the current agri-food production systems to meet food demand in the long term. Such a prospect has led international organizations and the scientific community to raise awareness about, and call for, the need to identify additional sources...
This work aimed to adapt the EsSense Profile® emotions list to the discrimination of herbal infusions, aiming to evaluate the effect of harvesting conditions on the emotional profile. A panel of 100 consumers evaluated eight organic infusions: lemon verbena, peppermint, lemon thyme, lemongrass, chamomile, lemon balm, globe amaranth and tutsan, usin...
There is an increasing importance of the role of children and adolescents in the food market and to successfully develop food products intended for them, it is necessary to apply proper sensory evaluation methodologies. Although children can execute traditional methods for food liking and preference evaluation, traditional sensory descriptive metho...
This study aimed to assess consumers’ perceptions about the impact of consumption of different foods on health and body weight, as well as to identify risk perceptions about food-related chronic diseases. Face-to-face questionnaires were conducted with 525 Brazilians. Individuals were asked about their perception of risks associated with the consum...
Sea urchin gonads are receiving increasing attention for their exclusive sensorial attributes. However, the sensory profile of this highly demanded gourmet product has not yet been well described, and it may potentially help enhancing the gonads’ marketability and acceptability. The main goal of this study was to build a sensory profile of sea urch...
Edible insects are a unique food source, requiring extensive allergenic risk assessment before its safe introduction in the food market. In a recent systematic review, crustacean allergic subjects were identified as a risk group due to cross-reactivity mainly mediated by tropomyosin and arginine kinase. Immunologic co-sensitisation to house dust mi...
Despite food waste occurring along the entire food supply chain, a significant proportion occursin domestic settings. Large quantities of domestic food waste have been attributable to consumer behaviors during buying, cooking, consumption, and disposal. The main objective of this research was to understand the major determinants of household food w...
This study aimed to evaluate the food choice motives in a sample in Brazil and to identify how socioeconomic characteristics and risk perceptions about chronic diseases and weight gain affect these motives. The Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) is an instrument to analyze the motivations for food choice. The FCQ was completed by 525 adult individuals...
Background
Many foods have an antioxidant activity, and nutrition may mitigate COVID-19. To test the potential role of vegetables in COVID-19 mortality in Europe, we performed an ecological study.
Methods
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Comprehensive European Food Consumption Database was used to study the country consumption of Brassica...
Background
Many foods have an antioxidant activity and nutrition may mitigate COVID-19. Some of the countries with a low COVID-19 mortality are those with a relatively high consumption of traditional fermented foods. To test the potential role of fermented foods in COVID-19 mortality in Europe, we performed an ecological study.
Methods
The European...
This study aims to explore the factors that influence plate waste at lunches served in primary schools. Data was collected for all fourth-grade children attending 21 primary schools from the city of Porto (Portugal) (n = 463). Plate waste was evaluated by the weighing method and factors influencing plate waste were collected by observation of menu...
The consumption of infusions is affected by many factors, namely those associated with culture, health and sensory properties. The main goal of this research was to explore and understand consumers’ perceptions and behaviours regarding consumption and preparation of herbal infusions, applying a mixed methodology: the evaluation of consumers’ behavi...
This study characterizes the sensory features and odour active volatile organic compounds (VOC) profile of P. lividus, taking into consideration the sex and harvest location. Sensory evaluation was performed by an experienced panel through the application of Projective Mapping paired with Ultra Flash Profile. VOC were determined by headspace solid-...
ABSTRACT The mass media plays a critical role in the dissemination of information regarding food risk, so that the consumers can learn about the current situation of the food hazards by reading the press. This research aims to evaluate how news related to food risk are handled by a daily newspaper with a national coverage. For this purpose, the tit...
Edible insects are part of traditional diets in several regions of the world such as Africa or Asia. However, in Western societies, the role of insects as food it is still not fully accepted mostly due to its rejection by consumers and to poor sensory properties of the insect-based food products. Rejection seems to be mainly regulated by disgust an...
Edible insects are a novel food source in the West, prompting the need for an assessment of their food security risks. One of the major concerns relates to their allergenic potential, as insects have a close phylogenetic relationship with crustaceans and house dust mites. Accordingly, several studies have demonstrated the occurrence of immunologic...
Highlights
• Ethanol allowed the greatest lipid extraction on cricket species.
• A CATA ballot was built yielding a good description of insect protein bars.
• Defatting improved liking and acceptance of cereal bars incorporating crickets.
• Sensory profile of insect protein bars was improved by defatting of crickets.
• Lipid fraction may be respo...
The fortification of maize bread with legume flour was explored in order to increase the protein content of the traditional Portuguese bread 'broa', comprised of more than 50% maize flour. The optimization of legume incorporation (pea, chickpea, faba bean, lentil), considering the influence of different maize flours (traditional-white, traditional-...
A lot of research has focused on assessing the decontamination efficiency of ultrasound on fresh produce while ensuring the retention of their quality characteristics. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of ultrasound treatment at 26 kHz, 90 μm, 200 W for 5 min on the shelf-life of lettuce leaves stored between 5 and 15 °C for se...