Mia Marchini

• PhD student in Food Science, University of Parma
• University of Parma

This study aimed to develop high-quality flatbreads for low-income countries by using composite flours from climate-resilient crops, i.e., sprouted sorghum, tapioca, and cowpea, as partial alternatives to imported wheat. Through the experimental design, several flatbread prototypes were developed that maximized the content of sprouted sorghum and c...

“Commercial” Ready-To-Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTFs) are used in acute malnutrition management, but they are not always appropriate being expensive and unfamiliar. Much research has tried to develop alternative RUTF formulations and this work systematically reviewed eight articles discussing the approaches used to assess the children’s sensory satis...

Plant biodiversity preservation is one of the most important priorities of today’s agriculture. Wheat (Triticum spp. L.) is widely cultivated worldwide, mostly under a conventional and monovarietal farming method, leading to progressive biodiversity erosion. On the contrary, the evolutionary population (EP) cultivation technique is characterized by...

Composite flours from accessible raw materials may interest developing countries, cutting wheat import costs, bolstering domestic agriculture and boosting nutrition. Technological functionality (WHC and OHC, pasting, swelling and thermal properties) of composite tapioca, sprouted sorghum, cowpea and wheat flours (at 50%, 33% and 25% (w/w) flour bas...

Study of Hymenoptera Chalcidoidea in a traditional agroforestry system near Bologna, northern Italy.

This work investigated the effect of sprouting and drying post-sprouting on technological functionalities of sorghum flour as probed by Low-resolution proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (¹H NMR) and Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA). Multivariate statistics were used to assess the effect of flour (from sprouted and unsprouted sorghum, and wholewheat...

The nutritional and physicochemical properties of sorghum proteins and starch make the use of this cereal for food production challenging. Sprouting is a cost-effective technology to improve the nutritional and functional profile of grains. Two drying treatments were used after sorghum sprouting to investigate whether the drying phase could improve...

Owing to the increasing demand for wholewheat flours (WWF) in bread-making, techniques are needed to improve WWF’s poor technological properties and the resulting bread quality. We tested the effect of a common bakers’ strategy to improve WWF performance: adding part of the water of the recipe during the kneading operation. First, the kneading oper...

The use of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTFs) is not a sustainable strategy to treat child moderate acute malnutrition due to its high cost and unfamiliarity. An integrated multidisciplinary approach called “Pappa di Parma” was used to develop, characterize and introduce alternative sustainable and energy-dense meals against malnutrition. Six...

The kneading step of wholewheat flour (WWF) dough was monitored using low-resolution 1 H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The tested variables were kneading time and total water content. Two 1 H Free induction decay (FID) (A and B) and four 1 H T 2 Car-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) (C, D, E and F) proton populations were observed and the attribution...

Inclusion of pulses flour in bread formulation has important nutritional effects but its successful implementation is challenging and requires a good understanding of the effect of flour functionality, granulometry and substitution level on bread quality. Accordingly, this work studied red lentil flour and its dimensional fractions (coarse, medium,...

Triticum heritage varieties and ancient species are gaining interest of consumers due to the perception of a healthier nutrition profile than other modern wheat. Although still limited, several findings highlighted the real potential beneficial role of ancient wheat-based products consumption on several cardiometabolic factors ⁽¹⁾ . However, a lack...

This PhD thesis research project is aimed at the development of nutritionally balanced/ enriched food products for African countries through the use of locally available and accessible raw materials and their transformation into food with affordable techniques. Overall, the optimization of local food-transformation/production technologies will impr...

Mia Marchini is a first year Ph.D. student in Food Science at the University of Parma, Italy. Her research is aimed at the development of nutritionally balanced/enriched food products for African countries through the use of locally available and accessible raw materials and their transformation into food with affordable techniques. Overall, the op...