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Background: The prevalence of malnutrition in institutionalized elderly people is generally high. A good nutritional status is related to a decrease in mortality and costs of morbidity treatments. Therefore, it is essential to know the nutritional status in order to establish action policies. However, there are not enough studies about malnutrition in institutionalized elderly in Spain. Objectives: The objectives of this survey were to assess the prevalence of malnutrition and risk of malnutrition in elderly people living in nursing homes in the province of Albacete (Spain) using the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA®) test, to analyze their distribution according to age, gender and different nursing home features, and to identify the MNA items that best predict the MNA total score. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with data collected from 895 elders living in 34 nursing homes all over the province of Albacete, including facilities located in the main city, towns and villages. Prevalence of malnutrition and risk of malnutrition were assessed using the MNA full form test. Groups of malnutrition were compared by using mean MNA scores. Stepwise linear regression analyses were used to identify the items in the MNA which best predicted the MNA total scores. Results: According to the MNA, the prevalence of malnutrition among elderly people staying in Albacete province nursing homes was 2.8%, and the prevalence of being at risk of malnutrition was 37.3%. MNA total score was significantly higher in men (24.3 ± 2.9) than in women (23.7 ± 3.3) and significantly higher in residents living in nursing homes located in towns and villages (24.2 ± 2.8) than in those who were living in institutions placed in the main city (23.7 ± 3.4). The MNA score was found to decrease with increasing age, except for individuals aged 90 years or older. Conclusions: The prevalence of malnutrition and risk of malnutrition was 40.1%. Female gender and living in institutions located in the main city were identified as malnutrition risk factors. In general, an increase in malnutrition with age was detected, except for people in the last years of their lives. The MNA questions that best predicted the nutritional status were the ones relating to the anthropometrical and self-assessments.

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We analysed the effect of adding rosemary and tocopherol extracts, two natural antioxidants, on the colour stability of paprika stored at different temperatures and degrees of relative humidity. Any possible synergistic effect of their joint use was also investigated. The experimental data concerning colour loss, as determined by the ASTA 20.1 method, fitted first-and second-order kinetics, which provided the rate constants of colour loss and half-lives of the samples. The first finding concerned the antagonistic effect between storage temperature and humidity. The antioxidants had a clear protective effect on colour stability in all the conditions assayed, the superior effect of one or the other depending on the storage temperature. A synergistic effect of both antioxidants at temperatures between 25 and 40°C was evident. The experimental data referring to colour loss for most of the storage conditions assayed fitted second-order kinetics best.

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