Peach dehydrated by a combined method of osmodehydration and lyophilization is characterized by upgraded dehydration effectiveness and enhanced chemical and mineral matter content, and as such, is an interesting material to be applied to the cookies’ formulation. Incorporation of this material requires testing and optimization of the addition level from the aspect of overall technological quality in order to obtain a new cookie product. Obtained cookie samples with different levels of dehydrated peach addition were subjected to the nutritive and technology quality parameters testing. Cookies’ chemical, mineral matter, and phenolic compounds content, the antioxidative activity of nutritive parameters, and the physical, technological, textural, colour, and sensory characteristics of technological parameters were investigated. Obtained results showed that the addition of especially higher levels of dehydrated peach enhanced all nutritive, while simultaneously decreased most of the technological quality parameters. The statistical method of Z-score analysis was used to calculate the optimal level of dehydrated peach addition to the cookie formulation for obtaining the highest nutritive enrichment without excessive technological quality deterioration. The optimal addition of osmodehydrated and lyophilized peach to the cookie formulation was determined to be 15%.

According to the modern nutritionists, cereal products such as flakes and snacks are the most common foods in the daily diet. The extrusion technology makes it possible to apply different sources of ingredients for the enrichment of cereal-based flakes or snack products. Substances with strong antioxidant properties such as wild oregano have a positive impact on human health. Therefore, they attract the attention of scientists, consumers and food industry experts. This paper investigates the effects of the simultaneous addition of dry residue from wild oregano distillation (0.5 g/100 g sample and 1 g/100 g sample), on the physical-textural and color properties of corn flakes in order to create a new product with improved nutritional properties. The addition of dry residue of wild oregano positively influenced the physical characteristics of the corn flakes (decrease in the bulk density by 30.2 %, and increase in the expansion rate by 44.9 %), as well as led to decrease in their texture hardness and work of compression by 42.8 and 40.3 %, respectively. Also, the oregano significantly changed the color of the flakes. The Tukey's HSD test showed statistically significant differences between most of the mean values of physical-textural, color and sensory attributes of the oregano-added corn flakes and the ones of the control sample. A principal component analysis has been applied to classify the samples according to the differences in the studied parameters. The data showed that the investigated corn flakes with added dry residue from wild oregano distillation is a new food product with good physical-textural and sensory properties due to a higher level of its antioxidant activity. Moreover, this new product may contribute to the valorization of edible industrial waste in food production.

Aromatic plants are one of the most important sources of biologically active secondary metabolites, which possess various antimicrobial characteristics. The aim of this work was to examine the effect of antifungal activities of mint and caraway essential oils against the selected fungi. Eight species of molds were selected for antifungal testing: Alternaria alternata, Aspegillus flavus, A. niger, A. versicolor, Eurotium herbariorum, Penicillium aurantiogriseum, P. chrysogenum and P. expansum. Testing of essential oils antifungal activity against the selected species was conducted using the disc diffusion method by adding mint and caraway essential oils (0.5, 1, 5, and 10 µl per disc). Antifungal activity of essential oils was expressed by the diameter of inhibition zone (mm). The most powerful effect of mint essential oil was recorded against E. herbariorum, as its growth was completely inhibited by the quantity of 5 µl. The weakest inhibitory effect was observed against P. chrysogenum (inhibition zone 13.67 mm) by the quantity of 10 µl. The most powerful antifungal activity of caraway was observed against E. herbariorum as growth was completely inhibited by the quantity of 10 µl. The weakest inhibitory effect was observed against A. niger (inhibition zone 28 mm) by the quantity of 10 µl.

The effects of yeast extract addition, with varied quantities of salt and sugar, on the chemical and mineral composition, colour and sensory properties of spelt bread, in order to obtain new products were investigated. The addition of 5 % yeast extract positively influenced the mineral characteristics and increased protein content by 30.77 %. As a salt substitution, addition of yeast extract improved appearance without deteriorating texture descriptors and breadcrumb quality, while the taste became more complex, but without increasing salty taste. Addition of sugar in samples with yeast extract, improved most sensory characteristics. The developed mathematical models of bread with yeast extract quality parameters were statistically significant, indicating the satisfactory approximation of the bread quality parameters within the varied formula. Bread samples with addition of 5 % yeast extract, 1.5 % of salt and 0 % sugar were determined as the best from the aspect of overall quality. A new product was obtained with good total quality, higher level of nutritional value and reduced salt content.

The chemical composition and content of fatty acids in flaxseed and spelt flour were evaluated. The ratio of ω-6/ω-3 essential fatty acids is also analysed in spelt pasta and pasta with 0, 10, and 20% of flaxseed flour. Flaxseed flour has a better fatty acid profile than spelt flour, with low levels of saturated fat (approximately 8.99 g/100 g of flour) and a high concentration of linolenic acid (57.20 g/100 g of flour) and lower content of linoleic acid (15.98 g/100 g of flour), as well as superior ω-6/ω-3 ratio of 1 : 4. Flaxseed flour in pasta positively contributes to the daily intake of essential fatty acids recommended by nutritionists and the improvement of ω-6/ω-3 ratio. Although a new product is worse in texture quality, it will be acceptable to consumers who want to change their habits related to diet and enrich it with functional components.