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There is an ever-increasing global demand from consumers for high-quality foods with major emphasis placed on quality and safety attributes. One of the main consumer demands is for minimally processed foods that are highly nutritive but low energy-dense and are natural foods with no or minimal chemical preservatives. Extending the shelf-life of food products, while improving the food safety and quality, will have a positive impact on both the industry and consumers. Food irradiation is emerging as a promising and innovative processing technology in this regard. The main objective of this research was to investigate and propose fresh irradiated foods that are health promoting, safe and convenient to be treated by electron beam irradiation. One of the purposes of this research is to help foster more wide use of electron beam irradiation especially where it will enhance food safety and quality. To attain these aims, electron beam irradiation parameters were studied in terms of equipment parametrization, as well as, the effects of irradiation on fresh food products through the evaluation of bioactive compounds and also microbial inactivation (natural microbiota and potential pathogenic bacteria). The food products selected for study were cherry tomatoes, raspberries, and mushrooms. These where chosen due to their perishability, nutritional and bioactive compound profile, and socioeconomic importance in the Mediterranean region. Modelling tools were also applied to simulate high energy electron beam irradiation (10 MeV) of cherry tomatoes and raspberries from the LINAC situated at C2TN (Portugal). An alternative simulation framework, Ensaroot, was also used to test its application in food irradiation studies. Overall the results of this comprehensive study support the feasibility of electron beam irradiation as a post-harvest treatment of cherry tomatoes (3 kGy), mushrooms (5 kGy) and raspberries (3 kGy). It would guarantee the safety, extend the shelf-life and preserving the bioactive contents of these products. The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) and FEDER under Programme PT2020 for financial support to CIMO (UID/AGR/00690/2013), C2TN (UID/Multi/04349/2013; UID/Multi/04349/2019). This work was also developed within the Coordinated Research Project D61024 “Development of New Applications of Machine Generated Food Irradiation Technologies” financed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Food irradiation persist as an underused technology in several countries, namely in Europe region, where scientific misconceptions about the technology are wide spread in the population, including in more educated persons. Also, EU regulations are quite old (from 1999) and contribute, in some way, to maintain this status quo. On the last years we have been validating the use of this technology in several food products (chestnut fruits, edible wild mushrooms, different fresh fruits, wild edible plants, etc), limiting our studies to a commercial-technological purpose, focusing on the low dose to attain the desired effect, without compromising the nutritional characteristics of the processed products. Recently, we have moved to a more scientific point of view, to test how far we can go, how high is the dose we could apply. Again, we re-started this scientific approach using chestnut fruits as a first case study. For that we have started to measure two physical parameters that are easily assessed (colour and texture), for doses up to 10 kGy. And the results shown that, for this specific case, colour changes and texture variation can easily be used to check at what dose to stop. Further studies are ongoing to assess other parameters (chemical composition and molecular structure) to check where is the “trigger” point to define the dose limit for this food product. With this work, extended to other food matrices, we expect to give a scientific contribute for a critical revision of current EU legislation for food irradiation limits and limited food products included in that list. Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) and FEDER, under Program PT2020 for financial support to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020) and C2TN (UIDB/04349/2020). The authors are also grateful to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for financial support through the Coordinated Research Project D61024 “Development of New Applications of Machine Generated Food Irradiation Technologies”. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The work is part of the project Agrio et Emulsio (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-023583), development of new food emulsions (Lima, 2014). The product innovation results from the addition of strawberry syrup to a spreadable cream of vegetable origin. It was developed six formulations of strawberry syrup and cream spreads, evaluated by a panel of tasters untrained, which allowed the selection of a prototype. A set of microbial populations was evaluated for microbiological stability control. To study the stability of this new product, two emerging technologies were used: ionizing irradiation (Pinto et al, 2006) and Hyperpressure (Muntean et al, 2016) since it cannot be subjected to heat treatment. Six samples were irradiated in a cobalt 60 source, with 3 doses of gamma radiation: 1, 2 and 3 kGy. Six samples were subjected to HPP: 400, 475 and 525 MPa for 6 minutes. The results obtained of the irradiated product and submitted to Hyperpressure in comparison to the untreated samples did not show significant differences. On the other hand, samples not subjected to any treatment and kept under refrigeration at 5 ° C for 7 weeks were stable and showed satisfactory microbiological characteristics. Following these preliminary results, we conclude that product stability can be ensured by good manufacturing practices., O trabalho enquadra-se no projeto Agrio et Emulsio (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-023583), desenvolvimento de novas emulsões alimentares (Lima, 2014). A inovação do produto resulta da adição de um xarope de morango a um creme de barrar de origem vegetal. Foram desenvolvidas seis formulações do xarope de morango e do creme de barrar, avaliadas por um painel de provadores não treinado, que permitiu a seleção de um protótipo. Para controlo da estabilidade microbiológica avaliou-se um conjunto de populações microbianas. Para estudar a estabilidade deste novo produto utilizaram-se duas tecnologias emergentes, a irradiação ionizante (Pinto et al, 2006) e a Hiperpressão (Muntean et al, 2016) uma vez que não pode ser submetido a tratamento térmico. Seis amostras foram irradiadas numa fonte de cobalto-60, com 3 doses de radiação gama: 1, 2 e 3 kGy. Seis amostras foram sujeitas a HPP: 400, 475 e 525 MPa durante 6min. Os resultados obtidos do produto irradiado e submetido a Hiperpressão comparativamente às amostras sem tratamento, não evidenciaram diferenças significativas. Ao invés as amostras não sujeitas a qualquer tratamento e mantidas sob refrigeração a 5 ºC durante 7 semanas mantiveram-se estáveis e evidenciaram características microbiológicas satisfatórias. Na sequência destes resultados preliminares é possível concluir que a estabilidade do produto poderá ser garantida pelas boas práticas de fabrico.

Buckler sorrel (Rumex induratus) is an underutilized leafy vegetable with peculiar sensory properties. Its revalorization and introduction in contemporary diets as a novel food product demands an extended shelf-life for commercialization. Herein, the suitability of different non-conventional atmospheres and ionizing radiation doses for preserving quality parameters of buckler sorrel during storage at 4ºC for 12 days was evaluated. It was observed that both treatments had positive and negative effects on the postharvest quality of the samples. The overall quality was better maintained under vacuum-packaging, followed by an argon-enriched atmosphere. This study highlighted the potential of buckler sorrel in the industry of minimally processed vegetables., O crescimento do setor dos vegetais embalados prontos a comer tem levado à introdução de novos produtos e à adoção de tecnologias de conservação mais eficientes, seguras e sustentáveis. Neste sentido, este estudo teve como objetivo avaliar a eficácia de diferentes atmosferas de embalamento e de diferentes doses de radiação ionizante na conservação de azedas (Rumex induratus) armazenadas a 4°C durante 12 dias. Ambos os tratamentos tiveram efeitos positivos e negativos na qualidade das amostras. Tendo em conta a contribuição de todos os parâmetros analisados, foi possível concluir que o embalamento a vácuo foi a melhor opção para conservar a qualidade global das amostras durante o armazenamento, seguido do embalamento em atmosfera enriquecida em árgon. Este estudo destacou também o potencial das azedas na indústria dos alimentos minimamente processados.

Food waste is being in the focus of recent global policies, to tackle food scarcity and to overcome “nutritional poverty” in several countries. Otherwise, a global food market is being the key to make available several products to different populations. These vectors for food policy must be supported by several orientations, to attain their final objective: better and enough food for the world population. For that, different post-harvest processing technologies are making their fundamental contribute. Among that, the preservation of food by irradiation, a physical process that does not use chemicals, is making its way in several countries, to accept imported or exported products without pests (insects), without foodborne pathogens, and also to extend the shelf life of processed products, stopping enzymatic degradation and reducing microorganisms that contribute for food spoilage. We have been studying the effects of gamma and e-beam radiation for food preservation of several Mediterranean products, including chestnuts, mushrooms and aromatic plants, berries and tomatoes, using an experimental gamma chamber with 60Co sources and an electron accelerator with the maximum energy of 10 MeV. And here we present these technologies, their limitations and advantages, the effects on relevant properties of food (e.g. color, texture, nutritional parameters), and question why food preservation by irradiation is underused, since its first use has more than 100 years and its first industrial application has more than 50 years. FCT (Portugal), FEDER PT2020 (UID/AGR/00690/2019), C2TN (UID/Multi/04349/2013), IAEA CRP D61024. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The olive pomace is an environmentally detrimental residue from olive oil industry. This residue contains large amounts of bioactive compounds, such as hydroxytyrosol and tyrosol, secoiridoid derivatives, phenolic acids and flavonoids1 that might be used by the food industry as preservatives. The aim of this work was to study the gamma radiation potential to improve the extractability of the bioactive compounds present in olive wastes. Gamma radiation is an eco-friendly technology that can be used to enhance the benefic properties of different agro-industrial products. Olive pomace samples (crude olive pomace - COP - and extracted olive pomace - EOP) were collected from UCASUL - União de Cooperativas Agrícolas do Sul, located in Alentejo region, in Portugal. The irradiation experiments were carried out at room temperature in a Co-60 semi-industrial facility (absorbed doses: 5-22 kGy; dose rate: 16 kGy/h). The characterization of the phenolic profile in the extracts of olive pomace and the identification of the radiolytic products were carried out by HPLC-DAD-ESI/MS2. The major phenolic compounds present in olive pomace extracts were hydroxytyrosol, hydroxytyrosol-1-β-glucoside, tyrosol, syringic acid and luteolin-7-O-rutinoside. Caffeic acid, vanillin, verbascoside and its derivatives and oleuropein aglycons were also found in the extracts although in lower concentrations. The obtained results demonstrated that gamma radiation significantly improved the extraction of phenolic compounds from both olive pomace extracts, obtaining the highest yield at 10 kGy for EOP and at 22 kGy for COP. At these doses, the total concentration of phenolic compounds in the extracts was 159±7 mg/g in the EOP and 161±2 mg/g in the COP ones. Comparing with non-irradiated samples, these values represent an increase in extractable phenolic compounds of 2.5 and 2.4 fold, respectively. Nevertheless, for EOP it was found that an absorbed dose of 5 kGy was capable to increase the phenolic content with no significant difference from the higher applied doses. These results demonstrated that gamma radiation could be a suitable technology for the valorization of olive oil by-products, contributing to enhance extraction of phenolic compounds. This outcome can help the olive oil industry to adopt clean processes and promote the sustainable development. cknowledgements: We would like to thank. J. Madureira received a Ph.D. scholarship from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT)— SFRH/BD/136506/2018; L. Barros and M.I. Dias thank FCT, P.I., for their institutional scientific contract; to UCASUL - União de Cooperativas Agrícolas do Sul” agro industrial cooperative for providing the samples; to Technological Unit of Radiosterilization (University of Lisbon) for the samples irradiation. Funding: The authors are grateful to FCT, Portugal and FEDER under Programme PT2020 for financial support to CIMO (UID/AGR/00690/2019) and C2TN (UID/Multi/04349/2019), FEDER-Interreg España-Portugal programme through the project 0377_Iberphenol_6_E, and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

FCT_SFRH/BPD/102944/2014. FCT_UID/Multi/04349/2013. FCT_UID/AMB/50017/2013. Projecto E2Sleep_711030‐IPL/2017/E2SLEEP_ESTeSL. LIFE Index‐Air (LIFE15ENV/PT/000674). Submitted by Maria da Luz Antunes (mluz.antunes@estesl.ipl.pt) on 2019-01-08T12:18:52Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Será que o ar que respiramos enquanto dormimos condiciona a qualidade do nosso sono.pdf: 323271 bytes, checksum: 453a232ac77c21ae82b19814378d13a6 (MD5) Made available in DSpace on 2019-01-08T12:18:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Será que o ar que respiramos enquanto dormimos condiciona a qualidade do nosso sono.pdf: 323271 bytes, checksum: 453a232ac77c21ae82b19814378d13a6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-05 info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Projeto IPL/2017/E2SLEEP/ESTeSL/711030 Os humanos passam um terço da sua vida a dormir, sendo do conhecimento geral que o sono desempenha um papel fundamental no bem-estar e desempenho físico e cognitivo. Nas últimas décadas, o estudo do impacto da qualidade do ar interior (QAI) na saúde dos ocupantes tem aumentado significativamente, porém, a investigação nesta área tem sido direcionada principalmente para microambientes onde os indivíduos realizam as suas atividades durante o dia. Apesar de limitadas, existem algumas evidências relacionadas com o impacto da QAI nalguns parâmetros do sono, no entanto, estudos com uma caracterização abrangente dos contaminantes ambientais, nomeadamente microbiológicos, são ainda inexistentes. O presente trabalho tem o objetivo de avaliar os efeitos da exposição microbiológica na estrutura do sono. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Projeto IPL/2017/E2SLEEP/ESTeSL/711030 Os efeitos da poluição ambiental na saúde estão amplamente documentados, havendo evidências dos efeitos a longo e a curto prazo que se relacionam com maiores taxas de morbilidade e mortalidade, principalmente de causa cardiovascular e respiratória. No entanto, as evidências sobre os efeitos da qualidade do ar interior (QAI) no sono são ainda limitadas. Durante o sono NREM e REM existem diferentes mediadores ao nível da função autonómica, podendo conduzir a características distintas ao nível da frequência cardíaca (FC), respiratória (FR) e pressão arterial. O presente estudo tem o objetivo de avaliar a existência de correlações entre determinados parâmetros cardiorrespiratórios durante o sono e a QAI. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The knowledge about the composition of mushrooms used in food has been increasing in recent years, but their high perishability leads to immediate quality losses after harvesting, which is a drawback for the distribution and marketing of the fresh product. Furthermore, mushrooms have a great popularity all over the world, but data on alternative technologies to increase their shelf life of mushrooms are insufficient. Irradiation is a technique recognized as safe and effective for conservation, and is widely used to extend the shelf life of raw foods. This work evaluates the effects of storage time (ST) (0, 4 and 8 days) and electron-beam (EB) irradiation on fatty acids profile (characterized by GC-FID) of fresh samples of Agaricus bisporus Portobello. The irradiation was performed with a 10 MeV energy irradiator at doses of 1, 2 and 5 kGy. ST and EB irradiation had a cooperative effect (i.e., the interaction among factors was significant, p-value < 0.05) over fatty acids profile. Comparing each factor individually, EB had a more noticeable effect than ST; in fact, the differences among fatty acids percentages for each EB dose were significant in all cases except C18:1n9c (oleic acid), while ST had no significant effects on C12:0, C13:0, C15:0, C18:1n9c, C18:2n6t, C18:3n3, C21:0 and MUFA. Linoleic acid (C18:2n6c) was the most abundant acid (≈78%), presenting slightly higher percentages in mushrooms irradiated with 1 kGy, showing in turn a minor decrease after 8 days of storage. Palmitic acid (≈8%) and stearic acid (≈4%), were the other main fatty acids in A. bisporus. Despite the detected differences, mushrooms presented a similar profile either within different EB doses, as well as along ST. Nevertheless, the 4-days storage maintains the fatty acids profile in higher extent than the 8-days storage; likewise, the best EB dose resulted to be 1 kGy. Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) and FEDER under Programme PT2020 for financial support to CIMO (UID/AGR/00690/2013), C2TN (UID/Multi/04349/2013), A. Fernandes grant (SFRH/BPD/114753/2016) and L. Barros contract; European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) (Regional Operational Program Norte 2020, Project ValorNatural®); Rural Development Program (Project MicoCoating, PDR2020-101-031472); International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Coordinated Research Project D61024 DEXAFI. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Food irradiation is not new but is a prevalent current topic and challenging research field with new outcomes. Nowadays, food irradiation can be regarded as quality food processing technology with the capacity to answer the growing problem of food poisoning, with the added benefit of reducing spoilage and extending the food shelf life. Innovative improvements in food irradiation technologies can be expected following recent research achievements. This introductory chapter overviews several food irradiation perspectives (past, present, and future) that will be further discussed in detail in the other chapters of the book. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion