CHEMICAL MARKERS TO IDENTIFY CHIA, FLAX AND SESAME FROM RAW SEEDS TO BAKERY PRODUCTS.

BRIGANTE, F.; RIBOTTA P; WUNDERLIN D. A.; LUCINI MAS, A; PIGNI, N; BARONI M.V.

Belfast

Conferencia; Summit on Global Food Integrity Promotional (ASSET2018); 2018

QUEEN´S UNIVERSITY BELFAST

Chia, sesame and flax seeds are highly appreciated by their outstanding nutritional facts (e.g. reduction of serum cholesterol, antioxidant properties, etc.). Thus, the development of methods to verify the integrity of such seeds as well as processed foods containing them is of public interest. We hypothesized that some chemical compounds, like polyphenols, can be used as markers of the integrity of both seeds and foods containing them. Thus, the main goal of this work was to verify if the polyphenol profile could afford suitable markers to identify chia, sesame and flax seeds, verifying if such markers remain stable in a baked food (sweet cookies).The polyphenol profile was assessed using HPLC-ESI-qTOF (HRMS), finding 29 compounds in chia seeds (mainly hydroxycinnamic acids and flavonols), 28 in sesame (most of them lignans), and 10 in flax (mostly flavonoids). As it is expected, the number of polyphenols decreased in baked cookies, affording 11 compounds in chia cookies, 7 in sesame cookies and 2 in flax cookies. When cookies were prepared using a mix of three seeds (equal parts), we found 5 hydroxycinnamic acids characteristics from chia, 7 lignans present in sesame seeds and 2 flavonoids typical from flax.Thus, each seed showed a unique polyphenol profile, helping with the identification of frauds. Although some polyphenols were lost during the baking process, remainder compounds were useful to identify the presence of seeds in baked cookies, even when containing a mix of seeds.