The food industry is challenged to develop nutritious and palatable foods that satisfy older people\'s needs. So, this work aimed to study the incorporation of nanoemulsions enriched with vitamin D3 and omega-3 fatty acids into two desserts (yogurt and fruit puree), characterizing their nutritional profile, viscosity, and color properties and evaluating their in vitro bioaccessibility and sensory response. The results showed that adding nanoemulsion modified the nutrition profile of desserts due to increasing lipids and calories. The desserts\' physical properties were also affected, with a decrease in viscosity and a lightening of color. Regarding digestion, the enriched desserts presented a low release of free fatty acids (14.8 and 11.4%, respectively). However, fruit puree showed the highest vitamin D3 and omega-3 fatty acid in vitro bioaccessibility (48.9 and 70.9%, respectively). In addition, older consumers found this dessert more acceptable than yogurt due to the adequate intensity of its sensory attributes (aroma, flavor, sweetness, and consistency). Therefore, the fruit puree can be enriched with nanoemulsions loaded with vitamin D3 and omega-3 fatty acids to improve the bioaccessibility of lipid bioactive compounds and sensory performance, offering a health-enhancing option for older consumers.

Street foods are often of poor nutritional quality with high sugar content, in which the overconsumption of sugar is associated with obesity. However, sugar content information on local street foods is scarce. Thus, the individual and total sugar contents of 94 types of street foods in Malaysia were analysed. Compared to snacks and main meals, desserts contained the highest amounts of sugar, sucrose, fructose, glucose, and maltose. Sucrose was predominant in 90% desserts, 79.3% snacks, and 68.6% main meals. Most desserts (93.3%) contained medium to high sugar content (≥5 g to >15 g/100 g), while 82.9% main meals and 65.5% snacks had low sugar content. When comparing the sugar contents of 39 foods with other local databases, 58.3% main meals, 55.6% desserts, and 33.3% snacks contained either significantly (p < 0.05) higher or lower sugar contents. Consumers can identify low and high-sugar foods, and policymakers can review health priorities to combat obesity.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic impacted some dietary habits of Americans.
OBJECTIVE: We examined characteristics associated with a high intake of sweet foods and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) during the COVID-19 pandemic among US adults.
METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study.
METHODS: The SummerStyles survey data were collected in 2021 among 4034 US adults (≥18 years).
METHODS: The frequencies were measured of consuming various sweet foods (chocolate/candy, doughnuts/sweet rolls/Danish/muffins/Pop-Tarts, cookies/cake/pie/brownies, and ice cream/frozen desserts) and SSB (regular sodas, sweetened coffee/tea drinks fruit drinks, sports drinks, and energy drinks) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The responses were categorized into 0, >0 to <1, 1 to <2, and ≥2 times/day. The descriptive variables were sociodemographics, food insecurity, weight status, metropolitan status, census regions, and eating habit changes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
METHODS: Multinomial regressions were used to estimate adjusted odds ratios (AOR) for being a high consumer of sweet foods and SSB after controlling for characteristics.
RESULTS: During 2021, 15% of adults reported consuming sweet foods ≥2 times/day, and 30% reported drinking SSB ≥2 times/day. The factors that were significantly associated with greater odds of high sweet food intake (≥2 times/day) were lower household income (AOR = 1.53 for <$35,000 vs. ≥$100,000), often/sometimes experiencing food insecurity (AOR = 1.41 vs. never), and eating more sweet foods than usual since start of the pandemic (AOR = 2.47 vs. same as usual). The factors that were significantly associated with greater odds of high SSB intake (≥2 times/day) were males (AOR = 1.51), lower education (AOR = 1.98 for ≤high school; AOR = 1.33 for some college vs. college graduate), currently having children (AOR = 1.65), living in nonmetropolitan areas (AOR = 1.34), and drinking more SSB than usual since the pandemic began (AOR = 2.23 vs. same as usual). Younger age, Black race, and reductions in consumption during COVID-19 were related to lower sweet food and SSB intakes.
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings, which identified high consumers of sweet foods or SSB, can be used to inform efforts to reduce consumers\' added sugars intake during pandemic recovery and support their health.

UNASSIGNED: Increasing obesity rates around the globe have challenged policymakers to find strategies to prompt healthier eating habits. While unhealthy eating takes place in many different contexts, dining out is a context where individuals often choose an unhealthy option despite the availability of healthier alternatives. One possible explanation for this behavior is the unhealthy-tasty intuition, which refers to the belief that unhealthy food is tastier than healthy food. Nevertheless, many policymakers and restaurant managers follow the - in this context - counterintuitive approach of using health claims to nudge people towards more healthy eating choices or habits.
UNASSIGNED: The current research employs an online experiment with 137 participants and investigates how health claims and sensory claims impact on the purchase intention of healthy options for desserts. Furthermore, it explores how health inferences and taste expectations mediate the intention to purchase.
UNASSIGNED: Findings from the online experiment confirm that health claims prompt positive health inferences, while also stimulating unfavorable taste expectations, resulting in a lower intention to purchase. Surprisingly, we found no effect of a sensory claim on taste expectations. The findings of our experiment contradict the unhealthy-tasty intuition by revealing a significant positive correlation between taste expectations and health inferences. While both health inferences and taste expectations impact positively on purchasing intentions for the health-claim condition, the indirect effect of taste expectations was stronger than the indirect effect of health inferences.

This study aimed to develop fortified dairy desserts containing Lactobacillus casei and evaluate the physicochemical, sensory, and microbiological characteristics of the product during 28 days of storage. Seven dairy desserts were formulated by date extract (8%), whey protein (1.56%), inulin (4%(, folic acid (0.00066%), vitamin D (0.002%) and gluconate calcium (0.66%). The addition of date extract and inulin increased total solids while whey protein incorporation into dairy desserts led to the improvement of protein and phosphorous content. Furthermore, all fortified dairy desserts showed higher antioxidant activity and total phenolic content. Fortification of dairy desserts had no negative effect on the sensory acceptability and syneresis was not observed. In addition, the pH reduction and increased acidity did not adversely affect the count of L. casei, which remained above 8 log CFU g-1 during storage. Consequently, the fortified dairy dessert developed in this research is an innovative food product with good acceptability and high nutritional quality.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered stress, anxiety, and disruption to many individuals’ daily lives, which might impact eating habits. Objective: To examine changes in eating habits related to less healthy foods and beverages during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic among US adults. Design: Cross-sectional study. Participants/setting: Authors used SummerStyles data gathered in June 2020 among 3916 US adults (≥18 years). Main outcome measures: The outcome of interest was the reported frequency of consuming more (1) unhealthy snacks and desserts including chips, cookies, and ice cream and (2) sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) like regular soda, fruit drinks, sports/energy drinks, sweetened coffee/teas during the COVID-19 pandemic. Responses were categorized as Never/Rarely, Sometimes, or Often/Always. Explanatory variables were sociodemographics, weight status, and census regions. Statistical analyses performed: We used multinomial regressions to calculate adjusted odds ratios (AOR) for Sometimes or Often/Always consuming more unhealthy snacks/desserts (vs. Never/Rarely); and Sometimes or Often/Always more SSBs (vs. Never/Rarely). Results: Overall, 36% of adults reported sometimes consuming more unhealthy snacks/desserts; 16% did so often/always. Twenty-two percent of adults reported sometimes drinking more SSBs; 10% did so often/always. Factors significantly associated with higher odds of reporting often/always consuming more unhealthy snacks/desserts were younger adults (AOR range = 1.51−2.86 vs. adults ≥65 years), females (AOR = 1.58 vs. males), non-Hispanic Black (AOR = 1.89 vs. non-Hispanic White), lower household income (AOR = 2.01 for