Effect on quality and safety of hydrophilic reducing compounds integration into taralli via wine enrichment

Taralli undergo thermal stress during cooking that can trigger oxidation and acrylamide (AA) production. Natural reducing compounds, like antioxidants, can mitigate the thermal damage and safeguard taralli quality. Hence, the use of a fortified white wine in the taralli recipe, enriched by direct contact with vine shoots, was tested. Firstly, the fortification step was studied by a design of experiment (DoE) methodology. The results showed that a vine shoots/wine ratio of 1:5 and 5 min of sonication caused a marked improvement of wine total hydrophilic reducing compounds (THRC) and antioxidant activity. Following, the enriched wine was used in taralli production in comparison with a control. THRC, antioxidant activity, and oxidative stability significantly increased in taralli when the fortified wine was used, while the AA level was lowered by around 40% respect to the control. Fortified taralli were slightly darker and harder than the control ones, but their organoleptic traits were found to be almost similar.