Het evalueren en sturen van het gezondheidspotentieel van spruitkool en prei doorheen de groenteverwerkende keten

Vegetable processing from "Farm to Fork" typically involves multiple consecutive processing steps as part of a complex processing chain. This vegetable processing chain typically consists of pretreatment, preservation, storage and preparation, which each can impact the health potential of vegetables. Existing knowledge gaps on the impact of processing on health-related compounds in vegetables were identified at three levels. (i) At the level of the vegetable processing chain, certain processing steps, such as emerging technologies (i.e. pulsed electric field treatment), preservation coupled to long-term shelf life studies and preparation as performed in industrial kitchens are majorly overlooked in current research and therefore addressed in this PhD. Additionally, in this PhD, digestion was also considered an important final step in the vegetable processing chain, leading to a "Farm to Fed" approach. Furthermore, current research majorly focuses on the impact of individual processing steps neglecting the sequence in which these steps are performed. Therefore, this PhD attempted to gain insight into the entire, complex vegetable processing chain by gradually zooming in on different steps with each their set of variables, and making them increasingly more complex, leading to a more holistic approach. This approach was also applied (ii) at the level of the health-related compounds. Current research mostly focuses on the impact of processing on individual health-related compounds. To more fully understand the impact of the vegetable processing chain on the health potential of vegetables, this PhD studied multiple health-related compounds simultaneously, spanning from phytochemicals to vitamins. Health-related compounds were selected based on differences in solubility (i.e. water- versus lipid-soluble) and susceptibility toward enzymatic conversions (i.e. direct versus indirect versus no conversions, presence of physical barriers between substrate and enzyme). The compounds investigated include; glucosinolates, S-alk(en)yl-L-cysteine sulfoxides (ACSOs), vitamin C, carotenoids and vitamin K1. In the case of glucosinolates and ACSOs, enzymatic conversions can lead to the formation of health-beneficial conversion products, while in the case of vitamin C and carotenoids, enzymatic conversions can lead to degradation of these compounds. (iii) At the level of investigated vegetables, attention was given to the vegetables of the Brassica oleracea and Allium family, due to their family-specific phytochemicals: glucosinolates and ACSOs, respectively. Currently, research on more locally grown vegetables is missing. Therefore, this PhD focused on Brussels sprouts (Brassica oleracea var. gemmifera) and leek (Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum), important vegetables for the agricultural and industrial sectors in Belgium and worldwide. Addressing these knowledge gaps, this PhD evaluated and directed the health potential of Brussels sprouts and leek throughout the vegetable processing chain.