Cereal products constitute the basis of the diet pyramid. While the consumption of such products as bread decreases, the group of food which popularity increase is cereal snacks. Unfortunately, the dietary value of this group of foodstuffs is limited. Thus, different types of cereal bran may be added to the produced snacks to enhance their nutritive value. However, an addition of bran may have an adverse effect on quality attributes of products. Corn grits enriched with 20 and 40% oat, wheat and rye bran was extruded. Basic parameters determining the nutritive value, physical characteristics and sensory attributes of the six produced types of extrudates were measured and compared. Moreover, the effect of additives applied on viscosity of aqueous suspensions of the raw materials and extrudates under controlled conditions was measured using RVA. The dietary value of snacks containing bran depends on the type and quantitative shares of the additives. The content of dietary fibre in produced extrudates ranged from 6.5 to 15.8%, including soluble dietary fibre at 2.1 to 3.7%. With an increase of bran content in extrudates, their expansion decreased, density increased and the colour of extrudates changed (reduced brightness, increased a*, decreased b*). In sensory evaluation the highest acceptability was given to extrudates with a 20% addition of oat bran, while the lowest was given for those with 40% wheat bran. Based on PCA results positive correlations were found between overall desirability and crispiness, porosity, taste, colour and expansion. Negative correlations between desirability and hardness and density of extrudates were observed. The additives and their level also had an effect on changes in viscosity of aqueous suspensions measured using RVA. However, no correlation was found between quality features of extrudates and values of attributes measured in the analysis of viscosity. In the production of corn extruded snacks an addition of oat, wheat and rye bran may be applied up to 20%. Such products have adequate sensory and dietary quality. The Critical Paste Test (Whalen et al., 1996) is not applicable in the evaluation of suitability of the corn raw material with an addition of oat, wheat and rye bran to produce extrudates.

Color is important for the consumer when making a purchase decision. Mare’s milk and, thus, fermented mare’s milk is little known to consumers. Thus, it is worth presenting research showing the extent of color change during the production and storage of mare’s milk. Herein, we examined the range of color changes in mare’s milk and cow’s milks adapted to mare’s milk composition. These samples were further fermented and stored for 3 weeks at 5 ± 1 °C. Starter cultures containing Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus were used for fermentation. Mare’s milk reached the required pH of 4.5 during fermentation faster (255 min) than cow’s milk (300 min). After fermentation, mare’s milk compared to cow’s milk and adapted cow’s milk had lower titratable acidity (0.75%) and firmness (145. 6 |(g∙s)|). The water holding capacity (95.6%) and number of Lactobacillus (7.71 log CFU/mL) and Streptocococcus (7.20 log CFU/mL) in mare’s and other’s milks were the same. Mare’s milk was furthest from the ideal white (WI) color, with its chrome (C*) being 1.5-times larger than cow’s milk. However, fermented mare’s milk was darker than the fermented adapted milk and cow’s milk by 36% and 58%, respectively. Storage caused a decrease in the WI, C*, and yellowness index (YI). The fermented mare’s milk color stability during production and storage was less than that of fermented cow’s milk. After 3 weeks storage, it was observed that the titratable acidity increased to 1.05%, and the pH decreased to 4.3 in fermented mare’s milk. The water holding capacity decreased but was still higher compared to fermented cow’s milk.

Mare milk is a valued and sought-after raw material for the production of innovative dairy products. The high demand, low supply, high price, and lack of accurate characterization of the milk of a given horse breed may provoke its deliberate fraudulent dilution. The aim of this work was to analyze the freezing point against a background of various selected technological parameters of Polish Coldblood mare milk. Research was carried out on multiparous Polish Coldblood mares from 5 to 8 yr of age with live weights between 618 and 851 kg. Their milk was tested on d 1, 3, and 7 postpartum and once a month for the next 9 mo of lactation (n = 52). Milk from 13 mares, taken daily in mo 4 of lactation, was collected for the dilution study (n = 403). The basic composition of the milk was as follows: solids-not-fat, 84.4 g/kg, fat 15.1 g/kg, lactose 65.3 g/kg, and total protein 24.2 g/kg (made up of casein, 14.6 g/kg, and whey protein, 9.5 g/kg). The dominant amino acids were glutamic acid, proline, leucine, and aspartic acid. The mean freezing point during a 9-mo lactation was -0.557°C (coefficient of variation = -2.787; 5th to 95th percentile: -0.563 to -0.550°C). Based on our analysis, we adopted -0.550°C (from 3 to 6 mo) as the reference value for milk from the Polish Coldblood horse. Analysis of the model of changes in freezing point, after dilution, using the coefficient of determination and Akaike's information criterion, showed that a linear model could be recommended (y = 79.35 + 144.35x). Addition of 1% water increased the freezing point of Polish Coldblood mare milk by 0.0069°C.