Critical reviews in food science and nutrition最新文献

Rapid and accurate on-site testing methods can detect food contamination promptly, serving as critical safeguards for food safety. Conventional techniques, including chromatography, mass spectrometry, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay are reliable but limited by complex preprocessing, high costs, and poor portability. Nucleic acid signal amplification technology (NASAT) overcomes these limitations through probe-mediated target capture and exponential signal amplification, achieving sensitivity, even in complex food matrices. Notably, the synergistic integration of NASAT with multimode sensing is gaining attention. Such coupled systems not only significantly improve the detection performance but also reduce the generation of false-positive/false-negative signals and achieve cross-validation. This review systematically summarizes the nucleic acid signal amplification technologies and highlights their application in detecting food bacteria, mycotoxins, drug residues, heavy metals, and food adulteration when integrated with multimode sensor systems. Current challenges such as the immobilization of nucleic acid, system errors due to operational complexity, and complex primers and signals are discussed. Future directions are proposed to improve the detection performance and support precision monitoring in food safety.

Chemical surfactants are inexpensive but non-biodegradable, persisting in the environment and causing ecological contamination and potential health risks. In contrast, biosurfactants are biodegradable, sustainable, and exhibit low toxicity, making them promising alternatives. However, high production cost of biosurfactant remains a major barrier to their widespread adoption. This review critically examines the potential of utilizing food waste substrates, such as fruit and vegetable waste, frying oil, and expired dairy products, to reduce biosurfactant production costs by supporting the growth and metabolism of biosurfactant-producing microbes. Specifically, we highlight the biosurfactant-producing capabilities of Lactic acid bacteria (LAB), Bacillus spp., and yeast, with emphasis on their substrate specificity, biosurfactant yield and extraction methods. The review further explores the impact of different substrate types on microbial metabolism, along with the pretreatment processes required to enhance substrate utilization efficiency. Moreover, the review examines the role of genetic engineering and fermentation process optimization in improving biosurfactant yields and production efficiency. Additionally, the review highlights the emulsifying properties, functional properties of biosurfactants and examines their current and potential applications in the food industry. Leveraging food waste, such as molasses, soybean oil, and soybean meal, offers a sustainable solution to reduce production costs and address challenges in the downstream processing of biosurfactants.

Food packaging films based on soy proteins have the good biodegradability, sustainability, renewability and environmentally friendly property. Therefore, the development and modification of soy protein-based films (SPBFs) gradually entered people's field of vision, have become the hot topics in the field of food packaging. The addition of polysaccharides, polyphenols, lipids and more suitable production methods are the key factors of modified SPBFs. The modified SPBFs have good mechanical properties, barrier properties and antibacterial properties, which can extend the shelf life of food and better meet the needs of consumers. This paper reviewed the recent development of SPBFs, introduced the main production technologies and key points of SPBFs, described the main types of SPBFs, discussed the functional properties of modified SPBFs, and summarized the future development and challenges of SPBFs.

Jasmine tea, a further processing tea made by scenting green, black, oolong, or other tea with jasmine flowers, is widely appreciated worldwide for its fragrant aroma, refreshing taste, and beneficial health effects. The production of jasmine tea is a meticulous and complex process that involves chemical reactions, physical adsorption, and flavor interaction effects at the sensory level between jasmine and tea. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the research on the processing technology, characteristic aroma formation, nonvolatile compounds, and health benefits of jasmine tea. The main findings are that the transformation and interaction of volatile and nonvolatile compounds in tea and jasmine flowers during the scenting process provide the distinctive flavor profile of jasmine tea. Therefore, in-depth investigation of the biosynthetic pathways of key flavor compounds is crucial for improving the quality of jasmine tea. Precise regulation of the scenting process is essential for achieving the desired flavor profile. Additionally, jasmine tea contains a wide range of bioactive compounds that offer numerous health benefits, including antioxidant, antidepressant, hypoglycemic, antibacterial, and immunomodulatory effects. This review aims to gain a comprehensive understanding of the importance of jasmine tea processing in optimizing production, improving aroma quality, and increasing its market value and economic potential.

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is a condition that results from metabolic disorders. In addition to genetic factors, irregular and high-energy diets may also significantly contribute to its pathogenesis. Dietary habits can profoundly alter the composition of gut microbiota and metabolites. Metabolites can be absorbed into the blood and liver via the gut-liver axis in MASLD. Dietary polyphenols are important bioactive compounds in daily diets that can effectively promote human health. Dietary polyphenols have beneficial effects on MASLD of host, but their mechanism of action is still unclear, and clinical translation is difficult and also affected by individual differences. Accumulating evidence suggest that dietary polyphenols can effectively ameliorate MASLD via the gut-liver axis. In this review, the effects of dietary polyphenols on the gut-liver axis in MASLD models were systematically summarized. Dietary polyphenols can affect the gut microbiota and its metabolites, which can effectively restore the damaged gut barrier. Dietary polyphenols can regulate lipid metabolism, inflammation, autophagy, apoptosis-related signaling pathways, and key gene expression in the liver, thereby alleviating MASLD-induced liver damage. These findings broadens our understanding of how polyphenols improve metabolic disorders, and provides valuable insights for future studies of dietary polyphenols.

Plant-based foods and beverages, particularly milk analogs, are gaining increasing popularity for various reasons, including environmental, ethical, and health concerns. Currently, the market offers a wide range of plant-based milk analogs (PBMAs), most of which are manufactured using top-down methods that involve the mechanical disruption of plant tissues to create an aqueous dispersion of small particles, such as those found in soy, oat, coconut, or almond milks. However, PBMAs can also be constructed using bottom-up approaches, which involve homogenizing water, a plant-based oil, and a plant-based emulsifier together to produce a milk-like colloidal dispersion containing emulsifier-coated oil droplets dispersed in water. The plant-based oils used for this purpose include corn, flaxseed, olive, safflower, sunflower, and vegetable oils, while the plant-based emulsifiers include amphiphilic proteins, polysaccharides, and phospholipids. This article provides a comprehensive review of PBMAs prepared using the bottom-up method, including fabrication methods, ingredient functionality, and product design. In particular, the design of PBMAs with structural, physicochemical, functional, nutritional, and sensory properties similar to those of cow's milk is emphasized. In addition, the article highlights the feasibility of using PBMAs produced using the bottom-up method to create other kinds of plant-based dairy products, such as cheese, yogurt, cream, ice cream, and butter. This is typically done by creating plant-based analogs of milk fat globules and casein micelles. One of the key advantages of the bottom-up approach is that the physicochemical, functional, and nutritional properties of PBMAs can be carefully controlled, which can increase their performance and versatility. However, several technical challenges still remain, such as the need to better match the gelling, foaming, and nutritional properties of cow's milk, which will require further research.

Iron is an essential micronutrient involved in key physiological processes, including oxygen transport and mitochondrial energy production. As humans lack a regulated excretory pathway for excess iron, systemic homeostasis depends on tightly controlled mechanisms of intestinal absorption, cellular storage, and recycling. Dysregulation of these processes may result in iron deficiency or overload, both associated with significant health implications. Plant bioactive compounds, a diverse group of secondary metabolites present in various plant tissues, have gained attention for their modulatory effects on iron metabolism. Emerging evidence suggests that these compounds influence the expression and activity of iron-regulatory proteins such as hepcidin, ferroportin (FPN), ferritin, transferrin, and divalent metal transporter 1 (DMT1). Their biological effects are frequently attributed to antioxidant, metal-chelating, and anti-inflammatory properties. This review provides a comprehensive overview of selected plant-derived bioactive compounds-curcumin, catechins, quercetin, resveratrol, sulforaphane, tannins, myricetin, apigenin, and oleuropein-and their roles in iron metabolism and homeostasis. Special attention is given to their mechanistic actions and therapeutic potential in the context of iron-related disorders.

Edible vegetable oils are rich in nutrients and essential ingredients for daily cooking. However, fraud, expired products, deceptive labeling, and false origin claims in the vegetable oil industry pose significant risks to consumers' health, safety, and economic well-being. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop portable techniques to realize the authenticity of edible vegetable oils. This review presents recent advancements and applications of portable technologies for ensuring the authenticity of edible vegetable oils, including portable spectroscopy, portable sensors, portable sensory arrays, and smartphone analyzers. After briefly introducing this mechanism, this review discusses the application of these portable technologies to vegetable oil authenticity. Finally, future research directions, potential challenges, and practical steps are outlined to address concerns related to the authenticity and traceability of vegetable oils. This review highlights recent advancements in portable technologies for rapid and on-site authentication of edible vegetable oils. Key technologies achieve detection accuracies exceeding 90%, addressing adulteration and origin mislabeling issues, with potential applications for industry and consumer-level quality control.

Kidney beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), a nutritionally rich and globally available legume, represent a promising yet underutilized plant protein source. These phaseolin-rich globulins exhibit a balanced amino acid profile and β-sheet-dominant secondary structures supporting thermal and structural stability. However, due to their naturally limited solubility, emulsifying capacity, and gelling properties, kidney bean proteins often require post-extraction modifications to enhance their functionality. These modifications include physical (heat, ultrasound, high-pressure), chemical (acylation), and biological (fermentation or enzymatic) modifications. They induce conformational rearrangements, modulate surface charge, and enhance interfacial behavior that expand its applicability across a range of food systems, including plant-based analogues, packaging, and encapsulation but also reduce anti-nutritional components and improve digestibility. This review critically evaluates the current state of knowledge on kidney bean proteins, focusing on extraction, structural and compositional characteristics, techno-functional modifications, and potential food applications. Alongside conventional extraction methods, novel approaches such as deep eutectic solvents are being evaluated for their potential to enhance protein yield while preserving native structural integrity. Additionally, emerging modification technologies, including cold plasma, microfluidization, and pulsed electric field, are highlighted as promising tools for precise structural tailoring and enhancement of functional properties such as solubility, emulsification, and gelation in plant-based proteins.