Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety最新文献

Edible cutlery (cups, bowls, and spoons) are emerging as sustainable alternatives to single-use plastics and laminated paper containers, offering both environmental benefits and functional versatility. These products are primarily fabricated from bio-based polymers, including starches, millet flours, plant fibers, and proteins such as soy, casein, and gelatin. Despite their promise, large-scale adoption is limited by low mechanical strength, moisture sensitivity, thermal instability, and short shelf life. This comprehensive review highlights recent advancements in the design, fabrication, and functional enhancement of biodegradable edible cutlery. It covers raw materials, processing techniques including molding, baking, thermal pressing, and extrusion and key strategies for improving performance, such as protein–polysaccharide composites, food-grade crosslinking, bioactive incorporation, and multilayer hydrophobic coatings. The manuscript also addresses critical practical aspects, including shelf stability, scalability, consumer sensory acceptance, economic feasibility, safety, and regulatory compliance, with references to international standards and food-safety laws. Real-time applications in cafés, restaurants, and consumer settings are discussed, along with sustainability considerations and life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate environmental impact. Finally, the review identifies knowledge gaps, particularly the need for standardized methods to assess durability, moisture resistance, and sensory performance. Compared to previous reviews on plant flour-based edible tableware, this work provides a broader perspective encompassing composite systems, advanced functionalization strategies, and integration of sustainability and commercial applicability. By combining material science insights, practical considerations, and environmental evaluation, this review underscores the transformative potential of edible cutlery in sustainable packaging and foodservice systems.

Whey protein drinks are an important segment of the functional beverages market, which are commonly consumed as sports drinks due to their high nutritional value and convenience. However, their astringency limits consumer acceptance. This review examines the origin, characterization, and mitigation of astringency in this type of beverage. The main focuses of the article are on the impact of exercise on astringency perception, and the strategies of modulation and optimization of astringency sensation in the design of whey protein drinks. Astringency arises from multiple potential mechanisms, with the interaction between whey proteins, salivary proteins, and oral mucosa leading to reduced lubrication or increased friction as a key contributing mechanism. It is influenced by numerous factors, including pH, protein aggregation state, and dynamic changes within the oral environment. Sensory evaluation and instrumental methods, such as tribological analysis and adsorption techniques, can help quantify the astringency sensation. However, current in vitro analytical models still require optimization to better simulate real oral conditions. Exercise alters saliva secretion (reduced flow rate and changed composition), elevates oral temperature, and modulates taste sensitivity, potentially affecting cross-modal astringency perception. Strategies of mitigation and optimization of astringency sensation include physical, chemical, and biological approaches, all of which improve lubrication or inhibit protein adhesion to reduce astringency. Future research should focus on deepening the current understanding of the behavior of whey protein drinks in the mouth, developing better biomimetic oral models, and designing novel whey protein drinks tailored to the specific needs of athletes, thereby driving market expansion.

Although additive manufacturing (AM) has found widespread applications in the food industry, there are still very few food materials that can be directly printed, resulting in a scarcity of finished printed products available on the market. To broaden the applications of food AM, it is essential to pre-treat food materials to enhance their physicochemical, nutritional, and flavor properties. This review comprehensively examines the existing literature on technologies related to the preparation of feedstock for AM, highlighting advances in food pre-treatment technologies within this field. It also proposes unresolved issues and outlines future research prospects. The development of pre-treatment technologies for food AM signifies a broader integration of AM within the food industry. The materials used in food AM must possess suitable rheological properties to ensure smooth extrusion from the nozzle, as well as adequate mechanical properties to maintain the shape fidelity of the printed products. We summarize innovative treatment techniques, including novel physical field treatments, enzymatic methods, and chemical treatments, while explaining the underlying mechanisms involved. The future trajectory of 3D food products is geared towards commercialization, necessitating more advanced pre-treatment techniques to meet evolving market demands.

Selenium is an indispensable trace element for the vital activities of humans and animals and plays a significant role in immunity, anticancer, and anti-oxidation. Selenium is closely related to soil, plants, animals, and human beings in nature, and the selenium content of soil and crops is important in assessing the selenium nutritional status of the population. The human body cannot synthesize selenium and needs to ingest it from food. However, selenium-rich agro-food may be accompanied by the risk of heavy metal (e.g., cadmium, lead, mercury, arsenic, and chromium) contamination while enhancing the selenium nutritional level of the human body, which poses a potential threat to the ecosystem and human health. Accordingly, this article advocates for a thorough risk assessment of selenium-enriched agricultural products that balances selenium's health benefits against potential heavy-metal contamination, adopts a whole agri-food-chain perspective (encompassing soils, crops, animal products, and human consumption), clarifies the interconnected transfer of selenium and heavy metals, and proposes a risk-management strategy focused on traceability systems and precision agriculture to safeguard the quality and safety of these products.

Algal lipids are increasingly recognized as a promising alternative to conventional lipid sources, offering a sustainable and efficient means to meet global nutritional demands. Their cultivation requires substantially less water and arable land compared to terrestrial oilseed crops, thereby aligning strongly with the objectives of Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG-2), which emphasizes improved nutrition and food security. Certain microalgal species can accumulate 50%–70% lipid content (dry weight basis), with a considerable fraction comprising long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), particularly eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). These bioactive fatty acids are rarely abundant in traditional plant and marine sources, underscoring the nutritional superiority of algal lipids. Remarkably, some algal strains exhibit lipid productivities exceeding those of soybean oil by more than 20-fold per hectare, while simultaneously contributing to reduced greenhouse gas emissions and providing a stable, renewable lipid supply. Beyond their nutritional significance, algal lipids are increasingly explored for functional food development, dietary supplements, and food processing applications. Advances in biotechnological extraction, stabilization, and metabolic engineering further enhance their industrial potential, ensuring higher yields, improved oxidative stability, and tailored fatty acid profiles. This review comprehensively examines the potential of algal lipids as sustainable lipid sources and functional food ingredients, highlighting recent innovations in production technologies, industrial applications, and stabilization strategies. It also emphasizes their role in strengthening food security, mitigating environmental impacts, and driving a paradigm shift in global lipid consumption patterns.

Proteins are widely used as emulsifiers and gelling agents in emulsion gels to form a three-dimensional (3D) network structure, providing increased physical and chemical stability. Protein-based emulsion gels have versatile applications in the design of future food, such as precision, sustainable, and healthy food. Multiscale evaluation of protein-based emulsion gel systems is particularly important for developing future foods suitable for modern consumers. This study focuses on the effect of the protein gel network structure on the properties of emulsion gels, and the methods used to evaluate the gel network structure are described in detail. Texture profiles, gel strength, water and oil-holding capacities, rheological properties, freeze-thaw and oxidation stability, and sensory, digestive, and nutritional properties are commonly used to evaluate the characteristics of protein-based emulsion gels. The formation and quality of a 3D network structure significantly influence the aforementioned properties of protein-based emulsion gels. Compared with atomic force microscopy (AFM), confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray, cryo-scanning electron microscopy (cryo-SEM) provides more reliable results of the gel network structure, helping to better clarify the mechanisms behind quality changes in protein-based emulsion gels. Future work should focus on standardizing the observation method for 3D network structures, establishing the relationship between network structure and gel properties, developing emerging technologies for 3D network observation, and creating sustainable protein-based emulsion gels.