Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture最新文献

Background: Zearalenone (ZEN), a global prevalent mycotoxin produced by Fusarium species, is widely contaminated in cereal grains, feedstuff, and their processed products. It exhibits strong estrogenic activity, which can induce reproductive disorders, immunotoxicity, and metabolic abnormalities in humans and animals, thereby endangering public health security.

Results: This study screened a microorganism ZEND-1 using cyclopentanone and ZEN as carbon sources, identified as Bacillus subtilis via 16S rDNA sequencing. ZEND-1 effectively removed ZEN. Between 27 and 42 °C and pH 6-9, its degrading rate exceeded 80%. Under optimum conditions (pH 7, 32 °C, 160 rpm min^-1 for 36 h), it reached 82.5% for 10 g mL^-1 ZEN, and 90.1% at 48 h. When initial bacterial concentration was 6 × 108 CFU mL^-1, the efficiency was 81.3%. The culture supernatant had significant scavenging efficacy (83.2%), unlike protease K-treated sample (5.7%). Cell-breaking residue and inactivated bacterium had lower removal rates (38.7% and 45.7%, respectively). High-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry showed ZEND-1 converted ZEN into zearalenol and M1 via reduction, hydrolyzation, and decarboxylation. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy revealed that bacteria absorb ZEN through alicyclic COC and anhydride CO.

Conclusion: This study enriches the resource library of ZEN-degrading microorganisms, clarifies the key mechanism of ZEND-1 in ZEN biodegradation, and provides a theoretical basis and technical support for the development of microbial agents for ZEN detoxification and their practical application in food and feed industries. © 2026 Society of Chemical Industry.

Background: Sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) is a medicinal plant recognized for its therapeutic value. Although its polysaccharides are known to be bioactive, their precise structural characteristics and direct anti-inflammatory mechanisms remain largely undefined. This study isolated and purified two novel homogeneous polysaccharides, SBP50-0 and SBP70-0, from sea buckthorn aiming to elucidate their detailed structures and evaluate their anti-inflammatory activities in vitro.

Results: SBP50-0 and SBP70-0 were identified as neutral polysaccharides with molecular weights of 1.04 × 10⁴ Da and 6.45 × 10³ Da, respectively. Monosaccharide analysis indicated they are composed of mannose, galactose, glucose, rhamnose and arabinose. Structural characterization via methylation and NMR spectroscopy revealed that both compounds possess unique, highly branched backbones, distinct from the linear chains often reported in literature. In lipopolysaccharide-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages, treatment with SBP50-0 and SBP70-0 significantly inhibited nitric oxide production. Furthermore, they effectively suppressed the protein expression of key pro-inflammatory mediators, including interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-α and inducible nitric oxide synthase.

Conclusion: These findings demonstrate that SBP50-0 and SBP70-0 possess potent anti-inflammatory properties. This bioactivity is likely attributed to their specific structural architectures, particularly the highly branched arabinogalactan side chains and mannose-rich motifs that facilitate interaction with macrophage receptors. Consequently, these polysaccharides show significant promise as potential candidates for the development of natural anti-inflammatory functional foods or pharmaceutical agents. © 2026 Society of Chemical Industry.

Background: The demand for garlic paste is increasing as a result of accelerating lifestyles and health consciousness. However, garlic paste is prone to quality deterioration, specifically greening and off-flavor. This study aimed to develop an effective method to extend the shelf life of garlic paste.

Results: In the present study, 1.0 mg g^-1 oleanolic acid (OA) treatment significantly maintain the color of garlic paste during storage. The greening strength at 440 nm and 590 nm of garlic paste of control group was 1.33 ± 0.02 and 0.96 ± 0.03, whereas that of OA was 1.07 ± 0.04 and 0.13 ± 0.02 on day 8, being significantly lower than that of the control. OA treatment maintained a higher allicin content by promoting γ-flutamyl transpeptidase and alliinase activities. The allicin content of garlic paste treated with OA was 1.6 times that of the control. Moreover, OA improved the content of several characteristic garlic volatiles, including 3-vinyl-3,4-dihydro-1,2-dithiin, diallyl trisulfide, diallyl sulfide and diallyl disulfide to maintain the fresh flavor of garlic paste. Furthermore, 1.0 mg g^-1 oleanolic acid combined with 0.20-mm polyethylene packaging maintained the L* value during the whole storage time and improved the content of allicin to 88.39 ± 187.28 μg g^-1 on day 8.

Conclusion: OA inhibited the greening of garlic paste, enhanced allicin content and improved garlic flavor to extend storage period of garlic paste. Moreover, OA combined with 0.20-mm polyethylene packaging is beneficial for maitaining allicin content and the flavor of garlic paste. Therefore, this study provides a practical method for maintaining the quality of garlic paste. © 2026 Society of Chemical Industry.

Background: Several commercial berries have been examined for anthocyanin composition, bioaccessibility, and bioactive effects, while Brazilian berries remain underexplored. This study aimed to access the effect of in vitro gastrointestinal digestion on anthocyanin bioaccessibility, stability, and antioxidant potential in black pitanga (Eugenia uniflora var. rubra Mattos), grumixama (Eugenia brasiliensis), nhamburi (Rubus urticaefolius), and barapiroca (Eugenia involucrata) - also called Rio Grande cherry - and explore its link with the food matrix composition.

Methods: The INFOGEST in vitro digestion model was applied to these berries, and anthocyanin were quantified using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-triple-quadrupole-tandem mass spectrometry. Antioxidant potential, polyphenols, flavonoids, anthocyanins, and proximate composition were analyzed by conventional protocols. The results were used in performing analysis of variance, Pearson's R correlations, and multivariate principal component analysis to explore the food matrix key roles.

Results: Brazilian native berries, particularly black pitanga, nhamburi, and grumixama, were found to be rich sources of anthocyanins. Stability during in vitro digestion oscillated between berries and anthocyanin type, besides remaining over 40%. Bioaccessibility highlights are the cyanindin-3-glucoside and malvidin-3,5-diglucoside, which had the highest bioaccessibilities (between 45% and 68%). Black pitanga and nhamburi were able to provide the highest amounts of bioaccessible anthocyanins (477 and 1172 mg g^-1, respectively). Black pitanga presented the highest ferric reducing antioxidant power and oxygen radical absorbance capacity in bioaccessible fractions. Multivariate statistics showed a clear correlation between centesimal composition and anthocyanin stability.

Conclusion: The findings reveal complex interactions between food matrices, anthocyanin stability and bioaccessibility, and effective antioxidant potential for human health. This research emphasizes the use of Brazilian berries as good anthocyanin sources, highlighting black pitanga and nhamburi, while fostering consumer health and conservation of natural resources. © 2026 The Author(s). Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Background: Almond hulls (AH) are the main by-product of almond processing for human consumption and contain bioactive compounds that can improve meat quality. Although AH are used as feed for dairy cows in some countries, information on their potential effects on meat quality is limited. This study evaluated the effects of partly replacing conventional feeds with AH in the concentrate of light lambs on carcass traits and meat quality.

Results: Thirty Manchega lambs (15 females and 15 males) were divided into three homogenous groups according to body weight and sex, and each was fed a concentrate containing 0, 60 or 120 g AH kg ^-1. Lambs were slaughtered at approximately 23.0 kg of body weight and carcass traits, chemical composition, pH and fatty acid (FA) profile of meat, and changes in color and lipid oxidation of meat over 6 days storage were analyzed. Inclusion of AH in the concentrate did not affect either carcass weight and conformation or meat pH and chemical composition. However, feeding AH significantly improved the meat FA profile by increasing (P < 0.05) its polyunsaturated FA (PUFA) content, which may be related to modifications of ruminal FA biohydrogenation. No significant effects of AH on meat color or lipid oxidation over the storage period were observed. Sex-related differences were minimal, but males showed higher PUFA content and lower intramuscular fat than females.

Conclusion: Replacing conventional feeds with up to 120 g AH kg ^-1 in the concentrate of light lambs can enhance the FA profile of their meat without compromising carcass characteristics or meat composition. © 2026 The Author(s). Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Background: As a rapid detection method, the electronic nose exhibits enormous potential in food quality monitoring. However, the response data generated by electronic nose detection are highly complex time-series data. Traditional data analysis models struggle to fully resolve such long-sequence non-linear signals, leading to insufficient feature extraction and poor prediction accuracy.

Results: We propose a novel total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N) prediction method based on the attention improved encoder long short-term memory (AIE-LSTM) hybrid network with a dual-stream feature fusion architecture. A modified informer encoder captures temporal dependencies via multi-head attention, and a temporal down-sampling layer compresses sequence dimensions at the same time as preserving key trend features. In addition, a bidirectional LSTM network processes raw voltage sequences and manually designed physical features separately. Finally, a multi-level feature fusion mechanism integrates these two types of features through fully connected layers to output predictions. Experimental results demonstrated that the AIE-LSTM model achieved the optimal TVB-N prediction performance across nine batches of electronic nose datasets, with an average coefficient of determination (R²) of 0.960, as well as the lowest relative standard deviation of R², root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE). Notably, the model exhibited the best performance in the fourth batch, where the R², RMSE and MAE between the predicted and actual TVB-N values reached 0.979, 0.988 and 0.589, respectively.

Conclusion: This model significantly improves the prediction accuracy of fish TVB-N content, providing a reliable technical solution for the rapid, non-destructive and accurate detection of fish freshness. © 2026 Society of Chemical Industry.

Background: Italy harbors one of the richest grapevine biodiversities worldwide, yet the sensory identity of wines from many native cultivars remains poorly defined despite their relevance on the market at regional, national, or international levels. This study provides a systematic sensory characterization of 18 Italian monovarietal white wines, analyzed across 246 commercial samples, including wines never investigated before by sensory analysis. Analysis of variance, hierarchical cluster analysis, and principal component analysis were applied to Rate-All-That-Apply (RATA) data performed by trained panelists to define a lexicon and identify the sensory attributes characterizing and discriminating the 18 wine types.

Results: A statistically based lexicon comprising 29 olfactory and seven taste/mouthfeel descriptors was defined. Multivariate statistics showed that the 18 monovarietal wine types belong to four main olfactory dimensions, labeled as fruity-balsamic, thiolic-mineral, floral-sweet, and toasty-dried. A three-dimensional space was defined along the four olfactory directions. Müller Thurgau, Gewürztraminer, Albana, and Falanghina emerged as the most representative wines in these directions, outlining the vertices of a spatial framework within and around which the other wines are distributed. Sensory wheels representing structured visual synthesis of the most relevant attributes (odor, taste, mouthfeel) were developed as 'identity models', providing systematic tools for defining wines' varietal typicality.

Conclusion: Results are relevant for enologists and wine sellers as standardized reference sensory models for production and communication, as benchmarks for PDO/PGI quality control and disciplinary improvement, for researchers to advance modeling of wine sensory quality through sensometabolomic wine studies. Results also support the international recognition and valorization of Italian grapevine biodiversity according to Agenda 2030 sustainable development goals. © 2026 The Author(s). Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Background: The demand for minimally processed foods has increased markedly over the past two decades. Two varieties of freshly cut vegetables (rocket and spinach), as fresh and freeze-dried vegetables, were treated by high-pressure (HP) processing. The time and pressure values tested were 2 min for 200, 400 and 600 MPa; and additionally 4 and 5 min for 200 MPa.

Results: The scores from sensory analysis of fresh rocket and spinach were uniformly low across all evaluated attributes, resulting in the sensory data being inappropriate to find a positive effect of the HP treatment on the fresh vegetables. Nevertheless, freeze-dried rocket and spinach exhibited a significantly greater resilience to HP treatments, maintaining acceptable sensory attributes. HP treatments demonstrated a clear impact on reducing microbial loads in rocket and spinach leaves. For both matrices, pressures of 400 MPa and above applied for 2 min led to reductions in aerobic mesophilic bacteria compared to untreated controls. Finally, HP treatment did not produce significant modification in trace element bioaccessibility of vegetables studied.

Conclusions: The application of HP treatment on the fresh cut vegetables studied (rocket and spinach) showed that it is not an effective technology when these vegetables are presented in fresh form. In contrast, HP treatment was more effective from an organoleptic point of view on these vegetables in freeze-dried form. Regarding the reduction of the microbial load, intensive treatments (above 400 MPa) are necessary to find a significant effect. Finally, HP treatment did not affect the trace element bioaccessibility. © 2026 Society of Chemical Industry.

The papaya tree (Carica papaya L.), native to the Americas, is cultivated in tropical regions and holds substantial economic importance, with an estimated export volume of 365 000 t in 2023. However, diseases caused by viruses, fungi, bacteria, and nematodes can lead to severe losses. Among the more than 38 known viral diseases affecting papaya, only a few poses serious threats to cultivation, notably Papaya Ringspot, Papaya Mosaic, and Papaya Sticky Disease (PSD). Emerging technologies, particularly CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing, offer promising avenues to enhance plant resistance. This study examines regulatory paradigms in key papaya-producing and importing countries, highlighting the need for international regulatory harmonization to reduce trade barriers and improve market access for CRISPR-edited cultivars. We demonstrate the feasibility of CRISPR-based genome editing in papaya (Carica papaya L.) by targeting phytoene desaturase as a proof-of-concept marker gene and β-1,3-glucanase, a resistance gene identified through proteomic profiling of host-pathogen interactions during infection by the papaya meleira virus (PMeV and PMeV2) complex. This virus complex causes PSD, a major threat to papaya production, rendering the fruit commercially unviable due to negative effects on texture and flavor as well as inhibiting the formation of benzyl isothiocyanate (BITC), and the fruits become susceptible to fruit flies, which are quarantine pests. Despite extensive traditional breeding efforts, resistant papaya genotypes have yet to be identified, underscoring the need for innovative approaches. However, translating advancements into commercial applications remains challenging due to the diverse and often inconsistent regulatory frameworks governing genome-edited crops across different jurisdictions. © 2026 The Author(s). Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Background: Recently, concerns about people's health and the environment have led to an increased tendency to consume organic and functional foods that contain health-beneficial compounds and protect the ecosystem. This research was conducted to examine the relationship between sociodemographic characteristics, health awareness, and obsession with healthy eating, as well as consumers' preferences for organic and functional foods.

Method: A total of 1022 volunteers aged 19-65 years participated in the study. General information, demographics, health information, anthropometric measurements, an organic and functional nutrition questionnaire, the Orthorexia-15 Scale (ORTO-15), and the Health Awareness Scale were applied to the participants.

Results: A total of 59.9% of the individuals were male, 60.7% were married, and 71.8% were university graduates. A slight majority of the individuals (55.5%) had a healthy body weight. The organic and functional food consumption scores of women were significantly higher than those of men (P = 0.005, P = 0.046, respectively). The organic food consumption score and health awareness score of individuals aged 31 years and above were significantly higher than those of individuals aged 19-30 years (P = 0.002, P < 0.001, respectively). Participants aged 19-30 years had higher functional food consumption than those aged 31 years or older, single participants had higher functional food consumption than married participants, and university graduates had higher functional food consumption than primary school graduates. In addition, there was correlation between health awareness and orthorexia nervosa (ON) (r = -0.229, P < 0.001), organic food consumption and ON (r = -0.080, P = 0.011), organic food consumption and health awareness (r = 0.153, P < 0.001). There was correlation between functional food consumption and ON (r = -0.125, P < 0.001), functional food consumption and health awareness (r = 0.124, P < 0.001).

Conclusion: Health-oriented attitudes of individuals are effective in their dietary behaviours. However, it was determined that orthorexic tendencies predicted both organic and functional food consumption, while health awareness was a significant predictor only of organic food consumption. Policies aimed at improving health awareness are expected to increase demand for organic and functional foods. Comprehensive and extended-duration studies are necessary to determine the factors that influence the consumption of these foods. © 2026 Society of Chemical Industry.