International Journal of Food Science & Technology最新文献

Conventional food processing technologies cannot meet the demands of sustainability in the face of societal concerns about climate change, resource scarcity, and food insecurity. Therefore, the food industry must embrace emerging food processing technologies such as ohmic heating, microwave heating, cold plasma, pulsed electric field, and ultrasound to achieve sustainable food production. Although these technologies have been researched worldwide, they have yet to be widely adopted in the industry as concerns such as high capital investments, regulatory issues, technological limitations, and scalability limit their practical applications. This manuscript discusses key contributions of emerging technologies in enhancing sustainability, including reducing energy consumption, waste reduction and valorisation, and enhancing nutrition. Despite these promising capabilities, fully benefiting from emerging technologies in the industry requires further technological advancements, optimisation, economic viability, consumer acceptance, regulatory compliance, and sustainable workforce education. These could be achieved only by close collaborations between academia, industry, and technology developers. Such considerations and actions to resolve the concerns could facilitate the industrial application of emerging technologies to achieve a more sustainable future with reduced carbon emission, environmental impact, and carbon footprint, along with the capability of improved resource efficiency and further contributions to food security and food nutrition improvement.

We report on the role of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) in addition to the structural and material properties of acid milk gels formed via addition of glucono-delta-lactone (GDL) and these properties of corresponding analogue cream cheeses prepared from these gels. Increasing addition of EDTA to cheese milks prior to acidulation reduced the concentration of insoluble calcium in the milks. Acid gelation of milks, as measured by small deformation rheology, showed a decreased rate of gelation and lower relative elastic modulus of gels with increasing EDTA concentration. The sequestration of colloidal calcium phosphate from the casein micelle by the addition of EDTA led to the lower gelation rate and elastic modulus. The lower extent of ionic binding is considered the causative mechanism for formation of weaker gel structures. Cream cheeses prepared using acid gels with GDL acidulant were compositionally unaffected by EDTA concentration. However, variations in G′ observed in the acid gels containing increasing levels of EDTA correlated with large deformation material property changes in cream cheese analogues. In addition, the increasing inclusion of EDTA in cheese milks translated to reduced water-holding capacity of the cream cheeses prepared from those milks. These results provide insights on the specific role of milk calcium on the structure, material and physical properties of acid milk gels and corresponding cream cheese analogues.

To reduce the sodium salt content in protein gel-based foods, this study investigated the effects of different Na-K ratios on the gelation properties and structural changes of soy protein isolate (SPI) and potato protein isolate (PPI) composite gels. The results showed that the composite gel properties were further enhanced with increasing Na-K ratio in the SPI/PPI gel system. Specifically, when the Na-K ratio was 1:1, the SPI/PPI composite gel exhibited the highest gel strength, gel elasticity, WHC, storage modulus (G′), and β-sheet content, whereas the α-helix content and β-turn content were the lowest. Scanning electron microscopy images revealed a dense and uniform network structure of the composite gel. The addition of low concentrations of Na⁺ and K⁺ improved the network structure and water-holding capacity of the SPI/PPI gel during the heat-induced gelation process. However, excessively high Na-K ratios weakened the gel properties.

Although fermented dairy products with health benefits are the most popular market, the demand for plant-based products is rapidly growing. The current study investigates the effect of involving Lactobacillus, Streptococcus, Bifidobacterium and Propionibacterium strains on rice milk fermentation. Rice's milks were characterised in terms of nutritional value. The acidification process, growth of beneficial bacteria, physicochemical alteration and sensory characteristics of fermented beverages produced from the milk of different types of boiled rice were investigated. The results revealed that changes in all these characteristics depend on the bacterial strain and the rice variety. The highest increase in antioxidant activity after fermentation was shown by Bifidobacterium longum B379M, Bifidobacterium bifidum and Propionibacterium freudenreichii subsp. shermanii KM-186 for Krasnodar, basmati and black rice, respectively. The use of chosen bacteria for red rice milk fermentation led to a decrease in antioxidant activity. The highest values for polyphenol content were for samples fermented by Bacillus coagulans MTCC5856 and Streptococcus thermophilus. The greatest increase in bacterial growth during fermentation was demonstrated by the sample fermented with Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus, B. bifidum and P. freudenreichii subsp. shermanii KM-186. The highest acidification rate values, the most favourable doubling time and the specific growth rate were for samples fermented with L. delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus, S. thermophilus, Lactobacillus acidophilus H9, B. coagulans MTCC 5856, B. bifidum, P. freudenreichii subsp. shermanii KM-186 depending on the rice type. Considering all data obtained, including sensory characteristics, the most promising bacteria for fermentation are B. bifidum and B. longum B379M.

Plant polyphenols are the secondary metabolites of plants, with a wide variety of types and diverse structures. At present, many phenolic compounds and their derivatives have been isolated and identified from nature. Common plant polyphenolic compounds have a polyhydroxyl structure, most of which are found in the plants seen in daily life, and most of them have poor water solubility. Due to the existence of polyhydroxyl structure, most plant polyphenols have strong biological activities such as antioxidant, anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, regulation of blood glucose and blood lipid, and anti-obesity, which are of great research value and broad application prospects. In addition, plant polyphenols have been widely used in food and have become a trendy research topic. Therefore, in this paper, the classifications of plant polyphenols, current status of their bioactivity research and their application in food were analysed, providing reference value for the research and utilisation of plant polyphenols.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of slurry ice (SI) in physicochemical changes, water migration, myofibrillar protein characterisation, and extended shelf life during cold storage of pufferfish (Takifugu obscurus). SI provided faster cooling rate, better structural stability of muscle tissue, and a significant reduction in total viable count (TVC). In addition, the use of SI treatment resulted in a considerable reduction in total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N) and pH. The results of the texture profile analysis (TPA) demonstrated that SI had a significant inhibitory effect on the reduction of hardness, springiness, resilience, and chewiness. In addition, SI treatment better maintained a well-structured myofibrillar protein stabilising the tertiary structure. Low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed that SI treatment could retard the water migration. Furthermore, the results of confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) indicated that SI treatment of pufferfish effectively slowed down the degradation of their myofibrillar protein fraction throughout the cold storage.

Escherichia coli (E. coli) biofilm is the major cause of its high lethality in foodborne illness. Controlling E. coli biofilm formation is a critical way to reduce foodborne diseases. Here, chiral borneol isomers (L-borneol, D-borneol, and isoborneol) were identified as E. coli chemorepellents, which reduced reversible adhesion at the initial stage of biofilm formation. Borneols directly inhibited biofilm production and their inhibitory capacities were associated with the chiral stereochemical structures (L-borneol > D-borneol > isoborneol). A transcriptomic study revealed the inhibitory mechanism of borneols was attributed to the bacterial motility intention and motility energy system. The most effective isomer, L-borneol, reduced bacterial energy metabolism and increased E. coli chemotaxis motility intention through the up-regulation of genes associated with flagellar assembly and bacterial chemotaxis pathways. This work demonstrates that borneols are biofilm inhibitors and supports the potential of borneols as a stereochemical antimicrobial strategy to reduce foodborne pathogenic bacterial contamination.

Margarine contains trans fatty acids, which have been linked to adverse effects on human health. It is therefore of the utmost importance to develop superior margarine substitutes for use in baked foods. The protein-polyphenol-polysaccharide ternary supramolecular system displays remarkable stability and can be utilised in the formulation of emulsions for partial margarine replacement. The aim of this study was to examine the stability of an ovalbumin (OVA)-ferulic acid (FA)-sodium alginate (SA) ternary supramolecular emulsion with varying water-to-oil ratios. The emulsion was evaluated for its potential as a substitute for margarine in cookies. The findings revealed that the specific emulsion instability of the system initially increased and subsequently decreased with an increase in corn oil content, reaching an optimal point of stability and dispersibility at a water-to-oil ratio of 5:11. As the emulsion was incorporated into the cookie dough at levels ranging from 0% to 100% margarine, the viscoelasticity of the dough was enhanced and the hardness was reduced. As the emulsion content increased in place of margarine, the cookies exhibited visible cracks on the surface, accompanied by an increase in hardness, baking loss rate and a notable change in colour. The cookies demonstrated the optimal quality when the emulsion content was 40%.