NPJ Science of Food最新文献

Antarctic krill oil (KO) is a richsource of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). Endogenous PUFA-derived specialized pro-resolving mediators (SPMs) have garnered attention due to their beneficial effects on body, especially the cardiovascular system. This study integrated non-targeted and targeted lipidomics to investigate KO's time-dependent effects on the comprehensive lipid profile and SPMs in rats. After 1- and 6-week supplementation, KO significantly altered lipid profiles, reducing arachidonic acid (ARA, 20:4)-containing lipids while elevating eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, 20:5)/docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6)-containing lipids. Targeted analysis identified and quantified 33 PUFA-derived oxylipins, including derivatives of ARA, 8 derivatives of EPA, and 13 derivatives of DHA. Notably, KO consumption substantially decreased pro-inflammatory oxylipins like LTB₄, PGE₂, and TXB₂, while increasing anti-inflammatory LXA₄ and SPMs such as RvE1, RvE2, RvD1, RvD4, and MaR1. Long-term intake amplified SPM accumulation, suggesting temporal regulation. These findings elucidate KO's potential mechanism in inflammation management through lipidome remodeling, supporting its application in functional foods for metabolic health enhancement.

In this 12-week trial, 136 participants with moderately dyslipidemia were randomly assigned to receive Lactiplantibacillus plantarum (LP) or placebo. In the intention-to-treat analysis, the group-by-time interaction did not reach statistical significance. However, in per-protocol set (adherence ≥85% and no antibiotic use), LP supplementation reduced low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) (-0.118 mmol/L) and total cholesterol (TC) (-0.163 mmol/L), compared with the placebo (both P_group×time < 0.05). Post-intervention group differences were identified in gut microbial genera and species, correlated with changes in bile acids, which in turn were jointly related to lipid reduction. Microbiota-based machine learning models well-predicted the lipid reductions. Subjects with lower genetic risk scores experienced large decreases in LDL-C (Mean ± SD: -0.749 ± 0.632 mmol/L) and TC (-1.306 ± 0.436 mmol/L) (both P_trend and P_interaction < 0.001). Our data supported the beneficial effects of LP in patients with moderate dyslipidemia involving gut microbiota and host genetics.

Food packaging is critical for ensuring food safety, quality, and shelf life. However, growing environmental concerns with conventional plastics drive the search for sustainable alternatives. A major challenge is that many biobased and biodegradable materials show poor barrier properties, limiting their use for food. This study provides a proof-of-concept for classifying sustainable packaging materials by clustering oxygen transmission rate (OTR) and water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) data. A dataset from 49 studies (2000 to 2016) was analyzed using K-Means, Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM), and Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN). DBSCAN emerged as best performing algorithm, achieving the highest Silhouette Score (0.910) and lowest Davies-Bouldin Index (0.374). Results validated that while many sustainable films exhibit high permeability, nanocomposites achieved improved barrier performance. This data-driven framework demonstrates clustering as a tool for systematic grouping of packaging materials, with future work requiring broader datasets, industrial benchmarks, and standardized reporting for practical application.

Growing demands for healthier diets are driving agricultural and food scientists to develop climate-resilient crops and food systems that ensure nutritionally effective food. Beyond providing basic energy requirements, nutrients may actively influence human physiology and health. One such molecule, spermidine, a polyamine abundant in wheat and soybean, has attracted particular interest. From the aspect of human health, spermidine is mainly studied for healthy ageing properties and has been associated with cardioprotective, neuroprotective, and anti-cancerogenic effects. On the other hand, being present in all plants, spermidine is essential for growth, development, and stress adaptation. Endogenously or when exogenously applied, spermidine can help plants adapt to harsh climate change conditions. Bringing together current knowledge on the significance of spermidine in both plants and humans, this review aims to trace its journey From Farm to Pharm, highlighting its importance for sustainable crop production, improved nutrition, and emerging pharmacological applications.

This study aimed to identify novel saltiness-enhancing peptides derived from Pleurotus eryngii and evaluate their influence on saltiness perception. Utilizing an integrated virtual screening strategy, 6 candidate peptides exhibiting potential saltiness-enhancing properties were identified. Sensory analysis revealed that these peptides displayed distinct taste profiles, with detection thresholds ranging between 0.04 and 0.12 mmol/L. Notably, peptides AGHDDFP, GYDTF, and NGYDMR enhanced the saltiness of a 3 mg/mL NaCl solution, demonstrating synergistic or additive effects, consistent with electronic tongue. Molecular docking analysis revealed that three saltiness-enhancing peptides primarily interacted with TMC4 through hydrogen bonding, identifying key interaction residues including Gln527, Glu531, Asp491, Asn404, Arg437, Lys567, Pro409, and Val498. Subsequent molecular dynamics simulations confirmed the structural stability and tightness of saltiness-enhancing peptides-TMC4 complexes, supporting their potential effectiveness in modulating saltiness perception. These results indicate a promising approach for identifying saltiness-enhancing peptides derived from Pleurotus eryngii, potentially serving as taste modulators in reduced-sodium food formulations.

Due to the significant healthcare burden associated with foodborne illness, developing platforms suitable for the on-site detection of food pathogens is of critical importance to public health. Low-cost, equipment-free approaches are desired to allow for point-of-use contamination monitoring along the food supply chain. Here, we demonstrate the compatibility of an Escherichia coli responsive colorimetric DNAzyme-crosslinked hydrogel sensor with a wide range of food products. Sensor functionality involves an E. coli detecting DNAzyme-substrate complex that cleaves the hydrogel crosslinking in the presence of the target bacteria, resulting in a release of gold nanoparticles that is visible to the naked eye. Naked-eye detection of E. coli at concentrations of 10⁵ CFU mL^-1 has been shown in milk as well as samples extracted from produce, leafy greens, and ready-to-eat foods such as rotisserie chickens. The functionality, simplicity, and versatility of this sensing platform may improve the feasibility of frequent pathogen monitoring in the food production pipeline, with the potential to mitigate future outbreaks of foodborne illness.

T-2 toxin is a typical mycotoxin that seriously threatens human and animal health. Liver is the major target organ of T-2 toxin. To elucidate the precise hepatotoxicity mechanism and discover a natural antagonist of T-2 toxin. T-2 toxin (0, 0.5, 1, 2 mg/kg BW)-induced liver injury model, Ferrostatin-1 (1 mg/kg·BW) interference model, Parkin^-/- mice model, Nrf2-activating model (tBHQ, 20 mg/kg·BW) and lycopene (5 mg/kg·BW) treatment model were constructed. Proteomics revealed that ferroptosis is a critical hepatotoxicity mechanism of T-2 toxin. Blocking ferroptosis alleviated the liver damage and mitophagy under T-2 toxin threat. However, these processes were exacerbated in Parkin^-/- mice. In vivo mouse model confirmed that Nrf2 activation increased PINK-Parkin mediated mitophagy and alleviated T-2 toxin-induced ferroptosis, suggesting that Nrf2/mitophagy axis was involved in T-2 toxin-induced hepatic ferroptosis. Further analysis revealed that lycopene promoted Nrf2 nuclear translocation and PINK-Parkin mediated mitophagy to mitigate T-2 toxin-induced hepatic ferroptosis.

The quality of fermented foods is governed by the composition, function, and interactions of their microbial communities. However, fermentations carried out using traditional approaches are often variable with respect to their composition and are difficult to control, thereby limiting industrial reproducibility. Recent advances in omics technologies-including metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, metaproteomics, metabolomics, and culturomics-have greatly enhanced our ability to analyze and reconstruct the microbial ecosystems in fermented foods. This review first highlights the importance of omics analyses for characterizing microbial composition, metabolic potential, and functional interactions. It then discusses the bipartite structure of defined microbial consortia (DMCs), distinguishing between the core microbiome, comprising taxa consistently associated with fermentation performance, and the supplementary microbiome, consisting of variable species that influence flavor diversity and system stability. Finally, we describe a multi-omics-guided strategy for the design and refinement of DMCs, framed within the Assembly-Assessment-Redesign (A-A-R) workflow, which enables iterative optimization of microbial consortia for reproducible and desirable fermentation outcomes. Integrating omics insights with DMC engineering provides a systematic approach for precision fermentation, paving the way for next-generation fermented food production.

Dental caries is a highly prevalent non-communicable disease driven by dysbiosis of the oral microbiota, in which Streptococcus (S.) mutans plays a keystone role. We discovered that cell-free supernatant (CFS) from food-associated Lacticaseibacillus (L.) paracasei disrupts S. mutans membranes, causing leakage, reduced viability, and decreased surface hydrophobicity. CFS also inhibits biofilms by decreasing biomass, metabolic activity, chain length, and exopolysaccharide (EPS) accumulation. Neutralization experiments revealed organic acids as the primary antibacterial factors: activity weakened at pH > 6 but remained stable after heating and long-term storage. In a hydroxyapatite disc model, CFS markedly suppressed biofilm formation and reduced free calcium release, indicating lower cariogenic potential. Transcriptomic analysis revealed downregulation of virulence and quorum-sensing genes (including stsR, gbpA, gbpB, scrB, ldh, aguB, atpA, atpD, luxS, ciaR, ciaH, and ciaX), while metabolomic studies identified creatine and phosphoenolpyruvate as key metabolites linked to these pathways. Our findings demonstrate that L. paracasei postbiotics can act as stable, food-compatible ingredients to modulate cariogenic biofilms, providing a mechanistic basis for developing next-generation postbiotic-based oral care and functional food products. This work connects the science of food-derived postbiotics with oral health, contributing to a One Health approach to caries prevention.

Food is a more complex system than commonly perceived, comprising tens of thousands of molecules whose compositions and interactions ultimately shape human perception. To conceptualize this multifaceted nature, we frame food complexity across three interconnected layers: the molecular composition that defines its chemical foundation, the component interactions that shape food properties, and the perceptual responses that arise from human sensory systems. This review discusses how machine learning is advancing our ability to decode each of these layers, together with multimodal and data-fusion frameworks. Understanding these three layers may enable more accurate prediction of food properties, guide food product innovation, and deepen our scientific understanding of food.