Advances in Food and Nutrition Research最新文献

Date palm trees, fruits and leaves have historic life changes with human beings, and their utilizations started by using them as foods and remedy, especially against the resulting bruises of consecutive wars involving wounds, burnes and invasive diseases such as Malaria, Cholera and recently against the emergence of Covid-19 disease symptoms. The richness of palm date- fruits with reducing sugars, polyphenolic acids, flavonoid compounds, hydrosoluble and liposoluble vitamins makes them as versatile food and feed products. In part, minerals remain as the catalyst elements for these golden fruits. In other part, the distribution of essential oils at the mesocarps of date fruits and into date pits constitutes other integral part with substantial therapeutic and nutrigenomic contributions. Polyphenol oxidase (PPO) is a bound enzyme involved in the ripening of the date fruits. The aim of this book chapter is devoted in exploring the recent advances in date palm fruit cultivars as natural bioresources and the key elements beyond to their chemistry, biochemistry, and nutrition aspects, shedding lights on their important metabolites in enhancing food nutritional values, and human health attributes.

The global concern for ensuring the safety and authenticity of high-quality food necessitates continuous advancements in food assessment technologies. While conventional methods of food assessment are accurate and precise, they are also laborious, destructive, time-consuming, energy-intensive, chemical-demanding, and less eco-friendly. Their reliability diminishes when dealing with large numbers of food samples. This chapter explores recent advances in non-invasive technologies for food quality assessment, including spectroscopy, optical imaging, and e-sensors. Enhanced by artificial intelligence (AI), these technologies have shown remarkable capabilities in rapid and accurate food identification, authentication, physical appraisal, early disease detection, chemical analysis, and biochemical evaluation. As a result, non-invasive technology holds the potential to revolutionize food quality assessment and assure food safety at every stage of the food supply chain.

The agri-food sector is undergoing a significant transformation to meet the increasing global demand for food while ensuring sustainability and economic viability. Livestock production plays a crucial role in food security and rural development, but growing consumer expectations, stricter regulations, and environmental concerns require innovative solutions. Digitalization and advanced sensing technologies, such as near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and its combination with imaging or hyperspectral imaging (HSI), are revolutionizing livestock systems by improving efficiency, traceability, and decision-making. NIRS has proven to be a valuable tool in animal feeding and meat industry, enabling rapid and non-destructive assessment of feed composition and quality. In meat production, NIRS enhances quality control, with a notable case study in the Iberian pig industry. Additionally, HSI complements NIRS by providing spatial and spectral data for detailed analysis of both animal feed and meat products. These technologies facilitate real-time monitoring and optimization of nutritional content, authenticity verification, and detection of contaminants. In addition to feed and meat analysis, NIRS technology has been further explored for use in livestock systems for in vivo analysis to provide a better understanding of animal health, physiology and welfare. The integration of these sensing technologies into modern livestock farming supports more sustainable and efficient production practices. This chapter presents research highlighting the practical applications of NIRS and HSI in the livestock sector, emphasizing their potential to enhance productivity, quality control, and sustainability across the entire value chain.

Non-starch carbohydrates are among the most important constituents in cereals and thus, play an essential role in cereal products. In one regard, they can cause severe discomfort for patients of gastrointestinal disorders in form of fermentable oligo-, di-, and monosaccharides and polyols (FODMAP). Therefore, this chapter evaluates strategies for reducing the FODMAP content in cereal products through biotechnological and enzymatic methods, ingredient selection, and processing adjustments, while maintaining sensory quality and dietary fiber intake. On the other hand, dietary fibers, such as cereal β-glucans, are widely recognized for their health promoting properties. Despite their potential as nutraceutical ingredients, their application in food remains limited due to structural and functional changes during processing and storage that can affect their health promoting properties. Since many dietary fibers simultaneously act as FODMAPs, individuals on a low-FODMAP diet often consume particularly low amounts of dietary fiber. Thus, this chapter also explores the current knowledge and future perspectives on combining a low-FODMAP diet with high dietary fiber intake, with particular emphasis on the utilization of cereal β-glucan. Alongside the functional properties, the technological hurdles and the impact on product sensory and storage stability are explored as well. As a result, this chapter highlights the potential of non-starch carbohydrates to define the next generation of cereal products by incorporated health benefits while ensuring a wholesome nutrition also for sensitive groups.

Cereals and cereal-based foods are fundamental to global nutrition, providing essential macronutrients and micronutrients that support food security. Ensuring their quality, nutrition, and safety is impacted by factors such as contamination, adulteration, and nutrient degradation during processing and storage. Advanced analytical techniques have emerged as powerful tools to address these challenges, offering innovative solutions for detecting contaminants, optimizing nutritional value, and ensuring food safety. This chapter explores the application of these techniques, including spectroscopy, chromatography, molecular biology, and omics technologies, in the cereal-based food systems. Spectroscopy and chromatography enable rapid and precise detection of chemical contaminants and adulterants, while molecular biology methods like PCR and DNA barcoding ensure product authenticity. Omics approaches, such as lipidomics, proteomics, and flavoromics, provide comprehensive insights into the molecular composition and functional properties of cereals, facilitating the development of high-quality, nutritious products. Emerging technologies, including nanotechnology and artificial intelligence, further enhance the efficiency and accuracy of cereal safety monitoring. By integrating these advanced methods, the cereal research field can address existing challenges, ensuring the production of safe, high-quality, and nutritious cereal-based foods to meet global dietary needs.

Food metabolomics has, over the years, emerged as an effective approach for investigating complex molecular makeup and metabolome of food, offering critical insights into its quality, safety, and nutritional value. This chapter highlights the role of food metabolomics for understanding changes in metabolite composition of cereal products, which plays a key role for global food nutrition and security. The utilization of advanced analytical platforms associated with food metabolomics, either through targeted or non-targeted approaches, enables the identification and measurement of metabolites, uncovering their biochemical pathways and how they are influenced by factors such as processing, storage, and environmental conditions in a wide array of cereal products. With this information, researchers can fully understand metabolite perturbations, improve and optimize the processing conditions and techniques of cereal products, and drive innovation in the creation of functional foods.

This chapter presents an overview of Salmonella enterica as a contaminant in fresh produce, exploring outbreaks and recalls linked to them. It also provides information on potential sources of S. enterica contamination throughout the entire production chain of these products and presents food safety tools and new approaches for controlling this pathogen. S. enterica is recognized worldwide as a pathogen responsible for foodborne outbreaks, and there has been an increase in reported cases of salmonellosis linked to fresh produce. These products are susceptible to contamination throughout various stages of the farm-to-fork process. The potential sources of contamination are present from pre-harvest and harvest stages (e.g., soil, blossoms, seeds, irrigation water and gray/blackwater, wild and domestic animals/organic fertilizers, and distinctive traits of the plant) to post-harvest stages (e.g., processing, packaging, storage/retail, and preparing for consumption). Thus, controlling S. enterica contamination is extremely important for ensuring the safe consumption of fresh produce. However, obtaining practical, efficient, low-cost, and sustainable solutions that ensure the products' sensorial, nutritional, and food quality is still a challenge. As an alternative to conventional methods, recent studies report the use of new technologies, such as neutral, acidic or low chlorine electrolyzed oxidizing water, ultraviolet light, ultrasound, microemulsion of essential oils, cold plasma, irradiation, bacteriophages, and other methods, which can be used alone or in combination with the conventional ones. Therefore, understanding the main sources of S. enterica contamination in fresh produce and the effective approach for controlling this pathogen is crucial to reducing future outbreaks.

This chapter explores the application of spectroscopy in assessing meat quality and safety from farm to fork. This is a critical research area, particularly in the light of climate change, which is impacting food supply chains by altering livestock rearing conditions, microorganism loads, and cold chain logistics. To adapt to these changes, the meat industry must effectively manage product variability, and non-invasive technologies play a pivotal role in enabling timely and objective assessments. The chapter begins by outlining the key challenges encountered at various stages of meat production, followed by an overview of the primary attributes used to evaluate meat quality and safety. Next, it delves into the fundamental principles of vibrational spectroscopy, providing an overview of various spectroscopic techniques, including both point-based and imaging-based approaches. The discussion highlights the complexities of analysing heterogeneous materials like meat using spectroscopy, with a focus on Vis-NIR spectroscopy as the most promising technology for quality and safety assessments across different stages of meat production. Furthermore, the chapter examines the application of Vis-NIR spectroscopy and imaging for assessing meat quality and safety at the post-slaughter, packaging, and storage stages, drawing insights from various studies. Finally, it addresses the challenges of implementing Vis-NIR technology in meat processing plants and explores how advancements in spectroscopy, imaging instrumentation, computing hardware, and artificial intelligence are helping to overcome these obstacles.