Jiang Chang , Min Yue , Guoping Zhao , Biao Tang , Chunlei Shi
{"title":"Advancements in function recognition of staphyloxanthin and targeted inhibitor development","authors":"Jiang Chang , Min Yue , Guoping Zhao , Biao Tang , Chunlei Shi","doi":"10.1016/j.cofs.2025.101300","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cofs.2025.101300","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div><em>Staphylococcus aureus</em> is a significant foodborne pathogen that endangers food safety and public health. Targeting the virulence factor staphyloxanthin has proven effective in controlling <em>S. aureus</em> within the food industry by diminishing its resistance to oxidative stress and thus increasing its vulnerability to disinfectants like H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub>. Recent research has uncovered additional functions of staphyloxanthin and reported the development of inhibitors targeting this factor. These advancements not only deepen our understanding of staphyloxanthin’s role but also present novel strategies to mitigate the prevalence of <em>S. aureus</em> in the food industry. But a comprehensive review of these advancements is lacking. This article seeks to provide an extensive overview of the newly identified functions of staphyloxanthin and recent progress in inhibitor development. It encompasses new research perspectives, representative cases, and emerging trends, aiming to inspire further research on staphyloxanthin functions, targeted inhibitors, and their practical applications in food safety management.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54291,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Food Science","volume":"63 ","pages":"Article 101300"},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143747147","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Editorial overview: Harnessing technology for environmental sustainability in the agri-food sector","authors":"Davide Giacalone","doi":"10.1016/j.cofs.2025.101299","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cofs.2025.101299","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":54291,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Food Science","volume":"63 ","pages":"Article 101299"},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143725496","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bruna B Durço , Camile OL Farias , Tatiana C Pimentel , Elson R Tavares Filho , Adriana Gámbaro , Adriano G Cruz , Maria C KH Duarte , Erick A Esmerino
{"title":"Redefining innovation: the role of co-creation in collaborative new food product strategies","authors":"Bruna B Durço , Camile OL Farias , Tatiana C Pimentel , Elson R Tavares Filho , Adriana Gámbaro , Adriano G Cruz , Maria C KH Duarte , Erick A Esmerino","doi":"10.1016/j.cofs.2025.101298","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cofs.2025.101298","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The development of new food products (NFPD) is a continuously evolving activity within the food industry, driven by the high competitiveness of the sector. Traditionally, the NFPD process has been led by internal teams, guided by the perceptions of managers. However, an emerging trend, widely discussed in the literature and in other industrial sectors, has incorporated the participation of external stakeholders, such as consumers, suppliers, and service providers, through approaches known as co-creation. This practice strengthens the relationship between companies and consumers and can drive innovation in the food industry, grounded in mutually co-created values. The objective of this review was to compile and analyze information regarding the benefits, challenges, and prospects of using co-creation in the development of new food products, identifying emerging trends and gaps in the application of this approach within the sector. Overall, a low degree of maturity was observed in the application of co-creation approaches to food product development, characterized by the use of traditional techniques, such as focus groups and questionnaires. However, these techniques have been increasingly employed with a more collaborative perspective, incorporating co-creative elements. Although still in its early stages, this practice has already shown promising results and points toward significant expansion in the near future.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54291,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Food Science","volume":"63 ","pages":"Article 101298"},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143759578","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Constructing aqueous foams from milk components: structure and interfaces","authors":"Haotian Zheng , Hari Meletharayil","doi":"10.1016/j.cofs.2025.101290","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cofs.2025.101290","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Milk foams are complex colloid systems including protein dispersion foam, emulsion foam, and oleofoam. Bovine milk is a unique colloid mixture containing diversified surface-active components, ranging from mesoscopic to molecular scales, such as proteins, milk fat globules (MFGs), fat crystals, phospholipids, etc. A comprehensive understanding about their foaming behaviors in the context of milk foam would result in cleaner-label opportunities and superior stability. Regarding practical foaming processes, interfacial adsorption or foam film formation is a net effect resulted from both thermodynamic equilibrium and kinetic aspects, in which surface tension, gravity, physicochemical properties, hydrodynamics, etc. are involved. This has a significant meaning to the water–air entering phenomenon for MFGs and to the milk (emulsion) foaming capacity and stability due to MFGs may act as both foaming and antifoaming agent. This mini-review elaborates on foaming mechanisms for milk components, knowledge gaps, and opportunities are discussed based on recent research findings.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54291,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Food Science","volume":"63 ","pages":"Article 101290"},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143747146","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jashanpreet Kaur , Namhee Lee , Kate Cassity-Duffey , Joon Hyuk Suh
{"title":"Revisiting the chemical diversity of organic food crops: metabolomics perspectives","authors":"Jashanpreet Kaur , Namhee Lee , Kate Cassity-Duffey , Joon Hyuk Suh","doi":"10.1016/j.cofs.2025.101288","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cofs.2025.101288","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Organic foods have become popular, with growing attention to healthier, safer foods. Yet, the comprehensive knowledge of chemical composition and metabolic network rewiring in organic food crops remains limited, hindering a thorough understanding of their nutritional values and health effects. This study investigates chemical truth behind organic production and knowledge gaps and proposes metabolomics as a tool to systemically explore the chemical diversity of organic food crops. Three essential tasks using metabolomics are given to achieve the goal. Based on previously published literature on organic crop metabolomics research, one of the suggested tasks, functional enrichment analysis was applied to demonstrate its usefulness for the identification of metabolic network and the necessity of future research on organic food crops. The proposed actions will be a breakthrough to better understand the overall metabolism and quality traits of organic foods, thereby contributing to the quality assurance, authentication, and traceability of organic food products.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54291,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Food Science","volume":"63 ","pages":"Article 101288"},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2025-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143642947","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mahdi Vahdanjoo, Claus Grøn Sørensen, Michael Nørremark
{"title":"Digital transformation of the agri-food system","authors":"Mahdi Vahdanjoo, Claus Grøn Sørensen, Michael Nørremark","doi":"10.1016/j.cofs.2025.101287","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cofs.2025.101287","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of digital transformation in the agri-food sector. The study emphasizes digitalization as both an enabler of production efficiency and a radical innovator, redesigning business models and agricultural practices. The study explores the development of applications and products that connect consumers, supply chain actors, and producers, leading to customized food products. It highlights the notion of circular agri-food systems for feedback loops in the value chain, minimizing waste and integrating environmental and social values. Also, the paper explores the challenges in digital adoption, including technical barriers, privacy, and security concerns. To overcome these challenges, an interdisciplinary approach is proposed, merging technological, ecological, economic, and governance insights. Key needs identified for successful digital transformation include enhanced data processing, technological convergence, sustainability awareness, interoperability, and user adoption. The conclusion stresses the importance of invoking systemic thinking, user-friendly designs, and interdisciplinary collaboration in making sure that digital innovations enable a sustainable and resilient food production system.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54291,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Food Science","volume":"63 ","pages":"Article 101287"},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2025-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143619151","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pier Paolo Becchi , Gabriele Rocchetti , Luigi Lucini
{"title":"Advancing dairy science through integrated analytical approaches based on multi-omics and machine learning","authors":"Pier Paolo Becchi , Gabriele Rocchetti , Luigi Lucini","doi":"10.1016/j.cofs.2025.101289","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cofs.2025.101289","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Using advanced platforms such as nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, and liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry, metabolomics enables the comprehensive profiling of small molecules in milk, providing insights into its nutritional value, contamination levels, and processing effects. The integration of metabolomics with other omics approaches, such as metagenomics and proteomics, has demonstrated great potential. This multi-omics strategy enhances the understanding of the biochemical complexity underlying milk production and quality, paving the way for innovative research into the interactions between different molecular components in dairy products. Furthermore, combining multi-omics with machine learning (ML) has revolutionized data interpretation by uncovering patterns and correlations within complex data sets. Researchers can effectively predict and classify milk quality attributes, detect adulteration, and authenticate product origin by employing multivariate statistics and ML algorithms. This short review underscores the role of integrated omics approaches in dairy science, illustrating their capacity to enhance practices, ensure quality, and strengthen traceability.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54291,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Food Science","volume":"63 ","pages":"Article 101289"},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2025-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143592886","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Carlos García-Latorre , Santiago Ruiz-Moyano , Alicia Rodríguez , Rocío Velázquez , María J Poblaciones , Alejandro Hernández
{"title":"From field to fork: the benefits of Trichoderma spp. in food quality and safety","authors":"Carlos García-Latorre , Santiago Ruiz-Moyano , Alicia Rodríguez , Rocío Velázquez , María J Poblaciones , Alejandro Hernández","doi":"10.1016/j.cofs.2025.101286","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cofs.2025.101286","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The use of the genus <em>Trichoderma</em> has grown exponentially in recent decades, primarily associated with its antagonistic properties and yield improvement capabilities. Recently, <em>Trichoderma</em> spp. are related to the ability to biofortify crops or biodetoxify soils or wastewater. However, the impact of their use on postharvest quality and safety has been scarcely explored. This review highlights the potential applications of <em>Trichoderma</em> spp. in the compositional improvement of agricultural products by increasing functional compounds, such as phenolics, and the sensory improvement of products through the increase of pigments associated with color, texture, and palatability. In addition, the benefits of its application in the field can contribute decisively to improving food safety due to its capacity to control postharvest pathogens, mainly toxigenic molds and their dangerous toxins or bioremediation. With all this, <em>Trichoderma</em> spp. can be considered a valuable ally of the food industry for enhancing the quality and safety of food.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54291,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Food Science","volume":"63 ","pages":"Article 101286"},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2025-02-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143580494","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Recent advances in synergistic effect of lactoferrin","authors":"Yingying Lin , Sijia Song , Huiyuan Guo","doi":"10.1016/j.cofs.2025.101285","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cofs.2025.101285","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Lactoferrin (LF) is a multifunctional iron-binding glycoprotein that possesses a variety of functions, such as antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antitumor, and intestinal health promotion. However, its application was restricted by its instability and poor gelation property. Recently, an increasing number of studies have focused on the synergistic effects of LF to broaden its application in the fields of functional food, nutritional supplements, and health care. LF can form complexes with other substances or be modified to enhance its stability and functionality. Additionally, the charge characteristics and cage-like structure of LF enable it to act as a carrier to encapsulate and protect functional ingredients. Furthermore, due to its broad range of receptors, LF can serve as a targeted delivery material for the precise delivery of functional ingredients. New insights into future research trends were also present, which are expected to further expand the utility of LF.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54291,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Food Science","volume":"63 ","pages":"Article 101285"},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2025-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143592885","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chen Liu , Danlei Wang , Ivonne MCM Rietjens , Liang Zheng
{"title":"Current and emerging issues in chemical food safety","authors":"Chen Liu , Danlei Wang , Ivonne MCM Rietjens , Liang Zheng","doi":"10.1016/j.cofs.2025.101284","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cofs.2025.101284","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Food safety is increasingly influenced by global challenges, such as climate change, environmental pollution, the shift toward plant-based diets, and new technological developments. This review addresses key issues currently shaping chemical food safety, focusing on natural toxins in plant-based foods, the effects of climate change on food safety, and the role of endogenous compound formation in exposure assessments. The review also discusses the growing concern over per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and nanomaterials and examines advances in risk assessment, particularly the adoption of new approach methodologies (NAMs) and the integration of innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence. These topics underscore the need for updated risk assessment practices and offer insights into how food safety standards and regulations might evolve in response to these emerging challenges.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54291,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Food Science","volume":"62 ","pages":"Article 101284"},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2025-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143511459","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}