{"title":"Recent advances in Pickering emulsions for inhibiting foodborne bacteria","authors":"Chuye Ji, Yixiang Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.cofs.2024.101265","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cofs.2024.101265","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Foodborne bacteria pose significant risks to public health and economic conditions. Natural antibacterial agents have proven effective against foodborne bacterial contamination but often suffer from harsh environmental and processing conditions. Pickering emulsions, recognized for good stability, high loading capacity, sustained release, cost-effectiveness, low toxicity, biocompatibility, and sustainability, have emerged as efficient carriers for natural antibacterial agents and shown great promise in preserving fruits, vegetables, meats, seafood, and other foods by either direct coating or incorporation in active packaging films. With the growing interest in Pickering emulsions loaded with natural antibacterial agents, in this review, we highlight recent advances in their applications for inhibiting foodborne bacteria. The mostly investigated foodborne bacteria and the compositions and antibacterial mechanisms of natural antibacterial agents loaded Pickering emulsions are summarized, and food-related applications are spotlighted. Despite challenges, such as scalability and regulatory approval, antibacterial Pickering emulsions show great potential as sustainable preservatives for food preservation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54291,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Food Science","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 101265"},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143096518","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}
Xue Yang , Lu Meng , Ashikur Rahman , Jiaqi Wang , Nan Zheng
{"title":"Comparison of fatty acid characteristics in human milk, bovine milk, and infant formula for better emulation","authors":"Xue Yang , Lu Meng , Ashikur Rahman , Jiaqi Wang , Nan Zheng","doi":"10.1016/j.cofs.2024.101240","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cofs.2024.101240","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Fatty acids (FAs) in human milk (HM) are essential for infant growth and development, particularly during the first six months of life. In infant formula (IF), FAs mainly originate from bovine milk (BM). However, comparative data on FA patterns and structures across HM, BM, and IF are limited. This review, analyzing 37 studies from 2018 to 2023, provides a comprehensive FA characteristic, highlighting their differences in macroscopic patterns and key structures. For detectable FAs, HM and BM exhibit more diverse FA species compared to IF. HM is richer in monounsaturated (MUFA) and polyunsaturated FAs (PUFA), while BM contains higher levels of saturated FAs (SFA), placing IF between the two. The content of MUFA (except for C18:1 c9, c20:1 c9) and PUFA (C18:2 n6, c18:2 c9 t11, c18:2 t10.c12, and c18:3 n3) in IF should be increased, and the content of SFA (C6:0, C8:0, C11:0, C12:0, C17:0) should be reduced in order to more closely simulate HM. The differences between HM and IF may be attributed to the use of BM as a base ingredient, mainly reflected in profile, structure, stability, and bioavailability. Despite the latest advancements, such as the addition of structural lipid 1,3-dioleoyl-2-palmitoylglycerol and milk fat globule membranes, fully replicating the complexity and functionality of HM FAs in IF remains challenging. Further investigation into these aspects could reveal new insights into how HM supports optimal infant health and development, providing the foundation for even more advanced IF formulations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54291,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Food Science","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 101240"},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143095936","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}
Lilah Saidi , Yong Wang , Peter R Wich , Cordelia Selomulya
{"title":"Polysaccharide-based edible films — strategies to minimize water vapor permeability","authors":"Lilah Saidi , Yong Wang , Peter R Wich , Cordelia Selomulya","doi":"10.1016/j.cofs.2024.101258","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cofs.2024.101258","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>With increasing focus on sustainability, there has been a growth in the development of edible films to improve food quality, particularly with polysaccharides, as they exhibit desirable properties, including functional diversity and efficient oxygen and carbon dioxide barriers. However, high water vapor permeability (WVP) still limits their applications as film material. While a number of studies have reported the WVP values of various polysaccharide-based films (PBFs), there is a lack of cohesive insights that could help formulate the approach to reduce WVP of these films. This review highlights reported strategies to reduce WVP in edible polysaccharide films, while comparing their efficacy, and discusses the role of relevant properties influencing WVP. Based on the current understanding, the addition of phenolic compounds has been identified as a promising pathway to reduce WVP. More research is required to potentially integrate several methods to reduce WVP, including with lipophilic nanoparticles.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54291,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Food Science","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 101258"},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143135752","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}
Mansuri M. Tosif , Aarti Bains , Gulden Goksen , Ravinder Kaushik , Prince Chawla
{"title":"Application of mucilage-based functional and clean-label food ingredients as vegan fat replacers in different food products","authors":"Mansuri M. Tosif , Aarti Bains , Gulden Goksen , Ravinder Kaushik , Prince Chawla","doi":"10.1016/j.cofs.2025.101275","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cofs.2025.101275","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The increasing demand for vegan and clean-label food products has prompted the exploration of natural and sustainable ingredients to replace animal-based fats. Mucilage, a hydrocolloid derived from various plant sources, has emerged as a promising alternative due to its unique physicochemical properties, including high water holding capacity, emulsification, and gelation abilities. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of mucilage-based functional ingredients as vegan fat replacers in diverse food applications. The extraction, characterization, and functionalization of botanical mucilage show that it can mirror the sensory and textural properties of conventional fats. It also examines the impact of mucilage incorporation on the nutritional profile, consumer acceptance, quality, and regulatory considerations, including bakery, dairy, and meat products. Ultimately, mucilage-based fat replacers could provide a viable solution for reducing fat content in high fat containing food products; however, further research is needed to optimize its functionality and explore its bioavailability in the human body.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54291,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Food Science","volume":"62 ","pages":"Article 101275"},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143158698","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}
Xiaoming Yuan , Liying Fan , Hui Jin , Qingping Wu , Yu Ding
{"title":"Phage engineering using synthetic biology and artificial intelligence to enhance phage applications in food industry","authors":"Xiaoming Yuan , Liying Fan , Hui Jin , Qingping Wu , Yu Ding","doi":"10.1016/j.cofs.2025.101274","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cofs.2025.101274","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The rapid advancements in synthetic biology and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are continuously expanding the application of bacteriophages (phages); however, when it comes to the food industry, the development of phage applications has been relatively slow due to the complex and large-scale nature of the industry. In order to overcome these challenges, it is necessary to promote the development of phages with new technologies. Here, we introduce the latest synthetic biology methods and AI techniques that enhance phage functions and explore their potential in promoting phage applications in the food industry. Additionally, we discuss the potential of combining synthetic biology with AI technologies to overcome the unique challenges when applying phages in the food industry in the future.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54291,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Food Science","volume":"62 ","pages":"Article 101274"},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143158750","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}
Muhammad Janees Imdad , Faraz Ahmed , Yong Zhao , Xiaoyang Tang , Pradeep K Malakar
{"title":"Targeting bacterial spores with metallic nanoparticles: a promising alternative for food safety","authors":"Muhammad Janees Imdad , Faraz Ahmed , Yong Zhao , Xiaoyang Tang , Pradeep K Malakar","doi":"10.1016/j.cofs.2025.101273","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cofs.2025.101273","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Bacterial spore contamination, often overlooked, presents a significant challenge to the food industry. Spores in bacterial biofilms can resist physical and chemical disinfection treatments and can potentially reinitiate biofilm formation on surfaces and pipelines. Recent studies highlight the potential of metallic nanoparticles, such as silver and iron oxide, in inhibiting spores through mechanisms like structural disruption, spore coat rupture, and germination inhibition. Sporicidal properties of metallic nanoparticles have not previously been extensively explored. This review consolidates previous research on nanoparticle-based sporicidal mechanisms, evaluates their effectiveness, and discusses future research direction for enhancing their efficacy. Metallic nanoparticles offer a promising alternative to chemical disinfectants to inhibit the resistant bacterial spores potentially improving food safety while minimizing environmental impact.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54291,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Food Science","volume":"62 ","pages":"Article 101273"},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143158751","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}
Jess Vergis , Niveditha Pollumahanti , Radhakrishna Sahu , Deepak B Rawool , Sukhadeo B Barbuddhe
{"title":"Ensuring food safety: microbiological risk assessment strategies","authors":"Jess Vergis , Niveditha Pollumahanti , Radhakrishna Sahu , Deepak B Rawool , Sukhadeo B Barbuddhe","doi":"10.1016/j.cofs.2025.101272","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cofs.2025.101272","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Food safety is a critical global priority, as foodborne diseases continue to pose significant public health challenges. Ensuring food safety requires robust food hygiene practices, including effective hazard management strategies. A key tool for managing microbial risks is microbial risk assessment (MRA), which involves hazard identification, hazard characterization, exposure assessment, and risk characterization. Various MRA approaches — qualitative, semiquantitative, and quantitative — are employed depending on available data and complexity. Predictive microbiology, utilizing mathematical models, plays a vital role in simulating microbial behavior under different food conditions, enhancing risk predictions. Advances in molecular technologies, such as multi-omics and metagenomics, alongside rapid detection methods, offer new insights into microbial behavior and improve detection accuracy. Risk ranking tools enable targeted interventions by comparing microbial hazards across different food-pathogen scenarios. Integrating these strategies will improve food safety, reduce the burden of foodborne illnesses, and enhance public health globally.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54291,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Food Science","volume":"62 ","pages":"Article 101272"},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143158701","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}
Wen Wang , Feng Liu , Kang Huang , Xiaoping Yu , Xingning Xiao
{"title":"Chlorine tolerance in foodborne pathogens: definitions, identification methods, and mechanisms","authors":"Wen Wang , Feng Liu , Kang Huang , Xiaoping Yu , Xingning Xiao","doi":"10.1016/j.cofs.2025.101271","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cofs.2025.101271","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The widespread use of chlorine disinfectants, particularly in the food industry, has raised concerns about the emergence of chlorine-resistant bacteria, which pose significant risks to food safety and public health. This review explores current perspectives on the definitions of chlorine susceptibility, tolerance, and resistance. It further summarizes the identification methods used to evaluate bacterial tolerance and resistance. Additionally, the review examines key mechanisms of bacterial adaptation, including efflux pumps, flagellar modifications, and small RNA regulators, which enhance bacterial survival under chlorine stress. By addressing gaps in standardized definitions and methodologies, this review offers valuable insights for improving the efficacy of chlorine disinfectants and mitigating the risks associated with chlorine-tolerant bacteria.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54291,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Food Science","volume":"62 ","pages":"Article 101271"},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143158700","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}
Shimin Wu , Bolin Mou , Guoyan Liu , Ruijie Liu , Xingguo Wang
{"title":"Contamination, risk assessment, and reduction strategies for hazardous polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in foods","authors":"Shimin Wu , Bolin Mou , Guoyan Liu , Ruijie Liu , Xingguo Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.cofs.2024.101270","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cofs.2024.101270","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are classified as persistent organic pollutants, characterized by multiple aromatic rings and significant toxicity. In food, PAHs primarily originate from environmental contamination and are further formed during processing, posing potential health risks through dietary exposure. This review highlights the distribution profiles of PAHs and their derivatives across various food matrices and offers a comparative analysis of risk assessment methodologies and reduction strategies. Notably, current toxicity data for PAHs and their derivatives remain insufficient, though quantitative structure–activity relationships offer a robust approach for predicting contaminant toxicity. Moreover, merely controlling process parameters is insufficient for mitigating PAHs, and future research should emphasize biological or material-based approaches to achieve effective PAH reduction. This review aims to update the current understanding of PAH contamination levels in food and provide valuable insights for enhancing food safety.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54291,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Food Science","volume":"62 ","pages":"Article 101270"},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2024-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143158672","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":"Breakthrough innovations in industrial cheesemaking processes","authors":"Thomas Croguennec, Yves Le Loir, Romain Jeantet","doi":"10.1016/j.cofs.2024.101267","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cofs.2024.101267","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Cheese, which has played a crucial role in mankind history, is now produced using optimized and automated processes. However, these productions still have significant potential for improvement in terms of the technological, economic, and environmental performance and of the product quality. Controlling milk composition and curd cutting time pave the route for optimizing cheesemaking performances and cheese characteristics, while ripening time can be reduced by uncoupling cheese texture and aroma construction or properly selecting cheese ripening strains and enzymes. Omics techniques now make it possible to screen starters both having technological and functional or probiotic properties or preventing fungal or bacteria spoilage. Similarly, the mining of the whole processing data set using artificial intelligence, expert knowledge, and multi-objective optimization has enormous potential for identifying the best possible cheesemaking route. By taking environmental performance into account, the latter can identify solutions that reduce consumptions of water, energy, and cleaning agents.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54291,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Food Science","volume":"62 ","pages":"Article 101267"},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2024-12-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143158830","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}