Fermentation for Designing Innovative Plant-Based Meat and Dairy Alternatives.

Fermentation was traditionally used all over the world, having the preservation of plant and animal foods as a primary role. Owing to the rise of dairy and meat alternatives, fermentation is booming as an effective technology to improve the sensory, nutritional, and functional profiles of the new generation of plant-based products. This article intends to review the market landscape of fermented plant-based products with a focus on dairy and meat alternatives. Fermentation contributes to improving the organoleptic properties and nutritional profile of dairy and meat alternatives. Precision fermentation provides more opportunities for plant-based meat and dairy manufacturers to deliver a meat/dairy-like experience. Seizing the opportunities that the progress of digitalization is offering would boost the production of high-value ingredients such as enzymes, fats, proteins, and vitamins. Innovative technologies such as 3D printing could be an effective post-processing solution following fermentation in order to mimic the structure and texture of conventional products.

Amino acids and protein profiles of defatted camel and cow milk fractions: correlation with their in vitro antioxidant and antidiabetic activities.

Introduction: This work presents proteins, amino acids profiles and antioxidant and properties of camel and cow milk fractions produced using an integrated coagulation-centrifugation process. Methods: Antioxidant activity using DPPH radical scavenging assay; and antidiabetic activity antidiabetic activity using in vitro α-amylase inhibitory activity were assessed on defatted milk fractions and their extracts using water/ethanol or HCl/ethanol solvents. Protein profiles and amino acids composition were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography. Results and discussions: The predominant protein found in cow and camel milk was ß-casein in sodium caseinate, ß-lactoglobulin was found in the whey of cow milk, whereas α-lactalbumin was detected in the whey fractions of camel. The primary amino acids (comprising 1% to 5.2%) in skim milk and sweet whey milk were leucine, proline, and lysine. However, acid whey, casein fractions (sodium caseinate, and ß-casein) from both camel and cow milk exhibited elevated concentrations of histidine, leucine, lysine and proline (1.12 - 6.62%). Camel milk and its different protein fractions showed an interesting in vitro α-amylase inhibitory activity varying, according to different milk fractions and extraction methods, from 19.10 ± 1.40 to 97.40 ± 1.50%. Whatever the used method, the whey fractions from camel milk, both acid and sweet, displayed ed the highest antioxidant activity. Principal components analysis showed a positive correlation between the total phenols content, antioxidant (DPPH assay) and antidiabetic (α amylase inhibition test) activities within the milk fractions. Sweet and acid cow milk fractions seem to be the most promising for deeper exploration of in vivo biological activities and are promising milk derivatives for specific nutritional diet and/or functional food formulation.

Perineal endometriosis: a rare case of a unique sizeable nodule.

Endometriosis is the presence of endometrial tissue in abnormal locations outside the uterine cavity. These locations are usually the ovaries, the peritoneum, and the uterine ligaments. Less frequently, the endometrial tissue can affect the perineum especially after surgical procedures or obstetric lesions. In this case report, we describe the case of a patient suffering from pain and swelling, with a sizeable nodule in an old episiotomy scar. Clinical examination, ultrasonography (USG) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) helped evoke the diagnosis of perineal endometriosis, and there were no signs of other endometriosis locations. Hormonal treatment was provided at first, but there was no clinical improvement after three months, so the treatment had to be surgical. Histopathological examination of the endometriotic mass confirmed the diagnosis. There were no immediate postoperative complications, and no clinical symptoms or recurrence signs six months and one year after.

Physicochemical, techno-functional, and fat melting properties of spray-dried camel and bovine milk powders.

In this study, three skimmed and one whole-fat spray-dried camel milk powders were produced and their characteristics were compared to those of bovine milk powders. The physicochemical analysis of the produced powders indicated that camel milk powders (whether skimmed or not) presented higher ash and whey protein contents as compared to those of bovine milk powders. Our results indicated that the investigated camel and bovine milk powders exhibited a high solubility index (>99%) with poor dispersibility and wettability indexes due to their small particles size (d50 ≤ 12 µm) and their narrow size distribution (span ≤ 2). In addition, although camel and bovine milk powders presented the same total fat content, lower free fat content was measured for camel milk powders. Besides, the whey protein nitrogen index and the SDS-PAGE electrophoresis underlined that camel and bovine milk proteins remained intact after drying with low denaturation extent. It is worth noticed that camel milk proteins were less denaturized due to the absence of the heat-sensitive ß-lactoglobulin in camel milk. Moreover, the low denaturation extent participated in the enhancing of the foaming capacity and stability of camel and bovine milk powders. Finally, the calorimetric analysis showed that higher fat melting temperatures were recorded in whole-fat camel milk powder and in their anhydrous form as compared to those of bovine milk. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Camel milk powder is an emerging non-bovine dairy product. Understanding its rehydration ability and evaluating the impact of spray drying on its protein quality are promising approaches to obtain high-quality camel milk powder with high reconstitution ability. Findings of this study indicated that spray drying is a suitable technique to produce highly soluble camel milk powders with low denaturation extent. These results will benefit the research and development department of food industry (especially those producing camel milk powder) as well as the direct consumers.

Complete cervical agenesis: successful surgical treatment: one case report.

Cervical agenesis is a rare congenital pathology linked to an abnormality in the development of the Mullerian system, the mechanism of this anomaly is unknown. We reported a case of complete cervical agenesis in a 17-year-old girl who underwent a successfully utero-vaginal anastomosis.

Camel α-lactalbumin at the oil-water interface: Effect of protein concentration and pH change on surface characteristics and emulsifying properties.

Camel α-lactalbumin (Ala-C), the main whey protein of camel milk, was purified by membrane filtration. Surface hydrophobicity as well as interfacial tension were examined at different levels of pH (3.0, 6.0, 9.0) and protein concentration (0.1 %, 0.2 %, 0.4 % w/w), and compared to bovine α-lactalbumin (Ala-B). The emulsifying properties (EAI and ESI) of oil-in-water emulsions (20 %/80 %) were investigated for both proteins. The stability of the processed emulsions was characterised by ζ-potential, particle size and viscosity measurements. The main findings indicate that Ala-C exhibited greater surface hydrophobicity and undergone changes in conformational structure when pH decreased from 9.0-3.0. These changes were enhanced by increasing protein concentration from 0.1 % to 0.4 % (w/w). However, high concentrations showed low emulsifying activity, especially at pH 6.0 where interfacial tension was lower. In comparison with Ala-B, maximum EAI was close, despite the lower surface hydrophobicity of Ala-C under similar conditions. Overall, emulsions were more viscous at pH 3.0 due to the greater surface coverage than at 9.0 and 6.0. Under the conditions of this study, a protein concentration of 0.2 % resulted in the finest oil droplets and highest viscosity for both types of α-lactalbumin, and Ala-C conferred the highest long-term stability to the emulsions.

Effect of pH on the physicochemical characteristics and the surface chemical composition of camel and bovine whey protein's powders.

This study investigated the effect of pH on the denaturation extent, the surface chemical composition, the water sorption isotherm and the glass transition temperature of camel and bovine whey protein's powders. The LC-MS analysis indicated that the ß-Lactoglobulin was the most denatured protein in bovine whey powders regardless the pH value, while this protein was totally absent in camel whey. The α-Lactalbumin was relatively heat stable after drying and predominated the powder surface (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results) in both camel and bovine whey powders regardless the pH (neutral (6.7) or acidic (4.3 and 4.6)). Analysis of the water sorption isotherms indicated that decreasing the pH induced the increase of the water activity of lactose crystallization for camel and bovine whey powders. Finally, decreasing the pH led to the decrease of the glass transition temperature of camel and bovine whey powder (at 0.13, 0.23, and 0.33 of water activity).

Toward the enhancement of sensory profile of sausage "Merguez" with chickpea protein concentrate.

The influence of different Chickpea Protein Concentrates (CPC) addition at different levels (CPC: 1.5, 2.5 and 5% (w/w)) on physico-chemical, textural and hedonic properties of formulated and cooked sausage "Merguez" were investigated. The obtained results exhibited that CPC addition increased protein content of "Merguez" sausage and improved the process yield. Significant differences were noticed on the cooking loss and textural properties for "Merguez" sausages formulated with 5% of CPC compared to the control (p < 0.05). Hedonic analysis showed that protein addition had no significant effect on sausages taste. However, sausage texture and global acceptability were markedly improved (p < 0.05). These results suggest that CPC could be an important alternative source of protein additive for the improvement of the physico-chemical, textural and sensorial properties of meat sausages.