Encapsulation of Bioactive Phytochemicals in Plant-Based Matrices and Application as Additives in Meat and Meat Products.

The development of plant-based functional food ingredients has become a major focus of the modern food industry as a response to changes in consumer attitudes. In particular, many consumers are switching to a plant-based diet because of their concerns about animal-derived foods on the environment, human health, and animal welfare. There has therefore been great interest in identifying, isolating, and characterizing functional ingredients from botanical sources, especially waste streams from food and agricultural production. However, many of these functional ingredients cannot simply be incorporated into foods because of their poor solubility, stability, or activity characteristics. In this article, we begin by reviewing conventional and emerging methods of extracting plant-based bioactive agents from natural resources including ultrasound-, microwave-, pulsed electric field- and supercritical fluid-based methods. We then provide a brief overview of different methods to characterize these plant-derived ingredients, including conventional, chromatographic, spectroscopic, and mass spectrometry methods. Finally, we discuss the design of plant-based delivery systems to encapsulate, protect, and deliver these functional ingredients, including micelles, liposomes, emulsions, solid lipid nanoparticles, and microgels. The potential benefits of these plant-based delivery systems are highlighted by discussing their use for incorporating functional ingredients into traditional meat products. However, the same technologies could also be employed to introduce functional ingredients into plant-based meat analogs.

Polystyrene microplastic particles in the food chain: Characteristics and toxicity - A review.

Polystyrene (PS) is a crucial material for modern plastic manufacturers, but its widespread use and direct discard in the environment severely affect the food chain. This review provides a detailed study on the impact of PS microplastics (PS-MPs) on the food chain and the environment, including information on their mechanism, degradation process, and toxicity. The accumulation of PS-MPs in organisms' different organs leads to various adverse reactions, such as reduced body weight, premature deaths, pulmonary diseases, neurotoxicity, transgenerational issues, oxidative stress, metabolic alterations, ecotoxicity, immunotoxicity, and other dysfunctions. These consequences affect diverse elements in the food chain, spanning from aquatic species to mammals and humans. The review also addresses the need for sustainable plastic waste management policies and technological developments to prevent the adverse impacts of PS-MPs on the food chain. Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of developing a precise, flexible, and effective methodology for extracting and quantifying PS-MPs in food, considering their characteristics like particle size, polymer types, and forms. While several studies have focused on the toxicity of polystyrene microplastics (PS-MPs) in aquatic species, further investigation is required to understand the mechanisms by which they are transferred across multiple trophic levels. Therefore, this article serves as the first comprehensive review, examining the mechanism, degradation process, and toxicity of PS-MPs. It presents an analysis of the current research landscape of PS-MPs in the global food chain, providing insights for future researchers and governing organizations to adopt better approaches to managing PS-MPs and preventing their adverse impacts on the food chain. As far as we know this is the first article on this specific and impactant topic.

One-step recovery of latex papain from Carica papaya using three phase partitioning and its use as milk-clotting and meat-tenderizing agent.

Three Phase Partitioning (TPP) system as an elegant non-chromatographic and bulk separation method was successfully applied for the extraction and recovery of papain from the latex of Carica papaya. The optimized parameters of TPP allowed achieving a purification fold of 11.45 and activity recovery of 134% with 40% (NH4)2SO4, 1.0:0.75 ratio of crude extract: t-BuOH at pH and temperature of 6.0 and 25 °C, respectively. The recovered papain had a molecular weight of 23.2 kDa and revealed maximum activity at pH 6.0 and temperature of 50 °C. The maximum values of Km and Vmax parameters were 10.83 mg mL-1 and 33.33 U mL-1, respectively. The protease with 4 isoforms was stable at 40-80 °C and a pH range of 6.0-7.5 against numerous metal ions and none of them inactivated the recovered protease. Moreover, 10 mM Ca2+ improved 2-folds the activity and half-life of the protease at temperatures from 30 to 50 °C. The milk-clotting activity tests revealed high stability of latex papain at storage, namely at -20 °C compared to 4 °C and 25 °C for up than 5 weeks. As a meat tenderizing agent, it showed promising role under different treatments by improving the texture of tough meat. The findings indicated that one-step TPP system is a simple, quick, economical and very attractive process for fast recovery of latex papain compared to other proposed protocols.