Walnut (Juglans regia L.) kernel oil bodies recovered by aqueous extraction for utilization as ingredient in food emulsions: Exploration of their microstructure, composition and the effects of homogenization, pH, and salt ions on their physical stability.

Natural oil-in-water emulsions containing plant oil bodies (OBs), also called oleosomes, rich in health-promoting omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (ω3 PUFA) are of increasing interest for food applications. In this study, we focused on walnut kernel OBs (WK-OBs) and explored their microstructure, composition and physical stability in ionic environments as well as the impact of homogenization. A green process involving aqueous extraction by grinding of WK allowed the co-extraction of OBs and proteins, and centrifugation was used to recover the WK-OBs. Confocal laser scanning microscopy images showed the spherical shape of WK-OBs with an oil core envelopped by a layer of phospholipids (0.16 % of lipids) and embedded proteins. Their mean diameter was 5.1 ± 0.3 µm. The WK-OBs contained 70.1 % PUFA with 57.8 % ω6 linoleic acid and 12.3 % ω3 α-linolenic acid representing 68 % and 11.6 % of the total fatty acids in the sn-2 position of the triacylglycerols (TAG), respectively. Trilinolein was the main TAG (23.1 %). The WK-OBs also contained sterols (1223 ± 33 mg/kg lipids; 86 % ß-sitosterol), carotenoids (0.62 ± 0.01 mg/kg lipids; 49.2 % ß-carotene), and tocopherols (322.7 ± 7.7 mg/kg lipids; 89 % γ-tocopherol), confirming their interest as health-promoting ingredients. The decrease in the size of WK-OBs under high-pressure homogenization avoided phase separation upon storage. The anionic WK-OB surface at neutral pH was affected by stressful ionic environments (pH, NaCl, CaCl2), that induced aggregation of WK-OBs and decreased the physical stability of the emulsions. Emulsions containing WK-OBs are promising to diversify the market of the ω3-rich plant-based food products and beverages.

PO2/TransformON, an ontology for data integration on food, feed, bioproducts and biowaste engineering.

We are witnessing an acceleration of the global drive to converge consumption and production patterns towards a more circular and sustainable approach to the food system. To address the challenge of reconnecting agriculture, environment, food and health, collections of large datasets must be exploited. However, building high-capacity data-sharing networks means unlocking the information silos that are caused by a multiplicity of local data dictionaries. To solve the data harmonization problem, we proposed an ontology on food, feed, bioproducts, and biowastes engineering for data integration in a circular bioeconomy and nexus-oriented approach. This ontology is based on a core model representing a generic process, the Process and Observation Ontology (PO2), which has been specialized to provide the vocabulary necessary to describe any biomass transformation process and to characterize the food, bioproducts, and wastes derived from these processes. Much of this vocabulary comes from transforming authoritative references such as the European food classification system (FoodEx2), the European Waste Catalogue, and other international nomenclatures into a semantic, world wide web consortium (W3C) format that provides system interoperability and software-driven intelligence. We showed the relevance of this new domain ontology PO2/TransformON through several concrete use cases in the fields of process engineering, bio-based composite making, food ecodesign, and relations with consumer's perception and preferences. Further works will aim to align with other ontologies to create an ontology network for bridging the gap between upstream and downstream processes in the food system.

Construction of a Generic and Evolutive Wheel and Lexicon of Food Textures.

In the context of data management and processing, food science needs tools to organize the results of diverse studies to make the data reusable. In sensory analysis, there are no classification or wheel of textural attributes that can be used to interpret the results of sensory studies. Research from the literature and databases was used to elaborate a list of attributes related to texture. With the help of a group of experts in food texture, work on these attributes and the related concepts was conducted to classify them into several categories, including intensity levels. The classification was represented as a texture wheel, completed by a generic lexicon of definitions of texture concepts. The work can be useful as a reference in texture attributes related to foods, and thanks to implementation in a general ontology based on food processing and observation, it can help query and interpret texture-related results from sensory studies.

Establishing a Common Nutritional Vocabulary - From Food Production to Diet.

Informed policy and decision-making for food systems, nutritional security, and global health would benefit from standardization and comparison of food composition data, spanning production to consumption. To address this challenge, we present a formal controlled vocabulary of terms, definitions, and relationships within the Compositional Dietary Nutrition Ontology (CDNO, www.cdno.info) that enables description of nutritional attributes for material entities contributing to the human diet. We demonstrate how ongoing community development of CDNO classes can harmonize trans-disciplinary approaches for describing nutritional components from food production to diet.

Deciphering the properties of hemp seed oil bodies for food applications: Lipid composition, microstructure, surface properties and physical stability.

Hemp seed oil bodies (HSOBs) are of growing interest in response to the demand of consumers for healthy and natural plant-based food formulations. In this study, we used minimal processing including aqueous extraction by grinding and centrifugation to obtain HSOBs. We determined the lipid composition of HSBOs, their microstructure, and the impact of the homogenization pressure, pH and minerals on their surface properties and the physical stability of the emulsions. HSOBs contain high levels of well-balanced PUFA with LA/ALA = 2.9, γ-tocopherol, lutein and phytosterols. The mean diameter of HSOBs was 2.3 ± 0.1 µm with an isoelectric point in the range of pH 4.4 to 4.6. Homogenization of hemp seed extracts induced a decrease in the size of HSOBs but did not eliminate the sedimentation of the protein bodies composed of the globulin edestin. By changing the surface properties of HSOBs, pH values below 6 and NaCl induced the aggregation of HSOBs, while CaCl2 induced both aggregation and membrane-fusion mediated coalescence of HSOBs by involving probably the anionic phospholipids together with membrane proteins. This study will contribute to extend the range of novel food products and designed emulsions containing hemp seed proteins and oil bodies.