Immobilization of Natural Antimicrobial Compounds on Food-Grade Supports as a New Strategy to Preserve Fruit-Derived Foods.

The use of natural antimicrobials in the food industry is being proposed as an eco-friendly postharvest technology to preserve fruit-derived foods. In this context, this systematic review aims to describe and discuss the application of naturally occurring antimicrobial compounds in the processing of fruit-derived foods by the PRISMA methodology. In a first step, the use of free natural antimicrobials was investigated as an approach to identify the main families of bioactive compounds employed as food preservatives and the current limitations of this dosage form. Then, the use of immobilized antimicrobials, in an innovative dosage form, was studied by distinguishing two main applications: addition to the food matrix as preservatives or use during processing as technological aids. Having identified the different examples of the immobilization of natural antimicrobial compounds on food-grade supports, the mechanisms of immobilization were studied in detail to provide synthesis and characterization guidelines for future developments. Finally, the contribution of this new technology to decarbonization and energy efficiency of the fruit-derived processing sector and circular economy is discussed in this review.

Nanotechnology in the agri-food sector: Consumer perceptions.

The purpose of this work was to evaluate Spanish consumers' opinions on using nanotechnology in food processing and packaging. For this purpose, a literature review was carried out in the main research database to determine the most widespread uses of nanotechnology in the food industry and the most promising developments. Of all the nanotechnology uses in food, five areas of application were identified: developing new ingredients or additives, formulating new antimicrobial systems, and designing new processing methods, sensors and packaging with nanostructured materials. Subsequently, a consumers' opinion study was carried out by means of a survey, in which the opinions and purchase intention of a representative product of all five categories were evaluated, as well as the neophobia level to new food technologies. All the products obtained positive evaluations, and the applications in which nanotechnology did not form part of food were generally better valued than those in which it did form part. The respondents had a medium neophobia level, with an average score of 4.59 (out of 7 points), being consumers with more knowledge about new technologies the least neophobic and those who gave products higher scores. This study provides relevant information for using nanotechnology in the food processing and packaging sector.