Unlocking the Potential of Insect-Based Proteins: Sustainable Solutions for Global Food Security and Nutrition.

The present review highlights the potential of insect-based proteins to address the growing need for sustainable and secure food systems. The key findings suggest that edible insects offer a viable and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional livestock, requiring significantly less land, water, and feed while emitting lower levels of greenhouse gases. Insect farming can also reduce waste and recycle nutrients, supporting circular economy models. Nutritionally, insects provide high-quality protein, essential amino acids, and beneficial fats, making them valuable to human diets. Despite these benefits, this review emphasizes the need for comprehensive regulatory frameworks to ensure food safety, manage potential allergenicity, and mitigate contamination risks from pathogens and environmental toxins. Additionally, developing innovative processing technologies can enhance the palatability and marketability of insect-based products, promoting consumer acceptance. This review concludes that with appropriate regulatory support and technological advancements, insect-based proteins have the potential to significantly contribute to global food security and sustainability efforts.

Enhancing Antioxidant Retention through Varied Wall Material Combinations in Grape Spray Drying and Storage.

The encapsulation of bioactive compounds, which spans phytochemicals, vitamins, antioxidants, and other precious substances, has risen to prominence as a crucial area of interest spanning various domains, including food, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. This investigation delved into the efficacy of distinct wall materials-whey protein isolate, high methoxy pectin, and gum arabic-when employed individually or in combination to encapsulate and preserve phenolic compounds and antioxidants during storage. The encapsulation process involved spray-drying bioactive compounds extracted from grapes. Over a span of 120 days, the stability of these encapsulated compounds was meticulously evaluated, encompassing assessments via different antioxidant capacity assays, phenolic content analyses, and high-performance liquid chromatography measurements. The modeling of retention kinetics during storage facilitated the comprehension of the release mechanisms. Notably, the findings underscore the pivotal role of wall materials in preserving these bioactive compounds, with each material or combination of materials exhibiting varying degrees of protective capacity. Remarkably, the synergistic blend of whey protein, pectin, and gum arabic showcased the utmost retention of bioactive compounds over this study's period. The amassed data distinctly show that an amalgamation of wall materials can indeed considerably enhance the stability of encapsulated bioactive compounds, presenting promising applications within the realms of both the food and pharmaceutical industries.

Development and Characterization of Symbiotic Buffalo Petit Suisse Cheese Utilizing Whey Retention and Inulin Incorporation.

This study presents the development and characterization of a novel buffalo Petit Suisse cheese, enhanced with symbiotic properties through an innovative whey retention method and incorporating inulin and xanthan gum. The research focused on assessing the cheese's physicochemical properties, shelf life, lactic acid bacteria viability, syneresis behavior, and the impact of varying concentrations of functional ingredients. The addition of inulin and xanthan gum, following a design of experiments, significantly influenced the cheese's texture and consistency. Higher inulin concentrations were associated with increased fermentation activity, as indicated by total titratable acidity, which showed an increase from 1.22% to 1.50% over a 28-day period, and pH levels that decreased from 3.33 to 2.96. The syneresis index varied across trials, with the highest reduction observed in trials with increased xanthan gum concentrations, effectively reducing syneresis to 0%. Lactic acid bacteria viability also showed notable variations, with the highest cell survival percentage reaching 107.89% in formulations with higher inulin and xanthan gum concentrations. These results underscore the importance of inulin and xanthan gum in enhancing the cheese's microbial stability and textural quality. The study concludes that the strategic use of inulin and xanthan gum improves the nutritional profile of buffalo Petit Suisse cheese and optimizes its textural and sensory attributes.

Role of chitosan and transglutaminase on the elaboration of gluten-free bread.

The increasing sensitivity to gluten has aroused interest in gluten-free products like bread. However, one of the biggest challenges of producing gluten-free bread is to get a good quality structure. We hypothesize that using chitosan along with transglutaminase, a network of crosslinks would be generated, guaranteeing a better structure. Thus, in the present work, we produced gluten-free bread using red rice flour and cassava flour, transglutaminase, and chitosan at concentrations of 0%, 1%, and 2%. Loaves of bread were characterized, and the instrumental texture properties during five days were determined. Bread produced with chitosan and transglutaminase presented lighter brown coloration due to incomplete Maillard reaction and low specific volumes varying from 1.64 to 1.48 cm3/g, possibly due to chitosan interfering with yeast fermentation. Rheological tests revealed increases in viscosity before and after fermentation when chitosan was used. Bread with chitosan presented high initial firmness but a lower rate of staling, possibly due to water retention. According to results, a possible network involving chitosan and other proteins promoted by transglutaminase was formed and after optimization could yield better gluten-free bread.

Influence of spray drying conditions on the properties of avocado powder drink.

Consumers are increasingly looking for foods with attractive taste, easy preparation, quick consumption and nutritious. Avocado is a nutritional fruit that presents a preservation challenge to food industry. The development of powder blends using spray drying of avocado as a powdered drink is an attractive option that generates products with high nutritional value and stable. Two avocado formulations were spray dried using a design of experiments to assess the influence of drying conditions on powder blends. Results showed higher drying temperatures in combination with smaller droplets resulted in higher yields, lower residual moisture, lower water activity, and in smaller, less dense particles with color green. The inclusion of maltodextrin proved to be vital in preserving high contents of protein, ascorbic acid, and phenolic compounds at any drying conditions possibly due to hydrogen bonding stabilization of those compounds. Using a scalable and efficient drying process, avocado high nutritional value was maintained.

Physical characterization and modeling of chitosan/peg blends for injectable scaffolds.

Injectable scaffolds find many applications on the biomedical field due to several advantages on preformed scaffolds such as being able to fill any defect can be used in minimal invasion surgeries and are ready to use products. The most critical parameter for an injectable scaffold usage is its injectability, which can be related with rheological properties. Therefore, the objective of the present work was to increase knowledge about the critical parameters influencing injectability of biopolymers used for injectable scaffolds. Rheological and mechanical properties of a biopolymer blend in combination with injectability tests for a given design space controlled by the concentrations of both polymers and temperatures was made. Then those results were modeled to better understand the impact of parameters on injectability. The biopolymer blend chosen was Chitosan physically blended with Poly(ethylene glycol) where variations of both polymer concentrations and molecular weights were tested. Rheological and mechanical properties of all samples were determined, together with the injection force using a compression test at different injection conditions. All solutions were clear and transparent suggesting perfect miscibility. Rheological results were modeled using Ostwald-Waelle law and revealed a shear thinning pseudo-plastic solution at any composition and temperature, being chitosan concentration the most influencing variable. Compression tests results revealed mean injection forces ranging from 9.9 ±â€¯0.06N to 29.9 ±â€¯0.65N and it was possible to accurately estimate those results. Simulations revealed draw speed as the most influencing parameter. Cell viability tests revealed a non-cytotoxic biopolymer blend.