Impact of macronutrients printability and 3D-printer parameters on 3D-food printing: A review.

In recent years, 3D-printing has received high attention globally in personalized meal production and customized food design for its potential advantages over traditional processing. For a material to be printed it needs to be easily extruded from the nozzle of the printer and it needs to hold its structure after deposition. Additives such as thickening and gelling agents can be used for a food system to achieve suitable structure for printing. Various literature reports have demonstrated that rheological properties such as the storage modulus, yield stress, consistency index and flow behavior index can predict the printability of a material and 3D-printer parameters such as nozzle speed movement and layer height have an impact on the final quality of the printed structure. The present review provides a comprehensive overview of the impact of macronutrients printability and 3D-printer parameters on 3D-food printing, and offers new opportunities to bring 3D-food printing for personalized meal production closer to industry application.

Stabilising phycocyanin by anionic micelles.

Phycocyanins are pigment-protein complexes with potential application as natural food colourants. The perceived colour of phycocyanins varies with pH, and a method to stabilise the colour over a broad range of pH values is requested by the food industry. In this work, the stabilising effect of sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) micelles on pH-induced colour variations of phycocyanin was examined. SDS was shown to stabilise the blue conformation of phycocyanin, preventing formation of the green conformation, which is prevalent at low pH. The studies indicated that the stabilising effect occurred through interaction or entrapment of the non-protonated, circular helical (blue) structure of phycocyanin and the anionic SDS micelles. The interaction prevented conversion into protonated, partially unfolded (green) phycocyanin species. This information opens for new possibilities to stabilise the blue conformation of phycocyanin and to apply the stabilised form in food products as a natural blue food colourant.

Production and concentration of monoacylglycerols rich in omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids by enzymatic glycerolysis and molecular distillation.

Production of monoacylglycerols (MAGs) rich in ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) was conducted through short path distillation (SPD) of an acylglycerol mixture (containing 67% MAGs) produced by enzymatic glycerolysis of sardine oil with glycerol. A stepwise SPD process in a UIC KDL 5 system (vacuum 10(-3)mbar, feeding flow 1.0 mL/min) was proceeded: the first distillation performed at evaporator temperature (TE) of 110 °C to remove glycerol completely and most of FFAs; and the second distillation at optimized TE 155 °C; resulting in a stream distillate with 91% purity and 94% overall recovery of MAGs. This work also demonstrated that SPD is able to concentrate n-3 PUFAs in MAG form by distilling at proper TE e.g. 125 °C, where n-3 PUFAs are concentrated in the residues. Moreover, this work mapped out a complete processing diagram for scalable production of n-3 PUFAs enriched MAGs as potential food emulsifier and ingredient.

Dodecenyl succinylated alginate as a novel material for encapsulation and hyperactivation of lipases.

Alginate was modified with dodecenyl succinic anhydride (SAC12) in an aqueous reaction medium at neutral pH. The highest degree of succinylation (33.9±3.5%) was obtained after 4h at 30°C, using four mole SAC12 per mol alginate monomer. Alginate was modified with succinic anhydride (SAC0) for comparison, and the structures and thermal properties of alg-SAC0 and alg-SAC12 were evaluated using FTIR, (1)H NMR, and DSC. Calcium-hydrogel beads were formed from native and modified alginates, in which lipases were encapsulated with a load of averagely 76µg lipase per mg alginate, irrespective of the type of alginate. Lipases with a "lid", which usually are dependent on interfacial activation, showed a 3-fold increase in specific activity toward water-soluble substrates when encapsulated in alg-SAC12, compared to the free lipase. Such hyperactivation was not observed for lipases independent of interfacial activation, or for lipases encapsulated in native alginate or alg-SAC0 hydrogels.

Alginate oligosaccharides: enzymatic preparation and antioxidant property evaluation.

Alginate oligosaccharides (AOs) prepared from alginate, by alginate lyase-mediated depolymerization, were structurally characterized by mass spectrometry, infrared spectrometry and thin layer chromatography. Studies of their antioxidant activities revealed that AOs were able to completely (100%) inhibit lipid oxidation in emulsions, superiorly to ascorbic acid (89% inhibition). AOs showed radical scavenging activity towards ABTS, hydroxyl, and superoxide radicals, which might explain their excellent antioxidant activity. The radical scavenging activity is suggested to originate mainly from the presence of the conjugated alkene acid structure formed during enzymatic depolymerization. According to the resonance hybrid theory, the parent radicals of AOs are delocalized through allylic rearrangement, and as a consequence, the reactive intermediates are stabilized. AOs were weak ferrous ion chelators. This work demonstrated that AOs obtained from a facile enzymatic treatment of abundant alginate is an excellent natural antioxidant, which may find applications in the food industry.

Facile synthesis of phosphatidyl saccharides for preparation of anionic nanoliposomes with enhanced stability.

Physical stability during storage and against processing such as dehyration/rehydration are the cornerstone in designing delivery vehicles. In this work, mono-, di- and tri-saccharides were enzymatically conjugated to phosphatidyl group through a facile approach namely phospholipase D (PLD) mediated transphosphatidylation in a biphasic reaction system. The purified products were structurally identified and the connectivities of carbohydrate to phosphatidyl moiety precisely mapped by (1)H, (31)P, (13)C NMR pulse sequences and LC-ESI-FTMS. The synthetic phosphatidyl saccharides were employed as the sole biomimetic component for preparation of nanoliposomes. It was found that the critical micelle concentration (CMC) of phosphatidyl saccharides increases as more bulky sugar moiety (mono- to tri-) is introduced. Phosphatidyl di-saccharide had the largest membrane curvature. In comparison to the zwitterionic phosphatidylcholine liposome, all phosphatidyl saccharides liposomes are anionic and demonstrated significantly enhanced stability during storage. According to the confocal laser scan microscopy (CLSM) and atom force microscopy (AFM) analyses, the nanoliposomes formed by the synthetic phosphatidyl saccharides also show excellent stability against dehydration/rehydration process in which most of the liposomal structures remained intact. The abundance hydroxyl groups in the saccharide moieties might provide sufficient H-bondings for stabilization. This work demonstrated the synthesized phosphatidyl saccharides are capable of functioning as enzymatically liable materials which can form stable nanoliposomes without addition of stabilizing excipients.

Production of sophorolipids with enhanced volumetric productivity by means of high cell density fermentation.

To achieve high time-space efficiency for sophorolipid production with yeast Candida bombicola, a strategy of high cell density fermentation was employed. The approach consisted of two sequential stages: (1) the optimization of the carbon source and the nutrient concentration to achieve the maximal cell density and (2) the computer-aided adjustment of physical parameters and the controlled feeding of substrates for enhanced volumetric productivity. Both stages have been successfully implemented in a 10-L fermenter, where up to 80 g dry cell weight/L was obtained and a remarkably high volumetric productivity (> 200 g isolated sophorolipids/L/day) was achieved. Both the biomass and volumetric productivity were markedly higher than previously reported. Specifically, the high productivity of sophorolipids could be attained on a very short time scale (24 h), highlighting the industrial potential of the platform developed in this work.