New development of whey protein products as nutritional food ingredients

Whey protein products provided ideal ingredients for nutritional food applications.Whey proteins are known to have high nutritional quality due to their high content of essential amino acids,high digestibility and biological value.Research in the past decades has shown that many of the whey protein fractions and peptides derived from them possess various biological activities.The technology developments in the last decade,such as those in the areas of protein fractionation technologies have made industrial scale production of fractionated whey protein products commercially feasible.The development in hydrolysis technology and the peptide analytical capability allowed production of whey protein hydrolysates with designed bioactivity and functionalities.People are continuously finding new biological activities of the various whey protein fractions or their hydrolysis products.Significant amount of research has also been carried out to study the clinical benefits of some of the whey protein fractions and whey protein derived peptides.Examples of these studies will be reviewed and discussed.

Synthetic biology for sustainable food ingredients production:recent trends

Problems with food security result from increased population,global warming,and decrease in cultivable land.With the advancements in synthetic biology,microbial synthesis of food is considered to be an efficient alternate approach that could permit quick food biosynthesis in an eco-friendly method.Furthermore,synthetic biology can be assumed to the synthesis of healthy or specially designed food components like proteins,lipids,amino acids and vitamins and widen the consumption of feedstocks,thus offering possible resolutions to high-quality food synthesis.This review describes the impact of synthetic biology for the microbial synthesis of various food ingredients production.

Engineering yeast for bio-production of food ingredients

The provision of an adequate and high-quality food supply is a challenging issue due to the continued growth of the population and the reduction of arable land resources.To solve these problems,new and efficient food manufacturing processes need to be developed to meet the needs for healthy and nutritious food.Metabolic engineering of microorganisms is a feasible approach to alleviate this problem due to its efficient biosynthesis.For thousands of years,yeast has been used as a cell factory for manufacturing bread,beer and wine.And the development of synthetic biology expands its ability for synthesis of food ingredients,fuels,pharmaceuticals and chemical products.This mini review focuses on metabolic engineering of yeast cell factories to synthesize compounds that have been used as food ingredients with highlighting four food flavors.

Nattokinase as a functional food ingredient:therapeutic applications and mechanisms in age-related diseases

Consumption of natto,a traditional eastern Asian food made of fermented soybeans by Bacillus subtilis,has long been linked to healthy aging and longer human lifespan.As the key thrombolytic ingredient of natto,the serine protease nattokinase(NK)has been developed into a widely-used dietary supplement.NK has shown excellent anti-thrombus,thrombolytic,and anti-inflammation activities that potentially delay aging and provide therapeutic effects on aging-related diseases.In this review,we critically overview the experimental and clinical evidence in the past 20 years that support the beneficial function of NK in the prevention and treatment of aging-related diseases,including cardiovascular diseases,Alzheimer’s disease,other abnormalities and cancer.We focus on the underlying molecular mechanisms and recent advances in application methods that are aimed at further development of NK for healthier aging of modern society.The challenges and unsolved issues in this area are also discussed.

Anti-Oxidative Effects of Bioactive Compounds in Spirulina Microalgae and Bilberry

Spirulina and Bilberry are underexplored and underutilized in the food industry. Therefore, this research focuses on determining the antioxidative properties of Spirulina and Bilberry for future use in functional food product development. The objective was to determine the Total Phenolic Content (TPC) and Total Flavonoid Content (TFC) in Spirulina and Bilberry extracts (Aqueous and Ethanol extracts) and their antioxidative potential (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Potential (FRAP), Trolox Equivalent Antioxidant Capacity (TEAC), and Nitric Oxide Radical Scavenging Ability (NORS)). Spirulina and Bilberry pure and combination samples [100% Spirulina (100S), 100% Bilberry (100B), 50% Spirulina + 50% Bilberry (50S + 50B), 75% Spirulina + 25% Bilberry (75S + 25B), & 25% Spirulina + 75% Bilberry (25S + 75B)], were extracted with aqueous (deionized water) and 80% ethanol solutions. Colorimetric antioxidant assays were used to determine total phenolics, total flavonoids, and their antioxidant potential. 80% ethanol Spirulina and Bilberry (pure and combination) extracts resulted in higher TFC, FRAP, and DPPH, whereas aqueous extracts had higher TPC, NORS, and TEAC, suggesting both hydrophilic and lipophilic bioactive compounds in Spirulina and Bilberry. Spirulina and Bilberry are two potential functional food ingredients for the food industry due to their antioxidative properties.