Israel Sam Saguy

Progress in science, technology, innovation, and digital capabilities call for reassessing food science, technology, and engineering (FST&E) education and research programs. This survey targeted global professionals and students across food disciplines and nutrition. Its main objectives included assessing the status of FST&E higher education, identifying challenges and opportunities, and furnishing recommendations. Seven topics affecting the future of the FST&E curricula were evaluated by the panel as ‘High’ to ‘Very high’, namely: ‘Critical thinking’, followed by ‘Problem-solving projects’, ‘Teamwork/collaboration’, ‘Innovation/Open innovation’ and ‘Multidisciplinary’. The importance of academic partnership/collaboration with the Food Industry and Nutrition Sciences was demonstrated. Significant positive roles of the food industry in collaboration and partnerships were found. Other essential food industry attributes were related to internships, education, strategy, and vision. Collaboration between FST&E and nutrition sciences indicated the high standing of this direction. The need to integrate or converge nutrition sciences and FST&E is emphasized, especially with the growing consumer awareness of health and wellness. The study provides insights into new education and learning opportunities and new topics for future curricula.

The present review highlights recent strategies of mitigating acrylamide generation during food processing, focusing on the mechanism of formation in processed cereals, health risks and legislative framework. Special emphasis is placed on acrylamide content of foods consumed by infants and toddlers. The overall aim is creating a guide for the food industry to put in place strategies addressing the acrylamide mitigation. As processed cereals have a plethora of possibilities (e.g. ingredients, formulation, heat transfer mode, moisture and temperature gradients), there is no single approach for acrylamide mitigation. Consequently, case-by-case evaluation is required. Industrial feasibility and consumers’ acceptance should be also considered.

Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are negatively perceived by part of the scientific community, the public, and policymakers alike, to the extent they are sometimes referred to as not “real food”. Many observational surveys have linked consumption of UPFs to adverse health outcomes. This narrative synthesis and scientific reappraisal of available evidence aims to: (i) critically evaluate UPF-related scientific literature on diet and disease and identify possible research gaps or biases in the interpretation of data; (ii) emphasize the innovative potential of various processing technologies that can lead to modifications of the food matrix with beneficial health effects; (iii) highlight the possible links between processing, sustainability and circular economy through the valorisation of by-products; and (iv) delineate the conceptual parameters of new paradigms in food evaluation and classification systems. Although greater consumption of UPFs has been associated with obesity, unfavorable cardiometabolic risk factor profiles, and increased risk for non-communicable diseases, whether specific food processing techniques leading to ultra-processed formulations are responsible for the observed links between UPFs and various health outcomes remains elusive and far from being understood. Evolving technologies can be used in the context of sustainable valorisation of food processing by-products to create novel, low-cost UPFs with improved nutritional value and health potential. New paradigms of food evaluation and assessment should be funded and developed on several novel pillars—enginomics, signalling, and precision nutrition—taking advantage of available digital technologies and artificial intelligence. Research is needed to generate required scientific knowledge to either expand the current or create new food evaluation and classification systems, incorporating processing aspects that may have a significant impact on health and wellness, together with factors related to the personalization of foods and diets, while not neglecting recycling and sustainability aspects. The complexity and the predicted immense size of these tasks calls for open innovation mentality and a new mindset promoting multidisciplinary collaborations and partnerships between academia and industry.

A cellular alginate solid containing oil was prepared by freeze-drying. The oil was incorporated in the matrix by emulsification in the pre-gel state. The alginate−oil gels were immersed in 60 °Brix sucrose solution for various periods, before freeze-drying. The extent of the collapse expressing the reduction in sample volume was affected by immersion duration and freeze-drying conditions. Sucrose diffusion during immersion followed an exponential pattern. Effective diffusivity calculated using nonlinear regression gave a value of 3.64 × 10^-10 m²/s. The effect of relative humidity on water content calculated on a dry basis excluding sucrose showed a significant increase in water content at 75% RH. Image analysis was utilized to quantify the area of the encapsulated oil droplets. The area of the droplets was divided into four subregions defined as (0.02−0.1) × 10^-12, (0.1−1.0) × 10^-12, (1−10) × 10^-12, and (10−100) × 10^-12 m². A distribution resembling a Gaussian bell distribution with a maximum of 54% for the (1−10) × 10^-12 m² area range was found. The number of oil droplets was almost constant for the first three area regions, and then decreased markedly. Oxidation index was not effected by porosity at 0 and 22% RH. A 75% RH and porosity above a critical value of ca. 0.45 was found to increase oxidation significantly. Samples immersed for less than 5.5 h in sucrose solution were mechanically stronger after equilibration at 0 and 22% RH when compared to their counterpart equilibrated at 75% RH. Immersion for more than 24 h resulted in similar mechanical strength irrespective of the RH. Keywords: Porosity; diffusivity; permeability; oxidation; encapsulated oil; deformability