Eleni Sakadani

Nowadays, there is an increasing demand for high-protein sustainable and functional foods, driven by the shifting of consumers’ dietary preferences and environmental concerns. All these have accelerated the development of hybrid dairy products. This review provides a unique comprehensive overview of hybrid dairy products, formulated through partial substitution of dairy with plant proteins from legumes, cereals, seeds, and microalgae. Therefore, it evaluates multiple dairy products and plant protein sources simultaneously, and provides broader and deeper insight on key formulation approaches, major challenges, and future opportunities for the development of more sustainable hybrid dairy products. Emphasis is placed on the effects on formulation, physicochemical properties, rheological behavior, texture, microstructure, fermentation dynamics, microbial quality, nutritional attributes, sensory characteristics, and sustainability. The functional and technological properties of dairy matrices are influenced and strongly depend on plant protein source, substitution level, and processing conditions. Hybridization enhances protein content, dietary fiber, and maintains microbial viability and probiotic potential. However, challenges remain related to gel stability, off-flavor development, color changes, antinutritional factors, and regulatory issues. Fermentation and advanced processing technologies emerge as key tools to mitigate some of these limitations. Hybrid dairy products represent a promising and flexible strategy to reduce the environmental footprint of dairy products while preserving their nutritional and sensory strengths, contributing to more sustainable food production systems. Future research should prioritize optimized protein combinations, comprehensive life cycle assessments, and consumer-centered studies to support successful product development and commercialization.

Probiotics are widely recognized for their health benefits, but their viability during food processing and digestion poses significant challenges. The present study evaluated the impact of incorporating apple fibers into yogurt on the viability of the probiotic strain Lacticaseibacillus casei ATCC 393 during production, storage, and simulated gastrointestinal digestion. Apple fibers, a by-product of apple processing, were used as a prebiotic ingredient due to their functional and technological benefits. The incorporation of apple fibers increased probiotic viability during 28 days of refrigerated storage, improving it from 90.4% in the control yogurt to 93.9%. Under simulated gastrointestinal conditions, yogurt alone acted as a protective matrix, preserving probiotic viability, during gastric (71.0% at pH 2 after 3 h) and intestinal digestion (73.3% at 0.3% bile salts after 6 h). The inclusion of apple fibers further enhanced this protection, reducing probiotic viability loss in both gastric (81.9% at pH 2 after 3 h) and intestinal (79.0% at 0.3% bile salts after 6 h) environments. Similar results were obtained using the INFOGEST 2.0 static protocol. After the completion of the protocol (oral, gastric and intestinal phase) a viability of 71.1% (6.61 logCFU/g) was observed in the yogurt with apple fibers compared to 64.5% (6.10 logCFU/g) in the control yogurt. This enhanced protection could be attributed to the potential prebiotic properties of apple fibers, including their pectin and cellulose content, which may shield probiotics from acidic and enzymatic degradation. These findings highlight the potential of apple fiber-enriched yogurt as a functional food that supports probiotic viability during storage and throughout gastrointestinal transit. These insights may open the way for developing new food products with enhanced health benefits, aligning with growing consumer demand for functional foods.

Inflammation, thrombosis and oxidative stress are rarely studied together when wine’s biological activity is concerned; hence the existing literature lacks a holistic point of view in the biological outcome. The scope of the present study is to parallel evaluate the effect of wine extracts on those mechanisms. Ten wine varieties and two different extraction methods were used leading to five extracts for each wine: total lipids (TL) and fractions with different phenolic compound classes (FI, FII, FIII and FIV). Their effect on oxidative stress, platelet aggregation and the secretion of cytokines from mononuclear cells was measured and a biological score was calculated. FII of white wines is the most potent extract and the extracts FIII and TL are following. Specifically, FII had higher anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory score while all three fractions had a similar anti-platelet score. Furthermore, FII and FIII extracts were the most potent red wine extracts and revealed the highest anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory scores. White wine FII extracts were more potent than the red wine ones while FI and FIV extracts of red wine were more potent than the white wine ones. In conclusion, the protective effect of a wine is independent of its color but is strongly associated with its microconstituents profile. FII extract revealed the highest biological score and further examination is needed in order to identify the compounds that are responsible for the aforementioned actions.