Zhaomei Wang

Cultured meat has become a possible solution to global sustainability, animal welfare, and the challenges that face the population's health, but its perception by consumers is still uncertain. This review summarizes the evidence base of 179 peer‐reviewed articles published between 2015 and 2025 to investigate the psychological, cultural, and perceptual drivers of attitudes toward cultured meat. The most important factors, including food neophobia, naturalness, disgust, trust, and labeling, are measured, as well as cultural norms and religious dietary models that contribute to acceptance in different societies. The review outlines the interaction between sensory expectations and communication cues and underlying beliefs about authenticity, purity, and technological intervention with food. Approaches to the challenge of methodology in current sensory and consumer studies are distinguished, including the use of hypothetical testing conditions, a lack of cross‐cultural verification, and a lack of consistency in the measurement of naturalness and disgust. Taking into account the contributions of psychology, sensory science, cultural studies, and consumer behavior, this review will allow gaining a better idea of the complex barriers to adoption and the directions of further research that can enhance the validity of cultured meat, its cultural sensitivity, and its practical relevance.

This study was to establish an efficient strategy based on inoculum-morphology control for the submerged mycelial fermentation of an edible and medicinal fungus, Inonotus hispidus. Two major morphological forms of the mycelial inoculum were compared, dispersed mycelial fragments versus aggregated mycelial clumps. The dispersed one was more favorable for the fermentation, starting with a shorter lag period and attaining a higher biomass yield and more uniform mycelium pellets in shake flasks. The mycelial pellets taken from the shake flask culture on day 6 were fragmented at 26,000 rpm in a homogenizer, and a shear time of 3 min provided the optimal inoculum. The inoculum and culture conditions were further verified in 5-L stirred tank fermenters and then the fermentation was scaled-up in a 100-L stirred tank. With the optimized inoculum and process conditions plus a fed-batch operation, much higher productivities, including 22.23 g/L biomass, 3.31 g/L EPS, and 5.21 g/L IPS, were achieved in the 100-L fermenter than in the flask culture. A composition analysis showed that the I. hispidus mycelium produced by the fermentation was rich in protein, dietary fiber, and polysaccharides which may be beneficial to health. Overall, the results have shown that the inoculum characteristics including age, morphology, and state of aggregation have significant impact on the productivity of mycelial biomass and polysaccharides in a submerged mycelial fermentation of the I. hispidus fungus. Graphical Abstract (created with BioRender.com)

This study was to establish an efficient strategy based on inoculum-morphology control for the submerged mycelial fermentation of an edible and medicinal fungus, Inonotus hispidus. Two major morphological forms of mycelial inoculum were compared, dispersed mycelial fragments versus aggregated mycelial clumps. The dispersed one was more favorable for the fermentation, starting with a shorter lag period and attaining a higher biomass yield and more uniform mycelium pellets in shake-flasks. The mycelial pellets taken from the shake-flask culture on day 6 were fragmented at 26,000 rpm in a homogenizer, and shear time 3 min provided the optimal inoculum. The inoculum and culture conditions were further verified in 5-L stirred-tank fermenters and then the fermentation was scaled-up in a 100 L stirred-tank. With the optimized inoculum and process conditions plus a fed-batch operation, much higher productivities, including 22.23 g/L biomass, 3.31g/L EPS, 5.21g/L IPS, were achieved in the 100-L fermenter than in the flask culture. Composition analysis showed that the I. hispidus mycelium produced by the fermentation was rich in protein, dietary fiber, and polysaccharides which may be benefitical to health. Overall, the results have shown that the inoculum characteristics including age, morphology and state of aggregation have significant impact on the productivity of mycelial biomass and polysaccharides in submerged mycelial fermentation of I. hispidus fungus.

Curcumin (Cur) is a bioactive nutraceutical with great potential in biological, nutritional, and medical applications. However, these applications are limited by various factors such as insufficient ingestion, low aqueous solubility, and relatively high toxicity to normal cells. To tackle these obstacles, we synthesized a novel Cur‐modified‐rhamnogalacturonan (RG‐C) nano‐micelle carrier to target‐deliver Cur to hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cells via specific recognition of RG‐I by the overexpressed surface galactin‐3 receptor. Fourier transfer infrared, UV–vis, and ¹H NMR analyses confirmed the conjugation between RG and Cur RG‐C loaded with Cur (RG‐CC) was formed via self‐assembly in an aqueous solution with a drug loading efficiency of 12.2%. RG‐CC micelle was ellipsoidal or cubic with a size ranging between 100 and 200 nm by scanning electron microscopy observation. Cur release from RG‐CC exhibited a controlled and pH‐dependent manner with 50% at pH 5.0 in contrast to 5% at pH 7.4 after 24 h exposure. RG‐CC possessed more potent anti‐proliferative activity against HepG2 cells than normal embryonic kidney 293T cells. Compared to free Cur, both the anti‐proliferative effect and uptake of RG‐CC were significantly higher in HepG2 cells as revealed from laser confocal microscopy and flow cytometry analyses. RG‐CC was a promising anticancer candidate and deserves further preclinical and clinical investigations.

Cardiovascular diseases are associated with platelet hyperactivity, and downregulating platelet activation is one of the promising antithrombotic strategies. This study newly extracted two polysaccharides (purified exopolysaccharides, EPSp and purified intercellular exopolysaccharides, IPSp) from Cordyceps sinensis Cs-4 mycelial fermentation powder, and investigated the effects of the two polysaccharides and their gut bacterial metabolites on platelet functions and thrombus formation. EPSp and IPSp are majorly composed of galactose, mannose, glucose, and arabinose. Both EPSp and IPSp mainly contain 4-Galp and 4-Glcp glycosidic linkages. EPSp and IPSp significantly inhibited human platelet activation and aggregation with a dose-dependent manner, and attenuated thrombus formation in mice without increasing bleeding risk. Furthermore, the EPSp and IPSp after fecal fermentation showed enhanced platelet inhibitory effects. The results have demonstrated the potential value of Cs-4 polysaccharides as novel protective ingredients for cardiovascular diseases.

Dietary fiber (DF) from sisal waste and Moringa oleifera stem were modified using a successive enzymatic‐ultrasonic (E‐U) treatment to produce modified DF products (MDFs), with reduced ratio of insoluble DF (IDF) and soluble DF (SDF) and decreased particle size. The water holding capacity, swelling capacity and oil holding capacity of the MDFs were elevated upon E‐U treatment. MDF‐S (MDF from sisal waste) and MDF‐M (MDF from M. oleifera stem) were fermented to produce short‐chain fatty acids (SCFAs) by gut bacteria in mice, with total SCFA content of 3.81 μmol/g and 3.34 μmol/g, respectively, when added in basal feed at 10% (w/w). Metagenomic analyses demonstrated that MDFs tended to increase the Bacteroidetes/Firmicutes ratio, and significantly increased the relative abundance of Bacteroides, norank_f__Bacteroidales_S24‐7_group, norank_f__Erysipelotrichaceae, Ruminococcus_1, and Akkermansia at genus level. These findings suggest that MDF supplementation in diet could favorably modulate gut microbiome in mice.