Lishui Chen

Natural plant essential oils (EOs) are promising antimicrobials for meat preservation, but their volatility causes rapid loss of activity, especially under temperature-abuse conditions associated with cold-chain failure. Herein, lignin-reinforced yeast protein composite particles (YLCPs) were fabricated as protein–polysaccharide composite particulate stabilizers to construct citral-loaded high-internal-phase Pickering emulsions (HIPPEs) as an edible coating for chilled chicken. Non-covalent interactions, including hydrogen bonding, electrostatic association, and hydrophobic interactions, were involved in the formation of YLCPs and were associated with their modified interfacial properties and the development of a viscoelastic network in HIPPEs. HIPPEs stabilized with 3% (w/v) YLCPs achieved an optimal balance between coating spreadability and structural integrity, with a continuous interfacial layer and a well-developed elastic network. The optimized coating encapsulating 400 μg/mL citral maintained potent bactericidal activity against S. aureus and E. coli for at least 7 days by disrupting bacterial membrane integrity, whereas free citral lost activity within 24 h; this prolonged effect was closely associated with citral retention within the reinforced interfacial network. Under a temperature-abuse (cold-chain-failure) model, the coating suppressed pathogen proliferation, retarded protein degradation, and extended the preservation of pathogen-challenged chilled chicken for at least 7 days, with total viable counts kept below 4.1 lg CFU/g. Collectively, lignin-reinforced yeast protein composite particles are efficient Pickering stabilizers that confer HIPPEs with robust interfacial and rheological properties, providing a sustainable edible coating for long-term preservation of chilled meat under cold-chain temperature abuse.

Konjac glucomannan (KGM) is a renewable polysaccharide with high hydration capacity, abundant hydroxyl groups, and tunable gelation, making it a versatile platform for hazardous-contaminant remediation. Chemical functionalization and hybridization with inorganic, porous, magnetic, photoactive, and photothermal phases have extended KGM systems from adsorption to selective ion capture, photo-assisted treatment, and solar-driven water purification. This review critically links KGM molecular structure and network architecture to contaminant speciation, interfacial interactions, mass transfer, and treatment performance, and assesses the evidentiary limits of fitted Langmuir capacities, pseudo-second-order kinetics, and FTIR/XPS assignments. Representative studies demonstrate strong potential for cationic-dye adsorption, uranium removal from carbonate-containing and real mine wastewater, and solar-driven evaporation. However, performance remains highly dependent on solution chemistry, material state, and experimental configuration. Future progress should move beyond record capacities toward quantitative structure–interaction–transport–fate relationships, discriminating mechanistic experiments, environmentally relevant concentrations, authentic-water validation, continuous-flow operation, contaminant-fate analysis, and process-level sustainability assessment.

Sauced beef is a traditional Chinese meat product, yet the volatile and sensory signatures of potential aroma-active compounds remain insufficiently characterized. Five commercial sauced beef products (B1–B5) were analyzed by electronic nose (E-nose), gas chromatography–ion mobility spectrometry (GC-IMS), chemometrics, and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation (FCE). Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) identified by GC-IMS were screened by principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). An FCE model based on texture profile analysis (TPA) was established, with color, taste, flavor, texture, and acceptability as sensory evaluation indicators. E-nose responses indicated that sulfur-containing compounds, aromatic components, alkanes, and alcohols contributed strongly to overall aroma. GC-IMS tentatively identified 73 VOCs, with ketones, alcohols, and aldehydes as the dominant classes. Dual screening (variable importance in projection (VIP) > 1 and odor activity value (OAV) ≥ 1) identified 14 potential aroma-active compounds. Nine compounds were common to all five products, and five were detected in only a subset of products. Under equal weighting, the fuzzy evaluation ranked overall quality as B2 > B4 > B3 = B5 > B1. Pearson correlation revealed that sensory attributes, especially taste and flavor, were positively correlated with 3-(Methylsulfanyl)propanal and (Z)-2-pentenal, while negatively correlated with (R/S)-linalool, 2-Butanone-3-hydroxy, and alpha-Pinene. These integrated approaches revealed differences among the five commercial products investigated, identified potential aroma-active compounds, and support product-specific characteristics and quality assessment of sauced beef products.

Different heat treatment temperatures (85–115 °C) were evaluated for their effects on the quality and flavor of luncheon meat. As the heating temperature increased, the weight loss rate increased, and its color became darker. Low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) revealed that immobilized water decreased progressively while bound and free water both increased. During heat treatment, alterations in the spatial structure of proteins reduced the hardness and chewiness of luncheon meat, accompanied by significant variations in amino acid contents. The MDA content increased from 0.34 to 0.69 mg/kg with increasing temperature, confirming enhanced lipid oxidation. Through gas chromatography–ion mobility spectrometry (GC-IMS) analysis, a total of 38 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were identified, primarily aldehydes, ketones, and esters; the total aldehydes content increased by 57.5% from 85 °C to 115 °C. Combining odor activity values (OAV > 1) with orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA, VIP > 1), 9 core flavor compounds were identified. Heating at 95 °C balanced aldehyde–ester flavor development with minimal quality loss. This study provides key theoretical foundations for optimizing heat treatment parameters in the industrial production of luncheon meat.

Braised chicken feet are a key leisure snack, yet commercial flavor chemistry differences remain underexplored. We analyzed six samples (one laboratory-prepared, five commercial) using HS-GC-IMS, electronic nose, sensory evaluation, and multivariate statistics. 81 volatiles were identified across 10 classes, among which 12 aroma-active compounds (ROAV ≥ 1) were key contributors to aroma differentiation. OPLS-DA clearly separated the six products (R2Y = 0.987, Q2Y = 0.942). 1-(1-methyl-1H-pyrrol-2-yl)ethanone, 3-methylbutanal, and nonanal were the most influential discriminative markers. Notably, nonanal exhibited broad sensory associations (Flavor: r = 0.83, p < 0.05), confirming that lipid oxidation-derived aldehydes underpin the common aroma background. The laboratory-prepared sample yielded superior sensory scores, likely due to improved braising control. Flavor formation was primarily driven by lipid oxidation, the Maillard reaction, and spice-derived terpenes. These findings offer insights for flavor standardization and product development.

Konjac glucomannan (KGM) is a plant-derived polysaccharide with a long history of food use and a rapidly expanding portfolio of biomedical applications. Yet despite decades of research, translation of KGM-based materials from laboratory proof-of-concept to clinical and commercial products remains slow, hampered by unresolved structural controversies, batch-to-batch variability, and a lack of quantitative design rules. This review provides a critical, mechanism-focused analysis of KGM across its molecular architecture, extraction and modification, and translational applications, moving beyond cataloguing uses to evaluate conflicting findings in the literature. We examine how hierarchical structural features—molecular weight, acetylation pattern, and chain topology—govern solution behavior, gelation, and biological performance, and compare KGM with competing biopolymers to define its unique advantages and inherent limitations. Current progress in colon-targeted delivery, wound healing, microbiome modulation, and metabolic health is synthesized, and persistent barriers to translation are evaluated, including the absence of quantitative structure–activity models, limited human pharmacokinetic data, and incomplete toxicological characterization of modified derivatives. We also address longstanding debates over branching frequency, acetylation distribution, and dose–response relationships that have generated inconsistent results across studies. Finally, we outline a research agenda integrating computational polymer design, multi-omics mechanistic studies, and precision nutrition to support development of next-generation KGM biomaterials.

This preliminary within-animal study focuses on the comprehensive characterization of pork jowl (PJ) by comparing it with pork belly (PB), Boston butt (BB), and spare ribs (SR) collected from the same ten castrated Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire (DLY) pigs; headspace volatile analysis used a matched subset of six pigs. Instrumental quality, proximate composition, amino-acid and fatty-acid profiles, low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) water distribution and headspace solid-phase microextraction–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) volatile profiles were evaluated. PB exhibited the lowest shear force, hardness, and chewiness. Across the four pork cuts, crude protein content ranged from 16.87% to 18.10%, whereas crude fat content ranged from 13.03% to 22.20%. BB had the lowest crude fat content (13.03%) and relatively high protein (18.10%) and amino-acid contents. PJ showed highest content of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) and the lowest numerical atherogenic (AI) and thrombogenic indices (TI), but also the highest n-6/n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) ratio. LF-NMR showed that PJ had the highest T₂₃ and P23 values, consistent with its higher cooking and centrifugal losses. Sixty-five headspace volatile compounds were tentatively identified under the standardized 80 °C HS-SPME conditions. OPLS-DA differentiated the four cuts, and ten compounds meeting the combined criteria of VIP > 1, q < 0.05, and OAV > 1 were retained as candidate discriminant aroma-relevant compounds. Overall, the four cuts exhibited distinct quality profiles: PJ combined a MUFA-rich lipid fraction with greater free-water mobility and water loss, PB showed the greatest instrumental tenderness, BB had the lowest crude fat content and relatively high protein and amino-acid contents, and SR exhibited the greatest headspace volatile abundance. The data provide a reference for cut-specific utilization of pork raw materials.

This research investigated the effects of salt concentration on the fermentation of watermelon soybean paste. Three experimental groups were constructed with gradient salt concentrations, and multi-dimensional analyses were performed on physicochemical properties, volatile aroma profiles, and microbial community succession throughout the fermentation process. Group X (lowest salt) exhibited the highest total acid (34.49 g/kg) and lowest pH (p < 0.05) after 60 d. Using headspace gas chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HS-GC-TOF-MS), a total of 97 volatile compounds were identified, of which 18 were defined as key flavor compounds (relative odor activity value (ROAV) > 0.1 and variable importance in projection (VIP) > 1). High-throughput sequencing demonstrated that Proteobacteria and Firmicutes represented the core bacterial communities while Ascomycota emerged as the dominant fungal phylum. The Shannon diversity index for bacteria ranged from 4.28 to 5.47 across groups. Aspergillus relative abundance in Group X decreased from 75.30% (30 d) to 43.17% (60 d). Group X was distinctly separated from Y and Z in PLS-DA and PCoA analyses. Aspergillus exhibited significant positive correlations with eugenol and 2,2,4-trimethyl-1,3-pentanediol diisobutyrate (p < 0.05). These findings provide an integrated understanding of the associations between volatile compound evolution and microbial succession during natural fermentation, providing a basis for further investigation and process optimization.

Saccharomyces boulardii is currently the only probiotic yeast with established clinical validation for use in both humans and livestock. It exhibits unique advantages that are difficult to achieve with conventional probiotics, including resistance to gastric acid and antibiotics, as well as broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity. Moreover, through the secretion of bioactive metabolites, S. boulardii can improve food quality and contribute to the management of digestive disorders. Consequently, it has gained increasing attention in functional ingredients (FI), fermented foods (FF), and foods for special medical purposes (FSMP). This review involves reviewing and screening relevant scientific literature to conduct a critical bibliometric analysis. This review provides a systematic review of the physiological characteristics, mechanisms of action, applications in food systems, application scope, and clinically validated health benefits of S. boulardii . These benefits include modulation of the gut microbiota, enhancement of immune function, and alleviation of symptoms associated with gastrointestinal disorders. The review also covers advances in genetic engineering approaches aimed at enhancing its probiotic functions, as well as the technical, regulatory, and safety limitations associated with its application in food products. Finally, in light of current bottlenecks associated with its industrial application, future research directions are proposed.