Lining Kang

Plant-based fermented foods, known for their potential to enhance immunity and improve gut flora, are currently gaining widespread attention. In this study, a patented probiotic (MB11) was employed to ferment soya milk, resulting in the production of probiotic-fermented soya milk (PFS), which was subsequently evaluated for its immunomodulatory effects and impact on gut flora in immunosuppressed mice. Our results demonstrated that PFS significantly bolstered splenic and thymic indicators of immune system health, attenuated small intestinal tissue damage, and promoted the secretion of cytokines and immunoglobulins. Moreover, PFS supplementation led to improved gut flora composition, elevated concentrations of beneficial short-chain fatty acids, reduced relative abundances of pathogenic intestinal bacteria, and boosted numbers of beneficial bacteria compared to the control group. These findings suggest that PFS enhances immunity by modulating gut flora composition, underscoring its potential as a promising immunomodulatory food.

Developing biodegradable active packaging films that combine mechanical reinforcement, barrier improvement, antibacterial activity, and controlled release of natural antimicrobials remains challenging. Here, TEMPO-oxidized bacterial cellulose (TOBC) was used to stabilize clove essential oil (CEO) Pickering emulsions, which were incorporated into sodium alginate (SA) matrices. The effects of TOBC concentration on emulsion stability and emulsion loading on film-forming solutions, film structure, mechanical performance, barrier properties, antioxidant and antibacterial activities, and CEO release were evaluated. The emulsion stabilized with 0.7 wt% TOBC showed good visual stability after 30 days and was selected for film preparation. Moderate incorporation of the TOBC-stabilized CEO Pickering emulsion improved SA film performance, with SA-E10 showing the best overall balance. SA-E10 reached a tensile strength of 38.56 ± 1.66 MPa and an elongation at break of 10.27%, while the moisture content decreased from 36.48 ± 2.32% to 27.93 ± 0.46%. The films also showed enhanced UV-shielding capacity and lower water vapor permeability. Antioxidant activity increased with emulsion loading, reaching 71.43 ± 2.55% for DPPH and 83.66 ± 1.49% for ABTS. Film-coated paper disks showed visible inhibition zones against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Compared with direct CEO incorporation, the Pickering emulsion system delayed CEO release, indicating potential for sustained-release active packaging.

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the composition, characterization and antioxidant activity of rice bran fermentation broth, and provide a new way for high-value utilization of rice bran. Firstly, we fermented rice bran with Hypsizigus marmoreus and purified fermentation broth with macroporous resins. We took feruloyl oligosaccharides (FOs) concentration as the measure index, and the results showed that the maximum concentration of FOs was 0.72 mmol/L on the 6th day of rice bran fermentation. We took D101 macroporous resin as adsorption resin for rice bran fermentation broth, and the result showed that FOs concentration reached 2.38 mmol/L with the optimal purification process at pH 4.5, temperature 29 °C, ethanol concentration 55%, sample flow rate 1.5 mL/min, sample concentration 1.7 mL/min and elution flow rate 2.0 mmol/L. Secondly, the characters of rice bran fermentation broth were identified by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). These methods showed the presence of ferulic acid (FA), arabinose, xylose and glucose in rice bran fermentation broth. Finally, the in vitro antioxidant activities of rice bran fermentation broth were tested and the result showed that fermentation broth had good antioxidant activities and significantly improved after purification.

Oil oxidation in an oil-rich system was used to investigate the effect on acrylamide formation. Three kinds of common oil, soybean oil, olive oil, and palm oil, were preheated at different... HIGHLIGHTS Oil-rich model systems were used to evaluate acrylamide formation. Acrylamide levels in model system increased with oil preheat time and temperature. Oil oxidation indices had significan...

Potato offers numerous health benefits that have yet to be utilized by the food industry. To evaluate the use of potato as an ingredient in staple food products, various proportions of potato flour were added to wheat flour (0–50 %) to form potato–wheat flour mixtures. The mixtures were used to make dough and steamed bread that were tested based on several established quality indicators. Specifically, with increasing potato flour proportion above 20 %, dough quality indicators of extensibility, tensile resistance, fermentation volume and fermentation activity exhibited downward trends, with worsening microstructural, while steamed bread exhibited decreasing specific volume, decreasing brightness, worsening textural properties, increasing yellowness and increasing lysine content. However, for dough and steamed bread made from flour mixtures containing 10–20 % potato flour, quality indicators were not significantly different from corresponding control values (100 % wheat flour). Notably, correlation analysis indicated that tensile and fermentative dough properties significantly correlated with resulting steamed bread quality. Therefore, only data measurements for these dough indicators are needed to predict steamed bread quality, in order to reduce testing workload during evaluation of ingredient formulations for steamed bread production.