Valorization of Food-Derived Proteins towards Nutrition, Pharmaceutical and Bioplastics Goals
A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Biotechnology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2024) | Viewed by 3974
Special Issue Editors
Interests: food chemistry; food science and technology; functional foods; by-products; nutrition; sustainable chemistry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: chromatographic determinations; electrochemistry; sensors/biosensors; sample preparation; environment and food control; environmental monitoring; contaminant detection; PAHs; pesticides; pharmaceuticals; heavy metals; allergens
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Proteins are essential macronutrients with recognized nutritional, physiological and techno-functional properties. They are important for growth and repair of body tissues, especially muscles and bones, and a source of bioactive peptides, able to exert beneficial effects on human health after their release by hydrolysis, gastrointestinal digestion, and/or food processing. In addition, proteins play an important role in the rheological properties of food products and their stability during manufacture and storage and are an interesting material to develop coatings and edible films for food and pharmaceutical applications.
Important factors, namely, digestibility, amino acid profile, bioavailability, processing, and purity, influence the nutritional quality of proteins. In recent years, nutritionists and food industries are exploring the use of novel protein sources (e.g., insects, algae, hempseed, duckweed, and rapeseed) and new plant-based proteins from natural sources (e.g., beans, seeds, leaves, grains, fruits) and food processing (e.g., brewer´s spent grain, brewer´s spent yeast, oilseed cakes) to meet consumer trends in avoiding the intake of animal proteins. Researchers are currently focused on developing non-thermal-green technologies for improving extraction efficiency and reducing protein degradation. Besides enhancing their nutritional and techno-functional properties, these innovative techniques promote the release of bioactive peptides. Thus, advanced knowledge in these new methodologies (and their advantages and disadvantages in comparison with conventional methods) is essential to achieve high-purity proteins (and bioactive peptides) with interesting properties at high concentration, to be incorporated into food products, supplements, and coating/edible films materials.
This Special Issue focuses on the characterization, processing, modification, biological and technological functionalities, and applications of all types of food-derived proteins. Review and research papers focused on the application of proteins as (i) food supplements in human nutrition and feed; (ii) edible coating/films materials for food and pharmaceutical purposes (iii) emulsifiers in numerous food products, (iv) source of bioactive peptides in nutraceutical and pharmaceutical products, (v) hydrogels in drug delivery and (vi) non-edible applications are welcome.
Dr. Elsa F. Vieira
Prof. Dr. Cristina Delerue-Matos
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- animal, microbial and plant-derived proteins
- novel protein sources
- bioactive peptides
- protein hydrolysates
- emulsifiers
- protein supplements
- nutraceuticals
- techno-functional properties
- sensory analysis
- protein-based films and coatings
- protein extraction
- in vitro and in vivo studies
- bioavailability
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