High-Pressure Treatments for Enhancing the Techno-Functional Properties of Food Ingredients

Dear Colleagues,

Proteins, polysaccharides, and fibers from natural sources are gaining increasing interest as sustainable food ingredients, which meets consumers’ demand for “clean label” products. However, their use is often limited by their techno-functional properties, which might not meet the desired product standards.

Nonthermal technologies, particularly those based on high pressure (e.g., high-pressure processing and high-pressure homogenization), have recently emerged as capable of modifying the accessibility and techno-functionality of scarcely exploited macromolecules from underutilized crops, agri-food by-products and residues, or novel sources such as insects. By inducing targeted structural changes at the cellular level, for example by increasing the bioaccessibility of value-added components by size reduction or simply opening the cell structure, and at the molecular level (e.g., defibrillation and size reduction of structural polysaccharides, or the aggregation, unfolding, or partial denaturation of proteins), high-pressure processing and high-pressure homogenization may become versatile tools to improve and modulate the functional and technological properties of natural ingredients. Under specific circumstances, high-pressure treatments have also been reported to reduce the risks associated with the potential allergenicity of proteins, while preserving their functionality.

A better understanding of the effect of high-pressure processes on macromolecules of natural origin, as a function of the operating parameters and the molecular properties, is of fundamental importance for the sustainable exploitation of food ingredients with enhanced techno-functional properties from natural sources.

Prof. Dr. Francesco Donsì
Prof. Dr. Giovanna Ferrari
Prof. Dr. Marcelo Cristianini
Guest Editors

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