Cheese has been high in demand because it is very convenient to be eaten on its own or to be used as an accompaniment to food. However, the time‐consuming and energy‐intensive manufacturing process together with the increased price of milk has made cheese an expensive product. Besides, cheese is found to contain high saturated fat content and has been linked to high cholesterol and increased risk of heart disease. Hence, there has been a shift toward developing a cheese product based on vegetable sources that imitates the unique characteristics of natural cheese such as stretchable or stringy upon melting. A great number of endeavors have been made to produce high‐quality imitation cheese. This paper reviews the uniqueness and various other aspects of natural cheese and the challenges of duplicating them into imitation cheese. Novelty impact statements Imitation cheese is a sustainable alternative to dairy cheese. Imitation cheese can be tailor‐made to offer nutritional and functionality advantages over natural cheese. Imitation cheese is not a threat but a promise to the cheese market.

Protein production by bacteria might be increased in stressful conditions such as in the presence of antimicrobial agents. Many studies proved that antibiotics or antimicrobial agents at low concentration are able to activate or repress gene transcription process in bacteria. However, there are still few studies on potential of natural antimicrobial compounds such as Cymbopogon essential oils acting as specific chemical signal that can trigger biological functions of bacteria. Therefore, this study aims to explore the potential of natural antimicrobial compound (Cymbopogon flexuosus and Cymbopogon nardus) at low concentration in regulating proteins production by Lactobacillus plantarum ATCC8014. The bacteria cells of L. plantarum ATCC8014 are exposed to Cymbopogon essential oils at low concentration in fermentation process for 48 hours at 37°C. SDS-PAGE analysis showed that a new intracellular protein with approximate size of 40 kDa was produced by L. plantarum ATCC8014 after being enhanced with C. nardus essential oil. Besides, the intracellular proteins, each with approximate size of 85 kDa, 45 kDa and 28 kDa synthesized by L. plantarum ATCC8014 prior to inducing with C. nardus or C. flexuosus were expressed differently. Some of the intracellular proteins were highly expressed and some of the proteins were repressed based on the intensity of protein bands appeared. Hence, L. plantarum ATCC8014 in the presence of Cymbopogon essential oils at low concentration could regulate the intracellular proteins production. The isolated protein also showed antimicrobial activity against selected Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria.

In this study, glucono-delta-lactone (GDL), which is Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS), was added to native starches to modify their physicochemical properties. The effects of GDL on the molecular weight, pasting properties, flow behavior, gel syneresis, and crystallization properties of potato, tapioca, and corn starches were investigated. GPC results showed that as the GDL concentration increased, the molecular weight of amylose increased, whereas that of amylopectin decreased. An analysis using the Rapid Visco Analyzer revealed that the addition of GDL improved the pasting properties of potato starch, with reduced peak viscosity and breakdown viscosity, and it also improved setback viscosity. On the other hand, tapioca starch degraded substantially after GDL addition, indicating a lower tendency for short-term retrogradation, as reflected in the lower setback viscosity. The effects of GDL on corn starch pasting properties were very similar to those observed for tapioca starch, but the changes were relatively subtle. In terms of flow behavior, GDL addition decreased and increased the flow index values of the potato and tapioca starch pastes, respectively. However, the effect of GDL addition on the flow index value of the corn starch paste was found to be insignificant. The results also showed that the percentage of syneresis under the influence of GDL depended on the starch botanical origin—that is, potato starch, 14–18%, tapioca starch, 10–13%, and corn starch, 17–20%—which was substantiated by crystallinity analysis. It was observed that GDL has the potential to be used for starch modification because it creates desirable functionalities with the advantage of being a green-labelled ingredient.