Minimally Processed Functional Foods: Technological and Operational Pathways

Abstract

This paper offers a concise review of technical and operational concepts underpinning commercialization of minimally processed functional foods (FFs), foods with fresh-like qualities commanding premium prices. The growing number of permitted nutritional content/health claims, many of which relate to well-being, coupled with emerging extraction and food processing technologies offers new exciting opportunities for small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) specializing in fresh produce to play an active role in the health market. Supporting SMEs, governments could benefit from savings in healthcare costs and value creation in the economy. Consumers could benefit from novel FF formats such as refrigerated RTE (ready-to-eat) meals, a variety of fresh-like meat-, fish-, and egg-based products, fresh-cut fruits and vegetables, cereal-based fermented foods and beverages. To preserve these valuable commodities, mild biological (enzymatic treatment, fermentation and, bio-preservation) and engineering solutions are needed. The latter include nonthermal techniques such as high-pressure treatment, cook-chill, sous-vide, mirco-encapsulation, vacuum impregnation and others. "De-constructive" culinary techniques such as 3D food printing and molecular gastronomy as well as developments in nutrigenomics and digital technologies facilitate novel product formats, personalization and access to niche markets. In the operational sense, moving from nourishment to health improvement demands a shift from defensive market-oriented to offensive market-developing strategies including collaborative networks with research organizations.

Production of a Novel Functional Fruit Beverage Consisting of Cornelian Cherry Juice and Probiotic Bacteria

“…It seems that the adjustment of the Cornelian cherry juice pH value to 3.5 from 2.8, which was the pH value of the freshly prepared juice, supported cell viability. This slight increase was made in order to ameliorate the survival of L. plantarum ATCC 14917 as other researchers have proposed [ 22 ] and fulfil the criteria of the food industry that requires minimal processing treatments [ 35 ]. On the other hand, there are reports claiming that the type of probiotic or inhibitory compounds can affect cell viability on fruit juices [ 36 ].…”

How 3D Printing Subverts Global Production Networks after COVID-19: Evidence from a Labor-Intensive Industry

“…Currently, there are more than 100 kinds of materials, such as thermoplastics, metals, nylon, acrylic, gypsum, ceramics, and edible materials that could be used for 3DP [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. Nevertheless, 3DP has been studied for approximately 30 years, and the development of the technology is not as universal as expected.…”

Systemic and skin-targeting beneficial effects of lycopene-enriched ice cream: A pilot study

“…Consumption of lycopene-rich foods (especially tomatoes) or dietary supplements containing this carotenoid has been repeatedly demonstrated to produce health-promoting and antiaging effects (Moran et al, 2013;Petyaev, 2016;Costa-Rodrigues et al, 2018). Nevertheless, no clarity exists on the comparative efficiency of natural foods versus traditional pure supplements (Burton-Freeman and Sesso, 2014), and new versions of functional foods that can be defined as conventional foods enriched with Systemic and skin-targeting beneficial effects of lycopene-enriched ice cream: A pilot study health-promoting components (Rodgers, 2016;Hunter and Hegele, 2017) are actively being developed and investigated. Our previous studies have demonstrated the antihypertensive and oxidative stress-reducing effects of both lycopene combined with whey protein (Petyaev et al, 2012) and lycopene-containing dark chocolate (Petyaev et al, 2014).…”