Preliminary data on sulphite intake from the Korean diet

Food Additives from Fruit and Vegetable By-Products and Bio-Residues: A Comprehensive Review Focused on Sustainability

Food waste is one of the fundamental issues when it comes to environmental impacts, and this type of waste results in the food’s loss itself, but also that of water, energy, fertilizers, and other resources used for its production. Many vegetable parts are removed from the final product before reaching retail (peels, roots, and seeds), and these raw materials are rich sources of highly valuable molecules such as phytochemicals, minerals, vitamins, and other compounds with health benefits (prevention of several diseases, improvement of the immune system, regulating gastrointestinal transit, and others). Therefore, substantial efforts have been made to find technological solutions to avoid food waste, namely through its reuse in the food chain, thus promoting the circular economy and sustainability. This review focuses on the biggest wastes generated by the food industry, the most common destinations, and case studies applying these by-products or biowaste in the food industry.

Natural Food Colorants and Preservatives: A Review, a Demand, and a Challenge

The looming urgency of feeding the growing world population along with the increasing consumers' awareness and expectations have driven the evolution of food production systems and the processes and products applied in the food industry. Although substantial progress has been made on food additives, the controversy in which some of them are still shrouded has encouraged research on safer and healthier next generations. These additives can come from natural sources and confer numerous benefits for health, beyond serving the purpose of coloring or preserving, among others. As limiting factors, these additives are often related to stability, sustainability, and cost-effectiveness issues, which justify the need for innovative solutions. In this context, and with the advances witnessed in computers and computational methodologies for in silico experimental aid, the development of new safer and more efficient natural additives with dual functionality (colorant and preservative), for instance by the copigmentation phenomena, may be achieved more efficiently, circumventing the current difficulties.

Sodium sulfite causes gastric mucosal cell death by inducing oxidative stress

Sulfites are commonly used as a preservative and antioxidant additives in the food industry. Sulfites are absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract and distributed essentially to all body tissues. Although sulfites have been believed to be safe food additives, some studies have shown that they exhibit adverse effects in various tissues. In this study, we examined the cytotoxic effect of sodium sulfite (Na₂SO₃) against rat gastric mucosal cells (RGM1) and further investigated its underlying molecular mechanism. We demonstrated that exposure to Na₂SO₃ exerts significant cytotoxicity in RGM1 cells through induction of oxidative stress. Exposure of RGM1 cells to Na₂SO₃ caused a significant formation of protein carbonyls and 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine, major oxidative stress markers, with a concomitant accumulation of carbonylated protein-related aggregates. Furthermore, we found that incubation of lysozyme with Na₂SO₃ evokes protein carbonylation and aggregation via the metal ion-catalyzed free radical formation derived from Na₂SO₃. Our results suggest that Na₂SO₃ might lead to gastric tissue injury via induction of oxidative stress by the formation of Na₂SO₃-related free radicals.

Amperometric Sulfite Sensor Using Electrodecorated Pt Particles onto an Aminated Glassy Carbon Electrode Prepared by Stepwise Electrolysis

A novel modified glassy carbon electrode with platinum (Pt)-electrodecorated and nitrogen-containing functional groups was prepared by stepwise electrolysis. The prepared electrode exhibited electrocatalytic activity towards sulfite oxidation that was better than that of a bare glassy carbon electrode. The electrocatalytic activity of sulfite oxidation has been applied to an amperometric sulfite sensor. A favorable linear relationship between the current response (ΔI) and the sulfite concentration up to 500 μM was exhibited. The detection limit was estimated to be 3 μM based on the criterion of a signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio of 3 under optimized conditions. In regards to the reproducibility, the RSD (n = 10) was 8.9% for 80 μM sulfite.

Adding Molecules to Food, Pros and Cons: A Review on Synthetic and Natural Food Additives

The pressing issue to feed the increasing world population has created a demand to enhance food production, which has to be cheaper, but at the same time must meet high quality standards. Taste, appearance, texture, and microbiological safety are required to be preserved within a foodstuff for the longest period of time. Although considerable improvements have been achieved in terms of food additives, some are still enveloped in controversy. The lack of uniformity in worldwide laws regarding additives, along with conflicting results of many studies help foster this controversy. In this report, the most important preservatives, nutritional additives, coloring, flavoring, texturizing, and miscellaneous agents are analyzed in terms of safety and toxicity. Natural additives and extracts, which are gaining interest due to changes in consumer habits are also evaluated in terms of their benefits to health and combined effects. Technologies, like edible coatings and films, which have helped overcome some drawbacks of additives, but still pose some disadvantages, are briefly addressed. Future trends like nanoencapsulation and the development of "smart" additives and packages, specific vaccines for intolerance to additives, use of fungi to produce additives, and DNA recombinant technologies are summarized.

Use of a membraneless extraction module for the voltammetric determination of total sulfites in wine

A recently developed membraneless extraction module (MLEM) for sample preparation aiming the analysis of volatile and semi-volatile compounds is applied in the voltammetric analysis of total sulfites in wine. Square-wave voltammetry (SWV) is very advantageous in this case because sulfur dioxide (SO2) is instrumentally directly detected. The developed method shows good repeatability (RSD lower than 5%) and linearity (between 20 to 220 mg l–1) as well as suitable limits of detection (6 mg l–1) and quantification (19 mg l–1). The proposed method was also compared with the reference methodology (an iodimetry, the Ripper method) showing no significant differences in the obtained results.