Engineering Nutritionally Improved Edible Plant Oils

Effect of kesse, koseret, and tosign extract treatments on the oxidative stability of oil during the repeated frying of potato chips

Fried food safety and quality are crucial concerns for consumers and the food industry due to the deterioration of oil quality and the loss of sensory properties during repeated frying. The current study investigated the use of leaf extracts from endemic dietary herbs: kesse (Lippia adoensis var. adoensis), koseret (Lippia adoensis var. koseret), and tosign (Thymus schimperi Ronninger) to enhance oil quality during the repeated frying of potato chips. The analysis of various parameters, including free fatty acids (FFA), iodine value (IV), peroxide value (PV), thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), viscosity, and color (L*, a*, and b*), was conducted after every 5th frying cycle to assess oil quality. The results revealed significant (p < 0.05) decreases in deterioration markers for oils treated with herb extracts compared to the control oils. Specifically, after 20 frying cycles, oils treated with the dietary herb extracts exhibited lower percentage of FFA (0.63-1.05), IV (51.7-46.7), PV (6.69-7.68), and TBARS (50.27-56.08) compared to the control. The herb-treated oils also maintained lower FFA, PV, and TBARS values throughout the frying cycles and reduced viscosity, while IV gradually decreased. Furthermore, the L* value decreased gradually, and a* and b* values increased as the number of frying cycles increased. The herb extracts provided better protection against degradation compounds compared to BHT-treated and control oils, which was attributed to their lower FFA and PV. Sensory analysis indicated that potato chips fried in kesse extract-treated oil were the most preferred, followed by those treated with tosign extract. These findings highlight the potential application of herb extracts to increasing oil stability during repeated frying cycles, which add value at the interface between culinary excellence and health perspectives. Natural antioxidants from endemic herbs can maintain oil quality, reduce harmful compounds, and enhance the sensory properties of fried foods, making them a promising alternative to synthetic antioxidants.

Plant synthetic biology as a tool to help eliminate hidden hunger

Agricultural systems are under increasing pressure from declining environmental conditions, a growing population, and changes in consumer preferences, resulting in widespread malnutrition-related illnesses. Improving plant nutritional content through biotechnology techniques such as synthetic biology is a promising strategy to help combat hidden hunger caused by the lack of affordable and healthy foods in human diets. Production of compounds usually found in animal-rich diets, such as vitamin D or omega-3 fatty acids, has been recently demonstrated in planta. Here, we review recent biotechnological approaches to biofortifying plants with vitamins, minerals, and other metabolites, and summarise synthetic biology advances that offer the opportunity to build on these early biofortification efforts.

Variety of Plant Oils: Species-Specific Lipid Biosynthesis

Plant oils represent a large group of neutral lipids with important applications in food, feed and oleochemical industries. Most plants accumulate oils in the form of triacylglycerol within seeds and their surrounding tissues, which comprises three fatty acids attached to a glycerol backbone. Different plant species accumulate unique fatty acids in their oils, serving a range of applications in pharmaceuticals and oleochemicals. To enable the production of these distinctive oils, select plant species have adapted specialized oil metabolism pathways, involving differential gene co-expression networks and structurally divergent enzymes/proteins. Here, we summarize some of the recent advances in our understanding of oil biosynthesis in plants. We compare expression patterns of oil metabolism genes from representative species, including Arabidopsis thaliana, Ricinus communis (castor bean), Linum usitatissimum L. (flax) and Elaeis guineensis (oil palm) to showcase the co-expression networks of relevant genes for acyl metabolism. We also review several divergent enzymes/proteins associated with key catalytic steps of unique oil accumulation, including fatty acid desaturases, diacylglycerol acyltransferases and oleosins, highlighting their structural features and preference toward unique lipid substrates. Lastly, we briefly discuss protein interactomes and substrate channeling for oil biosynthesis and the complex regulation of these processes.

Optimal omegas - barriers and novel methods to narrow omega-3 gaps. A narrative review

Dietary intakes of omega-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (O3LC-PUFAs) such as eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acid are central to development and health across the life course. O3LC-PUFAs have been linked to neurological development, maternal and child health and the etiology of certain non-communicable diseases including age-related cognitive decline, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. However, dietary inadequacies exist in the United Kingdom and on a wider global scale. One predominant dietary source of O3LC-PUFAs is fish and fish oils. However, growing concerns about overfishing, oceanic contaminants such as dioxins and microplastics and the trend towards plant-based diets appear to be acting as cumulative barriers to O3LC-PUFAs from these food sources. Microalgae are an alternative provider of O3LC-PUFA-rich oils. The delivery of these into food systems is gaining interest. The present narrative review aims to discuss the present barriers to obtaining suitable levels of O3LC-PUFAs for health and wellbeing. It then discusses potential ways forward focusing on innovative delivery methods to utilize O3LC-PUFA-rich oils including the use of fortification strategies, bioengineered plants, microencapsulation, and microalgae.

Development of sustainable downstream processing for nutritional oil production

Nutritional oils (mainly omega-3 fatty acids) are receiving increased attention as critical supplementary compounds for the improvement and maintenance of human health and wellbeing. However, the predominant sources of these oils have historically shown numerous limitations relating to desirability and sustainability; hence the crucial focus is now on developing smarter, greener, and more environmentally favourable alternatives. This study was undertaken to consider and assess the numerous prevailing and emerging techniques implicated across the stages of fatty acid downstream processing. A structured and critical comparison of the major classes of disruption methodology (physical, chemical, thermal, and biological) is presented, with discussion and consideration of the viability of new extraction techniques. Owing to a greater desire for sustainable industrial practices, and a desperate need to make nutritional oils more available; great emphasis has been placed on the discovery and adoption of highly sought-after 'green' alternatives, which demonstrate improved efficiency and reduced toxicity compared to conventional practices. Based on these findings, this review also advocates new forays into application of novel nanomaterials in fatty acid separation to improve the sustainability of nutritional oil downstream processing. In summary, this review provides a detailed overview of the current and developing landscape of nutritional oil; and concludes that adoption and refinement of these sustainable alternatives could promptly allow for development of a more complete 'green' process for nutritional oil extraction; allowing us to better meet worldwide needs without costing the environment.