Current Role of Nanotechnology Used in Food Processing Industry to Control Food Additives and Exploring Their Biochemical Mechanisms

BACKGROUND

With the advent of food additives centuries ago, the human race has found ways to improve and maintain the safety of utility, augment the taste, color, texture, nutritional value, and appearance of the food. Since the 19th century, when the science behind food spoilage was discerned, the use of food additives in food preservation has been increasing worldwide and at a fast pace to get along with modern lifestyles. Although food additives are thought to be used to benefit the food market, some of them are found to be associated with several health issues at an alarming rate. Studies are still going on regarding the mechanisms by which food additives affect public health. Therefore, an attempt has been made to find out the remedies by exploiting technologies that may convey new properties of food additives that can only enhance the quality of food without having any systemic side effects. Thus, this review focuses on the applications of nanotechnology in the production of nano-food additives and evaluates its success regarding reduction in the health-related hazards collaterally maintaining the food nutrient value.

METHODOLOGY

A thorough literature study was performed using scientific databases like PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, Web of Science for determining the design of the study, and each article was checked for citation and referred to formulate the present review article.

CONCLUSION

Nanotechnology can be applied in the food processing industry to control the unregulated use of food additives and to intervene in the biochemical mechanisms at a cellular and physiological level for the ensuring safety of food products. The prospective of nano-additive of chemical origin could be useful to reduce risks of hazards related to human health that are caused majorly due to the invasion of food contaminants (either intentional or non-intentional) into food, though this area still needs scientific validation. Therefore, this review provides comprehensive knowledge on different facets of food contaminants and also serves as a platform of ideas for encountering health risk problems about the design of improved versions of nano-additives.

Total and Free Sugar Levels and Main Types of Sugars Used in 18,784 Local and Imported Pre-Packaged Foods and Beverages Sold in Hong Kong

There is limited information regarding the free sugar content of pre-packaged foods in Hong Kong. This study aims to assess the free sugar content and identify the most frequently used free sugar ingredients (FSI) in pre-packaged foods in Hong Kong. Data from 18,784 products from the 2019 FoodSwitch Hong Kong database were used in this analysis. Ingredient lists were screened to identify FSI. Total sugar content was derived from nutrition labels on packaging. Free sugar content was estimated based on adaptation of a previously established systematic methodology. Descriptive statistics of the total sugar and free sugar content, as well as the mean ± SD contribution of free sugar to total sugar of the audited products were calculated, stratified by food groups. Almost two-thirds (64.5%) of the pre-packaged foods contained at least one FSI. 'Sugar (sucrose)' was the most popular FSI that was found in more than half (54.7%) of the products. 'Fruit and vegetable juices' (median 10.0; IQR 8.3-11.5 g/100 mL) were found to have a higher median free sugar content than 'Soft drinks' (8.0; 6.0-10.6 g/100 mL). Mean ± SD contribution of free sugar to the total sugar content was 65.8 ± 43.4%, with 8 out of 14 food groups having >70% total sugar as free sugar. To conclude, free sugar, especially sucrose, was extensively used in a wide variety of pre-packaged products sold in Hong Kong. Further studies are needed to assess the population intake of free sugar in Hong Kong to inform public health policy on free sugar reduction.

The Toxic Impact of Honey Adulteration: A Review

Honey is characterized as a natural and raw foodstuff that can be consumed not only as a sweetener but also as medicine due to its therapeutic impact on human health. It is prone to adulterants caused by humans that manipulate the quality of honey. Although honey consumption has remarkably increased in the last few years all around the world, the safety of honey is not assessed and monitored regularly. Since the number of consumers of honey adulteration have increased in recent years, their trust and interest in this valuable product has decreased. Honey adulterants are any substances that are added to the pure honey. In this regard, this paper provides a comprehensive and critical review of the different types of adulteration, common sugar adulterants and detection methods, and draws a clear perspective toward the impact of honey adulteration on human health. Adulteration increases the consumer's blood sugar, which can cause diabetes, abdominal weight gain, and obesity, raise the level of blood lipids and can cause high blood pressure. The most common organ affected by honey adulterants is the liver followed by the kidney, heart, and brain, as shown in several in vivo research designs.

The metabolic and endocrine response and health implications of consuming sugar-sweetened beverages: findings from recent randomized controlled trials

Fructose-containing sugars, including fructose itself, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), and sucrose have engendered considerable controversy. The effects of HFCS and sucrose in sugar-sweetened beverages, in particular, have generated intense scientific debate that has spilled over to the public. This controversy is related to well-known differences in metabolism between fructose and glucose in the liver. In addition, research studies have often been conducted comparing pure fructose and pure glucose even though neither is consumed to any appreciable degree in isolation in the human diet. Other evidence has been drawn from animal studies and epidemiologic or cohort studies. Few randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have compared HFCS with sucrose (the 2 sugars most commonly consumed in the human diet) at dosage amounts within the normal human consumption range. This review compares results of recently concluded RCTs with other forms of evidence related to fructose, HFCS, and sucrose. We conclude that great caution must be used when suggesting adverse health effects of consuming these sugars in the normal way they are consumed and at the normal amounts in the human diet, because RCTs do not support adverse health consequences at these doses when employing these sugars.

High-fructose corn syrup and sucrose have equivalent effects on energy-regulating hormones at normal human consumption levels

Intake of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) has been suggested to contribute to the increased prevalence of obesity, whereas a number of studies and organizations have reported metabolic equivalence between HFCS and sucrose. We hypothesized that HFCS and sucrose would have similar effects on energy-regulating hormones and metabolic substrates at normal levels of human consumption and that these values would not change over a 10-week, free-living period at these consumption levels. This was a randomized, prospective, double-blind, parallel group study in which 138 adult men and women consumed 10 weeks of low-fat milk sweetened with either HFCS or sucrose at levels of the 25th, 50th, and 90th percentile population consumption of fructose (the equivalent of 40, 90, or 150 g of sugar per day in a 2000-kcal diet). Before and after the 10-week intervention, 24-hour blood samples were collected. The area under the curve (AUC) for glucose, insulin, leptin, active ghrelin, triglyceride, and uric acid was measured. There were no group differences at baseline or posttesting for all outcomes (interaction, P > .05). The AUC response of glucose, active ghrelin, and uric acid did not change between baseline and posttesting (P > .05), whereas the AUC response of insulin (P < .05), leptin (P < .001), and triglyceride (P < .01) increased over the course of the intervention when the 6 groups were averaged. We conclude that there are no differences in the metabolic effects of HFCS and sucrose when compared at low, medium, and high levels of consumption.

Sucrose, high-fructose corn syrup, and fructose, their metabolism and potential health effects: what do we really know?

Both controversy and confusion exist concerning fructose, sucrose, and high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) with respect to their metabolism and health effects. These concerns have often been fueled by speculation based on limited data or animal studies. In retrospect, recent controversies arose when a scientific commentary was published suggesting a possible unique link between HFCS consumption and obesity. Since then, a broad scientific consensus has emerged that there are no metabolic or endocrine response differences between HFCS and sucrose related to obesity or any other adverse health outcome. This equivalence is not surprising given that both of these sugars contain approximately equal amounts of fructose and glucose, contain the same number of calories, possess the same level of sweetness, and are absorbed identically through the gastrointestinal tract. Research comparing pure fructose with pure glucose, although interesting from a scientific point of view, has limited application to human nutrition given that neither is consumed to an appreciable degree in isolation in the human diet. Whether there is a link between fructose, HFCS, or sucrose and increased risk of heart disease, metabolic syndrome, or fatty infiltration of the liver or muscle remains in dispute with different studies using different methodologies arriving at different conclusions. Further randomized clinical trials are needed to resolve many of these issues. The purpose of this review is to summarize current knowledge about the metabolism, endocrine responses, and potential health effects of sucrose, HFCS, and fructose.