The Comparative Effect of Carrot and Lemon Fiber as a Fat Replacer on Physico-chemical, Textural, and Organoleptic Quality of Low-fat Beef Hamburger

Advancements in Sustainable Plant-Based Alternatives: Exploring Proteins, Fats, and Manufacturing Challenges in Alternative Meat Production

The rise in plant-based food consumption is propelled by concerns for sustainability, personal beliefs, and a focus on healthy dietary habits. This trend, particularly in alternative meat, has attracted attention from specialized brands and eco-friendly food companies, leading to increased interest in plant-based alternatives. The dominant plant-based proteins, derived mainly from legumes, include soy protein isolates, which significantly impact sensory factors. In the realm of plant-based fats, substitutes are categorized into fat substitutes based on fats and fat mimetics based on proteins and carbohydrates. The production of these fats, utilizing gums, emulsions, gels, and additives, explores characteristics influencing the appearance, texture, flavor, and storage stability of final plant-based products. Analysis of plant-based proteins and fats in hamburger patties provides insights into manufacturing methods and raw materials used by leading alternative meat companies. However, challenges persist, such as replicating meat's marbling characteristic and addressing safety considerations in terms of potential allergy induction and nutritional supplementation. To enhance functionality and develop customized plant-based foods, it is essential to explore optimal combinations of various raw materials and develop new plant-based proteins and fat separation.

Functional Ingredients and Additives from Lemon by-Products and Their Applications in Food Preservation: A Review

Citrus trees are among the most abundant fruit trees in the world, with an annual production of around 124 million tonnes. Lemons and limes are among the most significant contributors, producing nearly 16 million tonnes per year. The processing and consumption of citrus fruits generates a significant amount of waste, including peels, pulp, seeds, and pomace, which represents about 50% of the fresh fruit. Citrus limon (C. limon) by-products are composed of significant amounts of bioactive compounds, such as phenolic compounds, carotenoids, vitamins, essential oils, and fibres, which give them nutritional value and health benefits such as antimicrobial and antioxidant properties. These by-products, which are typically discarded as waste in the environment, can be explored to produce new functional ingredients, a desirable approach from a circular economy perspective. The present review systematically summarizes the potential high-biological-value components extracted from by-products to achieve a zero-waste goal, focusing on the recovery of three main fractions: essential oils, phenolic compounds, and dietary fibres, present in C. limon by-products, and their applications in food preservation.

Valorization of Fruit Waste for Bioactive Compounds and Their Applications in the Food Industry

The fruit production and processing sectors produce tremendous amounts of by-products and waste that cause significant economic losses and an undesirable impact on the environment. The effective utilization of these fruit wastes can help to reduce the carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions, thereby achieving sustainable development goals. These by-products contain a variety of bioactive compounds, such as dietary fiber, flavonoids, phenolic compounds, antioxidants, polysaccharides, and several other health-promoting nutrients and phytochemicals. These bioactive compounds can be extracted and used as value-added products in different industrial applications. The bioactive components extracted can be used in developing nutraceutical products, functional foods, or food additives. This review provides a comprehensive review of the recent developments in fruit waste valorization techniques and their application in food industries. The various extraction techniques, including conventional and emerging methods, have been discussed. The antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of the active compounds extracted and isolated from fruit waste have been described. The most important food industrial application of bioactive compounds extracted from fruit waste (FW) has been provided. Finally, challenges, future direction, and concluding remarks on the topic are summarized.

Characterization of the Quality and Oxidative Stability of Hemp-Oil-Based Oleogels as an Animal Fat Substitute for Meat Patties

The effect of the incorporation of rice bran wax (5%; 7%) or candelilla wax (3%; 7%) for production of hemp-oil-based oleogels was analyzed in this study. The experiment was carried out to replace between 0 and 100% of animal fat in meat patties with oleogels. Free fatty acids (FFAs), acid value (AV), oxidative stability index (OSI), conjugated diene value, malondialdehyde value, physicochemical properties, and the sensory properties of oleogels and meat patties were studied. The results indicated that hemp oil had more polyunsaturated fatty acids and lower oxidative stability when compared to oleogels. The OSI for oil was 3.1 h, while for oleogels it was 3.4-3.6 (candelilla case) or 3.7-3.9 (rice bran). Oleogels were able to match pork fat texture properties such as spreadability and adhesiveness in meat patties. However, sensory data for cooked meat patties with animal fat fully replaced by oleogels revealed that samples with 100% pork fat had higher juiciness and taste intensity. Our results showed that a wax-based oleogel had a higher oxidative stability and nutritional profile, but further investigations to mimic pork fat properties in meat patties are necessary.

Recent advances in the development of healthier meat products

Meat products are an excellent source of high biological value proteins, in addition to the high content of minerals, vitamins, and bioactive compounds. However, meat products contain compounds that can cause a variety of adverse health effects and pose a serious health threat to humans. In this sense, this chapter will address recent strategies to assist in the development of healthier meat products. The main advances about the reduction of sodium and animal fat in meat products will be presented. In addition, strategies to make the lipid profile of meat products more nutritionally advantageous for human health will also be discussed. Finally, the reduction of substances of safety concern in meat products will be addressed, including phosphates, nitrites, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, heterocyclic aromatic amines, as well as products from lipid and protein oxidation.

Valorization of Citrus Co-Products: Recovery of Bioactive Compounds and Application in Meat and Meat Products

Citrus fruits (orange, lemon, mandarin, and grapefruit) are one of the most extensively cultivated crops. Actually, fresh consumption far exceeds the demand and, subsequently, a great volume of the production is destined for the citrus-processing industries, which produce a huge quantity of co-products. These co-products, without proper treatment and disposal, might cause severe environmental problems. The co-products obtained from the citrus industry may be considered a very important source of high-added-value bioactive compounds that could be used in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and dietetic industries, and mainly in the food industry. Due to consumer demands, the food industry is exploring a new and economical source of bioactive compounds to develop novel foods with healthy properties. Thus, the aim of this review is to describe the possible benefits of citrus co-products as a source of bioactive compounds and their applications in the development of healthier meat and meat products.

Evaluation of Tahiti lemon shell flour (Citrus latifolia Tanaka) as a fat mimetic

The citrus juice industry produces a significant amount of peel residues; it can represent between 18 and 30% of the total weight of the fruit. In recent years, there has been an increase in its use as a source of fiber. The objective of this study was to evaluate the Tahiti lemon peel flour (Citrus latifolia Tanaka) as a fat mimetic (10, 20 and 30%) in a cake. The chemical and nutritional characterization of the lemon peel, the determination of the drying conditions to obtain the flour of the lemon peel, and the physical, chemical, and nutritional characterization of the lemon peel flour and cake was evaluated. A high content of dietary fiber for Tahiti lemon peel (89.15 ± 0.00 g/100 g) and flour (85.30 ± 0.06 g/100 g) was obtained. For the drying conditions to obtain the lemon peel flour, a temperature of 60 °C during 16 h was selected. The cake with greater acceptability had a 10% fat replacement with lemon peel flour, which presented a reduction of 19.16% in the fat content and an approximately double increase in the dietary fiber content. This study suggests that the flour obtained from Tahiti lemon flavedo can be used as a mimetic of fat in cakes, contributing to the nutritional characteristics of the food in which it is included.

A review on functional ingredients in red meat products

Meat and meat products are important foods with essential nutritional components such as essential amino acids, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals that form a significant component for the normal physiological and biochemical processes. However, the main drawback of meat and meat products is the absence of dietary fibre and the presence of saturated fat. Value improvement can be done by the incorporation of functional ingredients into the meat products. The use of functional ingredients in meat products offers processors the opportunity to enhance the functional and nutritional value of their products. Vegetable proteins, dietary fibre, cereal by-products, fruits, legumes, spices, herbs, and lactic acid bacteria that have been used alone or in combination for the enhancement of the functional value of meat and meat products were studied. Hence, the current review focuses on the functional ingredients incorporated in meat products.

Is it possible to produce a low-fat burger with a healthy n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio without affecting the technological and sensory properties?

Burgers subjected to lipid reformulation were made by replacing 50% of the fat component by microparticles containing chia (CO) and linseed (LO) oils obtained by external ionic gelation. The microparticles presented high n-3 PUFAs levels and were resistant to the pH and temperature conditions commonly used in burger processing. The lipid reformulation did not affect hardness and improved important technological properties, such as cooking loss and fat retention. In addition to reducing the fat content of burgers by up to 50%, the lipid reformulation led to healthier PUFA/SFA and n-6/n-3 ratios, and lower atherogenicity and thrombogenicity indices. The burgers with CO microparticles showed a higher lipid oxidation and a lower sensory quality compared to the other treatments. However, the substitution of pork back fat by LO microparticles did not impair the sensory quality of burgers. Therefore, the microencapsulation of n-3 PUFA-rich oils by external ionic gelation can be considered an effective strategy to produce healthier burgers.