Gut microbiota plays a significant role in the maintenance of physiological homeostasis, contributing to human health. Nevertheless, some factors (sex, age, lifestyle, physical activity, drug-based therapies, diet, etc.) affect its composition and functionality, linked to pathologies and immunological diseases. Concerning diet, it interacts with microorganisms, leading to beneficial or detrimental outcomes for the health of host. On the other hand, physical activity is known to be useful for preventing and, sometimes, treating several diseases of cardiovascular, neuroendocrine, respiratory, and muscular systems. This paper focuses on diet and physical activity presenting the current knowledge about how different diets (Western, ketogenic, vegan, gluten free, Mediterranean) as well as different types of exercise (intensive, endurance, aerobic) could shape gut microbiota.

Prebiotic compounds were originally defined as “a nondigestible food ingredient that beneficially affects the host by selectively stimulating the growth and/or activity of one or a limited number of bacteria in the colon, and thus improves host health”; however, a significant modulation of the definition was carried out in the consensus panel of The International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP), and the last definition states that “prebiotics are substrates that are selectively utilized by host microorganisms conferring a health benefit”. Health effects of prebiotics compounds attracted the interest of researchers, food companies and Regulatory Agencies, as inferred by the number of articles on Scopus for the keywords “prebiotic” and “health effects”, that is ca. 2000, for the period January 2021–January 2024. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to contribute to the debate on these topics by offering an overview of existing knowledge and advances in this field. A literature search was performed for the period 2012–2023 and after the selection of the most relevant items, the attention was focused on seven conditions for which at least 8–10 different studies were found, namely colorectal cancer, neurological or psychiatric conditions, intestinal diseases, obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and immune system disorders. In addition, the analysis of the most recent articles through the software VosViewer version 1.6.20 pointed out the existence of five clusters or macro-categories, namely: (i) pathologies; (ii) metabolic condvitions; (iii) structure and use in food; (iv) immunomodulation; (v) effect on gut microbiota.

Fish products are highly perishable, requiring proper processing to maintain their quality and safety during the entire storage. Different from traditional methods used to extend the shelf-life of these products (smoking, salting, marinating, icing, chilling, freezing, drying, boiling, steaming, etc.), in recent years, some alternative methods have been proposed as innovative processing technologies able to guarantee the extension of their shelf-life while minimally affecting their organoleptic properties. The present review aims to describe the primary mechanisms of some of these innovative methods applied to preserve quality and safety of fish products; namely, non-thermal atmospheric plasma (NTAP), pulsed electric fields (PEF), pulsed light (PL), ultrasounds (US) and electrolyzed water (EW) are analysed, focusing on the main results of the studies published over the last 10 years. The limits and the benefits of each method are addressed in order to provide a global overview about these promising emerging technologies and to facilitate their greater use at industrial level. In general, all the innovative methods analysed in this review have shown a good effectiveness to control microbial growth in fish products maintaining their organoleptic, nutritional and sensory characteristics. Most of the technologies have also shown the great advantage to have a lower energy consumption and shorter production times. In contrast, not all the methods are in the same development stage; thus, we suggest further investigations to develop one (or more) hurdle-like non-thermal method able to meet both food production requirements and the modern consumers’ demand.

The sustainability of fishery is a global challenge due to overfishing and reduced stocks all over the world; one of the leading factors of this threat is fish loss/waste. As a contribution to the global efforts towards a sustainable world, this review addresses the topic from different sides and proposes an overview of biorefinery approaches by discussing bioactive compounds that could be produced from fish loss (nitrogen compounds, lipids, minerals and pigments, and fish-based compounds such as chitosan). The second part of this review reports on the possibility of using loss or unwanted fish to design products for human consumption or for animal feeding, with a focus on economic criteria, consumers’ segmentation, and some examples of products. The final focus is on Food and Agriculture Organization FAO guidelines as a roadmap for the future with respect to solving this threat by addressing the problem from different sides (technology, skills, market, policy, social and gender equity, and infrastructures).

The gut microbiota plays a key role in health and disease, but it could be affected by various factors (diet, lifestyle, environment, genetics, etc.). Focusing on diet, while the role of the different styles and choices (Mediterranean vs. Western diet, vegan or vegetarian diets) has been extensively studied, there are a few comprehensive papers on the effects of additives and food processing. Therefore, the main goal of this manuscript is to propose an overview of the link between ultra-processed foods and the gut microbiota based on papers and data available in the literature. The literature search was performed on PubMed and Clinicaltrials.gov, and after the selection of the most relevant articles, the paper proposes a synopsis of the effects of some classes of additives (sweeteners, preservatives, emulsifiers, glutamate, etc.), as well as of some treatments, on the gut microbiota and some pathological conditions.

Five yeast strains (four wild Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains and a collection strain-S. cerevisiae var. boulardii) were encapsulated in alginate beads. Encapsulation yield was at least 60% (100% for some strains) and yeasts survived in beads for 30 days at 4 °C, although the viability was strongly affected during storage at 25 °C (3 log reduction after 7 days). The kinetic of cell release was studied under static and dynamic conditions, but the results suggest that, after 48 h, beads contained a high number of yeasts. Thus, their use is advisable as re-usable carriers of starter cultures or as a vehicle of probiotics into the gut. Finally, some functional properties (biofilm formation, hydrophobicity, auto-aggregation, survival during the transit into the gut) were evaluated on yeasts released by beads to assess if microencapsulation could negatively affect these traits. The results showed that yeasts’ entrapment in beads did not affect probiotic properties.