In the context of a diet transition from animal protein to plant protein, both for sustainable and healthy scopes, innovative plant-based foods are being developing. A combination with milk proteins has been proposed as a strategy to overcome the scarce functional and sensorial properties of plant proteins. Based on this mixture were designed several colloidal systems such as suspensions, gels, emulsions, and foams which can be found in many food products. This review aims to give profound scientific insights on the challenges and opportunities of developing such binary systems which could soon open a new market category in the food industry. The recent trends in the formulation of each colloidal system, as well as their limits and advantages are here considered. Lastly, new approaches to improve the coexistence of both milk and plant proteins and how they affect the sensorial profile of food products are discussed.

Antocianinas são corantes naturais presentes em frutas e vegetais, responsáveis pelas cores laranja, vermelho, azul, violeta e magenta das plantas. Com o aumento da busca da população por uma alimentação mais natural e saudável, esse tipo de corante se tornou alvo de diversos estudos, com o objetivo de substituir os corantes sintéticos em produtos processados e armazenados em prateleira. Dentre os frutos com altos índices de antocianinas, o açaí, fruto tropical típico do Brasil, apresenta grande potencial de viabilização, pela ampla oferta no país, pela sua popularidade internacional e valor nutritivo. O maior desafio encontrado na tarefa de substituir os corantes sintéticos pelos naturais está na baixa estabilidade das antocianinas. Essas podem ser altamente influenciadas pelo pH do meio, contato direto com a luz, pela temperatura ambiente, pela disponibilidade de oxigênio e outros diversos fatores. Assim, o presente trabalho tem como objetivo sistematizar informações científicas acerca da utilização de antocianinas do fruto açaí como corante natural em alimentos, dando enfoque aos principais problemas encontrados na literatura a respeito da estabilidade das antocianinas presentes no fruto.

Hybrid systems combining animal and plant proteins are promising for developing sustainable, high-protein foods. However, structural incompatibility between proteins like casein and pea protein hinders the formation of stable systems such as gels. This study explores pH-shifting (alkalization at pH 12 followed by neutralization) as an innovative strategy to improve pea protein functionality and compatibility in hybrid gels. Modified pea protein showed increased solubility, reduced particle size, higher zeta potential, and decreased intrinsic fluorescence intensity, indicating conformational changes and exposure of buried tryptophan residues. These structural changes influenced gel behavior depending on the protein ratio (casein/pea—80:20, 50:50, 20:80). Gels with higher pea content showed increased hardness and water-holding capacity, while in casein-rich gels, hardness decreased, likely due to altered protein–protein interactions. This is the first study to systematically apply pH-shifting to enhance the compatibility between pea protein and casein in high-protein gels, integrating structural and functional analyses. The results demonstrate the potential of pH-shifting as a sustainable and effective approach for improving plant protein performance in hybrid formulations.