Grape pomace (GP), a byproduct of winemaking, has gained significant attention as a sustainable and functional ingredient with applications in the food and nutraceutical industries. This review examines the potential of GP in meat products and analogs, functional foods, and nutraceuticals, highlighting its composition, health benefits, and role in enhancing nutritional and functional properties. Rich in dietary fiber, polyphenols, essential fatty acids, and bioactive compounds, GP exhibits antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and gut health-promoting effects, making it suitable for various food applications. Its incorporation into meat products, such as sausages and patties, improves texture, enhances shelf life, and increases nutritional value while reducing the environmental footprint. GP is also effective in functional foods such as baked goods, dairy and plant-based yoghurts, smoothies, and snack bars, where it can enrich fiber and polyphenol content, aid in satiety, and provide health benefits beyond basic nutrition. The challenge is how to maintain the sensory properties characteristic of conventional, unmodified products. In nutraceuticals, GP’s polyphenolic compounds and dietary fiber support antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and metabolic health functions, with applications as antioxidant supplements, gut health boosters, weight management aids, and cardiovascular health supplements. Despite challenges such as taste modification and optimizing bioavailability, GP’s versatility and sustainability highlight its value in developing innovative, health-oriented products. This review emphasizes the promise of GP as a valuable ingredient in functional foods and nutraceutical formulations, contributing to health, sustainability, and resource efficiency.

Ketosis is a common disease in high producing dairy cows during the early lactation period. Subclinical ketosis (SCK) and periparturient diseases considerably account for economic and welfare losses in dairy cows. Subclinical ketosis poses an increased risk of production-related diseases such as clinical ketosis, displaced abomasum, retained placenta, lameness, mastitis and metritis. Production efficiency decreases (lower milk production, poor fertility, and increased culling rates), which results in economic losses. Increased concentrations of circulating ketone bodies, predominantly ?-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), without the presence of clinical signs of ketosis are considered as SCK. It is characterized by increased levels of ketone bodies in the blood, urine and milk. The gold standard test for ketosis is blood BHB. This ketone body is more stable in blood than acetone or acetoacetate. The most commonly used cut-points for subclinical ketosis are 1.2 mmol/L or 1.4 mmol/L for BHB in the blood. Clinical ketosis generally involves much higher levels of BHB, about 3.0 mmol/L or more. Usually, detection of SCK is carried out by testing ketone body concentrations in blood, urine and milk. A variety of laboratory and cowside tests are available for monitoring ketosis in dairy herds. But no cowside test has perfect sensitivity and specificity compared to blood BHB as the gold standard test. The aim of this review is to overview diagnostic tests for SCK in dairy cows, including laboratory and cowside tests.

This review highlights the latest research on dietary fibre (DF) applications in meat and meat analogues, providing insights into their role in shaping future food innovations. DFs provide significant long-term health benefits, such as better gut health, lower cholesterol levels, and possible protection from metabolic diseases. They also enhance the texture, juiciness, and overall quality of plant-based meat alternatives (PMAs) and traditional meat products. Among the most effective fibres, cereal-derived fibres, fruit- and vegetable-derived fibres, and legume-based fibres have been shown to improve water-holding capacity (WHC) and emulsification properties, enhancing mouthfeel and juiciness. New processing methods, such as enzymatic hydrolysis and extrusion, can change how fibres work. By combining various fibre sources with innovative processing methods, the food industry can create meat and PMA products that are not only healthier but also tastier and more sustainable.

Meat manufacturers are nowadays in a very unenviable position. Both meat and meat products require the utilization of various additives due to their chemical composition. On the other hand, consumers demand fresh, additive-free, and high-quality products with extended shelf-life, which might be considered as healthier, even functional food. These facts push manufacturers and researchers in pursuit of modern technologies and supplements to meet these high demands. Since a high daily intake of sodium and fat might cause severe health issues, reducing these ingredients in meat products is the first task towards healthier food. Sodium can be reduced by ultrasound, high-pressure processing, pulsed electric field, and replacement of NaCl with KCl, calcium gluconate, calcium glycerophosphate, calcium lactate, and monosodium glutamate. The reduction of the fat content can be achieved through a decrease in the amount of fatty tissue in the inital mixture and/or replacement with non-lipid components, or by partial fatty tissue replacement with oils rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids. Utilization of plant proteins (soy, wheat gluten, pea, chickpea, lentil, potato, barley, oat, rice, etc.), mycoproteins or micro-algae proteins, plant fats (palm and coconut fat, canola, sunflower, soy and corn oil, etc.), and polysaccharides (starches, fibers), accompanied by a meat-like fibrous structure, resulted in delicious “meat” products, which are considered a healthier alternative to real meat. Growing interest in the replacement of potentially adverse synthetic meat additives favors the use of plant (herb, fruit and vegetable) extracts, as an endless source of bioactive substances with strong antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. These extracts can be used either in raw meat or meat products, as well as in the fodder. Reformulation strategies strengthen and ensure the willingness of consumers to pay a higher price for their own demands regarding the naturalness of synthetic, clean-labeled, additive-free meat products. After a gradual alignment with strategic national/international recommendations and legal/sub-legal frameworks, the added value of such meat products opens wide the door to new segments/entire markets.

BRDC is the most expensive disease of fattening cattle throughout the world. The reasons for this are high morbidity and mortality, weight loss, reduced food utilization, reduced quality of carcasses and extensive measures of prophylaxis and therapy. BRDC is caused by a substantial number of pathogens (viruses and bacteria), with predisposing risk factors from the ambient and host. Calves are at the highest risk of developing BRDC shortly after shipping. Lighter-weight calves appear to be at greater risk, although this has not been consistent. The complexity of BRDC makes it difficult to define the role of individual factors that predispose to or cause the disease. Stress factors may be 'necessary, but not sufficient', but they require additional effects to cause the disease. Increasing the production of meat and milk worldwide would be sustainable by improving the prevention and control of BRDC.