The study investigated the potential of tapioca starch (Manihot esculenta) as a raw material for food packaging enhanced with basil leaf oil, citric acid, and carboxymethyl cellulose. The objective of this study was to standardize active edible tapioca films and evaluate their physicochemical, textural, and barrier properties (oxygen and water vapor transmission rates), microbial load, brine shrimp lethality assay (BSLA), and biodegradability. Films were produced using a casting technique with tapioca starch (10 g), dried using a film-making machine, and enhanced with 0.1 g citric acid as a crosslinker, 0.5 g carboxymethyl cellulose as a filler, and 1 ml basil leaf oil as an additive. Tapioca film (30 × 21 cm, 0.25 mm thickness) exhibited 3%−5% moisture, 1%−2% ash, and a pH of 5–6, with tensile strengths ranging from 2.48 to 6.28 MPa and elongation at break between 10.36% and 16.75% oxygen transmission rate was 690.05 to 811.14 cc/m²/day, and water vapor transmission rate was 0.73 to 1.21 cm3/m²/24h/0.1 MPa. The inclusion of citric acid, carboxymethyl cellulose, and basil leaf oil improved the tensile strength and barrier properties, making the films suitable for packaging a variety of food products (cereals, legumes, spices, condiments, extruded products, and sugar candies) for up to 120 days. The microbial load remained below 5.7 × 10¹ CFU/g, with low toxicity (7% in BSLA), and the films degraded completely in moist topsoil within 24 days. This study highlights the tapioca starch films enhanced with carboxymethyl cellulose, citric acid and basil oilas a sustainable alternative to single-use plastics. It provides an effective packaging solution for non-perishable commodities and sugar candies with improved functional properties and environment sustainability.

Milk and dairy products are highly vulnerable to Economically Motivated Adulteration (EMA), particularly through the substitution of milk fat with cheaper non-milk fats. This paper presents a comprehensive review of analytical approaches used for detecting vegetable oils (e.g., palm, coconut, sunflower) and animal-origin fats such as pork lard and bovine tallow, as well as the fraudulent mixing of milk from different species. Methods for lipid extraction are examined, including traditional gravimetric procedures such as the Röse–Gottlieb method and high-efficiency alternatives such as Accelerated Solvent Extraction and supercritical fluid extraction. Analytical strategies for fraud detection are evaluated, demonstrating that while fatty acid profiling is widely applied, its sensitivity is limited by natural variability. Greater discriminatory power can often be achieved through triacylglycerol analysis combined with mathematical models such as the Precht formulae (which generate S-values), although performance varies depending on the adulterant matrix, adulteration level, reference population, and analytical protocol. Similarly, sterol profiling, particularly the detection of phytosterols like β-sitosterol, is a valuable marker for vegetable oil adulteration but does not provide an equivalent solution for detecting animal fat adulteration. The potential of rapid, non-destructive screening tools, including Fourier-transform infrared and Raman spectroscopy supported by chemometrics, is also assessed. A central analytical challenge in detecting such fraud lies in the complexity and variability of milk fat composition, which hinders any single analytical method from universally identifying all forms of non-milk fat adulteration; therefore, a tiered strategy combining rapid screening tools with high-resolution confirmatory methods is preferable. Future perspectives highlight the increasing importance of green analytical approaches, artificial intelligence, and portable detection systems for enhancing verification within the global dairy supply chain. However, the effectiveness of AI and chemometric methods depends heavily on the availability of representative training datasets and rigorous external validation to avoid overfitting and ensure reliable application across diverse samples.

Tapioca, an abundant constituent of starch, is extensively grown and consumed, while a wet pathway is usually employed for starch extraction from it. The purpose of the study is to determine the functional properties like tensile properties, barrier properties such as oxygen, and water vapor transmission rate, as well as biodegradability of the standardized tapioca film, all in the context of its appropriateness for packaging purposes for a variety of food categories. Tapioca starch film was standardized with glycerol and citric acid by casting techniques in a film-making machine. The tensile strength of obtained films was measured as 0.71 MPa, with 11.5 percent elongation at break. The oxygen transmission rate was 750.52 cc/m²/day while the water vapor transmission rate ranged from 0.81 to 0.84 cm³/m²/24h/0.1MPa. This study revealed that tapioca starch films are appropriate for packing cereals, legumes, spices, condiments, extruded items, as well as sugar candies for prolonged periods hence even after 120th day, the total microbial count of the standardized film was 5.7 x 101 CFU/g which is below the permissible limit. In moist topsoil and vermicompost, it degrades completely within 24 days. The research findings highlight the tapioca starch films' potential as environmentally friendly and practical packaging solutions for a wide range of food items and a promising alternative for single-use plastics in the food sector.

This study aims to determine the effect of different compounds on the nutritional, antioxidant, microstructural, and color characteristics of biscuits classified as gluten and gluten-free. Namely, biscuits are enriched with dietary fibers, acacia fibers, spent coffee grounds, and anthocyanins. The addition of these functional components to biscuit matrix affected the physical properties of the biscuits; namely, the spread factor value of all biscuits ranged from 2.98 to 7.88, the content of total polyphenols increased, the highest polyphenol content was obtained in the gluten-free biscuits with added coffee grounds (77.98 mg), while in the biscuits with wheat flour has in the range of 44.62?128.63 mg. All glutenfree biscuits can be labeled as products with "rich in fiber" (6.32?7.68 g/100 g) and with a higher antioxidant content compared to biscuits without added ingredients. The total number of microorganisms in the tested cookies is below acceptable limits. The findings of this study show that the inclusion of raw nutritional components in the recipe of traditional gluten and gluten-free biscuits leads to an improvement in the nutritional value and other quality characteristics of the fortified food products.

Fermented whey beverages are increasingly recognized as promising functional foods due to the presence of fermentation-derived bioactive compounds and, where appropriately processed, postbiotic preparations. Historically, whey was treated as a dairy waste stream and an environmental burden. However, it is a nutrient-rich cheese by-product containing lactose, proteins, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients, and is therefore an excellent fermentation substrate. Consequently, whey can be effectively valorized for the development of value-added products, supporting circular-economy approaches through the sustainable utilization of dairy by-products. During controlled fermentation, selected microorganisms, such as Lacticaseibacillus , Lactiplantibacillus , Limosilactobacillus , Lactococcus , and Bifidobacterium , metabolize whey constituents and generate extracellular metabolites and bioactive compounds, while microbial biomass accumulates. When a postbiotic preparation is intended, the biomass is subsequently subjected to a defined inactivation step, with optional cell disruption to expose or recover microbial components, yielding a characterized postbiotic preparation. Fermentation-derived bioactive compounds include enzymes, teichoic acids, organic acids, bioactive peptides, bacteriocins, extracellular polysaccharides, and other substances, which enhance the functional benefits of fermented whey beverages. Although their properties are similar to those of probiotics, postbiotics exhibit improved stability, safety, and efficiency, making them more convenient for food applications. Evidence indicates that postbiotics derived from fermented whey exhibit antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory properties, as well as the ability to modulate gut health. This review provides a cohesive overview of the formation, composition, and potential biological effects of postbiotic preparations generated from whey through controlled fermentation and subsequent inactivation and processing. It also examines the potential applications of whey-derived postbiotic preparations and fermentation-derived bioactive compounds in active food packaging systems. By summarizing the current knowledge and highlighting research gaps, this review emphasizes the potential value of fermented whey as a postbiotic-rich sustainable resource for the development of novel functional foods and active food packaging systems.