Consumers who are environmentally and health conscious are increasingly looking for plant-based alternatives to replace animal-based products in their daily diets. Among these alternatives, there is a growing demand for meat analogues that closely resemble the taste and texture of meat. As a result, significant efforts have been dedicated to developing meat analogues with a desirable meat-like structure. Currently, soy protein and wheat gluten are the main ingredients used for producing these meat analogues due to their availability and unique functionalities. This study observed that high moisture extrusion at moisture levels of 50–80% has become a common approach for creating fibrous structures, with soy protein and wheat gluten being considered incompatible proteins. After the structuring process, they form two-phase filled gels, with wheat gluten acting as the continuous phase and soy protein serving as a filler material. Moreover, the formation of soy protein and wheat gluten networks relies on a combination of covalent and non-covalent interaction bonds, including hydrogen bonds that stabilize the protein networks, hydrophobic interactions governing protein chain associations during thermo-mechanical processes, and disulfide bonds that potentially contribute to fibrous structure formation. This review provides case studies and examples that demonstrate how specific processing conditions can improve the overall structure, aiming to serve as a valuable reference for further research and the advancement of fibrous structures.

Goji berry, as a kind of typical and special agricultural material, has high water content, high sugar content, thin epidermis with waxy covering, and dense fleshy cell structure, which makes the drying process more complex than the dehydration of other bio-materials. To obtain high drying efficiency and the high quality products, most researchers have paid much attention on the different kinds of pretreatment and drying technology. This study aimed to examine all the corresponding published data in the literature and to compare the drying characteristics and quality of wolfberry dried by conventional and advanced wolfberry drying methods as well as different drying parameters. We conclude that heat pump drying with simultaneous control of temperature and humidity could replace traditional hot air drying in commercial production to increase the drying efficiency and quality of wolfberry. Infrared drying and microwave drying can be combined with other drying methods to improve drying efficiency; freeze drying, pulsed vacuum drying and electro-hydrodynamic drying are conducive to maintain the appearance and nutrients as well as higher rehydration ratio because of more porous microstructure compared with hot air drying. In addition, this study gives some suggestions and new horizons for directed wolfberry drying development both on the research and application in the future.

Background: Phenylethanoid glycosides (PhGs) are obtained from a wide range of sources and show strong biological and pharmacological activities, such as antioxidant, antibacterial and neuroprotective effects. However, intestinal malabsorption and the low bioavailability of PhGs seriously affect their application. Delivery systems are an effective method to improve the bioavailability of active substances. Scope and approach: In this article, the biological activities of and delivery systems for PhGs are introduced. The application statuses of delivery systems for echinacoside, acteoside and salidroside are reviewed. Finally, the problems of the lack of uniform standards for delivery systems and the poor targeted delivery accuracy of PhGs in the current research are proposed and suggestions for future research are put forward based on those problems. Key findings and conclusions: Although there are still some problems in the delivery system of phenylethanoside, such as inconsistent standards and inaccurate delivery, phenylethanoside itself has been proven to have a variety of physiological activities. Therefore, the action mechanism and application of phenylethanoside and its delivery system should be studied further.

Probiotics, as beneficial microorganisms, are critical to host health. However, their viability is often compromised during processing, storage, and gastrointestinal transit, significantly compromises their colonization efficacy and therapeutic potential. Polysaccharides have emerged as pivotal materials for probiotic encapsulation due to their excellent biocompatibility, biodegradability, and unique functional properties. This review systematically examines traditional polysaccharide-based encapsulation technologies, such as embedding and coating techniques, highlighting limitations of single-polysaccharide systems, including excessive porosity, inadequate mechanical strength, suboptimal encapsulation efficiency, and poor targeted release precision. In contrast to previous research focused on single polysaccharides, this review focuses on composite polysaccharide encapsulation systems, particularly polysaccharide-polysaccharide hybrids and polysaccharide-protein complexes, which effectively address the limitations of single-polysaccharide systems in probiotic encapsulation while significantly enhancing encapsulation performance. Furthermore, it investigates the advantages of prebiotic incorporation in promoting probiotic proliferation and suppressing pathogenic microorganisms, providing novel optimization strategies for delivery systems. These findings establish critical theoretical and technical foundations for translating these advancements into functional foods and oral pharmaceutical formulations.

In the present work, the bactericidal efficacy and mechanism of slightly acidic electrolyzed water (SAEW) on L. monocytogenes were evaluated. The results showed that the strains of L. monocytogenes were killed completely within 30 s by SAEW whose available chlorine concentration (ACC) was higher than 12 mg/L, and it was confirmed that ACC is the main factor affecting the disinfection efficacy of SAEW. Moreover, our results demonstrated that SAEW could destroy the cell membrane of L. monocytogenes, which was observed by SEM and FT-IR, thus resulting in the leakage of intracellular substances including electrolyte, protein and nucleic acid, and DNA damage. On the other hand, the results found that SAEW could disrupt the intracellular ROS balance of L. monocytogenes by inhibiting the antioxidant enzyme activity, thus promoting the death of L. monocytogenes. In conclusion, the bactericidal mechanism of SAEW on L. monocytogenes was explained from two aspects including the damage of the cell membrane and the breaking of ROS balance.