Eggs are a whole food which affordably support human nutritional requirements worldwide. Eggs strongly resist bacterial infection due to an arsenal of defensive systems, many of which reside in the egg white. However, despite improved control of egg production and distribution, eggs remain a vehicle for foodborne transmission of Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis, which continues to represent a major public health challenge. It is generally accepted that iron deficiency, mediated by the iron-chelating properties of the egg-white protein ovotransferrin, has a key role in inhibiting infection of eggs by Salmonella. Ovotransferrin has an additional antibacterial activity beyond iron-chelation, which appears to depend on direct interaction with the bacterial cell surface, resulting in membrane perturbation. Current understanding of the antibacterial role of ovotransferrin is limited by a failure to fully consider its activity within the natural context of the egg white, where a series relevant environmental factors (such as alkalinity, high viscosity, ionic composition, and egg white protein interactions) may exert significant influence on ovotransferrin activity. This review provides an overview of what is known and what remains to be determined regarding the antimicrobial activity of ovotransferrin in egg white, and thus enhances understanding of egg safety through improved insight of this key antimicrobial component of eggs.

Infant formulas (IFs) are used as substitutes for human milk and are mostly based on cow milk proteins. For sustainability reasons, animal protein alternatives in food are increasingly being considered, as plant proteins offer interesting nutritional and functional benefits for the development of innovative IFs. This study aimed to assess how a partial substitution (50%) of dairy proteins with faba bean and pea proteins influenced the digestibility of IFs under simulated dynamic in vitro digestion, which were set up to mimic infant digestion. Pea- and faba bean-based IFs (PIF and FIF, respectively) have led to a faster aggregation than the reference milk-based IF (RIF) in the gastric compartment; that did not affect the digesta microstructure at the end of digestion. The extent of proteolysis was estimated via the hydrolysis degree, which was the highest for FIF (73%) and the lowest for RIF (50%). Finally, it was apparent that in vitro protein digestibility and protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score (PDCAAS)-like scores were similar for RIF and FIF (90% digestibility; 75% PDCAAS), but lower for PIF (75%; 67%). Therefore, this study confirms that faba bean proteins could be a good candidate for partial substitution of whey proteins in IFs from a nutritional point of view, provided that these in vitro results are confirmed in vivo.