Current nutritional trends include plant-based diets as nutritional behavior of consumers who are increasingly concerned about a healthy lifestyle. Sea buckthorn (Hippophaë rhamnoides L.) is a plant with great virtues, containing more than 100 types of compounds. It is a plant with versatile properties, multiple economic advantages and a rich history, which still continues in natural medicine, and it is hence included in the daily diet by more and more people for the prevention and treatment of diet-related diseases. Its uniqueness is due to its chemical composition and the health beneficial properties that rise from its composition. This review is a detailed analytical picture of the current state of knowledge currently available regarding the Hippophaë plant, providing an overview of the qualities of sea buckthorn. This article summarizes data on sea buckthorn’s nutritional value, health beneficial properties, and its applications.

Nowadays, biopolymer films have gained notoriety among the packaging materials. Some studies clearly test their effectiveness for certain periods of time, with applicability in the food industry. This research has been carried out in two directions. Firstly, the development and testing of the new edible material: general appearance, thickness, retraction ratio, color, transmittance, microstructure, roughness, and porosity, as well as mechanical and solubility tests. Secondly, testing of the packaged products—slices of cheese and prosciutto—in the new material and their maintenance at refrigeration conditions for 5 months; thus, the peroxide index, color, and water activity index were evaluated for the packaged products. The results emphasize that the packaging is a lipophilic one and does not allow wetting or any changes in the food moisture. The results indicate the stability of the parameters within three months and present the changes occurring within the fourth and fifth months. Microbiological tests indicated an initial microbial growth, both for cheese slices and ham slices. Time testing indicated a small increase in the total count number over the 5-month period: 23 cfu/g were found of fresh slices of prosciutto and 27 cfu/g in the case of the packaged ones; for slices of cheese, the total count of microorganisms indicated 7 cfu/g in the initial stage and 11 cfu/g after 5 months. The results indicate that the film did not facilitate the growth of the existing microorganisms, and highlight the need to purchase food from safe places, especially in the case of raw-dried products that have not undergone heat treatment, which may endanger the health of the consumer. The new material tested represents a promising substitute for commercial and unsustainable plastic packaging.

Currently, there is an increasing concern toward the plastic pollution of the environment, in general, and of oceans, in particular, as a result of disposable packaging in the food industry. Thus, it is extremely necessary that we identify solutions for this problem. This study was aimed at identifying a viable alternative—biopolymer-based, edible, and renewable food packaging—and succeeded in doing so. For this work, 30 films with different characteristics and properties were obtained using agar and sodium alginate as film-forming materials and glycerol for plasticization. Tests were performed, such as physical properties, microstructure, mechanical properties, microbiological characteristics, and solubility assessment, showing that edible materials can be used to package powdered products and dehydrated vegetables, or to cover fruits and vegetables, cheese slices, and sausages. These materials come from renewable resources, are easily obtained, and can be immediately applied in the food industry, thus being a viable alternative to food packaging.

Nickel is naturally present in drinking water and many dietary items, which expose the general population to nickel ingestion. This heavy metal can have a variety of harmful health effects, causing allergies and skin disorders (i.e., dermatitis), lung, cardiovascular, and kidney diseases, and even certain cancers; therefore, nickel detection is important for public health. Recent innovations in the development of biosensors have demonstrated they offer a powerful new approach over conventional analytical techniques for the identification and quantification of user-defined compounds, including heavy metals such as nickel. We optimized five candidate nickel-biosensing receptors, and tested each for efficiency of binding to immobilization elements on screen-printed electrodes (SPEs). We characterized the application of nickel-detecting biosensors with four different cultivated vegetables. We analyzed the efficiency of each nickel-detecting biosensor by potentiostat and atomic absorption spectrometry and compared the results from the sample analytes. We then analyzed the performance characteristics and responses of assembled biosensors, and show they are very effective at measuring nickel ions in food, especially with the urease-alginate biosensor affixed to silver SPEs, measured by cyclic voltammetry (sensitivity—2.1921 µA Mm⁻¹ cm⁻² and LOD—0.005 mg/L). Given the many advantages of biosensors, we describe an optimization pipeline approach to the application of different nickel-binding biosensors for public health, nutrition, and consumer safety, which are very promising.

The problem of waste generated by packaging obtained from conventional synthetic materials, often multilayer, has become more and more pressing with increasing consumption. In this context, nature and humanity have suffered the most. In order to address this phenomenon, global and European organizations have launched and promoted programs and strategies. Replacing petroleum-based packaging with biopolymer packaging has proven to be a real alternative. Thus, the substitution of plastics with biodegradable, non-toxic, edible materials, which can be obtained from marine or agro-industrial waste, is of interest. In the present study, we aimed to develop natural edible materials, obtained entirely from biopolymers such as agar and sodium alginate and plasticized with glycerol and water. Designed to be used for food and food supplements packaging, they can be completely solubilized before consumption. The films were developed through a casting method and were tested in order to identify the physical, optical, and solubility properties. According to the results, the most suitable composition for use as a hydrosoluble packaging material contains agar:alginate:glycerol in a 2:1:1 ratio. The microstructure indicates a homogeneous film, with low roughness values (Rz = 12.65 ± 1.12 µm), high luminosity (92.63), above-average transmittance (T = 51.70%), and low opacity (6.30 A* mm⁻¹). The obtained results are of interest and highlight the possibility of substituting intensely polluting materials with those based on biopolymers.

There is increasing evidence surrounding the health benefits of E-resveratrol; this has triggered interest in stilbenoids in grapes, wine, and by-products. On the one hand, there is an enormous amount of underutilized vine waste, rich in bioactive substances during wine production. On the other hand, there is a growing demand for promising phytochemicals, for dietary and pharmaceutical purposes. Vine shoots are promising sources of stilbenoids; they have economic potential because they are sources of high-value phytochemicals. Recent studies have shown that, due to biosynthesis pathway genes, especially STS (forming trans-resveratrol), which is abundant during storage periods of vine shoots—trans-resveratrol accumulates up to 40-fold. The objective of this research was to determine the most economical part of vine waste to be exploited, and to study the kinetics of resveratrol increase in a 90-day period, to determine the optimal storage period to reach a maximum trans-resveratrol content. Total phenolic content (TPC) and antioxidant activity (AA) were studied to determine possible correlations. In Fetească Neagră vine shoot varieties stored at laboratory temperatures, trans-resveratrol content increased to a maximum (2712.86 mg/kg D.W.) at day 70, and then slightly decreased until day 90. TPC remained constant and there was a slight increase in AA. Vine shoots contained the largest amounts of trans-resveratrol (1658.22 mg/kg D.W.), followed by tendrils (169.92 mg/kg D.W.), and leaves (43.54 mg/kg D.W.).