Background Foods have been commercially frozen for over 140 years. While improper frozen storage often causes food quality loss, the frozen damage induced by ice crystal growth is a serious problem. Freezing point (FP) regulation that promotes and inhibits ice nucleation, and controls ice crystal growth and recrystallization, may alleviate this problem. Some naturally sourced biosubstances with eco-friendly, green, nontoxic and highly effective characteristics are verified to regulate FP, showing potential for application in foods and food-related areas. Scope and approach This review introduces three groups of FP-regulating biosubstances, including ice-nucleating proteins (INPs), anti-freezing proteins (AFPs) and natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES). Existing knowledge of these biosubstances and updated information concerning their mechanisms for regulating FP are summarized. In addition, current applications of these natural FP regulators in foods or in food-related areas are presented, involving food processing, packaging and transgenic foods. Future applications of these biosubstances in the food and food-related researches are briefly discussed. Key findings and conclusions The effect of natural FP regulators in improving food quality is worthy of further investigation into more extensive food applications, especially for INPs and NADES. The current review indicates that natural FP regulating biosubstances reveal application potential in foods and food-related areas. Future studies should mainly focus on bio-based or bio-inspired anti-freezing, micro/none ice-based cold storage and energy conservation in the food and food-related researches.

Naturally sourced biosubstances for regulating freezing points in food researches: Fundamentals, current applications and future trends

Pea protein dry-fractionated (PDF), pea protein isolated (PIs), soy protein isolated (SIs) and oat protein (OP) were combined in four mixes (PDF_OP, PIs_OP, PDF_PIs_OP, SIs_OP) and extruded to produce meat analogues. The ingredients strongly influenced the process conditions and the use of PDF required higher specific mechanical energy and screw speed to create fibrous texture compared to PIs and SIs. PDF can be conveniently used to produce meat analogues with a protein content of 55 g 100 g−1, which is exploitable in meat-alternatives formulation. PDF-based meat analogues showed lower hardness (13.55–18.33 N) than those produced from PIs and SIs (nearly 27 N), probably due to a more porous structure given by the natural presence of carbohydrates in the dry-fractionated ingredient. PDF_OP and PIs_PDF_OP showed a significantly lower water absorption capacity than PIs OP and SIs_OP, whereas pea-based extrudates showed high oil absorption capacity, which could be convenient to facilitate the inclusion of oil and fat in the final formulation. The sensory evaluation highlighted an intense odor and taste profile of PDF_OP, whereas the extrudates produced by protein isolates had more neutral sensory characteristics. Overall, the use of dry-fractionated protein supports the strategies to efficiently produce clean-labeled and sustainable plant-based meat analogues.

https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/9/12/1754/pdf

Physicochemical and Sensorial Evaluation of Meat Analogues Produced from Dry-Fractionated Pea and Oat Proteins

The properties, biotechnologies, and applications of antifreeze proteins.

The "cold revolution". Present and future applications of cold-active enzymes and ice-binding proteins.

The inhibiting effect of ice structuring protein (ISP) with different additions on the quality deterioration and oxidation of mirror carp induced by freeze-thaw (F-T) cycles was investigated. It can be concluded that the whiteness, water holding capacity, cutting force and thermal stability of the sample without ISP were significantly decreased, and oxidation reactions were aggravated with the increasing in F-T cycles (P

Effect of ice structuring protein on the quality, thermal stability and oxidation of mirror carp (Cyprinus carpio L.) induced by freeze-thaw cycles

Ice cream structure modification by ice-binding proteins

Plant materials that are used for the production of extruded meat analogs are often nutritionally incomplete and also contain antinutrients, thus there is a need to explore alternative plant proteins and pre-treatments. This study demonstrates application of phytase and fermentation to a pea-oat protein blend with a good essential amino acid profile and subsequent texturization using extrusion cooking. Enzymatic treatment reduced the content of antinutrient phytic acid by 32%. Extrusion also degraded phytic acid by up to 18%, but the effect depended on the material. Differences in physicochemical, sensorial, and textural properties between untreated and phytase-treated extruded meat analogs were small. In contrast, fermented material was more difficult to texturize due to degradation of macromolecules; physicochemical and textural properties of extrudates were markedly different; sensory analysis showed enhancement of flavor, but also detected an increase in some unwanted taste attributes (bitterness, cereal and off-taste). Phytic acid was not degraded by fermentation. Analysis of volatile compounds showed extrusion eliminated volatiles from the raw material but introduced Maillard reaction products. Overall, phytase treatment and fermentation demonstrated the potential for application in extruded meat analogs but also highlighted the necessity of optimization of process conditions.

Impact of Fermentation and Phytase Treatment of Pea-Oat Protein Blend on Physicochemical, Sensory, and Nutritional Properties of Extruded Meat Analogs.

Impact of short-term heat treatment on the structure and functional properties of commercial furcellaran compared to commercial carrageenans.

Isothermal microcalorimetry was used to study the exothermic heat flow caused by the absorption of water into carrageenans and a furcellaran, leading to their thermodynamic instability under moderate storage conditions (35 °C, τ = 12 h), where τ is the reaction time (h). The net heats evolved by furcellaran, ι-carrageenan, κ-carrageenan, and a mixture of κ/λ-carrageenan were 43.5 J/g, 45.9 J/g, 31.6 J/g, and 28.1 J/g, respectively. The pronounced exothermic behavior of furcellaran was attributed to the enthalpic association of water molecules with the thermally degraded carbohydrate matrix. The responses of a heat treatment of carrageenans at 55 °C, 85 °C, and 105 °C for 15 min on exothermic heat Q (J/g) at different water activities (aw = 0.26, 0.51, 0.76, and 1.0) were measured. The dependence of the net recorded heat Q on water activity can be satisfactorily approximated by the equation Q = a[1 − (1 − aw)b], where a and b are the coefficients found by the nonlinear least-squares method. It was concluded that carrageenans affected by excessive heat treatment should be preferably stored with limited water access.

/pdf/instability-of-low-moisture-carrageenans-as-affected-by-82z81gxvos.pdf

Aleksei Kaleda

Papers

Ice cream structure modification by ice-binding proteins

Impact of Fermentation and Phytase Treatment of Pea-Oat Protein Blend on Physicochemical, Sensory, and Nutritional Properties of Extruded Meat Analogs.

Impact of short-term heat treatment on the structure and functional properties of commercial furcellaran compared to commercial carrageenans.

Instability of low-moisture carrageenans as affected by water vapor sorption at moderate storage temperatures

Identification and functional analysis of a novel Antarctic ice binding protein