Proteins and polyphenols are widespread in food systems and often interact during processing and storage, affecting protein structure, functionality, and nutrition. This review examines the formation and bioactivities of covalent protein–polyphenol conjugates. These conjugates form in foods mainly when polyphenols oxidize to quinones and react with nucleophilic amino acid residues via Michael addition or condensation, producing stable conjugates with altered properties.Recent studies show that conjugation generally enhances protein antioxidant capacity, though it is typically lower than that of free polyphenols. Conjugation can also improve polyphenol stability during digestion and potentially increase bioavailability, although results are system-dependent and sometimes inconsistent. Emerging evidence also highlights potential anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic, and anticancer properties of these conjugates due to structural changes.Despite their potential, gaps remain in understanding in vivo behavior, structure–function relationships, and the role of non-covalent interactions. Future research should focus on metabolic fate, optimized conjugation, and validated health effects.
The structure and functionality of food soft matter emerge from time-dependent coupling among molecular interactions, mesoscopic organization, and bulk mechanics. Conventional Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and rheology are commonly performed separately, making it difficult to capture transient intermediates and establish mechanistic links across scales. Simultaneous rheology-FTIR spectroscopy (SR-IR) addresses this limitation by acquiring vibrational and rheological responses from the same sample under matched perturbation. This review distinguishes four mechanistic processes revealed by SR-IR: interaction redistribution, conformational rearrangement, interfacial reorganization, and network formation. These processes are considered separately from macroscopic outcomes such as gel strength, water retention, stability, texture, and emulsion performance. Recent applications to protein-polysaccharide, starch, protein-fibril, and lipid-containing systems are critically evaluated, together with the interpretation of synchronous and asynchronous two-dimensional correlation spectra. We argue that the main value of SR-IR lies in resolving the temporal sequence connecting molecular rearrangement with functional development. Current limitations in water interference, temporal resolution, sampling consistency, and interfacial specificity are discussed, followed by perspectives on standardized quantitative analysis, multiscale modeling, and uncertainty-aware artificial intelligence.
Soybean germplasm shows genetically structured variation in isoflavones, soyasaponins, folates and other food relevant traits, and seed specific metabolic engineering and genome editing can further expand this variation beyond naturally occurring profiles. Nevertheless, high seed concentration is an unreliable proxy for functional food efficacy. Compositional modifications often incur trade-offs in plant defence, germination, sensory quality and processing compatibility, while processing, digestion and microbial metabolism substantially reshape the bioactive compounds consumers actually encounter, with outcomes determined by genotype, microorganism, food matrix and production process. Human studies are highly heterogeneous and rarely traceable to the starting germplasm.We therefore establish an evidence-gated framework of four transitions: genotype to composition, composition to product, product to exposure, and exposure to outcome, each with minimum evidential thresholds. Missing upstream links narrow rather than invalidate downstream conclusions, and this framework explicitly defines attribution boundaries and guides necessary experimental work for health-oriented soybean design.
Dump tanks and flume systems are widely used in fresh produce packing operations for unloading, transport, cleaning, and cooling. While these water-based systems facilitate postharvest handling, they can also serve as interfaces for microbial transfer and cross-contamination. Sanitizers such as chlorine, peroxyacetic acid, and chlorine dioxide are commonly used to maintain process-water quality; however, their effectiveness is influenced by dynamic operating conditions, including organic load, microbial load, pH, temperature, hydraulic conditions, and sanitizer demand. Consequently, maintaining target sanitizer concentration alone may not ensure consistent microbial control under commercial conditions. This article examines dump tanks as potential cross-contamination amplification nodes, discusses factors influencing sanitizer performance in commercial process-water systems, and explores opportunities to advance process-water management through real-time monitoring, predictive analytics, automated control, and risk-based decision-making. Emerging sensing and digital technologies may support more adaptive process-water management while enhancing microbial safety, produce quality, resource efficiency, and operational sustainability.
Peanut is an oilseed crop cultivated globally on a large scale, holding profound economic value. Three major classes of polyphenolic compounds (PPCs) derived from peanuts—namely, resveratrol, proanthocyanidins, and flavonoids—have attracted increasing attention due to their significant antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-tumor properties. These compounds exhibit profound potential in promoting human health and regulating physiological functions. Accordingly, this review, based on a brief overview of the structural composition and biological activities of these PPCs, integrates research findings from the past five years concerning resveratrol, proanthocyanidins, and flavonoids in relation to human health. It specifically focuses on the physiological functional activities and the associated molecular mechanisms of these PPCs in anti-tumor, neuroprotective, and anti-inflammatory effects. In the future, further evaluation of the functional activities of PPCs, along with the advancement of related preclinical and clinical translational studies, will be of significant importance to both the peanut industry and the medical field.
Fresh produce remains vulnerable to microbial contamination because microorganisms persist throughout postharvest handling environments. Reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS)-based technologies are attracting attention as nonthermal interventions that damage microbial membranes, proteins, and nucleic acids through multi-target mechanisms while limiting chemical residues. However, their effectiveness is strongly influenced by factors such as produce surface structure, water chemistry, and microbial physiological state. Although optimized RONS treatments can have limited effects on produce quality, the same reactive chemistry responsible for microbial inactivation can also injure plant tissues, causing discoloration, texture loss or accelerated deterioration at excessive doses. This review summarizes current advances in representative RONS-based postharvest handling of fresh produce, highlights microbial and matrix-dependent constraints, and proposes a safety-quality window as a framework for future validation, scale-up and regulatory translation.
After oral administration, polyphenols suffer from gastric acid and enzymatic degradation, as well as intestinal mucus, epithelial, and microbial barriers, leading to low oral bioavailability. Consequently, their potential health benefits, including antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, are severely compromised. Novel delivery systems are therefore designed to shield polyphenols from gastrointestinal degradation and significantly improve their bioaccessibility. In this review, we critically examine recent progress in food-grade targeted delivery systems for polyphenols, including pH-responsive, enzyme-responsive, and microbiota-responsive carriers based on polysaccharides, proteins, lipids, and biomimetic vesicles, as well as multi-stimuli responsive delivery systems. This work emphasises the role of interface engineering and multi-responsive mechanisms in adaptation to the gastrointestinal environment and overcoming intestinal barriers. Future research should focus on translating these systems into industrial food applications, leveraging AI-assisted design and predictive modelling to overcome challenges posed by inter-individual variability in gut microbiota. Together, these perspectives position multi-responsive polyphenol delivery systems as an emerging direction in food material design, impacting gastrointestinal stability, improve bioaccessibility and intestinal absorption.
Polyphenols, the most abundant bioactive compounds in fruits, profoundly affect fruit coloration, quality, and storability while offering antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and disease-preventive benefits. The biosynthesis of polyphenols is predominantly facilitated via the pentose phosphate, shikimate, and phenylpropanoid pathways, governed by an intricate and multi-tiered regulatory network that integrates environmental signals, hormonal cues, and transcription factor-mediated transcriptional control. Conventional thermal processing often causes substantial degradation of polyphenols, whereas emerging non-conventional processing technologies better preserve functional properties, improve food safety, and enhance polyphenol bioavailability. To date, however, most studies remain confined to single-factor analyses, hindering the understanding of synergistic regulatory mechanisms and delaying the industrial translation of precision strategies. From an integrative horticultural and food-science perspective, this review critically assesses key regulatory factors determining polyphenol content and bioavailability, identifies knowledge gaps, and proposes strategic directions for future research and industrial application to support the efficient exploitation and targeted utilization of polyphenol resources.
Sorghum condensed tannins have long been classified as antinutritional factors, underpinning a decades-long industrial assumption that detannification equates to improved sorghum-based food quality. This prevailing view draws largely from high-dose animal nutrition studies, yet its direct translational validity for human food systems remains insufficiently examined.In this review, we critically reassess this long-standing framework and identify three key considerations that nuance the antinutritional narrative in human dietary contexts: pronounced dose dependency, matrix-modulated bioactivity, and structure-dependent functionality. Typical tannin exposure from processed sorghum foods falls well within recognized safe intake thresholds, and complexation with food macromolecules during processing may substantially attenuate non-specific interactions with digestive enzymes and minerals. Importantly, biological effects appear to be driven primarily by degree of polymerization rather than total tannin content, a distinction largely overlooked in conventional quality control protocols.We further review established processing technologies that enable tailored modulation of tannin profiles, and propose that the molecular traits historically regarded as antinutritional may underpin the utility of sorghum tannins as tunable, clean-label functional ingredients. Their documented applications span natural meat preservation, low-glycemic food formulation, bakery dough conditioning, pigment stabilization, and fermented alcoholic beverage flavor optimization.We suggest that primary barriers to wider industrial adoption arise from persistent conceptual assumptions rather than inherent tannin properties. Shifting toward structure-tailored breeding, structure-aware quality control, and function-preserving processing could help unlock the full potential of sorghum condensed tannins in sustainable, clean-label food systems.
The soil microbiome is fundamental to soil health in agroecosystems, regulating primary productivity and nutrient cycling. Growing evidence indicates that it also mediates food quality traits, including sensory attributes, secondary metabolites, and nutritional content. In this review, we synthesize current knowledge on microbiome-mediated links between soil health and food quality and evaluate agricultural management strategies that can improve both simultaneously. We identify key research gaps and priorities needed to establish mechanistic pathways, improve field translation, and advance microbiome-informed approaches for sustainable agri-food systems. Collectively, the evidence supports a conceptual framework in which food quality is viewed as an ecological outcome of microbiome-mediated soil health and functioning. We propose that the soil microbiome acts as a mechanistic bridge linking agricultural management, soil health, and crop performance to food quality. We argue that food quality should be explicitly integrated into existing agri-food framework, focused on productivity, soil health, and greenhouse gas mitigation.
Postharvest cooling is a critical pillar of fresh produce preservation. However, the ways in which different cooling methods shape the microbial communities associated with fresh produce remain largely unexplored. This opinion paper synthesizes the mechanisms by which postharvest cooling technologies influence the microbial quality and safety of fresh produce and proposes a framework to guide food safety risk assessment of different cooling options. Each cooling technology creates distinct temperature, pressure, moisture, and water-contact conditions that interact with produce physiology and microbial behavior. The effects of these conditions on microbial survival and growth, cross-contamination, and pathogen internalization provide the foundation for understanding how cooling technologies influence postharvest microbial risk. Finally, the identify key priorities for future applied research will support the development of cooling strategies that better balance cooling efficiency with microbial safety while preserving product quality, extending shelf life, and reducing food loss.
