Advanced research has been conducted to develop innovative functional foods with enhanced nutritional and functional properties in response to the growing demand for improving human health and wellness through diet. However, due to the low solubility, poor stability, and low gastrointestinal bioavailability of bioactive ingredients such as polyphenols, phytosterols, vitamins, minerals, EPA/DHA, and bioactive peptides, the enrichment and fortification of food products using direct incorporation of these bioactive ingredients are still facing the challenges. To cope with this, food protein-based colloids, such as gels, emulsions, foams, nanoparticles, fibers, films, and dispersions, are recognized as reliable systems to deliver these nutrients, not only because food proteins are “safe” and have high nutritional value, but also food proteins have important functional properties including surface activity, structure formation capacity, and antioxidant activity. However, food proteins derived from animal, plant, and fungal sources are so diverse that their structural and functional properties are so different. Therefore, delivering nutrients in these food protein-based colloids systems is difficult as it is necessary to access the impact of food colloids on the encapsulated nutrients' stability and gastrointestinal bioavailability.
This Research Topic will provide a recent overview of advances in food protein-based colloids: structure, digestion, and nutrients delivery. The purpose is to understand how the food protein sources and the formed colloid structures influence the stability, digestion, and delivery of nutrients. The special focus will be on hydrogels and Pickering emulsions.
In this Research Topic, we welcome submissions of Original Research, Methods, Systematic Reviews, Mini Reviews, Perspective, and Opinions, on themes including but not limit to the following sub-topics:
· Reviews focus on recent advances in food protein-based colloids: structure, digestion, and nutrients delivery, with specific proteins, colloid systems, or nutrients.
· Design, structure, oxidative stability, bioavailability of food protein stabilized EPA/DHA abundant emulsions.
· Preparation, physico-chemical, formation mechanisms, and nutrients delivery of novel Pickering emulsion systems.
· New food protein-based hydrogels: preparation, microstructure, digestion, and nutrients bio-accessibility.
· Protein-rich food matrix colloids system: creation and preparation, structure degradation and nutrients delivery during digestion.
· Functionality of plant-based proteins as alternatives to animal proteins in colloidal delivery systems.