2024 March

You may see ricotta and mascarpone used interchangeably, but these two Italian cheese are not the same. Here's how they differ in taste, texture, and process.

Nearly 70 "forever chemicals", also known as PFAS, are commonly found in materials that come into contact with food, some of which have been linked to negative health outcomes

Academic journals have been caught publishing papers that were clearly written by ChatGPT — and at least one has yet to retract.

Research Highlights: A study of over 20,000 adults found that those who followed an 8-hour time-restricted eating schedule, a type of intermittent fasting, had a 91% higher risk of death from cardiovascular disease. People with heart disease or cancer ...

Award winning actor Gillian Anderson is harnessing the power of botanicals to cater to an underserved market. We ask which ingredients align to which need state.

Chocolate prices rise in the run up to Easter after high temperatures curb cocoa crops in West Africa.

Here's what's happening.

Eugenol, the main component of essential oil from the Syzygium aromaticum clove tree, has great potential as an alternative bioresource feedstock for biosynthesis purposes. Although eugenol degradation to ferulic acid was investigated, an efficient method for directly converting eugenol to targeted natural products has not been established. Herein we identified the inherent inhibitions by simply combining the previously reported ferulic acid biosynthetic pathway and vanillin biosynthetic pathway. To overcome this, we developed a novel biosynthetic pathway for converting eugenol into vanillin, by introducing cinnamoyl-CoA reductase (CCR), which catalyzes conversion of coniferyl aldehyde to feruloyl-CoA. This approach bypasses the need for two catalysts, namely coniferyl aldehyde dehydrogenase and feruloyl-CoA synthetase, thereby eliminating inhibition while simplifying the pathway. To further improve efficiency, we enhanced CCR catalytic efficiency via directed evolution and leveraged an artificialvanillin biosensor for high-throughput screening. Switching the cofactor preference of CCR from NADP+ to NAD+ significantly improved pathway efficiency. This newly designed pathway provides an alternative strategy for efficiently biosynthesizing feruloyl-CoA-derived natural products using eugenol.

Above and below: Schematic of the target pattern created in the right figure; blue dots are the position of active posts, and the pink dots are the stagnation points. When PNPP is added to the solution, the AP-coated posts react and create a mandala-like pattern. (M. Mosnadi)

While more Americans report following plant-rich diets, they also are consuming more meat, according to new research.

Lauréate du prix Irène Joliot-Curie 2023 dans la catégorie « Jeune femme scientifique », cette chimiste est parvenue à reproduire la toute première structure expérimentale d’un récepteur olfactif

What's going on?

Have you ever wondered what all 1,000+ Pokémon smell like? Because we have. With the news of a weird AI smell-o-vision device called GameScent, we’ve rounded up a list of which game worlds we’re most curious to get a whiff of – for better or worse.

If "Cajun-style" only makes you think of spicy chicken sandwiches and popcorn shrimp, you need to join us in the Big Easy this episode, to meet the real Cajun flavor.

Scent training could make pet dogs better behaved, suggests a study by Aberystwyth University academics published in Animals.

As these rare beauties grow in popularity, it's the perfect time to do a breakdown of Bolivian tree tomatoes and ways to incorporate them into everyday life.

With animal-free dairy products and convincing vegetarian meat substitutes already on the market, it's easy to see how biotechnology can change the food industry. Advances in genetic engineering are allowing ...

A critical molecule for the metabolism of living organisms has been synthesized for the first time by University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa researchers at low temperatures (10 K) on ice coated nanoparticles ...

This study investigated the effects of chewing rate and food composition on in vivo aroma release and perception of composite foods. Bread or sponge cake paired with varying sugar content and viscosity strawberry jams, spiked with citral and limonene, were examined. In-nose release was characterized using Proton-Transfer-Reaction-Time-of-Flight-Mass-Spectrometry (PTR-ToF-MS). Simultaneously, Time-Intensity (TI) profiling assessed citrus aroma perception (n = 8, triplicate) while fast and slow chewing protocols were applied (fast: 1.33 chews/s; slow 0.66 chews/s; each for 25 s). Chewing rate did not significantly impact the area under the curve and maximum intensity of in vivo citral and limonene release and citrus aroma perception. Faster chewing rates significantly decreased the time to reach maximum intensity of aroma release (p 0.05) and citrus aroma perception (p 0.001). Faster chewing rates probably accelerated structural breakdown, inducing an earlier aroma release and perception without affecting aroma intensity. Adding carriers to jams significantly (p 0.05) increased aroma release, while perceived citrus aroma intensity significantly (p 0.05) decreased regardless of chewing rate. In conclusion, chewing rate affects the temporality of in vivo aroma release and perception without affecting its intensity, and carrier addition increases in vivo aroma release while diminishing aroma perception.

Cheese is one of the most common dairy products and is characterized by its complex aroma. However, in times of climate change and resource scarcity, the possibility to mimic the characteristic cheese-like aroma from plant-based sources is in demand to offer alternatives to cheese. Accordingly, the production of a natural cheese-like aroma via fermentation of four plant-based proteins and coconut oil with basidiomycetes has been addressed. Mixtures of soy and sunflower protein with coconut oil (15 g/L) have shown the formation of a cheese-like aroma after 72 and 56 h after fermentation with Cyclocybe aegerita and Trametes versicolor, respectively. Isovaleric acid, butanoic acid, ethyl butanoate, 1-octen-3-ol, and various ketones were identified as the key odorants. Similarities to typical cheeses were observed by the principal component analysis. Overall, the finding offered an approach to a sustainable production of a natural cheese-like aroma from a plant source, thus contributing to the development of cheese alternatives.

Researchers have created a gene-edited cow that produces human insulin in her milk in Brazil.

Eating small amounts of licorice, in keeping with the World Health Organization’s suggested daily intake, may still cause high blood pressure in otherwise healthy young people, a new study has found. The findings highlight the need for caution when consuming the sweet black treat.

An abundance of innovation in the grey space between food and supplements has led to a ‘graveyard’ of innovative companies ill-prepared for the hurdles they must jump, a regulatory expert has warned.

The monster fruit is the size of ping-pong ball and weighs 20.4g, about 10 times the average blueberry.

With the Global Nutrition and Hydration Week 2024 starting today, researchers have announced an intriguing discovery – consumers generally prefer AI-generated images of food over real food images,

Cinema and perfume can trigger all sorts of emotions in us, from joy and excitement to sadness and nostalgia. Here is our curated selection. Cinema, undeniably the most popular and accessible art form, has its roots deeply intertwined with not only theater but also the vibrant world of circus and fairground attractions. Georges Méliès, a renowned illusionist and the father of live action, diverged from the Lumi&

A small team of chemical engineers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, working with a colleague from IA Murins Startups, has developed a way to use machine learning to replicate odors ...