Special Issue: Protein, Fat and Carbohydrate Functionality in Plant-Based Foods
The molecular characteristics and functionality of protein, fat and carbohydrate for designing plant-based foods
Guest editors:
Xing Chen - xingchen@jiangnan.edu.cn
Patrick Ruhs - patrick@eatplanted.com
Special issue information:
The rapid growing population and urbanization has led to increased highly the demand for sustainable, healthy and functional food ingredients, which are some of the key global challenges shaping up the future of food. Mining of alternative ingredients from natural plants and exploring/expanding their functionality/processability for the development of plant-based foods, such as plant-based meat, milk or sea food alternatives, are becoming hot spots in recent years, and the market of plant-based foods has grown exponentially and it is projected to continually grow in the foreseeable near future. In spite of the notable initial success, there are still challenges ahead. The deep understanding molecular, physicochemical properties and techno-functional properties of plant resourced ingredients and their interactions is limited. Fundamental knowledge on controlling the formation of desirable nano-/micro-structure or colloidal architecture with plant-based ingredients in mimicking the animal food products is still lacking. There is still a large gap on the delivery of targeted macroscopic properties (sensory, flavor, palatability, etc) in plant based analogues during processing, storage, eating and digestion. To overcome these, a surge of multidisciplinary research involving of biology, chemistry, soft matter physics, nanotechnology, material, surface/interface, colloidal/polymer science and molecular nutrition is converging into the field of food science. Thus, it is urgent to disseminate the most recent and innovative research findings, fill the knowledge gap and highlight this exciting scientific frontier. This special edition will provide the cutting edge advances on the molecular characteristics and functionality of protein, fat and carbohydrate for designing plant-based foods, which will inspire a surge of multidisciplinary opportunities to facilitate rational applications of plant based ingredients and the future commercialization thereof. Therefore, Current Research in Food Science is inviting the researchers to submit their latest findings in this area as original research papers, review articles, and short communications to this Special Issue.
Topics covered in this Special Issue include innovative sciences and technologies in:
Recovering and valorizing functional protein, fat and carbohydrate, etc., from natural plants, and their conversion into processable food ingredients.
Understanding and modifying molecular properties of plant ingredients to improve their physicochemical, techno-functional properties, sensory, flavor and palatability for advanced food applications (plant-based meat, milk, cheese, egg or sea food alternatives, etc.).
Tailoring plant ingredients into functional food structures (micro-/nano-particles, molecular conjugates, hydrogels, emulsions, foams, oleogels, etc.); disclosing their multi-scale structure, properties of rheology, interface and tribology and their structure-function relations; and manipulating their interactions with the body to improve oral perception, satiety control, digestion, and bioaccessibility.
Improveing the safety and nutrition attributes of plant-based foods.
Manuscript submission information:
The Journal's Guide for Authors on how to prepare a paper is available at https://www.journals.elsevier.com/current-research-in-food-science. Papers must be submitted electronically via the Elsevier Editorial System (EM) site for the Journal at https://www.editorialmanager.com/crfs/default.aspx - being from September 1 st, 2021 to February 28, 2022.
To ensure that all manuscripts are correctly identified for inclusion into the special issue, it is important to select "VSI:Plant-Based Foods" when you reach the "Article Type" step in the submission process.
CRFS is an Open access journal and complete waiver will be provided to articles within deadline timeframe.
Potential contributors are encouraged to contact the guest editor in cheif if they have questions.
Keywords:
Plant-based foods; plant ingredient: plant protein; plant fat; plant carbohydrate; functionality; vegan foods; food structure; plant-based alternative; food colloids; sustainability, future food; healthy food; analogue; functional ingredient; food material; meat alternative; milk alternatives; sea food alternatives.
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All articles in this special issues will be reviewed by no fewer than two independent experts to ensure the quality, originality and novelty of the work published.
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