Jan 2026· International journal of food Science· Vol 2026· 0 citations· 149 references
Medicine
Abstract
The growing demand for sustainable, ethical, and healthier foods has generated interest in plant‐based proteins as alternatives to animal proteins. Although promising, these proteins often face limitations due to inherent characteristics that restrict their application diverse food products. These include low solubility, foaming, emulsification, and gelation, which collectively impede their utilization in food systems. To overcome this, cold plasma, a nonthermal and eco‐friendly technology, has recently emerged as a promising strategy to enhance protein functionality without compromising nutritional quality. This review examines the mechanisms, functional outcomes, and food applications cold plasma in plant‐based proteins, with focus on comparison with conventional and emerging protein modification technologies. Rigorous literature search was conducted to obtain relevant information from databases used to develop the review. The results revealed that plasma treatments usually generate reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, ultraviolet photons, and charged particles that can unfold protein structures, promote cross‐linking, and alter surface properties like charge and hydrophobicity. These modifications improve hydration, dispersion, and stability, and enhance performances in emulsions, foams, and gels in plant protein products. Cold plasma offers advantages in terms of energy efficiency and versatility, despite challenges of reproducibility, oxidation, scalability, and consumer acceptance. Combining cold plasma with other processing techniques like ultrasound or fermentation, while applying advanced omics approaches could offer better understanding and open opportunities for food applications. Overall, cold plasma offers a valuable approach to enhance functionality of plant proteins, with strong potential to support innovation, sustainability, and nutrition in the food industry.
Cold plasma technology has emerged as a promising non-thermal food processing approach due to its ability to enhance food safety while preserving or improving nutritional and functional quality. This review evaluates recent advances in the application of cold plasma for modulating food bioactive compounds, with particular emphasis on polyphenols, carotenoids, vitamins, and natural pigments. Cold plasma operates in a thermodynamically non-equilibrium state, generating reactive oxygen and nitrogen species that interact with food matrices through complex and matrix-dependent mechanisms. Evidence indicates a dual-effect behaviour under optimized conditions, cold plasma can disrupt cellular structures, promote macromolecule depolymerization, inactivate degradative enzymes, and enhance the release and bioaccessibility of bioactive compounds. Conversely, excessive treatment intensity or prolonged exposure may trigger oxidative degradation, leading to losses in sensitive constituents. Recent literature highlights the strong dependence of cold plasma outcomes on processing parameters, plasma generation methods, gas composition, and intrinsic food characteristics. In addition to compositional changes, cold plasma has been shown to influence antioxidant activity, pigment stability, and post-digestion bioaccessibility highlighting its relevance for functional food development. Despite its significant potential, challenges remain regarding process standardization, scalability, and regulatory acceptance. Overall, this review identifies critical knowledge gaps and future research directions necessary to facilitate the safe and effective industrial implementation of cold plasma technology in food systems.
Bihter Cebeci, Senem Kamiloglu· Food, Nutrition and Health· 1 citation
The demand for plant-based proteins has been steadily increasing; however, their functionality when applied in food product formulations requires comprehensive evaluation and, when necessary, deliberate modification to ensure that it mimics that of animal-derived proteins. In the present study, protein was extracted from sesame cake, a by-product of sesame oil production, through conventional alkaline extraction, with or without ultrasound or enzymatic pretreatments. Cold plasma treatment was subsequently applied to sesame cake proteins (SCPs) to induce structural modifications. Both the extraction method and cold plasma treatment markedly influenced the compositional and technofunctional properties of the SCPs, including the protein purity, amino acid profile, color, structural integrity, thermal stability, solubility, emulsifying capacity, foaming behavior, and proteomic profile. Importantly, combined ultrasound and cold plasma treatments altered the proteomic landscape, leading to the downregulation of proteins associated with allergenicity and thereby mitigating the adverse effects of SCPs. Notably, this study provides the first demonstration of the interplay between the extraction method and protein responsiveness to cold plasma treatment.
Emine Gizem Acar, O. Ozturk, Celale Kırkın et al.· Molecules· 0 citations
The transition toward sustainable food systems has increased interest in plant proteins as alternatives to animal-derived proteins due to their lower environmental impact, including reduced greenhouse gas emissions, land use, and resource demand. However, their broader application is constrained by structural characteristics that limit solubility, interfacial behaviour, digestibility, and sensory performance. Many plant proteins exhibit compact globular structures stabilized by strong intermolecular interactions, restricting their functionality in complex food systems. These structural constraints operate across a hierarchy of scales, from the molecular conformation of secondary and tertiary structures to the micro- and macro-structural organisation of protein aggregates, interfacial films, and gel networks, and it is this multiscale organisation that ultimately governs functional performance in complex food matrices. Non-thermal processing technologies, namely, ultrasound, pulsed electric fields (PEF), and cold plasma, together with the electro-thermal technique of ohmic heating, offer promising approaches for modifying protein structure without causing extensive thermal damage. These methods can induce partial unfolding, alter aggregation behaviour, and enhance the exposure of functional groups, thereby improving solubility, emulsification, and gelation properties. This review adopts an explicit multiscale framework to link molecular-level conformational changes to microstructural aggregation and macroscopic structure–property relationships. It summarizes the mechanisms, functional impacts, and industrial relevance of these technologies in plant protein processing. Building on this analysis, the review evaluates the principal technical bottlenecks, the economic and industrial scalability, and the priority directions for future research on non-thermal and electro-thermal processing of plant proteins.
Noorain Majeed, Kaiser Younis, Owais Yousuf· Frontiers in Soft Matter· 0 citations
Plant based protein possesses significant potential in the food sector due to its economic, nutritional, and sustainability benefits. However, the presence of limiting factors in terms of digestibility, off flavors, and techno functionality reduces the appeal of plant proteins. Fermentation is a biological modification process to counteract these limiting factors, which modifies protein structure, functional properties (solubility, hydrophobicity, WHC/OHC, emulsion etc.), alters the amino acids, and forms flavor active metabolites. This review critically evaluates microbial interventions applied at different stages of plant protein isolation, highlighting their effects on protein functionality, flavor‐active metabolite formation, and gut health alongside a detailed discussion of microbial proteolytic pathways. The textural and flavor changes in protein products after fermentation are also discussed. Various plant sources, such as peas, legumes, millets, etc., along with different microbial strains (Lactic acid bacteria (LAB),
Bacillus, Aspergillus
, and
Saccharomyces
, etc.), physical conditions (time, temperature, pH) provide an impressive extent of microbial interaction during the fermentation process. Further systemic studies are required to understand the role of distinctive microorganisms and their biochemical pathways to determine the effect of different factors on the protein molecular level, leading to their quality and functional enhancements. Hence, fermentation can act as a fascinating biochemical process for the quality enhancements for the future development of modified, nutritious, and pleasant plant proteins to fulfill consumer requirements.
Disha, M. Madhumita, Dharmender Kumar et al.· Food Bioengineering· 0 citations
Meat products, as an important component of the human diet, have attracted widespread attention due to their high nutritional value. However, they often face challenges such as allergenicity, short shelf life, and nutritional loss. In recent years, the interaction between natural polysaccharides and muscle proteins (MP) to improve functional properties has emerged rapidly, demonstrating significant potential in MP modification. Natural polysaccharides are renewable, safe, highly biocompatible, and possess excellent biological activities. They can form MP-polysaccharide complexes through covalent and/or non-covalent interactions with MP. The formation of these complexes can improve the health and functional properties of MP, such as enhanced antioxidant activity, solubility, emulsifying properties, reduced allergenicity, foaming properties, and thermal stability. This review systematically summarizes the categories and functional properties of natural polysaccharides, with a focus on their applications in improving meat product texture, water-holding capacity, emulsification, and extending shelf life. Natural polysaccharide-protein complexes can significantly enhance the density of gel networks and improve product sensory and nutritional value while meeting consumer demands for low-fat, low-salt healthy foods. Furthermore, the antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of natural polysaccharides provide feasible alternatives to traditional preservatives, which conform to the industrial trends of clean label and sustainable development.
Unknown authors· Food Quality and Safety· 0 citations
This review explores the potential of plant-based agro-industrial by-products as sustainable protein sources. It examines how enzymatic hydrolysis can modify and enhance their techno-functional properties for food applications. A literature search (2020-2025) in major databases identified experimental studies using protein-rich by-products (≥10 g/100 g protein) processed into protein ingredients, concentrates, isolates, and, especially, hydrolysates. These by-products generally exhibit favorable amino acid profiles and notable bioactive properties, including antioxidant and enzyme-inhibitory activities. Hydrolysis, often combined with greener extraction and pretreatment technologies, improves key techno-functional properties. Reported surfactant-related effects include increased solubility, emulsifying, foaming, and oil-holding capacities. Moisturizing properties such as water-holding capacity, gelation, and texture are enhanced, while hydrodynamic behavior is tailored to improve colloidal stability. These functionalities have been successfully exploited in breads, cakes, yogurts, emulsified meat products, confectionery, encapsulated systems, and other model foods, enabling partial replacement of conventional ingredients such as eggs, milk solids, or synthetic surfactants. Despite these advances, most applications remain concentrated in bakery and dairy products, underscoring the need for broader exploration in other food matrices and for studies addressing scale-up, regulatory considerations, and consumer acceptance. Overall, plant protein hydrolysates derived from agro-industrial by-products are promising, sustainable ingredients for the development of functional, cleaner-label foods.
Isabelly de Campos Gonçalves Cabassa, M. Egea, Sibele Santos Fernandes· Critical reviews in food sci...· 0 citations
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