Objectives: Postbiotics, defined as non-viable microbial cells or their components that provide health benefits, are emerging as an important topic in functional food research. However, awareness and consumption among young adults remain limited. This study aimed to evaluate the awareness and knowledge levels of postbiotics among university students. Methods: The study population included 346 students who completed a questionnaire consisting of 17 demographic and lifestyle questions and a 20-item postbiotic knowledge scale adapted from a validated tool. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. Results: It was revealed that 86.1% (n=298) of the students included in this study had never heard of postbiotics and 96.2% (n=333) had never used postbiotic supplements. Overall, 48.8% (n=169) of participants had a poor, 39.0% (n=135) a moderate, and 11.8% (n=41) a good knowledge level. Female students demonstrated significantly higher knowledge scores than males (P<0.05). Conclusions: The findings indicate that university students have limited awareness and consumption of postbiotics. Contributing factors may include insufficient promotion, inadequate understanding of health benefits, and limited market availability of postbiotic products. To improve awareness, it is recommended that educational activities be organized in universities to enhance students’ understanding of postbiotics and encourage their inclusion in health-promoting dietary habits.

This article examines how sociological research on food practices and emotions is ‘co-invented’ within experimental settings, treating cooking and eating as central to social organization. Drawing on two studies conducted at an experimental restaurant – a modular, camera-equipped space replicating cooking and dining environments – we analyze specific moments from our research through the lens of feminist reflections on the work of care in scholarly practice. Using methodographic analysis, we conceptualize eating in an experimental restaurant as a form of embodied collaborative invention emerging from interactions among humans, food, technical setups, and spatial arrangements. We identify three analytical knots: care for what bodies do and represent; care for playing with the field; and care for ephemeral commensality in collaborative cook–eat–think encounters. We argue that attention to small, often mundane moments of collaborative inventiveness nourishes an ongoing, situated quest for care in qualitative food research.

Corrigendum to the article published in Journal of Food and Nutrition Research, 64, 2025, pp. 283-294. DOI: https://doi.org/10.64122/EJOZ2736

Isolation of beneficial probiotics from traditional foods is a priority in functional food research. We isolated and characterized a lactic acid bacteria (LAB) probiotic strain from Egyptian cuisine, with therapeutic applications for alleviating the manifestations of metabolic syndrome (MetS), including hyperglycemia, hypercholesterolemia and obesity. LAB (n = 10) were isolated from 12 food and juice samples, identified and assessed in vitro for glucose- and cholesterol-lowering capabilities. The most promising isolate underwent probiotic characterization, including gastrointestinal tolerance, surface hydrophobicity, auto-aggregation, and milk fermentation capacity. Other beneficial properties, such as exopolysaccharide production and antimicrobial activity, were also tested. The selected isolate was evaluated for a hypoglycemic and hypocholesterolemic effect using a high-fat diet/streptozotocin-induced hypercholesterolemia and diabetes model in Wistar rats. Lactiplantibacillus plantarum Y10b, isolated from Egyptian cottage cheese, reduced glucose and cholesterol levels in vitro by 53 ± 0.47% and 98 ± 0.18%. It showed good probiotic characteristics: minimal viability loss in simulated gastrointestinal conditions (0.07 and 0.08 log10 CFU/mL), good hydrophobicity (> 70%), high auto-aggregation (82.6 ± 0.86% after 24h), positive exopolysaccharide production, milk fermentation capability with 21-day storage stability, and an antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, Salmonella enterica ATCC 14028, Klebsiella pneumoniae ATCC 10031, and Escherichia coli ATCC 25922. In vivo administration of L. plantarum Y10b in a MetS rat model resulted in significant hypoglycemic, hypocholesterolemic, and anti-obesity effects. In conclusion, L. plantarum Y10b is a promising probiotic for managing MetS manifestations. Further clinical investigations for use as a therapeutic intervention are highly recommended.

Kenya, like many countries, faces the challenge of transforming its food systems to make them more just, resilient, and sustainable. A significant obstacle in this transformation is the challenge of meaningfully including various actors—food producers, researchers, policymakers, entrepreneurs, and consumers—in decision-making processes. Farmers, in particular, are often excluded from such critical discussions. This case study examines the Governor’s Day with Farmers (GDF) initiative in Kakamega County, Kenya. The GDF takes a bottom-up approach to agricultural policymaking, empowering farmers and ensuring greater inclusivity in food systems transformation. Using original qualitative data, including expert interviews, document analysis, and participant observation, the authors analyzed the preliminary impacts of two iterations of GDF. The case study’s findings suggest that GDF serves as a vital platform for stakeholder engagement, enabling farmers to voice concerns directly to policymakers. This increased representation and dialogue help policymakers better understand farmers’ needs and facilitates the integration of farmer-driven priorities into local government planning processes. In this way, GDF strengthens the link between farmers and policymakers, promoting more inclusive and responsive governance in the agricultural sector. The study also identified several challenges. First, there is a risk that GDF may be exploited for political purposes rather than serving as a genuine process for inclusive policymaking. Such political instrumentalization would undermine its effectiveness. Second, farmer organizations must be adequately equipped—both financially and technically—if they are to take the lead in extending the initiative beyond Kakamega to other counties in Kenya. In this community case study, GDF emerges as a promising policy tool for inclusive governance in food systems transformation. It empowers farmers and has the potential to contribute to meaningful policy change, provided that risks such as political exploitation and resource constraints are managed effectively. To maintain the initiative’s impact over time, efforts will be needed to overcome financial constraints, mitigate political interference, and ensure adequate follow-up and integration into policymaking processes.

Abstract Abstract: Purpose: UK food system transformation is urgently needed but blue foods (fish) have been only minimally part of this discourse. Informed by community action research in a UK southwest coastal city, fish was identified as a food commodity for food system innovation, leading to local collaborative ‘co-design’ of an iconic British food. The ‘Plymouth Fish Finger’ pilot assessed the practicalities and challenges of this social innovation and its provision into the school meal system. 
Design: Exploratory creative mixed methods mapped the journey of the Fish Finger as a social innovation. Methods drew on ‘co-production’ approaches, involving Community Food Researchers (CFR), co-design with secondary school students, expert fish/school stakeholder consultations, educational pop-up taste tests in primary schools, processual observations and fieldnote reflections. Descriptive statistics and participatory analyses provided quantitative and qualitative insights respectively. 
Findings: Taste testing with schools and communities showed positive sensory and educational attributes. Participatory analyses resulted in five core themes: i) ‘Supply’ – disrupting traditional supply chains; ii) ‘Environmental benefits’ - reduced impact of small vessels; iii) ‘Processing’ - making an appealing product; iv) ‘Education’ - the value of educational input; and v) ‘Upscaling and legacy’ – routes to possible future expansion. An underpinning category was also constructed - ‘Pride and identity meets reality’ which illuminates pride in the product and the imperative of its economic viability. 
Originality: This small-scale exploratory pilot study forged relationships between academics, communities, fishing industry stakeholders, schools and school meal providers. It successfully built the concept of a community-led fish finger social innovation, advocating for collaborative action towards (blue) food system transformation. This paper offers insights and recommendations for research, policy and practice, which exemplify the complex interplay between factors driving distortions in access to and availability of fish within local food systems. 

Climate change exacerbates the challenge of soil salinity, directly threatening the agricultural yields of staple crops such as wheat. Salinity currently affects at least 20% of total arable land and this figure is expected to worsen depending on future climate change trends. Aiming at improving the salt tolerance of wheat and ensuring future food security, researchers use, for example, multi-omics tools and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to understand plant stress tolerance, with transcription factors playing a crucial role in regulating stress responses. Here, we describe the use of a next-generation PCR method, Hyperplex PCR (hpPCR), to analyze a 20-plex transcription factor panel focusing on three underexplored wheat transcription factor families-bHLH, C3H, and RAV-to identify their involvement in salt stress. All measured transcription factors, except one of the RAV (related to ABI3 and VP1) targets in shoot tissue, were observed to be downregulated in the presence of 100mM NaCl. Compared to 2-step RT-qPCR, hpPCR measured the same upregulation and downregulation trends for all targets with up to 18 fewer PCR cycles.

Food allergies have been on the rise in the Western world and are now considered to have become a serious public health problem. Iceland is no exception. Little was known about the prevalence of food allergies in Iceland until the end of the last century. At that time, and at the beginning of this century, Icelanders were involved in extensive international research on food allergies. The first study was in 18-month-old children, which showed food allergies in 1.85% of the children, with egg allergies the most common. In The European Community Respiratory Health Survey IgE antibodies for 6 foods were positive in 1.8% and when measured for 24 foods, they were positive in 7.7% of the participants. The EuroPrevall food research was conducted about 10 years later. Among children aged 7-10 years in Iceland, 11% had IgE antibodies when tested for 24 foods and 1.9% had food allergies, most of them to eggs. Among 20-54 years old Icelandic adults, 6.55% had IgE antibodies to the same foods and 1.4% had allergies. When newborns were followed up in Iceland, 1.86% were found to have a confirmed food allergy at the age of one year, and at the age of two, 0.62% were allergic to milk and 1.47% were allergic to eggs. At 6 - 10 years of age, food allergies in 8 cities in Europe were 1.4-3.8%, but results for individual cities are not available. All these results target IgE-mediated allergies. In this review article, we review the main research on food allergies that Icelanders have participated in.

From origin tracing, processing, to quality regulation: Molecular mechanism advances in medicinal foods research by integrating multi-omics tools

Dr. Prem Bhandari is a distinguished social scientist and a member of the International Advisory Board of Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology (DJSA). Dr. Bhandari was born and raised in rural Nepal, where he began his academic pursuits. His educational journey continued across Kathmandu, Chitwan, Thailand, and the USA, covering diverse fields of study including biology, agricultural economics, rural development planning, and rural sociology and demography. Dr. Bhandari completed his PhD in Rural Sociology and Demography from the Pennsylvania State University, USA. His research interests are broad, spanning fertility, migration, rural livelihoods, population health, and the socio-economic and cultural determinants of social change, with a particular focus on Nepal and South Asia. His current research focuses on factors contributing to profitability in agritourism, visitor attractions, and activity diversification in agritourism. His academic career spans several prestigious institutions, including Tribhuvan University, Nepal; the University of Alberta, Canada; the University of Michigan; and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. In Nepal, Dr. Bhandari has contributed to applied research in social science through the Institute for Social and Environmental Research-Nepal (ISER-N). In addition to his roles in teaching, research, and Extension, he has been deeply engaged in national and international research collaborations, hosting and participating in conferences, mentoring scholars in Nepal and the U.S., and serving as an editor for academic journals. His positive attitude, warm heart, simplicity, and willingness to share his valuable time, experiences, and skills, and his contribution through publishing research articles in food security, migration, and research methods for the DJSA have encouraged us to get to know him better. We believe his life trajectory will serve as a profound source of inspiration for emerging scholars to shape their own lives. We are thankful and extend our sincere gratitude to Dr. Bhandari for accepting the proposal for a written interview, in which he has generously and thoughtfully engaged.

Purpose This study aims to uncover the key research themes and outline future avenues of research in the domain of consumer behaviour towards organic food through a bibliometric analysis. Design/methodology/approach A total of 386 papers were retrieved from the Scopus database from 2004 to 2025. A content analysis was performed on a curated set of 69 articles that emerged from bibliographic coupling. VOSviewer and RStudio were used to analyse, integrate and visualise the data. Findings The findings provided a clearer overarching view of publication trends, highlighting influential countries, institutions, organisations and journals that previous reviews had largely overlooked or underexplored. The prestige analysis identified the most prestigious papers by examining their augmented PageRank. Further, the bibliographic coupling analysis enabled us to categorise the literature into five thematic clusters, in which we identified existing research gaps and proposed directions for future researchers. Originality/value While existing literature has examined selected determinants of consumer behaviour towards organic food, it remains fragmented and lacks an integrated synthesis. This study is among the forerunners to comprehensively map the intellectual and thematic structure of consumer behaviour towards organic food research through rigorous bibliometric analysis. More importantly, the proposed future research avenues based on the theory, context, characteristics and methodology framework, hold the potential to enrich academic inquiry and policymaking in this domain.

Background. Lactic fermentation of potato tubers is a niche yet promising direction in research in functional foods, offering the possibility of enhancing their health-promoting value. Due to their high starch content and beneficial profile of bioactive compounds, potatoes are an important and a valuable raw material for food production. In response to consumer demand for novel products, an attempt was made to apply lactic fermentation to potatoes and to assess the impact of this process on their health-promoting properties. Material and methods. Four potato cultivars were subjected to fermentation: Bila, Mia, Wega, and Werbena. For each cultivar, two variants of fermented products were prepared – one with dill and one with rosemary. The process was carried out at room temperature (approx. 21°C) for 25 days in 2% iodized sodium chloride solution. In the final products, dry matter content, health-promoting compounds (total polyphenols, flavonoids, chlorogenic acid), and antioxidant capacity (FRAP method) were determined. A sensory evaluation was also conducted among 50 respondents aged 19–65. Participants assessed basic sensory attributes (taste, aroma, color, texture) as well as palatability and overall desirability using a 5-point hedonic scale. Results. The fermentation process increased the content of health-promoting compounds in all analyzed cultivars. The average increase in polyphenol content, regardless of cultivar and added herbs, was 13.0%, flavonoids 12.8%, and the chlorogenic acid content approximately doubled compared to the non-fermented samples. The increase in these compounds resulted in a marked improvement in antioxidant properties – on average by 32.8%. The highest accumulation of health-promoting compounds was found in the Bila cultivar, which after fermentation (regardless of the herb used), exhibited the highest antioxidant activity. In consumer evaluation, the highest ratings were given to products from the Mia and Werbena cultivars fermented with dill. Fermentation with dill, compared to rosemary, resulted in a greater increase in health-promoting compounds and better sensory ratings. Conclusion. Lactic fermentation effectively enhances the nutritional and health-promoting value of potato tubers while also improves their organoleptic properties. The results indicate the potential for implementing fermented potatoes as innovative functional products that meet the needs of modern consumers.

The red pigment B-phycoerythrin (B-PE), a component of the light- harvesting complex of the microalgae Porphyridium purpureum, has gained wide practical application in recent years in food, cosmetics, pharmacology, and biomedical research. The elaborated technologies for large-scale cultivation of P. purpureum and the high content of B- PE in its biomass are the basis for expanding the practical application of this pigment. The study was aimed to develop a method for obtaining aqueous B-PE extract from the biomass of red microalgae P. purpureum. The technological scheme for obtaining B- PE pigment from P. purpureum biomass was proposed, which includes the main stages: cultivation of microalgae, separation of the obtained biomass from the culture medium, destruction of cell walls of P. purpureum and B-PE extraction, identification, quantification and quality control of the obtained extract, storage of the aqueous extract of B-PE. The biotechnological principles of B- PE extract production from marine microalgae P. purpureum have been developed. Optimal conditions of microalgae culture cultivation, biomass storage, cell destruction and pigment extraction, as well as storage of the obtained B- PE extract were determined. The method of separation of P. purpureum biomass from the culture medium using a flow-type separator was tested and recommended. The advantages of the freezing method for long-term storage of the obtained biomass and aqueous extracts in terms of B-PE pigment stability have been experimentally proved. General recommendations for the establishment of pilot production of the pigment are given.

Astaxanthin (ASTA) has anti-aging properties but is limited by poor oral bioavailability. Nanostarch has emerged as a promising carrier to enhance the delivery of bioactive compounds, attracting growing interest in functional food research. This study prepared ASTA-loaded tapioca starch nanoparticles and characterized their structure. Meanwhile, Caenorhabditis elegans was used as a model to study the anti-aging activity of nanostarch-astaxanthin (NS-ASTA). The resulting NS-ASTA exhibited an average particle size of 187.13 ± 10.24 nm with an improved polydispersity index of 0.398, compared to 0.559 for the carrier. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction analyses confirmed the successful formation of a composite via hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions. Furthermore, in the C. elegans model, NS-ASTA treatment significantly extended the maximum lifespan from 20 to 26 days under identical culture conditions. Compared with ASTA, NS-ASTA enhanced the worm's resistance to heat and ultraviolet stress, improved motility, and reduced intestinal lipofuscin accumulation. A 42.46% reduction in accumulation was observed in the NS-ASTA-treated (0.8 mg mL-1) group compared to the ASTA group. The lifespan-extending effect of NS-ASTA was absent in the short-lived daf-16 mutant strain, and NS-ASTA promoted nuclear translocation of DAF-16 transcription factors. NS-ASTA exhibits superior anti-aging activity over free ASTA, and extends lifespan and improves health in C. elegans via the DAF-16 pathway. This study provides a theoretical basis for developing novel ASTA formulations and anti-aging products. © 2025 Society of Chemical Industry.

Plant-based yogurts are preferred as natural and healthy alternatives. This study provides a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of soy-based yogurt. The changes by fermentation of soy yogurt, starters, and potential effects of soy yogurt on the intestines were evaluated. A Web of Science database was used to analyze 76 "soy yogurt-isoflavone related (A)" articles (1998-2025) and 48 "soy yogurt-amino acid related (B)" (1997-2025), and 14 "soy yogurt-gut microbiota related (C)" articles (2016-2025) using the Bibliometrix Package and Biblioshiny interface in RStudio. Studies A have been published primarily in Food Bioscience, the Journal of Food Science, and The Science of Food and Agriculture. Studies on B have been published primarily in Food Chemistry, Food Research International, and the International Journal of Food Microbiology. The authors who have conducted the most research on the subject are Astheimer L.B. (for A) and Li (for B). According to abstract keywords, genistein and daidzein were studied in A, while "amino acids and free amino acids" were frequently associated with soy yogurt. "Yogurt and fermented" was listed in the motor themes, while "soy, milk, soymilk, fermentation, acid, probiotic, and bacteria" was listed in the basic themes. Daidzein, genistein, glycosidase, protein isolates, Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus acidophilus, and Lactobacillus delbrueckii were among the trending topics. "Gut microbiota" and "microbiota modulation" are participate in the most used term in C. This study is among the articles that comprehensively address alternative functional protein sources in sustainability. Journal performance, keywords, thematic development and author statuses will support new research on soy yogurt.

Industrial applications of selected <i>Journal of Food Science</i> articles

Current Research in Fermented Foods: Bridging Tradition and Science.

Integration of Mental Health Care into Food Allergy Practices: A Work Group Report of the AAAAI Integrative Medicine Committee.

Corrigendum to "New food ingredient via acid-tolerant Rhizopus oligosporus growth" [Applied Food Research Volume 4, Issue 2, December 2024, 100583

Corrigendum to “Innovative corn extrudates incorporating barley-oat flour blends: Nutritional, functional, and sensory evaluation” [Applied Food Research Volume 5, Issue 1 (2025) 100812