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Protection of frying oil from deterioration by adding plant phenolic extracts to guarantee the quality of fried foods becomes the primary approach to promote the sustainable development of deep frying. Therefore, sources, antioxidant effects, and mechanisms of plant phenolic extracts recently applied in the quality protection of frying oil as well as challenges for the actual use of these extracts are comprehensively reviewed in this study. Spices, herbs, berries, tea leaves, and fruit and vegetable wastes are common sources for preparing phenolic extracts showing comparative antioxidant capacity referring to the synthetic antioxidants. The general effect of using these natural antioxidants is the improvement of thermal stability to extend the shelf life of frying oil and thus the modification of edible quality of fried foods. Specifically, the increases in common quality attributes and amount of hazardous products and the oxidative reduction of unsaturated triacylglycerols without negatively influencing the sensory quality are inhibited when suitable plant extracts are applied. The incorporation of plant phenolic extracts other than synthetic counterparts in frying oil has been demonstrated as a potential method to improve the frying performance of oils. However, challenges for the scale application of plant phenolic extracts, such as the purity, thermal stability, and antioxidant timing, are still needed to be further investigated.

Effects of ultrasound (UT) treatments on the structural, physicochemical, and functional properties of myofibrillar proteins (MPs), as well as their ability to bind to flavor compounds from spices, were investigated. The results demonstrated that UT treatment enhanced surface hydrophobicity, SH content, and absolute ζ-potential value of the MPs. Atomic force microscopy analysis displayed formation of MPs aggregates with small particle size in the UT-treated MPs samples. Meanwhile, UT treatment could improve the emulsifying properties and physical stability of MPs’ emulsion. Additionally, the MPs gel network structure and stability significantly improved following UT treatment. Changes in the structural, physicochemical, and functional properties enhanced the ability of MPs to bind to flavor substances from spices depending on the duration of UT treatment. Furthermore, correlation analysis showed that the ability of myristicin, anethole, and estragole to bind to MPs was highly correlated with surface hydrophobicity, ζ-potential value, and α-helix content of MPs. The results of this study may help in understanding the relationship between the changes in MPs properties during the processing of meat products and their ability to bind to flavors from spices, thereby improving flavors retention and taste of processed meat products.