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Background The biodeterioration of food commodities by microbial pathogens remains a major public health concern. Worldwide, investigations have been carried out to develop harmless natural food preservatives based on essential oils (EOs) to protect food commodities, and advances have been made to meet users’ acceptance as a substitute for synthetic preservatives. Scope and approach In recent years, antimicrobial and antioxidant potential of the EOs from Thymus species have been documented with increasing demands from legislation changes, adaptation to the consumer trends, search for alternatives to solve rising food microbial pathogen resistance, and substitution of synthetic preservatives associated with adverse health effects. Hence, the present review paper emphasizes on the antimicrobial and antioxidant applications of EOs from different species of the genus Thymus and discloses the gaps where investigations are required. In addition, progress in the using Thymus EOs (TEOs) based nanoemulsions in food preservation, and their challenges in the application in food systems have also been discussed. Key findings and conclusions TEOs are rich in pharmacologically active constituents that confirm their industrial and health applications. In addition, TEOs and their nanoemulsions not only provide themselves to exploit in the food industry, but are also put under GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) category, and have shown potential inhibitory activity against a broad range of pathogens in food commodities. Thus, TEOs can be a source for the development of natural preservatives that meet the needs of the food industry to satisfy both its requirements and those of the consumers. However, despite the potential for EOs, more studies are required to assess their probable side effects and safety levels before considering their deployment for food purposes.

High generation of food waste poses potentially serious pollution issues and high handling costs. However, food processing wastes rich in nutrients are attractive substrates for the bioconversion for valuable bioproducts such as enzymes, pigments, biofuels, oligosaccharides, growth-promoting substrates, polysaccharides, proteins, bioplastics, biosurfactants, and bioactive compounds. Microbiological and enzymatic methods have been described as a sustainable solution for obtaining of these bioproducts from food wastes. Progress has currently been made in optimizing processes at the laboratory level, but studies need to be based on the scale-up of bioprocesses. In view of the increasing interest in this topic, this short review aims to highlight recent studies on microbiological and enzymatic processes for converting food waste to useful bioproducts.

Essential oils, extracts and chemical components from aromatic plants are widely used as flavors and fragrances by the food and cosmetics industries because they act highly effective against plant pathogens and pests. According to recent research studies, some botanicals derived from higher plants are efficient insecticides against particular pests, and fungicidal against necrotrophic and biotrophic plant pathogens, in addition to their use in food production. Towards substituting synthetic insecticides/fungicides with natural substitutes, which do not carry negative health effects, the essential oils, extracts and chemical components of Curcuma species have been examined against various plant pathogens and insect pests that harm food crops. The present review discusses the efficacy of essential oils, extracts and few main components derived from a wide range of Curcuma plants against a wide variety of pests and pathogens of food crops. In addition, their mechanism of action against insects and plant pathogens as well as their potential impact on crops (i.e. the allelopathic nature) are discussed. Finally, the commercialization of Curcuma-based pesticides is reviewed and challenges and knowledge gaps are highlighted.

Sorghum is the fifth cereal most produced in the world after wheat, rice, maize, and barley. In some regions, this crop is replacing maize, due to its high yield, resistance to drought and heat. There are several varieties of sorghum, whose coloration varies from cream, lemon-yellow, red, and even black. Pigmented sorghum grain is a rich source of antioxidants like polyphenols, mainly tannins, which have multiple benefits on human health such as, antiproliferative properties associated with the prevention of certain cancers, antioxidant activities related to the prevention of associated diseases to oxidative stress, antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory effects, it also improves glucose metabolism. Despite having these types of compounds, it is not possible to assimilate them, their use in the food industry has been limited, since sorghum is considered a food of low nutritional value, due to the presence of anti-nutritional factors such as strong tannins which form complexes with proteins and iron, thus reducing their digestibility. Based on these restrictions that this product has had as food for humans, the analysis of this review emphasizes the valorization of sorghum as a source of bioactive substances and the importance they confer on human health because of the biological potential it has.

An entirely unknown species of coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak occurred in December 2019. COVID-19 has already affected more than 180 million people causing ~3.91 million deaths globally till the end of June 2021. During this emergency, the food nutraceuticals can be a potential therapeutic candidate. Curcumin is the natural and safe bioactive compound of the turmeric (Curcuma longaL.) plant and is known to possess potent anti-microbial and immuno-modulatory properties. This review paper covers the various extraction and quantification techniques of curcumin and its usage to produce functional food. The potential of curcumin in boosting the immune system has also been explored. The review will help develop insight and new knowledge about curcumin's role as an immune-booster and therapeutic agent against COVID-19. The manuscript will also encourage and assist the scientists and researchers who have an association with drug development, pharmacology, functional foods, and nutraceuticals to develop curcumin-based formulations.

The impact of increasing human population, rising food demand, and adverse effects of climate change, viz., changing rainfall pattern, rising temperature, biotic-abiotic stresses, etc., has tremendously affected global food security. In addition, increased anthropogenic inputs from urbanization, industrialization, as well as outrageous use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides have posed a severe threat to the sustainability of the agroecosystems. For many decades, the use of chemical pesticides against insect and microbial pests has become an integrative part of agriculture and contributed significantly to the crop improvement. But, their long-term persistence, cytotoxicity, and microbial resistance have resulted negative impact on the biosphere, thus creating pollution of diverse ecosystems, land degradation, and biodiversity losses. For the last two decades, alternate pest management strategies have become the new avenues for controlling pest and diseases in a greener, safer, and eco-friendly manner. The use of biological control agents (termed as biocides) such as both microbe- and plant-based formulations has been known to be the major emerging tool in crop disease/pest management and appealing alternative to the chemical pesticide in sustainable agriculture. Biopesticides employ the use of naturally occurring substances, i.e., living organisms (natural enemies) or their products (phytochemicals, microbial products) or by-products (semiochemicals) that control pests by nontoxic mechanisms, with high targeted activity against causal agents (insects, fungi, weeds, viruses, nematodes, etc.), and nonpersistence in the environment. The use of biopesticide alone or in combination with agrochemicals has become the new tool in crop protection as a part of biointensive integrated pest management (IPM) strategies. Although biopesticides are slowly substituting the chemical pesticides with great promise, its use to the desired extent is lacking; hence insight on such biological agents is a prerequisite. In this chapter, we have summarized the sources of biopesticides, their plant protective mechanisms (mode of action), availability, and status in India, as well as some critical pros and cons of its use.

One of the industrial sectors with the highest production in the world is agriculture, and therefore it is also one of the sectors that generate the greatest amount of waste. This waste is not used in its entirety and the remnants are disposed of in the correct way generating serious environmental problems. Agro-industrial waste includes a wide range of products of heterogeneous nature, which include seeds, husks, roots, stems, among others. These residues are characterized by a high content of proteins, carbohydrates or minerals so they could be used for the design of new human and animal foods, however, the content of toxic compounds limits their use. These 288residues are mostly characterized by having a high content of saponins, phytates, oxalates, alkaloids, among others, which have a negative effect on health. Therefore, it is necessary to apply treatments to be able to use these products. Biotechnological processes are a viable alternative to take advantage of these residues, given that during these toxic compounds are hydrolyzed and compounds are generated with biological activities such as antioxidants, antimicrobials, anticancer, antihypertensive, among others, which could have application in other industries such as pharmaceuticals. Nowadays, research to obtain biocompounds with these characteristics is growing since the beneficial effects of their consumption have been demonstrated. Therefore, fermentation processes are a profitable strategy to obtain high value-added biocompounds from agro-industrial residues. The objective of this chapter is to know the main toxic compounds present in agro-industrial waste and the biocompounds that can be generated from such waste according to the microorganism (bacteria, yeasts, fungi) used for fermentation.

Biopesticide production has become a topic of intense research because of the application and use of this kind of bioactive agents to replace some traditional pesticides that are synthesized chemically, which are applied to food commodities. Worldwide, the market of biopesticides grows annually at a rate of 45% in North America, 25% in Europe and Oceania, 15% in Latin and South American countries, and 7% in Asia. Trends in the modern agriculture reflect an increment of the use of fungal and bacterial biopesticides for which the design of efficient bioprocesses and strategies to improve the productivity and stability of these bioactive agents is a necessity. In this chapter, biological control is described in detail, with particular focus on the significant advances in the production of biopesticides. Also, biocontrol is focused as an alternative to some synthetic chemical treatments that cause environmental, human health, and food quality risks. Recent data about the state of the art of production of biopesticides by solid-state bioprocessing of agroindustrial wastes is discussed, and finally we describe some strategies for high-density bio-inoculant cultivation, describing the influence of water stress as one the best conditions for the production of fungal spores, which is an inexpensive biotechnologic option for modern agriculture in developing countries.

Humanity has been used microbial biomass for food production and now; for biofuels, drugs, and other useful compounds. Different microorganisms are employed in the production of biomass ranging from bacteria, yeast, fungi, and algae which are used to produce food, bioactive compounds, enzymes, hydrolysates, among others. Due to the accelerated population growth in the world and the need to meet its nutritional requirements, the search for alternatives that help to solve this social problem is one of the most pressing tasks.

Undoubtedly, the food industry is undergoing a dynamic process of transformation in its continual development in order to meet the requirements and solve the great problems represented by a constantly growing global population and food claimant in both quantity and quality. In this sense, it is necessary to evaluate the technological trends and advances that will change the landscape of the food processing industry, highlighting the latest requirements for equipment functionality. In particular, it is crucial to evaluate the influence of sustainable green biotechnology-based technologies to consolidate the food industry of the future, today, and it must be done by analyzing the mega-consumption trends that shape the future of industry, which range from local sourcing to on-the-go food, to an increase in organic foods and clean labels (understanding ingredients on food labels). While these things may seem alien to food manufacturing, they have a considerable influence on the way products are manufactured. This paper reviews in detail the conditions of the food industry, and particularly analyzes the application of emerging technologies in food preservation, extraction of bioactive compounds, bioengineering tools and other bio-based strategies for the development of the food industry., Graphical Abstract

Bacteria have been used in the food industry to produce flavors, dyes, thickeners, and to increase food value, because bacterial fermentations favor the obtention of different metabolites such as tannins and different nutritional compounds in food. Lactiplantibacillus plantarum was one the first species to be studied for industrial purposes, and its efficacy to obtaining tannins using fermentation processes. Bacterial fermentation helps to obtain a product with an added value of better quality and without the need to use strong solvents that can reduce their quality and safety. To release tannins, it is necessary to subject the substrate to different conditions to activate the enzyme tannin acyl hydrolase (tannase). The tannase-released compounds can have beneficial effects on health such as antioxidant, anticancer and cardioprotective properties, among others. Therefore, this review analyzes tannase release and other metabolites by fermentation processes.

Macrofungi, mushrooms or higher fungi have been employed for medicinal and food purposes for decades, nevertheless, also represent, a novel and fruitful source of biologically relevant compounds, that could serve as health enhancers in diverse human illness conditions; specially, mushrooms, are considered a relevant source of the distictive molecule – ergothioneine, an excellent supply of important antioxidant, which boosts human health and shows potential as a preservative in food, promoting their utilization as functional foods, in this context, the present review overviews and complies current knowledge and trends of nutrients as well as bioactive mushroom components including the potential of Huitlacoche and ergothioneine, and the possible health benefits of these biological products and their activities have been explored which enhances the utilization of mushrooms.

Modern agriculture uses nanobiotechnology development as one of the most valuable tools. Using biomolecules in nanotechnology provides new agrochemical nanostructured formulations with different action mechanisms to increase crop productivity and improve their protection decreasing chemical pesticide use. Sustainability and safety of agriculturally cultivated crops are achieved by application of nanoformulations used for control of plant disease related with microorganisms, insects and environmental factors. Nanostructures are also applied for controlled release of nutrients and growth regulators. Safety of nanomaterials use and their environmental impacts are the important factors to acceptance of these new technologies by consumer and agricultural companies.

Tannins are an interesting group of natural compounds of a polyphenolic nature that can be found in the plant kingdom, principally in leaves, bark, stems, wood, flowers, fruits, and seeds; they are considered to be a plant’s secondary metabolites and the second most abundant group of phenols present in nature. They have several important biological activities such as to participate in defense mechanisms in plants because they form complexes with different compounds, principally proteins; this last property is undesirable in tannin-rich foods and beverages; for this reason, the enzymatic hydrolysis of tannins is a key topic in the food industry. Tannases have been studied because they are versatile and complex enzymes with commercial importance.

Citrus peels are underutilized in the processing industry and are commonly considered as waste as their chemical composition varies. However, it is possible to recover some value-added products, one of them being essential oil, which is widely used in the food industry. Due to the current increase in global demand for citrus essential oils, it is necessary to implement processes directed to the maximum recovery of oil from waste peels. Numerous efforts have been made without achieving significant improvements in yields. In this work, enzymatic pretreatments of orange, lemon, and grapefruit peels were applied to achieve increased yields of essential oil extracted by hydro-distillation. In two of the sources it was possible to increase the essential oil yield from two to six times. Moreover, a significant amount of fermentable sugars which can be used in the production of certain other compounds of interest through fermentation was obtained.

Indiscriminate use of antibiotics for the control of pathogenic bacteria has increased their resistance to antibiotics. Multidrug-resistant bacteria are an increasing problem in the recent years and pose serious therapeutic difficulties because of their higher level of resistance. An alternative to this serious problem is to use essential oils of diverse plants for bacterial control. Most of the studies have focused on in vitro testing of the antimicrobial property of these oils and even have compared the use of these oils against commercial antibiotics. In this chapter, essential oils are defined, as well as other related aspects such as sources of essential oils, antimicrobial activity of each essential oil, and their applications as a natural alternative are also discussed.

The technology of genetically modified foods (also called GM foods) allows selection of an specific genetic trait from one organism and introduces it in the genetic code of the food source through genetic engineering techniques. This has made possible to develop food crops with specific beneficial traits and elimination of undesirable traits in others. In spite of the great agricultural advantages of transgenic crops these do not have acceptance in some countries because: a) the suspicious of consumer as result of allergic reactions observed with some transgenic crops, b) the lack of worldwide regulations to these crops, and c) the negative side effects to environment by the massive farming of transgenic crops, for example loss of genetic diversity, creation of higher adapting weeds, the migration of transgenic genes to their wild relatives and less likely migration of transgenic genes to other unrelated organisms by horizontal transference. Also, the contamination of food with transgenic residues has persuaded different countries to restrict importation of food made with transgenic plants or labelling food or ingredients as or from transgenic crops. There are worrying aspects about the effect of transgenic food over human health such as: 1) many of transgenic genes used today have never been present in human diet, making impossible to know the effect that they will cause, 2) the allergic potential of some proteins codified by some transgenic genes, and 3) in the genetic engineering of crops, many times a gene with antibiotic resistance is included like selectable gene, having the possibility that this gene migrates to pathogen bacteria that affect the health of plants, human and animal, developing bacterial resistance to those antibiotics making hard to have bacterial control. In the present work, literature is reviewed in order to present a perspective about some of the above concerns. In addition, are presented results of different studies in order to answer the following questions: a). Do DNA and proteins are degraded during the traditional soybean food processing?, b). Does food processing affect the persistence of transgenic residues? and c) Does is possible to develop more efficient techniques for detection of transgenic residues in soybean-based foods?