KU Leuven, Laboratory of Food Technology (member of Leuven Food Science and Nutrition Research Center, LFoRCe), Department of Microbial and Molecular Systems (M²S), Kasteelpark Arenberg 22 box 2457, 3001 Leuven, Belgium.
KU Leuven KULAK, Laboratory Food and Lipids (member of Leuven Food Science and Nutrition Research Center, LFoRCe), Department of Microbial and Molecular Systems (M²S), E. Sabbelaan 53, 8500 Kortrijk, Belgium.
Biotechnol Adv. 2019 Dec;37(8):107419. doi: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2019.107419. Epub 2019 Jul 21.
Microalgae are considered promising functional food ingredients due to their balanced composition, containing multiple nutritional and health-beneficial components. However, their functionality in food products is not limited to health aspects, since microalgae can also play a structuring role in food, for instance as a texturizing ingredient. Photoautotrophic microalgae are actually rich in structural biopolymers such as proteins, storage polysaccharides, and cell wall related polysaccharides, and their presence might possibly alter the rheological properties of the enriched food product. A first approach to benefit from these structural biopolymers consists of isolating the cell wall related polysaccharides for use as food hydrocolloids. The potential of extracted cell wall polysaccharides as food hydrocolloids has only been shown for a few microalgae species, mainly due to an enormous diversity in molecular structure and composition. Nevertheless, with intrinsic viscosities comparable or higher than those of commercial thickening agents, extracellular polysaccharides of red microalgae and cyanobacteria could be a promising source of novel food hydrocolloids. A more sustainable approach would be to incorporate the whole microalgal biomass into food products, to combine health benefits with potential structuring benefits, i.e. providing desired rheological properties of the enriched food product. If microalgal biomass would act as a thickening agent, this would actually reduce the need for additional texturizing ingredients. Even though only limitedly studied so far, food processing operations have been proven successful in establishing desired microstructural and rheological properties. In fact, the use of cell disruption techniques allows the release of intracellular compounds, which become available to create strong particle aggregates resulting in an improved viscosity and network structure. Food processing operations might not only be favorable in terms of rheological properties, but also for enhancing the bioaccessibility of several bioactive compounds. However, this research area is only very scarcely explored, and there is a demand for more standardized research studies to draw conclusions on the effect of processing on the nutritional quality of food products enriched with microalgae. Even though considered as promising food ingredients, some major scientific challenges have been pointed out throughout this review paper for the successful design of microalgal based food products.
微藻被认为是有前途的功能性食品成分，因为它们的成分均衡，含有多种营养和有益健康的成分。然而，它们在食品中的功能不仅限于健康方面，因为微藻还可以在食品中发挥结构作用，例如作为一种质构成分。光自养微藻实际上富含结构生物聚合物，如蛋白质、储存多糖和细胞壁相关多糖，它们的存在可能会改变富含的食品产品的流变特性。利用这些结构生物聚合物的一种初步方法是分离细胞壁相关多糖，用作食品水胶体。提取的细胞壁多糖作为食品水胶体的潜力仅在少数几种微藻物种中得到了证明，主要是由于其分子结构和组成的巨大多样性。然而，由于其特性粘数与商业增稠剂相当或更高，红藻和蓝藻的细胞外多糖可能是新型食品水胶体的有前途的来源。更可持续的方法是将整个微藻生物质纳入食品产品中，将健康益处与潜在的结构益处相结合，即提供富含的食品产品所需的流变特性。如果微藻生物质作为增稠剂，实际上会减少对额外质构成分的需求。尽管目前研究有限，但食品加工操作已被证明可以成功地建立所需的微观结构和流变特性。事实上，使用细胞破碎技术可以释放细胞内化合物，这些化合物可以用来形成强的颗粒聚集体，从而提高粘度和网络结构。食品加工操作不仅在流变特性方面有利，而且还可以提高几种生物活性化合物的生物利用度。然而，这个研究领域几乎没有被探索过，需要更多标准化的研究来得出关于加工对富含微藻的食品产品营养质量影响的结论。尽管被认为是有前途的食品成分，但在本综述论文中，为了成功设计基于微藻的食品产品，已经指出了一些重大的科学挑战。
