Melios Stergios, Johnson Hope, Grasso Simona
Teagasc, Ashtown Food Research Centre, Ashtown, D15 DY05 Dublin, Ireland; School of Agriculture and Food Science, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.
School of Law, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia.
Food Res Int. 2025 Jan;199:115360. doi: 10.1016/j.foodres.2024.115360. Epub 2024 Nov 17.
The food industry has to become more sustainable to face the challenge of food waste. The principles of circular economy are starting to be applied in real life and despite technological and regulatory challenges, some start-ups have started commercialising upcycled food products. Upcycled foods can be considered a new food category and to increase their potential it is essential to enhance their sensory quality and consumer appeal, while considering the regulatory framework that shapes their development. This review summarises the existing sensory studies on upcycled foods, highlighting gaps for future research. Moreover, it provides findings from a regulatory analysis of upcycled foods, highlighting the challenges and the opportunities to support upcycled food development. Since 2021, 34 studies have been published that include sensory evaluation of upcycled foods with at least 10% of upcycled ingredients. The incorporation of upcycled ingredients was reported to have considerable effects on the sensory characteristics of the final products. However, while undesirable alterations like dark hues and bitter tastes were reported, upcycled foods were often well-liked by consumers. The sensory evaluation approaches used in many studies were poor, using questionable techniques. Moreover, there was no in-depth work combining various ingredients and processing techniques and thus, upcycled ingredients and food matrices combinations should be more carefully designed and evaluated. A multidisciplinary approach and consumer involvement through co-creation are suggested for successful upcycled food product development. Further work is also required on how to enable upcycled foods using regulatory interventions.
食品行业必须变得更具可持续性，以应对食物浪费的挑战。循环经济原则已开始在现实生活中得到应用，尽管存在技术和监管方面的挑战，但一些初创企业已开始将升级再造食品商业化。升级再造食品可被视为一种新的食品类别，为了提高其潜力，在考虑影响其发展的监管框架的同时，提高其感官品质和消费者吸引力至关重要。本综述总结了现有的关于升级再造食品的感官研究，突出了未来研究的空白。此外，它还提供了对升级再造食品的监管分析结果，突出了支持升级再造食品发展的挑战和机遇。自2021年以来，已发表了34项研究，其中包括对含有至少10%升级再造成分的食品进行感官评价。据报道，升级再造成分的加入对最终产品的感官特性有相当大的影响。然而，虽然有报道称存在如深色和苦味等不良变化，但升级再造食品通常受到消费者的喜爱。许多研究中使用的感官评价方法不佳，采用的技术存在问题。此外，没有深入研究将各种成分和加工技术结合起来，因此，升级再造成分与食品基质的组合应更仔细地设计和评估。建议采用多学科方法并通过共同创造让消费者参与，以成功开发升级再造食品。还需要进一步研究如何通过监管干预来推动升级再造食品的发展。
