In this study, the effects of adding different levels (3%, 6%, 9% and 12%) of quinoa protein on the physicochemical properties, secondary structure, chemical forces, and microstructure of pork myofibrillar protein (MP) in a low-sodium salt system (0.40 mol/L NaCl, 0.10 mol/L KCl and 0.05 mol/L CaCl₂) were investigated. The results showed that the gel strength, water retention and dynamic rheological properties of MP were improved by adding quinoa protein, which increased the solubility and the absolute value of ζ-potential of MP, and reduced the particle size. Disulfide bonds and hydrophobic interactions were the dominant chemical forces in the mixed protein system, but the addition of quinine increased the amount of ionic and hydrogen bonds. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy showed that quinoa protein promoted the transformation of random coils to β-sheets and α-helixes and enhanced the stability of the MP gel. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that the quinoa protein increased the compactness of the gel. Therefore, quinoa protein, as a high-quality plant protein, can enhance the gel properties of MP. In particular, adding 6%–9% of quinoa protein is most effective in improving the gel properties of MP.

To investigate the effects of packaging method and storage temperature on the bacterial load, diversity and metabolic pathways in mutton, postportem mutton was stored in air packaging (AP), vacuum packaging (VP) or skin packaging (SP) for 30 days at chilled ((4 ± 1) ℃) or superchilled temperature ((−1.7 ± 0.2) ℃). The bacterial community composition during the storage period was analyzed by a combination of plate counting and high-throughput sequencing. The results showed that total viable count (TVC), Lactobacillus count, Pseudomonas count, Staphylococcus/Micrococcus count, mold and yeast count, and psychrophilic bacterial count were all lower in the SP group than in the AP and VP groups, and all the bacterial counts were significantly lower in the superchilled storage group than in the chilled storage group. The bacterial diversity showed a decreasing trend with storage time, and it was more complex in the chilled storage group than in the superchilled storage group. A total of 30 bacterial genera belonging to 10 bacterial phyla were obtained by high-throughput sequencing of the V3–V4 region of the 16S rDNA gene. For all samples, the most abundant phyla were Proteobacteria and Firmicutes. Pseudomonas was the dominant genus in the AP group but less abundant in the SP and VP groups. Carnobacterium, Brochothrix and Lactobacillus were the dominant genera at the end of storage for all three groups. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis revealed that carbohydrate, amino acid and nucleotide metabolism were the major metabolic pathways during the storage of mutton. Amino acid metabolism was dominant during the early storage period, while carbohydrate and nucleotide metabolism were dominant during the late storage period. The difference in metabolic abundance was mainly attributed to the difference in microflora structure caused by packaging methods and storage temperatures. In conclusion, SP combined with superchilled temperature can reduce the microbial load and community diversity in mutton during storage, helping to maintain the quality of mutton.

In order to investigate the effect of the addition of edible mushrooms on the quality and flavor of chicken soup, chicken soups were prepared from three-yellow chicken and one of five edible mushrooms, Lentinus edodes, Clitocybe squamulose, Agrocybe aegerita, Sparassis crispa, or Hericium erinaceus, and their ash, crude fat, total sugar, flavor-active nucleotide content and volatile flavor components were determined. The results showed that the contents of ash, total sugar and flavor-active nucleotides in chicken soup with edible mushroom were significantly increased (P < 0.05) and the content of crude fat was significantly decreased (P < 0.05) compared with the blank chicken soup. Among the chicken soups with different edible mushroom, the contents of the ash, total sugar and total flavor-active nucleotides were the highest in the chicken soup with Clitocybe squamulose, which were 0.73%, 2.19 mg/mL and 733.58 mg/L, respectively. A total of 116 volatile flavor substances were identified by solid phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SPME-GC-MS), the main ones being alkanes and aldehydes, and the contents of alkanes and aldehydes in chicken soup with edible mushroom were higher than those in the blank chicken soup. The characteristic volatile flavor components in chicken soup with edible mushroom were analyzed using unsupervised principal component analysis (PCA), and supervised orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) was used to distinguish the overall differences between groups. Then, clustering analysis combined with heat map was performed, revealing that the volatile composition of chicken soup with Clitocybe squamulose and Agrocybe aegerita differed significantly from that of the blank chicken soup. Based on projection importance of variables (VIP) scores and S-plots, heptadecane, hexanal, 2-methyl-pentadecane, hexadecane, 2,6,10-trimethyl-pentadecane and 2,4-decadienal were found to be the main characteristic markers of chicken soup with Clitocybe squamulose and Agrocybe aegerita. In conclusion, the addition of edible mushrooms can improve the nutritional quality of chicken soup and promote the formation of flavor substances, and the quality of chicken soup with Clitocybe squamulose is the best.

In order to summarize the current status and evolution of surimi research in China and globally, 944 and 1082 research paper published in the period of 2009 to 2021 were retrieved using the keywords: yumi (in Chinee) and surimi from the China national knowledge infrastructure (CNKI) and Web of Science (WOS) databases and were test mined for the number of research papers, authors, countries, institutions and journals using CiteSpace and the online bibliometric analysis platform. Moreover, data visual analysis was carried out by plotting keyword clustering, time line and burstness maps. It was found that there has been increasing interest in surimi research. The number of surimi research papers indexed in CNKI and WOS has shown an increasing trend in the period from 2009 to 2021, and most papers were published in the top journals in the food field. China has published 441 research papers in English, ranking first in the world, accounting for 37.99% of the world’s total, followed by Thailand, the United States and Japan. The close cooperation between authors and research institutions in different regions and countries has formed an international academic community. The research content has shifted from the macroscopic field to the microscopic field, and the research hotspots have changed from processing technology and surimi quality to preservation and antifreezers. At present, “protein” “myosin” and “secondary structure” have become new keywords and the research content has reached the molecular level. The time zone analysis showed that the keywords “sensory evaluation” and “quality” span the entire research period and have become the cornerstones of surimi research. In conclusion, surimi research is still in an active stage and will have a bright future.

Ultrasound, as a green processing technology, is garnering more and more attention. In order to further understand the application of ultrasound in the meat field, bibliometric analysis using CiteSpace and HistCite was performed on 3624 pieces of literature pertaining to “Ultrasound” or “Ultrasonic” and “Meat” retrieved from the Web of Science (WOS) Core Collection database from 2009 to 2023. Text mining was performed for the number of articles, authors, countries, institutions and journals, and data visualization and analysis through keyword clustering and burst term maps were conducted in order to summarize the evolution and trend of meat research. The results showed that ultrasonic has attracted growing interest among meat researchers, and the total number of published articles is on the rise, and the journals with large publication volume are mostly the top ones in the meat field, and the number of articles published by China is 1650, which ranks first in the world, accounting for 45.53% of the total number of articles. Additionally, the US, Spain, Iran and other countries have published a large number of research articles in this field. There has been close between authors and research institutions in different regions and between countries, and academic teams with China as the core have been formed. The research mainly focuses on the application of ultrasonic in research on the functional properties of food, the extraction of bioactive substances from food and the inactivation of microorganisms in food, and future trends include ultrasound-assisted extraction, myofibrillar proteins and bacteriostatic activity. The results of the study show that ultrasonic in meat research is still in its active development stage and has good research prospects.

In this study, gelatin-gellan gum (GN-GG) composite gels were prepared by heat treatment, where the addition levels of GN and GG were optimized based on water-holding capacity (WHC) and swelling degree (SD). Furthermore, GN-GG composite gels added with Flammulina velutipes cellulose nanofibril (CNF) were prepared to improve the performance of GN-GG composite gels. Also, we investigated the effect of CNF on the WHC, SD, texture, rheology and microstructure of the composite gel. The results showed that the composite gel with 5% GN and 0.4% GG had good WHC and SD. The addition of CNF increased the WHC and SD and improved the storage and loss moduli, hardness, chewiness and gumminess of the composite gel. By measuring the ζ-potential and infrared spectrum of the composite gels, it was found that addition of CNF increased the absolute value of the ζ-potential, strengthened the hydrogen bond in the gel system, and increased the degree of protein crosslinking. The microstructure showed that CNF promoted the formation of gel networks and made the structure more uniform and compact. These findings show that the addition of CNF can improve the properties of composite gels and make the gel system more stable, and the suitable addition level of CNF is 0.6%.

The objective of this study was to explore the effects of the inoculation of mixed starter cultures of Lactobacillus and Staphylococcus (labeled L-S) on microbial community and flavor in fermented sausages during the ripening process. Culture-dependent (colony count) and culture-independent (high-throughput sequencing) methods were employed to evaluate bacterial communities. Volatile compounds were identified by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, and the results were analyzed by principal component analysis (PCA). The identified bacteria with high relative abundance included Lactobacillus and Pediococcus, and the relative abundances of Leuconostoc and Weissella in fermented sausages were remarkably decreased at the end of the ripening process. At the end of ripening, 2-nonenal, tetradecanal, ethylstearate and terpinyl acetate played substantial roles in the flavor development of the L-S fermented sausages. Sensory evaluation showed a high score in the L-S fermented sausages. Sausages can be inoculated with L-S starter culture to improve the safety and flavor of meat products.

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of dietary egg yolk phosphatidylcholine (EPC) and soybean phosphatidylcholine (SPC) on obesity mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD). After 60 days of dietary intervention, the effects were evaluated by biochemical indices and serum lipidomic analysis. EPC and SPC markedly reduced serum total cholesterol, serum triacylglycerol (TAG) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, while increased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. EPC was more effective in reducing malondialdehyde and superoxide dismutase in liver than SPC. Main lipids including glycerophospholipids, TAG, sphingolipids and fatty acyls were significantly modified by EPC. Compared with HFD, EPC increased 10 main differential lipids such as phosphatidyl ethanolamine (22:6_20:0). The expressions of related protein including sterol-regulatory element binding proteins sterol-regulatory element binding proteins (SREBP-1c) and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α (PPAR-α) were significantly down-regulated with EPC treatment. Therefore, EPC was more effective than SPC in improving obesity by regulating glycerophospholipid metabolism.