In previous research, we demonstrated that long-term consumption of thermally oxidized oil leads to neuroinflammation and anxiety in mice. Therefore, in this study, we employed polar lipid components from thermo-induced oxidized oil to induce neurodamage. Behavioral assessments revealed that both the linoleic acid and AUDA (a classical inhibitor of soluble epoxide hydrolase) groups exhibited significantly reduced anxiety-like behaviors compared to the model group (P < 0.05). Immunofluorescence analysis indicated that microglial activation in the hippocampus was attenuated in both the linoleic acid and AUDA groups relative to the model group, accompanied by a reduction in the mRNA expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, NOS2, TNF-α) and an upregulation of neuroprotective factors (IL-4, IL-10, BDNF). Lipidomic profiling of hippocampal tissue revealed that the lipid composition of the linoleic acid group closely resembled that of the AUDA group, with a significant downregulation of cardiolipin (CL) compared to the control group, consistent with alterations in the membrane potential channel receptor TRPC1. Both linoleic acid and AUDA inhibited the mRNA expression of EPHX2, leading to an increase in epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs) levels. Furthermore, linoleic acid upregulated the expression of cytochrome P450 enzymes (CYP2J6) and lipoxygenase (LOX2S), which further upregulated the synthesis of EETs, and increased the content of 9-HODE and 13-HODE. These findings collectively suggest that linoleic acid alleviates neuroinflammation by modulating microglial differentiation and attenuates neurodegeneration induced by thermally oxidized oil through the regulation of arachidonic acid metabolism and the linoleic acid metabolic pathway, leading to the production of neuroprotective lipid mediators. Therefore, linoleic acid may serve as a potential neuro-nutrient for the treatment of anxiety disorders. This provided a scientific basis for the development of specialized medical foods aimed at protecting neural health.

In the context of digital society, the food industry is also undergoing tremendous changes. The development of digitalization has brought new opportunities for the transfer, update and revolution of the food industry, which is not only a necessary requirement for the healthy development of the food industry, but also a requirement to conform to the development of the times. As a product of digital transformation, digital foods have typical features of precise or customized manufacturing and supply, which are produced by using digital technologies such as the internet of things, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and blockchain for digitization and integrative analysis of information such as physical properties, nutritional characteristics of food raw materials, and population nutritional characteristics for deep integration with high and new technologies such as food biosynthesis, food recombination, additive manufacturing, intelligent processing, and intelligent packaging. At present, a digital food industry model is being formed through the deep integration of digital technologies and physical food companies. Here, the progress and key technologies in digital foods are summarized, and future applications and challenges in this field are discussed.

With the continuous improvement of people’s living standards, consumers are increasingly aware that a good diet is importance for good health. The negative impact of intake of high contents of saturated/trans fatty acids from traditional special food oils on cardiovascular health has attracted extensive attention. In order to meet people’s demand for healthy bakery products, the development of new special oils with no trans-fatty acids and low saturated fatty acids has become an important topic in the field of food science and industrial application. In this article, considering the functional characteristics of fat in bakery products, the oil structuring methods, the influence of structural factors on the structure of structured oil and its application in bakery products are systematically reviewed. Studies have proved that structured oil can be applied to bakery products such as bread, cake, muffin, and biscuit. It can not only provide texture and sensory characteristics similar to those from traditional special food oils, but also improve the nutritional characteristics of bakery products by virtue of its high content of polyunsaturated fatty acids.

Most natural plant protein molecules are spherical, and the excessively compact structure limits the nutrition and functionality of plant proteins. Spherical plant protein molecules can be transformed into plant protein fiber by various techniques such as molecular self-assembly, screw extrusion, shearing, wet spinning, electrospinning and solution blow spinning. Plant protein fiber is characterized by a high aspect ratio, clear molecular orientation, high mechanical strength, and strong functionality, and can be directly eaten, used as food additives or used to encapsulate active substances, which greatly expands the application of plant proteins in the food field and improves the added value of plant proteins. However, the addition of poisonous and harmful chemical reagents, and the morphological defects, poor stability, low yield and high production cost of plant protein fiber limit its wide popularization and industrial production. This article reviews the techniques for the preparation of plant protein fiber and its application in the food field, analyzes its advantages, disadvantages and limitations, and proposes future directions.

In order to establish the internal relationship between the composition and crystallization characteristics of fat and the product quality and whipping properties, the fat composition and crystallization characteristics, emulsion quality, whipped product quality and whipping properties of dairy, non-dairy and mixed creams were analyzed in this study. The results showed that the crystal network formed by mixed animal and vegetable fats had a dense structure and high susceptibility to shear-induced partial aggregation, the resulting emulsion had high viscosity and low overrun, while the whipped product had high hardness and moderate conformal capacity. However, the crystallization properties of vegetable fat were opposite to those of mixed animal and vegetable fats, and the susceptibility to shear-induced partial aggregation was low. The vegetable cream emulsion had low viscosity and high overrun, whereas the whipped product has low hardness and the best conformal capacity. Animal fat had the lowest solid fat content, resulting in the weakest crystal network structure; the rate of partial aggregation, viscosity and overrun of the resulting emulsion were the lowest, and the whipped product had the lowest hardness and conformal capacity. Therefore, the product quality and whipping performance can be controlled by regulating the fat composition and crystallization characteristics. This study can provide theoretical guidance for the development of high-quality whipped cream.

During the mixing of fats and oils, solid solution systems, eutectic systems, and molecular compounds (MC) are formed due to the different intermolecular interactions of triglycerides. MC have attracted much attention due to the unique β-crystal form with a double-chain-length structure, but the crystalline properties and formation mechanism have not yet been fully clarified. In this study, mixtures of the symmetric triglycerides 1,3-dipalmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycerol (POP) and 1,3-dioleoyl-2-palmitoyl-sn-glycerol (OPO) in different proportions were investigated for thermodynamic behavior, polymorphism, and crystal morphology transformation using differential scanning calorimetry, two-dimensional multifunctional small-angle X-ray scattering, and polarized light microscopy. The results showed that under the same heating and cooling rates, all POP/OPO mixtures exhibited increased melting point and the transition of β’ to β crystal form, and only when the ratio between POP and OPO was 1:1 (m/m), did separate crystallization peaks and melting peaks appear. Meanwhile, the melting temperature was significantly increased, and the crystal form was converted from β’ to β. The 1:1 mixture showed a double-chain-length structure and prominent crystalline properties of MC. In addition, the crystallization rate had a significant effect on the formation of MC. For this mixture, slower cooling rates were more favorable to the formation of MC, while too fast cooling rates (≥ 20 ℃/min) resulted in successive crystallization of samples depending on melting points, as well as eutectic phenomena, which had a detrimental effect on the formation of MC.

Thermal cooking is one of the major application scenarios of edible oils in Chinese cooking. Cooking oil fume (COF), which is generated from edible oils during thermal cooking, is a complex mixture of solid particles, liquid droplets and gaseous volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and COF imposes adverse effects on both the indoor atmosphere and human health. In the present review, we first elucidate the compositional characteristics of the two major harmful substances in COF, particulate matter (PM) and VOCs and their emission status during the thermal cooking of edible oils, and then summarize the influences of COF exposure on human respiratory diseases and other related health risks. Next, the major factors that affect the composition and emission characteristics of COF are discussed from the perspectives of thermal cooking methods, types of cooking ingredients, and the quality and basic properties of edible oils. Finally, an outlook is given on the optimization of edible oil processing technologies based on the compositional characteristics of COF and the development of new processing technologies, raw materials and pathways for future edible oils in the future in order to achieve precise and moderate processing of edible oils that is green with low energy consumption and to produce highquality, nutritious and healthy edible oils for use in Chinese cooking. This review could provide some references for the future development of edible oil and fat processing technologies, and may be of guiding significance to improving the nutritional quality and safety of edible oils and fats and even helping to achieve the national strategic goals of “Healthy China” and “Double Carbon”.

As an irreplaceable dietary constituent, lipids play a vital important role in health, but their effects on aging process and longevity are still not well known yet. In this paper, the metabolic profiling and gene expression levels of Caenorhabditis elegans were investigated to explore the effects of different edible oils on senescence and lifespan. The results showed that teaseed oil (TO) could prolong the life expectancy and slow down the aging process of C. elegans. Compared to the control group, the intake of lard oil (LO) and TO increased the expression levels of genes related to inhibition of protein aggregation (akt-1, daf-16, hsf-1, hsp-16.2) and lipid metabolism (daf-7, daf-1, mdt-15, lipl-4, fat-5, fat-6, fat-7), with a more significant alteration in TO group. Metabolomics revealed that palm oil can upregulated plenty of fatty acids (palmitic acid, stearic acid, tetracosanoic acid), together with some amino acids (tryptophan, L-aspartate, L-valine) and carbohydrate (D-glucose), while the trend was opposite in TO group. Besides, moderate-to-strong correlations were found between differential metabolites and changed genes. In general, this paper claimed that TO could prolong lifespan and slow down aging process via regulating the lipids, amino acids and carbohydrates metabolism.