Heat-induced conversion of multiscale molecular structure of natural food nutrients: A review

Enbo Xu; Jingyi Wang; Junyu Tang; Shaolong Ruan; Shuohan Ma; Yu Qin; Wenjun Wang; Jinhu Tian; Jianwei Zhou; Huan Cheng; Donghong Liu

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2021.130900

Heat-induced conversion of multiscale molecular structure of natural food nutrients: A review

Food Chem. 2022 Feb 1:369:130900. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2021.130900. Epub 2021 Aug 19.

Authors

Enbo Xu¹, Jingyi Wang¹, Junyu Tang², Shaolong Ruan², Shuohan Ma¹, Yu Qin², Wenjun Wang¹, Jinhu Tian¹, Jianwei Zhou², Huan Cheng¹, Donghong Liu³

Affiliations

¹ College of Biosystems Engineering and Food Science, National-Local Joint Engineering Laboratory of Intelligent Food Technology and Equipment, Zhejiang Key Laboratory for Agro-Food Processing, Integrated Research Base of Southern Fruit and Vegetable Preservation Technology, Fuli Institute of Food Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China; Ningbo Research Institute, Zhejiang University, Ningbo, China.
² College of Biosystems Engineering and Food Science, National-Local Joint Engineering Laboratory of Intelligent Food Technology and Equipment, Zhejiang Key Laboratory for Agro-Food Processing, Integrated Research Base of Southern Fruit and Vegetable Preservation Technology, Fuli Institute of Food Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China; Ningbo Research Institute, Zhejiang University, Ningbo, China; Ningbo Institute of Technology, Zhejiang University, Ningbo, China.
³ College of Biosystems Engineering and Food Science, National-Local Joint Engineering Laboratory of Intelligent Food Technology and Equipment, Zhejiang Key Laboratory for Agro-Food Processing, Integrated Research Base of Southern Fruit and Vegetable Preservation Technology, Fuli Institute of Food Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China; Ningbo Research Institute, Zhejiang University, Ningbo, China. Electronic address: dhliu@zju.edu.cn.

PMID: 34496317
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2021.130900

Abstract

Thermal process is the most important way of treating foods. Heat energy inputted into the natural food system induces the depolymerization of multi-scale structures of matrix, and causes the intramolecular and intermolecular interactions of different nutrients. It attacks and breaks the original polymeric molecule structures and the functional properties of macronutrients such as carbohydrates, proteins and lipids. Micronutrients such as vitamins and other novel functional ingredients are also thermally converted. The heat-induced conversions of nutrients are slightly or totally with discrepancy in simple-, simulated- and real-food systems, respectively. Thus, this review aims to extensively summarize the heat-induced structural characteristics, thermal conversion pathways and pyrolysis mechanism of nutrients both in simple and complex food matrices. The structural change of each nutrient and its thermal reaction kinetics depend on the molecule structure and polymeric characteristic of the unit substances in the system.

Keywords: Macromolecular nutrient; Micromolecular nutrient; Mono/multi-component system; Pyrolysis and reaction pathway; Structural conversion.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Food
Hot Temperature*
Micronutrients
Molecular Structure
Nutrients*
Vitamins

Substances

Micronutrients
Vitamins