What happens to your body when you eat synthetic biofoods for a long time?

Plant-based foods: a healthy and sustainable alternative

Plant-based food: as healthy and environmentally friendly alternatives to animal-sourced foods, are receiving increasing attention from the food industry and consumers. Plant-based meat and dairy are the two main categories of plant-based foods, which typically consist of grains, legumes and nuts, and are showing great potential in the market. Technologies such as electrospinning and 3D printing have enabled the reassembly of plant proteins to create meat substitutes with a fiber structure, texture and taste similar to traditional meat.

Cultured meat: meat products grown in the lab

Cultured meat: also known as in vitro meat, artificial meat or lab-grown meat, is a unique meat product made from animal cells collected from a live sample and grown in vitro. It is produced through five stages: collection of tissue samples, cell banking, growth, harvesting and food processing. The production of cultured meat includes key elements such as cells, scaffolds, and culture conditions that will significantly affect the texture, nutrition, and flavor of the final product.

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Fermented foods: a new breakthrough in an ancient technology

Fermentation is one of the oldest technologies in food processing, and foods produced through fermentation include dairy products, alcoholic beverages, sauerkraut and bread. These foods contain high levels of nutrients, including bioactive peptides, short-chain fatty acids and polyphenols, which provide a wide range of health benefits. However, conventional fermentation processes contain many uncontrollable factors such as pH, temperature and duration, variables that contribute to the instability of fermented products.

Microalgae-based Foods: A New Option to Address the Food Crisis

Microalgae are photosynthetic single-celled organisms with extraordinary biodiversity and a huge range of ecological adaptations. They produce many beneficial metabolites and active substances, including antiviral, anticancer, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. As a result, microalgae-based foods are rapidly evolving in the context of the food crisis, climate change and declining arable land.

Potential Risk Factors of New Synthetic Foods

Despite the many potential benefits of new synthetic foods, they may also be subject to risk factors for contamination from raw materials to the processing and storage of the final product. These risk factors may pose a threat to the safety of consumption of novel synthetic foods by causing significant harm to human health.

1. Nutritional risk factors

Allergens: Common allergens found in novel synthetic foods include soy, peas, wheat and peanuts. These allergens may cause anything from mild gastrointestinal symptoms to severe neurological complications and may even be life-threatening.

Antinutritional factors: These factors are found mainly in cereals and legumes, and they may impede the digestion and absorption of plant proteins and reduce the bioavailability of nutrients.

2. Biological risk factors

Pathogenic bacteria: such as Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus and norovirus may cause poisoning events through food. Although novel synthetic foods are sterilized during commercialization, the final product may still be at risk of post-processing cross-contamination.

Viruses: Animal serum may be used in the production of cultured meat, which may introduce viral or prion contamination and requires special attention.

3. Chemical risk factors

Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs) and Heterocyclic Amines (HAs): These harmful substances are readily produced during food processing, especially at high temperatures, and they may increase the risk of chronic diseases and cancer.

Biogenic amines: Harmful compounds produced from free amino acids under the action of microbial decarboxylase enzymes. Excessive intake of these compounds may lead to adverse reactions such as nausea, respiratory distress and skin rashes.

Mycotoxins: toxic secondary metabolites produced by different fungal species that may be transferred from raw materials to processed foods through improper storage, transportation and processing.

Pesticide Residues: Widespread use in the cultivation and storage of plant raw materials may lead to pesticide residues in plant-based foods, which may cause health effects in the long term intake.

Heavy Metals: Heavy metals in food may come from environmental contamination or food processing and pose a risk to human health.

Testing technology

A variety of detection techniques have been developed to address these risk factors, including:

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA): a highly sensitive and specific assay widely used for the detection of allergens and mycotoxins in food.

Biosensors: capable of selectively interacting with specific substances and converting this interaction into a detectable electrical signal.

Chromatography: A technique that separates and analyzes each component based on the selective distribution of different substances in different states.

Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR): a nucleic acid detection technique used to amplify nucleic acid fragments in vitro and has been used to detect pathogens and allergens in food.

Isothermal Amplification: A type of PCR performed at a constant temperature that offers the advantage of high analytical sensitivity and rapid detection.

Microfluidics: the use of precise manipulation and control of microscale fluids in microchannels for reaction, analysis and detection.

Processing technology

To reduce or eliminate potential risk factors in new synthetic foods, a variety of processing techniques are used, including:

Thermal processing technologies: such as microwave treatment, ohmic heating and steam blasting, which modify protein structure, disrupt allergenic epitopes and reduce anti-nutritional factors in foods.

Non-thermal processing techniques: such as hyperstatic pressure treatment, ultrasonic treatment, cold plasma and supercritical carbon dioxide, which can effectively reduce microorganisms and allergens while maintaining the original quality of the food.

Conclusions

Novel synthetic foods, at the forefront of innovation in the food industry, show great potential to address global food safety and sustainability issues, but they also carry potential risks that cannot be ignored. From nutritional risks to biological and chemical hazards, these risk factors need to be accurately identified and assessed through advanced detection technologies.

With the continuous advancement of technologies such as ELISA, biosensors, chromatography, PCR, and other detection methods, as well as the application of processing technologies such as microwave treatment, ohmic heating, and steam blasting, we are able to manage and reduce these risks more effectively.

However, more research and standardization work is still needed in this emerging field to ensure that new synthetic foods are safe while meeting consumers' health and nutritional needs.

Future work should focus on developing a comprehensive regulatory framework, optimizing food processing technologies, enhancing consumer education, and promoting international cooperation and consensus for the healthy development of this field.