The essential role of natural resources on novel bio-based food additives discovery pathway

Natural resources are invaluable sources of bio-based molecules with numerous applications in food industry. Some of these compounds have been explored to serve particular purposes such as substituting artificial food additives. In fact, the increasing consumers’ awareness and resistance to artificial compounds often used as additives in many foodstuffs has led to renewed strategies to overcome possible safety issues, while guaranteeing effectiveness. Food additives have long been used to enhance foodstuff properties and are of great value to maintain their quality, which justifies the exploitation of safer bio-based compounds to be used as natural substitutes. Plants and mushrooms seem to be a potential source of such compounds, given their unique richness in colouring, preservative, and bioactive molecules. In this context, several matrices have been studied and certain compounds such as betalains (e.g. gomphrenin II, gomphrenin III, isogomphrenin II, and isogomphrenin III) and anthocyanins (e.g. cyanidin, delphinidin, and malvidin derivatives) were extracted from purple globe amaranth, rose, dahlia, centaurea, strawberry-tree, roselle, and blueberry and were further introduced in ice-cream, yogurt, and waffles for colouring purposes. On the other hand, preservative molecules such as flavonoids (e.g. catechin, and quercetin and luteolin derivatives), phenolic acids (e.g. rosmarinic, chicoric, lithospermic, caffeic, and caffeoylquinic acids), and hydrolysable tannins (e.g. trigalloyl-HHDP-glucoside) were obtained from strawberry-tree, basil, lemon balm, sweet chestnut flowers, fennel, and German chamomile, and were tested in loaf bread, cupcakes, yogurt, cheese, and cottage cheese, namely. Moreover, phenolic acids (e.g. rosmarinic acid), flavonoids (e.g. quercetin derivatives), and ellagitannins (e.g. sanguiin H-10 and lambertianin) from mushrooms, wild strawberry, rosemary, mountain sandwort, and flowers of Silva brava conferred bioactive properties to gelatin, yogurt, and cottage cheese. The proven efficacy of distinct natural food additives in several foodstuffs highlights the importance of natural resources such as plants and mushrooms in these novel additives discovery journey.This work is funded by the European Structural and Investment Funds (FEEI) through the Regional Operational Program North 2020, within the scope of Project Mobilizador ValorNatural® and Project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-023289: DeCodE.