Innovations to Support Sustainable Production of Nutritious Foods: Controlling Food Digestion, Absorption and Fermentation by Processing

In recent decades, there has been a notable global increase in the prevalence of diet-related diseases, prompting the pursuit of sustainable and healthy food options and attention to the effects of food nutrients on human health. The nutritional characteristics of food products or ingredients are directly determined by their digestion, absorption, and fermentation processes after ingestion. Even for food with the same compositions, variations in processing techniques can induce significant differences in the rate of disintegration, nutrient release, and absorption in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT), subsequently leading to distinct health effects. Therefore, an in-depth understanding of the impact and regulatory mechanisms of food processing on the digestion, absorption, and fermentation of food in the GIT will contribute to optimizing and developing innovative processing techniques, such as drying, refrigeration, sterilization, encapsulation, modification and emulsification to facilitate the design and production of nutritious and sustainable food products with desired functionalities. For example, it is highly desirable to design carbohydrate-based food products with low starch digestibility and enhanced resistant starch content through the development and application of novel processing techniques, which is meaningful for the prevention and control of type-2 diabetes.

This Research Topic aims to collect articles about recent advances and trends in food processing to control food digestion, absorption, and fermentation in the GIT, with a particular focus on novel processing techniques that are employed to enhance nutritional quality of foods, including relevant design rules, underlying mechanisms, and compounds, mechanisms, modifications, methodologies, and technologies to enhance the nutritional quality of foods, thus supporting the sustainable production of nutritious and healthy foods, the development of nutritious foods, and the food security and nutrition of populations.

Original research, review, and mini-review with high quality that address the impact of food processing on nutritional characteristics are highly welcome, including but not limited to the following themes:
- Innovative processing techniques used to produce sustainable food products, e.g., low-GI (glycemic index) carbohydrate food
- Characterization of food ingredients derived from sustainable sources, e.g., agri-food waste, plant proteins, etc
- Evaluation of nutritional properties of foods in terms of digestion, absorption, and fermentation using in vitro, in vivo, and in silico models
- Processing-induced structural modifications and their impact on food digestion, absorption, and fermentation
- Nutritional value of plant-based food ingredients and products
- Bioaccessibility and stability of bioactive components released from food matrix and microcapsules during digestion
- Biochemical mechanisms associated with digestion, absorption, and fermentation of food nutrients in the human GIT
- Functional food compounds to regulate the risk factors of non-communicable diseases
- Social, environmental, and ecological effects of innovative processed foods

Keywords: Food processing innovations and techniques, digestion and absorption, fermentation, sustainable food production, gastrointestinal models, sustainable sources and food products, plant-based foods, food nutrition and health, bioaccessibility and digestive stability

Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.