Functional food & ingredients from seaweed, edible bird's nest and tropical fruits: A translational research. (November 2021) - Lim, Seng Joe
Abstract: Functional food is a type of food which delivers additional or enhanced benefits over and above its basic nutritional value. Over the years, research efforts on functional food led to the global interest on translating research outcomes to address health issues and medical needs. Malaysia, as a developing country, blessed with abundant natural resources has yet to fully discover and utilise these resources for high quality functional food production, and this remains a great challenge. This paper reviews the research work focuses on three main resources that are of economic importance to Malaysia; seaweeds, edible bird's nest (EBN) and tropical fruit vinegars. Although all these resources have very different characteristics, the research objectives and approaches were very similar, i.e., to extract and develop functional food and ingredients through innovative methods. These studies focused on both fundamental and applied research, thus, creating a translational research. The physicochemical characteristics and bioactivities of the functional ingredients from these resources were studied in-depth to better understand their properties, which in turn would facilitate functional food product development. Ultimately, functional ingredients were extracted from these resources and the studies yielded significant findings, which have been translated into products and technology commercialisation. Highlights: Functional foods from seaweed, edible bird's nest (EBN) and tropical fruit. Translational research to surmount challenges in sustainability development goals. Fucoidan from seaweed exhibited comparable properties with commercial fucoidan. EBN glycoprotein was enzymatically converted into bioactive glycopeptide. Perishable tropical fruits were valorised by biotransformation into vinegars.