Umami is crucial for enhancing food palatability, modulating appetite, and preventing obesity. Edible fungi, as nutrient-rich and sustainable food sources, are particularly abundant in umami (enhanced) substances, including monosodium glutamate (MSG), umami amino acids, 5′-nucleotides, peptides, and their derivatives. This review systematically summarizes their molecular structures, sensory properties, and structure–function relationships, emphasizing how processing, storage, and intrinsic factors affect their stability, activity, and synergy.

Highlights
• Phytochemicals face low solubility and stability in functional food systems.
• Nanotechnology enhances phytochemical stability and bioavailability in food.
• Nanoemulsions improve solubility, rapid uptake, and shelf life of compounds.
• Electrospun nanofibers offer high loading and sustained nutrient release.

Pigmented cereals such as black rice, purple wheat, blue and black maize, red corn, and red sorghum have emerged as promising contributors to nutrition-sensitive food systems because their bran tissues are rich in anthocyanins, flavonoids, phenolic acids, and carotenoids that support cardiovascular, metabolic, and cognitive health. 

Highlights
• Evolutionary engineering enhances microbial resilience and production efficiency.
• Synthetic biology expands foods resources and food components diversity.
• ML advances flavor innovation and effectuates precision nutrition.
• BT-IT-FT synergy reshapes future food paradigms.

In the present review, progress in the valorization of several types of food-waste streams, including fruit peels, spent grain, dairy whey, grape pomace, vegetable by-products, and seafood residue, has been discussed in depth.

3D food printing technology has revolutionized the functional food sector by precisely controlling texture and nutrients. It enables personalized nutrition for specific populations (e.g., patients with swallowing disorders, diabetics, children) and enhances bioavailability of functional ingredients like probiotics.

Pumpkin seed proteins are underutilized plant proteins with a balanced content of essential amino acids and health benefits. Benefit from the functional properties and low-cost character, pumpkin seed proteins exhibit great potential for applications as alternative food ingredients. This paper reviews the composition of pumpkin seed proteins, as well as the extraction methods, including the alkaline method, ultrasonic-assisted method, and enzymatic-assisted approach. Functional properties of pumpkin seed proteins, such as solubility, foamability, gelling, and emulsification, are described. Additionally, several modification methods were emphasized to enhance the functionality of pumpkin seed proteins, including physical, chemical, enzymatic, and combined approaches. Food applications of pumpkin seed proteins, including food packaging films, meat analogs, carriers, protein supplements, and functional food additives, are also systematically introduced. Finally, the challenges and solutions that limit the widespread utilization of pumpkin seed proteins are discussed.

Precision fermentation is emerging as an innovative platform for manufacturing high-value food proteins, relocating food production from agricultural fields to controlled bioreactors.

This perspective will address modifications to the secretory pathway that can improve protein secretion efficiency. Deliberate, data-driven engineering of secretion efficiency will determine whether precision-fermented proteins advance from pilot production to routine industrial manufacture. This perspective will also address the issues of cost efficiency and scalability, exploring how protein secretion can overcome these challenges to make lab-grown food a sustainable, ethical, and viable alternative to conventional food sources.

Gelatin-based scaffolds with excellent physical and biological properties provide sufficient mechanical support and create biomimetic environments, closely mimicking natural tissues. This makes them suitable for designing high-quality cultured meat. By addressing future challenges and promoting advanced technologies, the full potential of gelatin-based biomaterials can be realized and propelled to the forefront of innovative applications in cellular agriculture.