**2. Contributions**

The papers included in this special issue cover discussions on: Food neophobia or distrust of novelties?; Exploring consumers' attitudes toward GMOs, insects and cultured meat; Increased grain amino acid content in rice with earthworm castings; Antihypertensive peptide activity in Dutch-type cheese models prepared with different additional strains of *Lactobacillus* genus bacteria; Increased anti-inflammatory effects on LPS-induced microglia cells by *Spirulina maxima* extract from ultrasonic process; A novel way for whey: Cheese whey fermentation produces an effective and environmentally-safe alternative to chlorine; Wheat bread with dairy products technology, nutritional and sensory properties; or *Psyllium* and *Laminaria* partnership—an overview of possible food gel applications. The editors acknowledge all contributions, and we are delighted to introduce a collection of seven selected high-quality research papers in this Special Issue.

Facio and Fovino [1] presented a comprehensive review on the challenges the food industry continually faces to find new ideas to satisfy the increasingly specific consumer demand, since innovative food products do not always become part of consumption habits or create a real market. They stated that one of the major sources of resistance to novelty lies in the attitude of the consumer, who in many cases may be suspicious or hostile as a result of specific ideologies, overly attached to tradition or affected by neophobia, which was discussed throughout the paper. Moreover, they reviewed the recent literature on Europeans' attitude toward novel foods and innovation, including genetically modified organisms, cultivated meat and insects as food, which revealed a number of paradoxes in consumers' behavior, and in the many complex conditions underpinning the success of innovation in food production. Consumer involvement in the early stages of the development process is one of the strategies aimed at minimizing the failure of new products when they reach the market.

Huang and coworkers [2] contributed with a brief report on the nutritional value of rice to enhance the health of rice consumers, indicating that grain amino acid content is an important nutritional component. This study was conducted to test the hypothesis that the application of earthworm castings could increase the grain amino acid content in rice. Their outcomes showed that total amino acid content in the grain was significantly elevated by applying earthworm castings, with an average increase of 8% across four tested rice cultivars. These authors suggested that this behavior can be related to improving the efficiency of the nitrogen to amino acid conversion, and highlighted that further studies are required to assess the effects of earthworm castings on the amino acid metabolism in rice grains.

Garbowska and coworkers [3] focused on the proteolytic activity of bacterial strains from the genus *Lactobacillus* and their capability in producing peptide inhibitors of angiotensin-converting enzyme in cheese models prepared with their addition. These authors indicated that all tested cheese models exhibited a high ability of angiotensin convertase inhibition (>80%, after five weeks of ripening). They also found that use of the adjunct bacterial cultures from the genus *Lactobacillus* contributed to lower IC50. In addition, they pointed out that the proteolytic activity of model cheeses varied in their increase through the period of ripening, with changes in values dependent on the adjunct lactic acid bacteria strain used for cheese making.

Choi and coworkers [4] assessed the anti-inflammatory impact of *Spirulina* extract from a non-thermal ultrasonic process. These authors found that this environmentally friendly treatment enhanced anti-inflammation activities two-fold compared to those of conventional extracts processed at high temperature. They proved that ultrasound extraction also showed relatively low cytotoxicity against murine microglial cells and inhibited the production of the inflammatory mediators, NO and PGE2. The authors also proved that ultrasound extraction effectively suppresses both mRNA expression and the production of proinflammatory cytokines, such as TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-1β, in a concentration-dependent manner. This study also provided useful information for developing functional foods from heat-labile natural resources.

Santos and coworkers [5] developed a low-cost, scalable fermentation protocol to produce a disinfectant from whey (a cheese by-product/dairy waste) with high levels of lactic acid and antimicrobial peptides produced by lactic acid bacteria. They showed that the established fermentation for industrial whey held strong potential as an effective disinfecting agent when applied to lettuce, with better results than 110 ppm chlorine solution. Other advantages were that it did not alter the quality parameters of the shredded loose-leaf lettuce, did not notably affect the color, and panelists

were not able to discriminate from chlorine treatments. The authors stated that fermented whey was indeed as effective as chlorine, but also corroborated that their technology of whey fermentation was effective in maintaining the quality of lettuce throughout storage.

Graça and coworkers [6] assessed dairy products as an innovative alternative to enhance the functional and nutritional value of bakery products. Specifically, they studied the addition of yoghurt and cheese curd to wheat bread. These authors found that the yoghurt or cheese additions had a positive impact on the rheology characteristics of the dough. They stated that these enriched breads showed a significant improvement on the nutrition profile, which is important to balance the daily diet in terms of major and trace minerals, and which is critically relevant for health enhancement and maintenance. Moreover, they found good sensorial acceptability for breads with 50 g of yoghurt and 30 g of cheese curd.

Fradinho and coworkers [7] focused on seaweeds as a novel source of important nutritional compounds with interesting biological activities for being processed into added-value products. In this study, two previously developed products obtained by *Laminaria ochroleuca* brown seaweed processing (liquid extract and a purée-like mixture) were processed with *Psyllium* gel to develop functional hydrogels. The optimization of the formulation and the characterization of the *Laminaria–Psyllium* gels in terms of their mechanical features have allowed the proposal of potential food applications. Authors found a beneficial interaction between *Laminaria* and *Psyllium* in terms of the reinforcement of texture and rheological properties, which could provide new healthy gelling formulations with attractive properties to alleviate the growing market demand of eco-novel food matrices.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Acknowledgments:** I.S. and A.R. thank FCT for the financial support of LEAF—UIDP/04129/2020. M.D.T. thanks the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities for their postdoctoral grant (RYC2018-024454-I).

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
