Modification of Gels in Creating New Food Products (2nd Edition)

A special issue of Gels (ISSN 2310-2861). This special issue belongs to the section "Gel Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2026 | Viewed by 253

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Food Technology and Assessment, Institute of Food Science, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, 02-787 Warszawa, Poland
Interests: gels; hydrogels; emulsion; functional food ingredients; functional food; prebiotics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Food Technology and Assessment, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, 02-787 Warszawa, Poland
Interests: food gels; meat; functional meat products; pork
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Special Issue “Modification of Gels in Creating New Food Products (2nd Edition)” in the journal Gels is dedicated to providing a comprehensive collection of recent advances in the field of food gels. Gels, being a semi-solid colloidal or polymer network, have various applications in food. Their properties and the various possibilities and options for their usage depend on the interactions between their components, mechanisms, or conditions of gelation. The properties of gels can also be modified by polymer concentration, temperature, pH, or ionic strength. The fact that many factors influence the characteristics of gels in food systems makes it possible to adapt their properties to the type of food product. Recent research on food gels focuses on the application of natural plant-origin polysaccharides or proteins as polymer components, the investigation of the gel formation mechanism, their properties, and their stability. New analytical methods are also being developed to study gels in food systems. By the act of creating new food products, producers are attempting to fulfill consumers’ requests and requirements. Thanks to their ability to immobilize large amounts of water, their low calorie density, appealing taste, and society-enhancing properties, gels are good materials for novel, functional food production. They can be some of the most in-demand low-calorie, pro-healthy, sustainable, and zero-waste foods. Therefore, in the field of new product development, gels can play the following important roles: they are novel, biocompatible, biodegradable, edible encapsulation materials; delivery agents for bioactive compounds; products that control digestive or retention properties; and even substrates for 3D printing. Edible gels also have potential application in smart packaging, including biosensor-based packaging.

About the first edition, it publishes 11 papers, which you can find it at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/gels/special_issues/IZ48E18281.

The second edition of this Special Issue still aims to present the research on the recent advances in novel food gels created by using novel ingredients and innovative methods of gel induction, as well as new methods for analyzing the properties of gels or products made with food gels.

Dr. Anna Florowska
Dr. Tomasz Florowski
Guest Editors

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Gels is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

  • food gels
  • hydrogels
  • emulgels
  • oleogels
  • aerogels
  • natural biopolymers
  • food gel product design
  • functional food
  • control digestive or retention
  • gel property analysis
  • textural stability and sensory properties
  • smart packaging

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

15 pages, 1642 KB  
Article
Effect of Vanillin and Chitin Particles on the Chitosan-Based Oleogels Produced by the Emulsion-Templated Method
by Leticia Montes, Sofía Viciana, Daniel Franco, Jorge Sineiro and Ramón Moreira
Gels 2025, 11(10), 799; https://doi.org/10.3390/gels11100799 - 3 Oct 2025
Abstract
This study presents the first assessment of the combined effect of vanillin and chitin particles on the rheological, oil retention, textural, and oxidative properties of chitosan-based oleogels formulated with olive oil. Oleogels were prepared with and without vanillin; in the latter case, the [...] Read more.
This study presents the first assessment of the combined effect of vanillin and chitin particles on the rheological, oil retention, textural, and oxidative properties of chitosan-based oleogels formulated with olive oil. Oleogels were prepared with and without vanillin; in the latter case, the vanillin-to-chitosan ratio was kept constant (1.3), while chitin concentrations (% w/w) were variable (0.0, 0.5, 1.5, and 2.0). Fresh oleogels and those stored for 15 days were characterized. Results demonstrated that vanillin promotes the formation of compact viscoelastic networks, enhances the elastic modulus by approximately 1.3 times, improves oil binding capacity from 75.1% to 89.2%, and significantly improves oxidative stability by minimizing lipid degradation. In contrast, the influence of chitin was dependent on its content and the presence of vanillin. At intermediate content, chitin positively affected cohesiveness and elasticity, particularly in vanillin-free systems. However, in formulations containing vanillin, even low chitin concentration disrupted the gel network, leading to a decrease in hardness, low oil retention, and a higher oxidation degree. Significant correlations between hardness and elastic modulus, oil binding capacity, adhesiveness, and damping factor were obtained for fresh and stored oleogels. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modification of Gels in Creating New Food Products (2nd Edition))
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