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With the enhancement of people's awareness of healthy diet, the innovation of food function has become a hot topic. Self-microemulsion system is an anhydrous pre-concentration system which contains a mixture of oil phase, surfactants, co-surfactants, and bioactive substances in a certain proportion. Food bioactive substances can be loaded in self-microemulsion system, which can improve the bioavailability of food bioactive substances. Moreover, it also fully exerts the physiological and pharmacological activities of food bioactive substances. In this paper, the basic properties, components and preparation methods of self-microemulsion are systematically reviewed. Further, the application examples of self-microemulsion system to promote bioactive substances bio-utilization in food field in recent years are summarized, which provides a reference for the application of self-microemulsion system in food field.

It has great significance to maintain the natural state of food and reduce the environmental pollution that use of bio-based packaging materials to research and development food packaging, because it has been unable to meet the demand of consumers for green, environmental protection and high-efficiency, for traditional food packaging. Edible films are attracting great attentions in food packaging due to their safety and zero waste property, among which, the protein often used in the preparation of edible films because of good mechanical properties and nutritional value. Essential oils extracted from aromatic plants, the broad-spectrum antibacterial and antioxidant properties give it great potential in food packaging. Incorporation of essential oils into edible protein-based films can effectively improve their properties, and cover the strong sensory properties of essential oils, meanwhile, the release rate of essential oils is controlled. This review covers the recent developments in protein/essential oils-based composite films, the formation mechanism of protein/essential oils-based composite films is discussed, the two composite methods of single essential oil and complex essential oil with protein-based composite films is introduced. Meanwhile, the application of protein/essential oils-based composite films in food is summarized. This study can provide some reference for the future development of protein/essential oils-based composite films.

After the commercial soybean protein isolate (SPI) treated by high-temperature spray drying, the proteins were prone to undergo a certain degree of denaturation and aggregation, which reducing the solubility and other functional properties. The present study was aimed to investigate the interaction between different concentrations of catechins and SPI under spray drying treatment and the effects on the structural and functional properties of proteins. The results showed that the loading rate and loading content of catechin increased gradually with the increasing of catechin content, and the surface hydrophobicity and sulfhydryl content decreased gradually after the combination of SPI and catechin. The functional characteristics of spray drying SPI were improved after interacted with catechin. When the addition of catechin was 1%, the solubility of SPI was increased by 36.4%, and the emulsifying property and emulsifying stability were increased by 13.7% and 14.3% respectively. The hardness of gel was increased by 43.6% with the addition of 0.25% catechin. Correlation analysis showed that the network structure of gel mainly depended on disulfide bonds, followed by hydrogen bonds and ionic bonds. Furthermore, the storage modulus of gel rheological properties was significantly higher than that of other treatment groups (P < 0.05). It was found by atomic force microscope that the microstructure of the gel changed to homogeneous and dense in each group of proteins with the complexation of catechin. The addition of catechin at 0.25% could promoted minimal aggregation of gel when compared to the other samples. However, the interaction between catechin and protein led to the decrement of the digestibility of spray dried SPI. These results showed that catechin prevented the heat-induced aggregation and improved the structural and functional properties of SPI after spray drying.

Tannic acid has antioxidant, antibacterial, antiviral and other activities, which can combine with proteins to form complexes and change the structure and functional properties of proteins. In this paper, the mechanism of tannic acid-protein interaction is first described. Secondly, the influencing factors of the interaction between tannic acid and protein are introduced. The results of the interaction depend on the type of protein, the conformation of tannic acid and the environmental conditions of the interaction, such as temperature, pH, ion type and other processing conditions. Furthermore, the research progress of tannic acid on protein structure and functional properties and its application in food field are summarized. Based on this, the future research direction of tannic acid-protein complexes is prospected, so as to provide reference for the application of tannic acid in food processing and the improvement of protein functional properties.

In this paper, black bean tofu was used as a fat substitute in the production of meatballs, by measuring the cooking loss and emulsion stability of meat paste, sensory evaluation of meatballs, basic components, electronic nose, texture, color, yield, pH, microstructure, etc. The effect of black bean tofu addition (0, 4%, 8%, 12%, 16%, 20%) on the quality characteristics of meatballs was studied to provide feasibility suggestions for the development of low-fat black bean tofu meatball products. The results showed that compared with the control group, the cooking loss rate, water loss rate, and fat loss rate of meat paste gradually decreased with the increasing of black bean tofu addition. When the black bean tofu was added at 12%, the meatballs had the highest sensory scores and the best overall acceptability. With the increasing in the amount of black bean tofu added, the fat content of the meatballs gradually decreased, and the protein, moisture, and ash content increased. The hardness and chewiness of meatballs gradually increased with the increasing of black bean tofu, while the elasticity and stickiness first increased and then decreased. Meanwhile, the L* value and a* value gradually decreased, and the b* value increased, and the yield and pH showed a trend of first rising and then falling. When the black bean tofu was added at 12%, the yield and the pH of meatballs was the highest. The principal component analysis results of the electronic nose showed that there were significant differences in the smell of meatballs under different amount of black bean tofu. The results of the microstructure measurement showed that adding black bean tofu could significantly improve the uniformity of microstructure and the overall quality of meatballs. Therefore, the overall quality of meatballs would be the best under the condition of 12% black bean tofu addition.

The rapid development of the tourism industry has been accompanied by an increase in CO2 emissions and has a certain degree of impact on climate change. This study adopted the bottom-up approach to estimate the spatiotemporal change of CO2 emissions of the tourism industry in China and its 31 provinces over the period 2000–2015. In addition, the decoupling index was applied to analyze the decoupling effects between tourism-related CO2 emissions and tourism economy from 2000 to 2015. The results showed that the total CO2 emissions of the tourism industry rose from 37.95 Mt in 2000 to 100.98 Mt in 2015 with an average annual growth rate of 7.1%. The highest CO2 emissions from the tourism industry occurred in eastern coastal China, whereas the least CO2 emissions were in the west of China. Additionally, the decoupling of CO2 emissions from economic growth in China’s tourism industry had mainly gone through the alternations of negative decoupling and weak decoupling. The decoupling states in most of the Chinese provinces were desirable during the study period. This study may serve as a scientific reference regarding decision-making in the sustainable development of the tourism industry in China.

The eco-innovation level of the tourism industry may solve the dilemma between tourism innovation and ecological protection. It is an effective method for promoting industry upgrade and sustainable development of tourism economy. This paper established an index system based on pressure-stateresponse- PSR model and evaluated the dynamic change and spatial difference of the eco-innovation level of the tourism industry in Heilongjiang Province by using entropy weight method. The results show that tourism eco-innovation level has been increasing year by year with greater population and environmental pressure from 2005 to 2016. There are obvious differences in each region. In Harbin, tourism eco-innovation level is the highest and the pressure is also greater. The following region is Daxinganling which lacks innovation investment. The index values of other regions are lower and the ability of tourism eco-innovation is weaker. The research results offer references for making policy on tourism innovation and ecotourism development in Heilongjiang Province under the background of ecological civilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social and economic development can cause land cover changes that significantly affect ecosystem services and functions. This study investigated the temporal variation in ecosystem service values in response to land cover changes caused mainly by human activities in Harbin City, one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in northeast China. The aim was to provide guidance for regional sustainable development. An evaluation method for ecosystem service values based on land cover change was applied in 1996 and 2008. Sensitivity analysis was used to discuss driving forces triggering the change of land cover and ecosystem service values. The results showed that the total ecosystem service value increased from 20945.53 million $ in 1996 to 21030.83 million $ in 2008, mainly due to the increasing areas of woodland, water body and urban green land. Over 97% of the total value was attributable to woodland, farmland and water body. Hydrological regulation and biodiversity maintenance were the two largest service functions, contributing about 30.62% of the total value. Population growth, urban expansion, and economic development were three major driving forces for the change of land cover and ecosystem service value. The results suggest that future land use planning should emphasis on protecting woodland, water body and urban green land that have the highest ecosystem service values, and continue the policy of ecological protection, to achieve regional sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accommodation profoundly affects energy use and carbon dioxide emissions in the tourism sector. This paper focuses on star- rated hotels in China, and applies a bottom-up approach to estimate the amount of carbon dioxide emissions from tourism accommodation in 1998-2009. The results show that carbon dioxide emission of star-rated hotels increased from 4.37 million ton in 1998 to 16.82 million ton in 2009 (an increase of 3.84 times). Although the amount of carbon emissions is increasing, the rate of change shows a decrease in the trend. The three-star hotels were the largest carbon dioxide discharger, followed by two-star hotels. In spatial variation, carbon dioxide emissions from tourism accommodation in coastal areas are generally greater than those in inland areas, and they are generally greater in southeastern part than in northwestern part. In 2009, the highest carbon dioxide emissions occur in the central part of eastern coastal China. The result of research in this study has great significance to further calculation carbon dioxide emission of hotel industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]