Taurine as a functional ingredient: Dietary sources, non-thermal extraction technologies, purification, potential...

Taurine is a sulfur-containing amino acid derivative with diverse physiological benefits. This review provides comprehensive insights into its dietary sources, extraction and purification methods, processing effects, and applications in the food industry, highlighting seafood, meat, and organ meats as rich sources with variable content. Emerging non-thermal extraction techniques (e.g., ultrasound-assisted extraction, enzymatic hydrolysis, pulse-electric field) offer improved recovery, while purification ensures high-quality functional taurine, yet thermal and mechanical processing can cause significant losses. Taurine supports antioxidant defense, glucose and lipid metabolism, cardiovascular and liver health, and exhibits modest ergogenic effects. Despite growing demand for taurine-enriched foods in human and pet nutrition, challenges remain in selecting suitable raw materials, and developing diverse, demographic-specific products. Addressing these issues through optimized extraction, targeted product innovation, and well-designed, large scale clinical trial to confirm efficacy, optimize dosing, and identify populations most likely to benefit represents a key pathway for expanding its functional food applications.