Scientific & social impact
BAC2FOOD aspires to tackle the major issue of by-products valorization by optimal transformation into high added biological and economical value products which is one of the basic pillars with regards to circular bioeconomy strategy, focusing on a sustainable primary production and processing. A scientifically sound correlation between novel processing technologies and bioavailability of BACs could be used as an effective tool to move towards an evolution of food design and manufacturing ultimately leading to tailored and personalized food product linking enginomics and nutrigenomics.
To move towards an optimal and renewable use of biological resources and sustainable primary production and processing systems, these systems will need to produce more food, fiber and other bio-based products with minimized inputs, environmental impact and greenhouse gas emissions, and with enhanced ecosystem services, minimal waste and adequate societal value.
In new bioeconomical processing systems an important aspect is the utilization of side-streams in agriculture and food processing. The fish and agro-food processing industry generates significant amounts of waste and by-products in the respective processing side streams, mainly consisting of vegetables/fruits skins and seeds, and fish discards representing a major disposal problem for the industry concerned. At the same time, plant origin by-products (referred as agro-industrial) show a significant nutritional and functional potential. Thus, they can be also considered as a promising source of valuable components with advanced functionality and the potential to serve as natural stabilizers, colorants or preservatives; the agro industrial by-products could indeed contribute to BACs implementation.
The expected results of the project will contribute to the design and optimization of novel technologies for the recovery of BACs in terms of yield increase and bioaccessibility. The combination of process engineering with digestive dynamics will allow the study and modelling of novel processing of foods to optimize nutritional functionality, bioaccessibility and sustainability of bioactive compounds recovery and effective utilization in functional food products.
BAC2FOOD will foster scientific research and innovation in a highly competitive environment in the fields of process design and novel technologies implementation for the recovery and incorporation of BACs from various by-products in food model systems and case study real food products. Activities within the proposed work is expected to add insights in both basic and applied science in fast growing fields including enginomics, personalized nutrition and by-products valorization. Following up the existing strong and long term collaboration between the BAC2FOOD research team and the food producing industry in Greece, project results and findings will be disseminated not only to the research community but also to the food producing stakeholders in Greece.
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