Food Solutions

FOOD SOLUTIONS area in the Nutritech research program focuses on development of innovative processing concepts to food industry by exploiting enzymes and microbes as processing tools. The work covers research areas from screening, production and characterization of potential enzymes and microbial starters or probiotics, all the way up to application development.

WHY BIOPROCESSING? Bioprocessing offers specific means to modify various properties of food raw materials, ingredients or end products. The chemistry and physicochemistry of food matrix can be influenced by addition of enzymes (exogenous enzymes) or microbes producing the enzymes in situ, or alternatively by inducing the action of endogenous enzymes present in the food raw material. By exploiting these bioprocessing tools production of novel food ingredients and structures as well as modification of end-product characteristics can be accomplished to produce healthy and tasty foods pleasant for consumers.

HOW TO DO IT? VTT has facilities for pilot scale enzyme and microbial cell production. The enzyme- and fermentation-induced changes in food matrices are explored by advanced chemical and physical analytical methods to understand the reaction mechanisms and process phenomena at both micro- and macro-scale. Versatile analytical methods are used and developed to predict the end-product quality in relation to both sensory and nutritional properties.

WHAT DO WE OFFER TO INDUSTRIAL PLATFORM MEMBERS? Food solutions research offers comprehensive understanding on the potential of bioprocessing in food processing and gives a good overview of related ongoing public projects at VTT. Novel food grade enzymes for potential future commercialization are constantly screened. Also new process concepts as well as advanced analytical techniques to measure the effects of processing are developed in national and EU-funded projects. Targeted contract research projects can also be tailored to industrial companies to answer their specific needs with respect to enzyme or microbe selection, raw material or food processing techniques, and analytical solutions.


THE RESEARCH IS FOCUSED ON THE FOLLOWING AREAS:

Ongoing international projects:

HEALTHGRAIN: "Exploiting Bioactivity of European Cereal Grains for Improved Nutrition and Health Benefits”. www.healthgrain.org

NovelQ: “Novel processing methods for the production and distribution of high-quality and safe foods”. www.NovelQ.org

COST 928: Control and exploitation of enzymes for added-value products. http://virtual.vtt.fi/virtual/cost928/

PRO-ENZ: “Enzymatic tailoring of protein interactions and functionalities in food matrix”. Marie Curie EST project MEST-CT-2005-020924.

For more information please contact:
Emilia Selinheimo ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )