Enzyme technology for Lean and Green food processing

Plant material, including industrial vastes from grain production and the juice and vegetable oil industry, is a rich source for valuable functional ingredients for processed foods. Processing of relevant agricultural vaste and product refinery needs, however, rethinking, as it often depends on use of chemical reagents of environmental concern and of harsh reaction conditions with high energy demands. Large requirement of process water adds further to the environmental load. The LeanGreenFood Initial Training Network will focus on solutions to reduce consumption of water and energy, both scarce resources in the future. Carbohydrate and peptide processing to yield value-added food ingredients will be based on the use of mono-component enzymes and on technology developed for highly concentrated solution systems. The LeanGreenFood.network will train 13 ESR’s and 4 ER’s to develop and implement new enzyme-based technology for future development of a more sustainable production. The training will include development and use of specific on-line analytical methods for process monitoring. The use of mechanical treatment and high-pressure tuning of enzymes for process optimization will open up for further process control. The training programme and conferences will be open for participants from outside the Network with the perspective of training a new generation of food scientists.