How low can you go (KB-23-001-022)

The daily intake of sodium, sugar, and fats by modern western consumers is too high. This leads to major health issues and rising costs of healthcare. In many countries, both the food industries and consumers have pledged to make western diets healthier. However, the assortment of processed foods meeting nutrition and health requirements is still small. An important reason for this is that ingredients like sodium, sugar, and fats have various functionalities in the food product.

This project aims to develop generic knowledge between the properties of ingredients, process, and product, to support efficient food reformulation strategies. This will give important insights in the behaviour and interaction of ingredients in complex matrices as well as in the behaviour of consumers towards these products. These insights will allow WFBR to initiate new partnerships and will allow industry more flexibility in their choice of ingredients and to develop and manufacture processed foods that meet nutrition and health requirements and also meet consumer expectations, so that these novel products will be successful on the market without compromising consumers’ food based personal health.

The objectives of this proposed project includes:

1. Increase the understanding of the role of processing and ingredients, including sugar, surfactants and dairy-based complexes as fat mimetic, in complex hydrophobic matrices, with improved consumer acceptance,
2. Increase the understanding of the role of water-protein-carbohydrate interactions and processing on the structural, mechanical, and ultimately on the sensory properties of bakery products, like bread, cake, and biscuits, that allows the manufacturing of these products with a more healthy formulation with improved consumer acceptance,
3. Increase the understanding of consumer perception and acceptance of novel (healthy) food products in order to devise guidelines to help consumers make a transition to the choice of these health-improved food products.