Hayadan > Millions of Euros from the European Union to three research groups that include researchers from the Technion

Millions of Euros from the European Union to three research groups that include researchers from the Technion

The goal: promoting inventions that will improve food quality and human health * technologies to reduce sugar consumption, to increase the use of plant ingredients and to prevent food poisoning

Three international research groups, in which researchers from the Technion are partners, are leading projects of approximately 1 million euros each - grants from the European Union within the framework of the EIT-Food consortium, which is designed to lead an innovation revolution in the world of food.

Prof. Yoav Livani from the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering leads a project to reduce sugar consumption - one of the main goals of the World Health Organization in the fight against diabetes and obesity. Prof. Livni and the companies PepsiCo, Danone and Amai-Protein (founded by Dr. Ilan Samish) are developing alternative sweeteners based on sweet proteins derived from exotic fruits. Since these proteins are thousands of times sweeter than sugar, they can be used in small amounts. Furthermore, they are not fattening at all (glycemic value 0) and do not adversely affect health or the population of intestinal bacteria (the microbiome).

"Despite these distinct advantages," explains Prof. Livni, "the sweet proteins extracted from tropical fruits are not currently used in food and beverages due to their high cost, limited quantity and lasting sweetness that does not exist in sugar. Our joint research is expected to solve these limitations by producing the proteins in fermentation processes and improving the sweetness characteristics by microencapsulation technology that we are developing at the Technion as part of the project. We hope to bring to the market a breakthrough that will enable a significant reduction in sugar consumption in Israel, Europe and the entire world for the benefit of human health."

Dr. Avi Spiegelman from the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering is a partner in a project designed to replace existing food stabilizers with healthier stabilizers based on pectin, which comes from diverse plant sources. Another goal of the project is to increase the potential of using oat ingredients. The research is based on UHPH technology, and in Hebrew "ultra high pressure protection" - a process originally developed for the pasteurization and sterilization of liquid food. This process is based on the flow of liquid through a narrow valve at very high pressure (hundreds of megapixels). These physical forces change the structure of the materials in the liquid.

Here, the UHPH process will be used to structurally change polysaccharides (the pectin and oat components), which are hydrocolloids that affect viscosity and texture and also constitute dietary fiber. The German Institute of Food Technologies (DIL), Herbstreith & Fox, Maspex, ZPOW Agros Nova and Glucanova are partners in the project.
According to Dr. Spiegelman, "We estimate that the project will increase the assimilation of diverse hydrocolloids from plant sources in the food industry and thus expand the use of these substances and provide the population with a healthier diet."

Prof. Yehezkel Kashi from the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering and Prof. Gilad Yosiphon from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering are leading a project to develop innovative technology to prevent food poisoning - a phenomenon that leads to thousands of deaths per year in Europe alone. The Technion researchers teamed up with six European partners (EUFIC, Grupo AN, Maspex, Energy Pulse Systems and the University of Queen Belfast) to develop technology for rapid monitoring of toxins, especially pathogenic bacteria. Today, these bacteria are monitored in lengthy laboratory processes, and the time gap between the time of the test and the receipt of the findings prevents a quick response to the presence of pathogens in food.

The aforementioned project will be based on the "lab on a chip" technology developed by Technion researchers and has already been verified on various biological samples. This technology involves concentrating the bacteria and amplifying their DNA sequences until a measurable signal is obtained. According to Prof. Kashi and Prof. Yosifon, "the new method will enable rapid identification of bacteria and toxins, and since it is also relatively cheap compared to the existing methods, it will encourage the parties involved in the food market to test the products with high frequency along the entire supply chain. In this way, raw materials and products that are not in good condition will be monitored in real time and recall events that are harmful to companies and their image will be avoided."

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