Funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.3, Theme 10.
Funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.3, Theme 10.
Development of functional goat and sheep dairies with added native str...
Coordinator
Università degli Studi di Sassari, Agenzia AGRIS Sardegna, Caseificio Silvio Boi S.r.l, Argiolas Formaggi S.r.l
Reformulation or improvement of relevant food products in the national context in order to: a) implement the nutritional characteristics also by reducing antinutrients or using bioprocessed ingredients (from raw products to ingredients) and limit the use of undesirable components (e.g. by using bioactives) along the food system b) improve food formulation and composition based on consumer perception and needs identified for specific target groups (in connection with Spoke 5 and 6) c) promote clear and ad hoc labelling as an information tool (in connection with Spoke 1 and 7) to increase the willingness to buy improved foods d) guarantee safety and affordability of new products (in connection with Spoke 1 and 3).
Innovation of food (bio)processing using smart and mild technologies and fermentation to improve nutritional quality while ensuring safety and environmental sustainability throughout the shelf life of foods. Nutritional quality and biodiversity are targeted through both advanced and sustainable processes (including encapsulation) to preserve and improve at-risk (micro)nutrient composition of relevant food categories and exploiting microbiological and biotechnological applications to impact on nutritional quality. Such (bio)technological approaches (e.g., fermentation, enzyme treatments, etc.) are validated by process markers also directed to ensure food production safety and quality targeting new food habits (e.g., ready to eat food and novel food consumption) and sustainability, promoting production efficiency and utilisation of alternative sources (in connection with Spoke 2 and 3).
Reformulation of foods with polyphenol rich fractions recovered from agri-food by-products is considered the best method to meet the needs of today’s consumers, in line with the concept of circular economy.
Polyphenols have been incorporated into several food products with the aim to increase polyphenol intake, and thus their healthy properties, and to improve shelf life and prevent food spoilage. The phenolic extract made from olive leaves, the most abundant by-product of the olive grove industry, OLE, has recently being used in food productions as functional ingredient, since it has high amounts of bioactive phenolics, such as oleuropein and hydroxytyrosol.
OLE has also been shown to exert prebiotic properties and to interact with the microbiota of fermented foods, like yogurts and cheeses. So far, however, only few experimental fortifications with OLE were proposed for dairy products, an excellent matrix for the release of added bioactive compounds.
The project fits into this context, aiming to develop new functional dairies starting from the typical local productions of Sardinia from sheep and goat milk, added with OLE, dietary fibres, commercial probiotic bacteria and native microbial strains with potential functional properties.
The project has been developed according to a step-by-step procedure carried out by a multidisciplinary team. The operational plan included different activities as reported below:
The development of the project led to the successful achievement of the proposed objective, the production of OLE-fortified sheep’s and goat’s milk dairy products at industrial scale. We developed 3 new dairy products with predefined functional features and specific nutritional claims:
Both experimental and scaled-up batches met the set targets for physico-chemical, nutritional, microbiological and sensory attributes, confirming process reproducibility and the effectiveness of the adaptations implemented at each dairy plant.
All products showed remarkable stability in pH, macronutrient, and functional ingredient composition throughout the storage period, aligning with EU regulatory demands for nutritional and health claims.
