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.
Edible insects’ characterization through untargeted and targeted metho...
Highlights
Coordinator
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).
Development and application of advanced analytical procedures to assess the quality of relevant food product categories in the national context and corresponding analogues implemented according to task 4.1.1 and 4.1.2
In depth characterization of the new products using different approaches (including omics techniques) to get their unique fingerprint (e.g., foodome evaluation) and to compare it to corresponding benchmark.
Prototyping of new sustainable and healthy products to meet consumer needs in terms of nutritional and functional targets, but also sensory characteristics and convenience, thus increasing adoption in the long term by promoting exploitation of the previous implemented approaches (see WP4.1, WP4.2) to develop new pilot food products (food design) also in connection with start-up acceleration programmes (activities are also in connection with Spoke 3).
Selection of raw materials/ingredients with improved nutritional characteristics and limited undesirable components (M12)
Application of foodomic approaches for the assessment of composition parameters in at least one existing (M24), two reformulated (M32) and implemented (M36) products of each food category according to task 4.1.1. and 4.1.2.
Application of advanced analytical procedures for the assessment of composition parameters in at least one existing, reformulated and implemented product of each food category according to task 4.1.1. and 4.1.2. (M30)
Development and application of improved procedures for the assessment of food palatability to meet consumer needs (n= 6 products) (M24)
The research of new and innovative food sources represents an ever-growing need, considering the expected large population increase and the necessity of reducing ecological problems. In this context, edible insects could represent an important potential food source capable to satisfy both sustainability and nutritional demands. However, the safety of insect-based ingredients should be further investigated as the UE Regulations allow their addition in limited quantities for the preparation of specific foods (mainly grain-based foods). The application of a multimethodological approach has turned out to be extremely effective in the foodstuffs investigation. In particular, NMR and FT-ICR MS methodologies are recognized as the two main powerful untargeted approaches to achieve metabolomic profiling of natural extracts. On the other hand, HPLC-PDA and GC-MS targeted analyses allow to identify and quantify specific compounds. In this way an exhaustive chemical characterization can be obtained.
The research will involve different activities as reported below:
1. Edible insects selection basing on the European list of the approved insects.
2. Samples preparation (lyophilization, milling) and pre-analytical extraction protocols.
3. The obtained extracts will be analyzed applying targeted techniques such as HPLC-PDA and GC-MS to detect specific compound classes and untargeted methodologies namely NMR and FT-ICR MS to obtain the metabolite profile of both polar and non-polar classes.
4. Prototyping of edible insect-based formulations, such as spray-dried powders, sustainable to meet consumer needs in terms of nutritional and functional targets, but also sensory characteristics, acceptability and convenience. The new formulations will be compared with the standard ones to compare qualitative and quantitative features.
This project will lead to the chemical characterization of edible insects as new food sources and the development of procedures to detect the adding of food insect ingredients and to improve their nutritional and sensorial characteristics.
In particular:
1) Edible insects approved from the European Commission will be selected and submitted to a high throughput multimethodological protocol.
2) The metabolomic profile, in terms of metabolites, nutrients and nutraceuticals, of selected products after conventional and innovative extractions will be obtained by means of a multimethodological protocol.
3) Proper procedures will be developed and applied to improve the nutritional and sensorial properties of edible insects, thus meeting the consumers compliance.
