New sustainable and healthy products prototyping to meet consumer needs

Functional foods (FF) influence specific functions of the organism, providing health benefits or remedies for some diseases. Consumers have become more critical to the use of artificial additives in order to preserve food or enhance characteristics, such as color, flavor, and nutritional value. PRO2NEEDS aims to evaluate new products and ingredients able to satisfy consumers’ needs in terms of health benefits and sensory characteristics. Among new products, fresh-cut vegetables will be obtained by industry-minimal processing techniques, that meet the challenge of replacing traditional methods of preservation while retaining nutritional and sensory quality, evaluated by the application of Consumer Science (in collaboration with Spoke 2). Consumer Science will be applied, in order to define positive motivational drivers to increase the effectiveness of promotional campaigns and to use adequate methods for bringing into focus consumers’ restraints (sensory acceptability, cost, neophobia) to get an indication about product improvement and/or adequate communication. Besides the development of new products, a new ingredient, the Aliophen® (patented formulation WO/2019/038658/PCT/IB2018/056283; USPTO No. 16/641,888), sustainable, healthy based and chemically characterized by (poly)phenols derived from barley malts, with a protective capacity will be evaluated.

The research will involve different activities as reported below.

• Fresh-cut fruits and vegetables will be processed using natural preservatives (antioxidants) at the industrial level. New sanitizers will be used in alternative to chlorine. The obtained products will be cold stored and the main quality, microbiological and sensory traits will be tested (in collaboration with the task 4.1.2). 
• Interaction with project partners and companies, to identify virtual and/or existing prototypes of FF; Research on technical-scientific literature, media and social, for information about state-of-the-art FF related consumer acceptance. Sensory evaluation (DA, TDS, TI, T-CATA, GCO) trained panel of food prototypes. Online and face-to-face consumer tests on innovation in food design concepts, co-creation of virtual novel-foods, evaluation of virtual and real prototypes. Focus groups with research partners and stakeholders to discuss and finalize information about consumer attitude toward FF and related market potential.
• Aliophen® will be characterized for the class(es) of compounds present and having protective effects. Specific and validated in vitro models to assess the molecular pathways triggered by Aliophen® formulation will be selected. 

• Report on the state-of the-art of properties, market perspectives, and consumer acceptance of functional foods. 
• Sensory profiles of virtual, ideal and real FF prototypes
• Technical reports on consumer attitude and willingness-to-buy toward selected FF prototypes, innovative food design concepts and production procedures.
• Fresh-cut products with improved nutritional value (e.g enhanced antioxidant properties) and extended shelf-life. 
• Innovative eco-friendly postharvest process based on natural compounds endowed with biological activity to improve nutritional value and shelf-life of cold stored fruits/vegetables: protocol of the developed ecofriendly postharvest process
• List of natural compounds to be used in the ecofriendly postharvest process.
• Effects of Aliophen® formulation on cell growth and differentiation and Identification of the main biochemical pathway(s) triggered by its bioactive compounds with the aim of discriminating among apoptosis, cell cycle arrest, autophagy, and senescence.