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.
Study of acceptability of novel grapevine products that have lower act...
Coordinator
Analysis of the role of cognitive, emotional, and relational factors in determining risk perception, beliefs, and habits affecting food safety. These psychosocial factors will be leveraged to develop effective and personalised communication strategies aimed to ameliorate food safety practices. Design and piloting of educational and communication initiatives to promote citizens engagement in food safety behaviours. Promotion of stakeholders’ engagement actions (i.e., targeted to journalists, nutritionists, opinion leaders, influencers) on food safety culture also by using multi-stakeholder platforms aimed to establish a network of Food Safety System actors at national, European and international level and in connection with Spoke 1 and 7.
Consumer risk perception towards the food safety of novel foods (M36)
The recent EU Regulation 2021/2117 introduced the possibility to obtain still wines, sparkling wines and semi-sparkling wines dealcoholised and partially dealcoholised with an alcohol content even lower than 8.5 % vol (for dealcoholised wines, the alcoholic strength must be lower than 0.5 % vol). De-alcoholised and partially de-alcoholised wines are produced from grape musts that have been fermented with yeasts, to which further processes are applied to remove the alcohol. To achieve this, partial evaporation under vacuum, membrane techniques and distillation are allowed.
According to leading alcoholic beverage market observers, consumer interest in dealcoholised and partially dealcoholised products, previously limited to beer, is now gaining ground in recent years, especially as part of the broader health and wellness movement. It is also a product aimed at drivers and the increasingly large group of people who do not drink alcohol for religious reasons.
Those innovative grapevine products have never been marketed in the Union as wine. For that reason, further research and experimentation would be necessary to improve the quality of those products and, in particular, to ensure that the total removal of the alcohol content allows the preservation of the differentiating characteristics of quality wines that are protected by a geographical indication or a designation of origin.
Thanks to Oenolab's expertise on the compositional characterisation of the products of the wine chain with standard oenological determinations combined with the use of high-resolution techniques (such as HPLC-MS and GCxGC/TOF-MS) it will be possible to define how the process of near-total or partial alcoholisation (obtained with allowed treatments) can influence the food safety parameters of the final product depending on the ethanol removal technology used, and what the implications are on the date of minimum durability of at least one dealcoholised wine.
The proposed project targets the novel food category of dealcoholised/partially dealcoholised wines recently introduced by the EU legislation and aims to develop at least one product by preserving the differentiating characteristics of quality wines. Two main critical points will be addressed, since these products have a completely different compositional, chemical-physical and sensory profile compared to conventional wines, with obvious repercussions on their shelf life:
The expected results will respond to industrial needs (considering the wineries involved in the partnership.
