The AgriFoodTure project portfolio currently consists of 11 projects which all contributes to the transition of food, agriculture, and land use. One of the projects is REPLANTED which project manager Claus Heiner Bang-Berthelsen answers 3 questions about here:
What is your goal with the project?
Nutritious alternatives to animal products are key to a sustainable food system. Unfortunately, when producing plant-based alternatives to dairy products, it is technically difficult to achieve the desired characteristics.
In REPLANTED, we aim to develop processes and tailormade starter cultures for producing better plant-based fermented foods like yogurt based on peas, oats, and potatoes from Thise and KMC. Cultures and processes will be developed to reduce the level of off-flavors and anti-nutritional factors. Also, we have a goal to make better solutions to measure quality parameters in plant drinks and yoghurts with state-of-the-art technology from FOSS.
What is the current status of the project?
We have identified several lactic acid bacteria strains that have great potential to remove off flavors and anti-nutritional factors as well as to ferment concentrated pea, oat, and potato blends. With these cultures, it will hopefully be possible to develop plant-based alternatives with reduced off flavors and anti-nutritional factors compared to current available plant-based dairy products in collaboration with Chr. Hansen.
Also, we have conducted analyses of a range of dairy alternatives that are already on the market, which we will use to create better calibration models for plant-based food products. This will give companies better analytical tools to follow content of fats, plant sugars and proteins in their plant-based products, thus improving the quality.
How will the project accelerate the green transition?
The cultures and methods we develop in the project will enhance the performance and quality of plant-based dairy alternatives, benefiting global producers and expanding the potential customer base beyond the dairy industry. Our project partners will be able to offer the industry specific analytical solutions shortly after the project’s completion.
Additionally, the new knowledge from the project will be conveyed to students at the two universities that supply the workforce to the industry, thereby better equipping employees to work with the green transition.
