Project description
The nutritional value of dried figs
Healthy diets require a variety of nutrients, including traditional foods like dried figs. Recent studies show the health benefits of oligosaccharides and soluble polysaccharides found in figs, but their structural characteristics and health impacts remain underexplored. The EU-funded PrOSFig project aims to valorise dried fig oligosaccharides (OS) and soluble dietary fibres (SDF) by examining drying processes, consumer perceptions, preservation techniques, and the extraction and chemical characterisation of these compounds. It will evaluate the bioavailability of OS and SDF, their interactions with fig polyphenols, and their prebiotic properties in vitro. The project integrates expertise in drying technology for nutritious foods, consumer acceptance of dried fruits, food biochemistry using spectroscopic techniques, and bioengineering to investigate the effects of OS and SDF on gut microbiota.
Objective
Health diets require diversification of nutrients, supporting and promoting the traditional food products while keep finding new ways to their safeguard. Figs are nutritious and delicious products endowed with many health-benefiting nutrients. Drying contributes to widen their availability, diversify trade, and promote their nutritive value. Recent research trends show that oligosaccharides (OS) and soluble polysaccharides non-digestible by human gut enzymes are of great interest for their health benefits and natural nutraceutical value. Although dried figs nutritional quality has been well studied, there is a lack of knowledge on the matching of the OS and soluble dietary fiber (SDF) structural features and their potential health dietary benefits. PrOSFig project aims at valorizing dried figs OS as prebiotics and polysaccharides as SDF. As an MSCA fellow, I propose to study at UAveiro the (i) drying processing, consumer perception and conservation of figs (ii) extraction and chemical characterization of dried figs OS and SDF. This will allow to perform a secondment at UPorto to (iii) monitor the bioavailability and bioaccessibility of the OS and SDF and their interactions with fig polyphenols, and a second secondment at UMinho to (iv) carry out in vitro assessment of prebiotic properties. This interdisciplinary approach in a relevant food research topic, draws a unique skill set and state-of-the-art in four different but complementary fields: (1) drying technology for producing healthy foods, (2) consumer acceptability of traditional dried fruits (3) food biochemistry via the application of spectroscopic techniques as tools for OS and SDF characterization, and (4) bio-engineering for evaluating the physiological aspects of OS and SDF related with gut microbiota. The integration in these Universities dissemination and communication programs, as well as in their training activities, will support me to develop my career.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringfibers
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagriculturehorticulturefruit growing
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesnutrition
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculescarbohydrates
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteinsenzymes
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Programme(s)
Call for proposal
(opens in new window) HORIZON-WIDERA-2023-TALENTS-02
See other projects for this callFunding Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinator
3810-193 Aveiro
Portugal