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French paradox - red wine extract food additives (PARADOX)

Final Report Summary - PARADOX (French paradox - Red wine extract food additives)

The PARADOX project aimed to use agricultural waste of the wine making process, i.e. the grape pomace, as raw material for the production of a new functional food ingredient enriched in antioxidants.

The proposed ingredient was beneficial against diverse illnesses such as atherosclerosis, cancer, cardiovascular disease, brain ictus, retinal degeneration, inflammatory processes and numerous other pathological conditions related to oxidative stress and endothelial malfunctioning. In terms of the project innovations, the industrially developed extraction process did not involve the use of apolar solvents. Moreover, a novel microencapsulation methodology was developed to maintain the beneficial activity of the antioxidants during industrial processing and shelf life. The produced antioxidants displayed noticeable stability and their bioavailability was not aversively affected by the microencapsulation.

In addition, the developed product was tested on patients with promising results during two clinical trials, while it was found competitive as a functional food ingredient for liquid and dry food products via marketing studies.

The project was structured in eight distinct, yet interrelated, work packages (WPs) that, either alone or in combination, dealt with the following issues:

1. raw material provision using red wine residues.
2. application of various extraction techniques to obtain extracts with high polyphenol content from grape pomace. All relevant processes were designed according to a multifactorial experimental matrix aiming to cover the maximum polarity range that was affordable by each technique.
3. characterisation, via different methods, of grape pomace extracts using nine selected phenolic target molecules with high antioxidant capacity.
4. extraction optimisation and extract purification. During this step the nature of the grape pomace was scrutinised in order to increase the yield of polyphenols.
5. development of an extraction, purification and scale up protocol based on the results of the previous steps.
6. analysis, including characterisation of the utilised carbon dioxide (CO2) precipitate.
7. synthesis of analytical references.
8. development of an innovative formulation of potent antioxidants from commercially available grape extracts having high polyphenol content and standardised composition. The efficacy of the product was tested via a series of both in vivo and in vitro studies.
9. process further development and standardisation, preparation of manuals, specifications and patents.
10. training activities and creation of a product brand name.
11. dissemination, including publication of the selected brand name and product development assistance.
12. project management activities.