Sustainable innovation of microbiome applications in food system

Project Information

SIMBA

Grant agreement ID: 818431

DOI

10.3030/818431

Project closed

EC signature date 5 October 2018

Start date 1 November 2018

End date 31 October 2023

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy

Total cost

€ 10 373 931,62

EU contribution

€ 9 999 999,77

Coordinated by

LUONNONVARAKESKUS
Finland

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - SIMBA (Sustainable innovation of microbiome applications in food system)

Reporting period: 2022-11-01 to 2023-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Climate crisis, loss of nature and population growth challenge the food system. Therefore, solutions to this challenge are needed, and one possible area of research is microbiomes, which can be used to promote the sustainability of the food system transition. However, we lack a deep understanding of the microbiomes associated with our food systems. The main objective of SIMBA was to harness complex soil, food and marine microbial communities for sustainable and resilient production of food and feed. The specific objectives include: i)To boost accessibility to microbiome data for enhanced usability ii) To find out how soil microbes affect crop productivity and plant health; iii) To apply marine microbiomes in arable land in coastal areas, facilitate healthy fish farms and producing algal biomass; iv) To exploit microbiomes for conversion of raw materials and agricultural residues to added value food and feed; v) To assess the impact of fermented, side-stream- originated food and sustainable, plant-based diets on human gut microbiota and health; vi) To upscale and assess processes and process scenarios at industrial scale to bring new and cost effective applications or products and to apply new services; vii) To increase overall sustainability and the innovation capacity of the European food production system.
The SIMBA project brings together 21 partners from across the European continent. Several small to medium enterprises (SME) within the consortium are key to testing novel techniques and provide “near to market” solutions for field testing and economical evaluation. This cross-sectoral collaboration ensures that the results of fundamental research will be exploited by the consortium and transferred to the market.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

To improve the exploitation of the microbiome data we established database that is publicly available based. The database is based on experimental collaboration with consortium partners on existing and derived experimental data and meets the definition of SIMBA goals.
We found the right microbes, that will help at least partly replace fertilizers, improving resilience in the food system. We have identified the new inoculas and assessed the reproducibility and efficacy in pot and field trials with wheat, tomato, maize and potato production. The bioinformatics evaluations showed the resilience of rhizosphere microbial communities and traceability of the SIMBA's microbial consortia.
We have established artificial starter cultures that can be used to facilitate growth of micro-algae or seaweed production. We showed that plant based fermented fish feed supplements can replace traditional fish-based feed up to 50% without negative consequences to fish health, wellbeing, growth and gut microbiomes. The performed experiments showed that potato growth was stimulated by a natural salt tolerant microbiome and potential beneficial bacterial species were identified. Biofilm formation in marine microbiomes revealed the stability of artificial marine biofilms. As a general conclusion from Marine microbiomes, more research is needed, especially related to how to upscale and apply complex microbiomes.
We have demonstrated that microbiomes can provide good solutions to treat agricultural side-streams through new value creation. Potato juice can be used to grow microalgal strains and maize side-streams in an integrated biorefinery approach. We have developed novel fermentation protocols to produce high volume of lactic acid bacteria. SIMBA partners designed new microbial starter mixtures to be used in the development of new food products based on pulses and oats.
A fermented canola-seaweed product was tested for its ability to alter gut microbiome and improve glucose tolerance in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with overweight subjects. However, the product did not cause any changes on gut microbiome or glucose metabolism. Another RCT studied the effect of replacing animal-sourced proteins with plant-sourced proteins and resulted in alterations that indicates lower risk for cardiovascular diseases and type2 diabetes in the plant-protein group.
Selected standardized food-grade process was successfully developed for starter mix cultivation and subsequent pea fermentation at pilot scale. Three complex Plant Growth Promoting Microbiota (PGPM) were designed, and pilot-scale fermentations were carried out to test various cultivation conditions. We developed and tested a protocol for cryopreservation of complex microbial communities. Real Time PCR technology was applied to develop rapid microbe tests based on DNA analysis for identifying and quantifying microbes in agriculture, marine environments and in the food industry.
SIMBA increased the innovation capacity of the food system by stimulating the uptake of the microbial innovations by actors in food production and by assessing the expected increase in overall sustainability. one on the economic assessment of using innovations on arable farms, and one on the overall sustainability assessment of using such innovations.
To promote further awareness of the SIMBA project, partners hosts information about SIMBA on the project website. This includes information about their role in the project, as well as links to the project factsheet and website, so that users can access more information Project partners were active in promoting SIMBA from their personal Twitter accounts. We have organized Interactive open seminars, webinars, lunch seminars with sister projects, training courses, workshops. We have participated in national and EU-level science and policy forums.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Significant novel knowledge of microbiomes applications was obtained. Overall 16 knowledge outcome was captured, managed and appropriately exploited by end-users. The expected results include: i) An open access central database containing microbiome data useful for EU food production; ii) Up-scale crop production: delivery of selected microbiome consortia on crop yield, food quality and plant health; iii) Deepen understanding of the effect of microbiome composition on high quality algal biomass, fish health and saline agriculture; iv) Delivery 1-2 designed starter cultures originating from characterized microbiomes to be applied in food and feed products; v) Understand the inter-individual differences in the function of the gut microbiota, its interaction with diet/foods and how all this affects health outcomes; vi) Solutions to perform better environmentally, as well as economically and socially.
The SIMBA solutions will transform European food system towards reducing agricultural inputs and providing economic, environmental and social benefits for all its citizens.. As farmers adopt more environmentally friendly microbial applications, the overall sustainability of primary production could be enhanced it could lead to a better understanding and more efficient uptake of microbial applications amongst farmers. The results can lead to the expansion of the algae industry and creation of jobs for producers of algae-based extracts. If producers of plant-based food for human consumption can improve the nutritional quality of foods this could lead to improved human nutrition and a shift towards more people adopting plant-based foods into their diet and subsequent growth of this industry. Ultimately this could improve nutrition globally and reduce the impact food production has on the environment.

simba.jpg

SIMBA logo