Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ENCAP4HEALTH (Innovative sustainable ENCAPsulation systems for improving human HEALTH and well-being)
Período documentado: 2020-01-01 hasta 2022-06-30
Improvement of health and well-being in general, and the question of how to maintain good health until an advanced age are key societal challenges, and have become the most pressing issues in European health policy. Healthy ageing means increasing the healthy active years of life and achieving this goal is strongly related to nutrition. Several nutrients may be instrumental in keeping health but are sensitive for adverse circumstances in the gastrointestinal tract. Among them are long-chain-polyunsaturated fatty acids, carotenoids, calcium, magnesium, potassium and vitamins B6, B12, D and E. These bioactives need protection and experts have emphasized for a long time that new methods and materials are required to improve functionality, digestibility and absorption of these bioactives.
ENCAP4HEALTH aims to develop innovative concepts for biopolymer-based microcapsules resulting in a new generation of highly functional delivery systems for functional food ingredients. We identify new biopolymers and develop more efficient and sustainable processing technologies. With an increasing awareness for zero-waste production and reduction of the environmental impact of food processing, opportunities to create a new generation of encapsulation systems open up. We apply side-products from conventional food processing making the value chain more sustainable. These materials are also expected to overcome limitations of state-of-the-art delivery systems. Our efforts will lead to tailor-made, functional delivery systems that play an important role in improving human health by protecting and increasing the bioavailability of nutrients as well as enteric delivery of probiotics and bioactive ingredients and thus by ensuring an adequate supply of foods with high nutritional value.
ENCAP4HEALTH aims to develop innovative concepts for biopolymer-based microcapsules resulting in a new generation of highly functional delivery systems for functional food ingredients. We identify new biopolymers and develop more efficient and sustainable processing technologies. With an increasing awareness for zero-waste production and reduction of the environmental impact of food processing, opportunities to create a new generation of encapsulation systems open up. We apply side-products from conventional food processing making the value chain more sustainable. These materials are also expected to overcome limitations of state-of-the-art delivery systems. Our efforts will lead to tailor-made, functional delivery systems that play an important role in improving human health by protecting and increasing the bioavailability of nutrients as well as enteric delivery of probiotics and bioactive ingredients and thus by ensuring an adequate supply of foods with high nutritional value.
The action is divided into six work packages, three of them devoted to scientific research and three to training, career development, dissemination and exploitation as well as management. Multiple training activities related to these work packages have been specifically designed to improve the skills of the consortium members and to promote their career development. ENCAP4HEALTH will lead to a greater affordability of multiple health and food applications opening market opportunities in the food sector, that will spread out to agriculture, feed, pharma and even the biomedical sector.
Within the report period, the scientific research has focused on the identification of innovative materials (WP1) and the smart processing for tailoring delivery systems (WP2). While in the next years also research will be conducted on formulation and functionality (WP3). More specifically, secondments have been conducted focused on tailoring the molecular structure of pectin as a promising biopolymer for encapsulation. Industrially extracted pectin was enzymatically modified to study the molecular structure of pectin and how they can interact with protein to produce green coacervates. Also, modification and screening of pectins extracted from sugar beet and orange was conducted to further employ them as for encapsulation of microorganism and cells. Regarding WP 2, whose main tasks are adaption of established technologies, process design for plant-based complex coacervates and continuous membrane processing as a low impact technology for encapsulation, four secondments have taken place. In this case, the goal is to design and scale-up new processes in which new low-cost materials as pectin, chitosan or hemicellulose are employed. Furthermore, another secondment has focused on the production of green monodispersed coacervates using membrane emulsification and scaling-up the process from batch to continuous, reaching a production of 200 L/h. This study represents a further step in using plant-based biopolymers in the fabrication of novel sustainable foods with enhanced functionalities.
Regarding the non-scientific work packages, several activities were conducted on training and career development (WP 4), dissemination and outreach (WP5) and managing (WP6). An on-line training school in microencapsulation which includes 12 talks related to microencapsulation, main techniques and applications in food and pharmaceutical industry was organized (www.youtube.es Bioencapsulation and Microencapsulation, channel). All the webinars are up-loaded in youtube reaching more than 6000 views. Also, specific webinar for the consortium members as “research management, ethics and gender” were organized.
Within the reporting period the dissemination was limited mainly due to the impact of covid and cancellation of main congresses and open doors events as “European researchers’ night”. That is the reason, the consortium intensified the training with an ambitious plan of webinars covering the most relevant scientific topic related to the scientific field. In spite of this, two papers have been written and submitted to peer review journal and four communications to congresses have been conducted.
Finally, as managing activity, more than 10 meetings to organize the scientific and non-scientific activities have been done with three of them participating all the members of the network.
Within the report period, the scientific research has focused on the identification of innovative materials (WP1) and the smart processing for tailoring delivery systems (WP2). While in the next years also research will be conducted on formulation and functionality (WP3). More specifically, secondments have been conducted focused on tailoring the molecular structure of pectin as a promising biopolymer for encapsulation. Industrially extracted pectin was enzymatically modified to study the molecular structure of pectin and how they can interact with protein to produce green coacervates. Also, modification and screening of pectins extracted from sugar beet and orange was conducted to further employ them as for encapsulation of microorganism and cells. Regarding WP 2, whose main tasks are adaption of established technologies, process design for plant-based complex coacervates and continuous membrane processing as a low impact technology for encapsulation, four secondments have taken place. In this case, the goal is to design and scale-up new processes in which new low-cost materials as pectin, chitosan or hemicellulose are employed. Furthermore, another secondment has focused on the production of green monodispersed coacervates using membrane emulsification and scaling-up the process from batch to continuous, reaching a production of 200 L/h. This study represents a further step in using plant-based biopolymers in the fabrication of novel sustainable foods with enhanced functionalities.
Regarding the non-scientific work packages, several activities were conducted on training and career development (WP 4), dissemination and outreach (WP5) and managing (WP6). An on-line training school in microencapsulation which includes 12 talks related to microencapsulation, main techniques and applications in food and pharmaceutical industry was organized (www.youtube.es Bioencapsulation and Microencapsulation, channel). All the webinars are up-loaded in youtube reaching more than 6000 views. Also, specific webinar for the consortium members as “research management, ethics and gender” were organized.
Within the reporting period the dissemination was limited mainly due to the impact of covid and cancellation of main congresses and open doors events as “European researchers’ night”. That is the reason, the consortium intensified the training with an ambitious plan of webinars covering the most relevant scientific topic related to the scientific field. In spite of this, two papers have been written and submitted to peer review journal and four communications to congresses have been conducted.
Finally, as managing activity, more than 10 meetings to organize the scientific and non-scientific activities have been done with three of them participating all the members of the network.
ENCAP4HEALTH will generate results suitable for exploitation and use in further research. There is major potential for innovation in encapsulation to support improvement of public health. The global market for food encapsulation is growing and had a predicted value of $42 bn by the end of 2021. New innovations supporting healthy living are vital to managing the challenge of the ageing population, with an emphasis on preventative healthcare and use of bioactive ingredients in food. Exploitation of results from ENCAP4HEALTH will lead to wider economic and societal impacts. Considering that health expenditure is age-related (e.g. in 2017 half the German health expenditure was caused by over 65 year olds, with over 85 year olds responsible for costs 4.8 times the average with similar values reported for different countries by the OECD in 2015, major economic benefits can be gained by improving health in old age, and healthcare innovations using encapsulation can contribute to this aim. In this way, ENCAP4HEALTH contributes to the aim of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing, to increase the average number of healthy life years by two years.
Societal benefits resulting from ENCAP4HEALTH research results will ultimately include: improved, delivery of bioactives for more efficacious functional food ingredients and targeted delivery of nutrients and reduced costs for encapsulation systems leading to greater accessibility and affordability for multiple health and food applications. The partner organisations that have contributed to the network will have a particular involvement in exploitation of results. Arrangements for management of IPR are described and rights and obligations will are agreed upon in the consortium agreement. We anticipate at least 4 patents will be generated from the research. In addition, all participants will use the scientific knowledge gained in the projects as the springboard for further research after the project. All new fundamental scientific knowledge and related experimental data will be published and freely available
Societal benefits resulting from ENCAP4HEALTH research results will ultimately include: improved, delivery of bioactives for more efficacious functional food ingredients and targeted delivery of nutrients and reduced costs for encapsulation systems leading to greater accessibility and affordability for multiple health and food applications. The partner organisations that have contributed to the network will have a particular involvement in exploitation of results. Arrangements for management of IPR are described and rights and obligations will are agreed upon in the consortium agreement. We anticipate at least 4 patents will be generated from the research. In addition, all participants will use the scientific knowledge gained in the projects as the springboard for further research after the project. All new fundamental scientific knowledge and related experimental data will be published and freely available