Objective
Aim: lo support the EC Counc1l Directlves on Food Hygiene and Additives (93/43/EEC;95/2/EC)by examining and evaluating the impact and risks from mould spoilage due to reduced preservative usage i bakery products for human consumption and development of alternative natural/novel combinations of mould inhibitors for improving shelf-life. The proposal falls within the remit of 3.4 and 3.4.5; Food Microbiology i all the indents (1, 2, 4) in the final call for proposals under FAIR.
Background and Objectives:
Growth of spoilage moulds in reduced moisture bakery products ha usually been prevented by the addition of preservatives such propionic, sorbic or benzoic acids. However both legislative and consumer pressure requires a reduction in the concentrations used. Sub-optimal concentrations can result in stimulation of both growth and toxin production by moulds which can significant reduce shelf-life of bread and cakes made from wheat flour.
The principle objectives of this project are t improve the quality and shelf-life of bakery products by applying low levels of natural anti-fungal food grade preservatives alone or in combination with reduced levels of traditional physical and chemic preservatives to enable additive or synergistic multi-target control systems to be developed. The work will thus address the direct effects of sub-optimal levels of existing preservative systems (propionates, sorbates and benzoates) on mould spoilage of bread and cakes, and examine the use of novel natural food preservatives such as medium chain fatty acids, natural fruit products, spice and essential oils an bacteriocins in integrated systems or as alternatives to existing ones. Studies will be concentrated specifically on bread and cakes where mould spoilage has been direct related to a decrease in shelf-life of products. By using bread and cake analogues and multi-target hurdle technology approaches the effect of individual important factors such as preservative type and concentration water availability, ph, temperature and gas composition, and their interactions, on initiation of moulding an time to visible moulding will be evaluated under natural storage conditions. The usefulness of novel natural preservative systems for the control of mould growth in such food products will be evaluated. Early an rapid detection using novel bio- and immunosensors and fungal volatiles will enable initiation of moulding to be quantified, and direct effects on growth and shelf-life to be evaluated. The project will utilise a three dimensional predictive mould spoilage model being developed by one of the partners to predict both times t visible moulding and quality.
The proposed work is innovative because it will specifically examine the effects of natural and novel antifungal control systems for bakery products which can be integrated into existing processes for the production of bakery products which will be likely to achieve regulatory approval. The work will result i useful practical and exploitable data in an important range of real food products of economic value t industry. Therefore the project will focus on the potential for integration of natural/novel anti-fungal inhibitor with sub-optimal doses of existing preservative systems directly relevant to the bakery industry. This will optimise quality of such products conserve nutritional quality and extend shelf-life of such product which will benefit the industry and the consumer. The consortium involves a multidisciplinary scientific team consisting of fo mycologists, food an bakery technologists and microbiologists. The partners come from three Universities, a Research Institute an three smes, from four European countries: UK, Denmark, Spain and Italy. The combination of specialist academic expertise with industrial end-users will ensure the successful realization of the project objectives.
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.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringcontrol systems
- natural scienceschemical sciencesorganic chemistryorganic acids
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagriculturehorticulturefruit growing
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologymycology
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculeslipids
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Topic(s)
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
MK43 0AL Cranfield
United Kingdom