Project description
An alternative fat for healthier food at bakeries
Palm oil is the fat most employed in food production. However, health and environmental concerns restrict its use, and several food producers have started to avoid it. Butter, margarine or melanges, used as alternatives, often come with many disadvantages. The EU-funded CreamOlive project is introducing the first all-natural formulation with 80 % extra virgin olive oil as a fat component for healthy and high-quality baked goods. The product is solid at room temperature and consequently suitable for industrial food production processes with up to 60 % lower saturated fat content. Specifically, the project will validate the CreamOlive value proposition with customers. It will also fine-tune the pricing strategy, the business model and the European commercialisation strategy.
Objective
The CreamOlive project addresses the global need of healthy and high-quality production of bakery food, by introThe CreamOlive project addresses the global need of healthy and high-quality production of bakery food, by introducing the
first all-natural fat based on olive oil which is solid at room temperature, thus making it suitable to large industrial processes.
This allows producing food with up to 60% lower saturated fat content, capturing the growing “palm oil free” and “free from”
trend in the food industry. Palm oil is the most used fat in food production thanks to its very low cost, high availability, and
adaptability to industrial processes. Recently, health and environmental concerns are turning palm oil into an unpopular
choice amongst consumers. Several food producers who started to go “palm oil free”, adopting alternatives as butter,
margarines, or melanges, which often present drawbacks (high saturated fat content, raw material low availability, high cost,
etc.). Industrial producers need to diversify their offer with a viable trade-off between industrial needs (cost and adaptability),
quality (palatability, crispness, taste), and healthiness (low fat and good-for-you features). Thanks to its patent-pending
mechanical process, Mida+ managed to produce a solid formulation with 80% of extra virgin olive oil as fat component.
Saturated fats are 60% lower than in palm oil, without using the controversial mono and diglycerides, additives used in most
of the margarines which may contains trans-fat acids. CreamOlive has excellent organoleptic features and shelf-life
equivalent to palm oil. Furthermore, the unmatched plasticity of the product makes the food product lift with 20% less fat than
other competitors, thus increasing its price competitiveness.
The Phase 1 project aims at the validation of the CreamOlive value proposition with customers, which will allow fine-tuning
the pricing strategy, the business model, and the European commercialisation strategy.
Fields of science
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicineendocrinologydiabetes
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managementbusiness models
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagriculturehorticulturevegetable growing
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicineallergology
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesnutritionobesity
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
06135 PERUGIA
Italy
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.