Project description
Bacterial cellulose as a food additive
The food industry is seeking natural, sustainable alternatives to synthetic additives for improving texture, stability, and fat content in processed foods. Certain bacteria produce a strong, biocompatible fibre called cellulose, which offers exceptional functional properties as a food additive. However, its industrial production currently requires costly purification steps that limit its use in clean-label food products. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the IN-BEST project pioneers a one-step approach in which bacterial cellulose is grown directly within edible food matrices such as gels, emulsions, and foams. This eliminates purification while preserving functionality, delivering consumer-relevant prototypes, including plant-based dairy alternatives and fat-free spreads.
Objective
Bacterial cellulose (BC) is a nanofibrillar non-digestible and non-fermentable biopolymer with outstanding tensile strength, water retention, and biocompatibility. These properties make BC highly attractive for food applications as a fat replacer, texture modifier, emulsion stabilizer, and bioactive carrier. Current industrial production, however, depends on isolated fermentation with resource-intensive purification and reformulation steps, which raise production costs, increase environmental impact, and restrict BC’s suitability for sustainable, clean-label food products. Crucially, no existing research has demonstrated in situ BC fermentation directly within complex edible food matrices (e.g. gels, emulsions, foams) using food-grade strains and substrates—an approach that could eliminate costly purification while preserving full functionality. Traditional products such as nata de coco illustrate BC growth in coconut water but require post-fermentation handling and fail to represent structured composite food systems, leaving a clear technological gap at the intersection of microbial biotechnology, food material science, and sustainable manufacturing.
The IN-BEST project aims to address this challenge through a one-step strategy where BC is directly biosynthesized within edible matrices such as gels, emulsions, and foams. This approach retains BC’s intrinsic properties while eliminating downstream purification and processing. The project will pioneer rapid, high-efficiency in situ BC biosynthesis, introduce gentle microbial inactivation methods compatible with food safety and product integrity, and characterize embedded BC as zero-calory structurant with stabilizing and texturizing functions. Ultimately, IN-BEST will deliver consumer-relevant prototypes, including plant-based dairy alternatives and fat-free spreads, while aligning with EU priorities on the Green Deal, Farm to Fork Strategy, and Circular Economy Action Plan.
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. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- agricultural sciences animal and dairy science dairy
- natural sciences physical sciences condensed matter physics soft matter physics
- engineering and technology other engineering and technologies food technology food safety
- social sciences economics and business economics sustainable economy
- engineering and technology industrial biotechnology bioprocessing technologies fermentation
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
6708 WH Wageningen
Netherlands
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.