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DREAM - A European Project Developing Food Models

http://www.bulletins-electroniques.com/actualites/59802.htm

In terms of composition and structure, foods are very complex objects. However, although scientists have a good grasp of food composition, they know much less about its structure that is decisive for understanding the effect of food on the human body. This explains why researchers need realistic generic models so that the complexity of food structure can be mimed. The models will make it easier to assess the impact of a change of composition, or of processing conditions on the nutritional and healthy properties of foods. This is the goal of the European DREAM project that has just gotten off the ground. Total project cost is 8,6 million euros, of which 6 million has been funded by the European Union. The INRA-coordinated project brings together 18 private and public partners from nine different European countries.

The project will also make it possible to develop standard procedures for making real foods, by combining in silico and mathematical models with physical models. To address a very wide range of food products, four major categories of food with distinctive structures will be studied: solid cell models (fruit and vegetables), protein fiber network models (meat), combined gel/emulsion/foam models (dairy products) such as yogurts, creams and cheeses, and solid foam models (cereal products), such as bread.

The purpose of DREAM is to enhance knowledge of process-structure property relationships from the molecular to the macroscopic level. The collected data will be useful to researchers to predict the effect of bread texture on the glycemic index, for instance, and more widely the effect of the structure on nutrient bioavailability. The development of the realistic models and their manufacturing protocols will be conducted in close collaboration with technical centers, and disseminated throughout small businesses that in France, as in the rest of Europe, are the major components of the food-processing industry fabric.

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INRA/Nantes Center - Monique Axelos, DREAM Program Coordinator, Head of the Agrifood Characterization and Development Department - Phone: +33 (0)2 40 67 51 45 - email: monique.axelos@nantes.inra.fr

Code brève
ADIT : 59802

ADIT - Jean-François Desessard - email: jfd@adit.fr

eTech France numéro 228 (2/07/2009) - ADIT / ADIT - http://www.bulletins-electroniques.com/actualites/59802.htm