WG2: Food Interaction & meal digestion

▶️ WG2 leaders:

✒️ Dr Uri Lesmes / Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Israel Institute of Technology (Technion), Haifa - Israel /  / Email: lesmesu@technion.ac.il

✒️ Prof Pasquale Ferranti / Department of Agriculture, University of Naples Federico II (UNINA), Naples - Italy / Email: ferranti@unina.it

▶️ Global objective :

Nutrients are eaten in complex forms of food and meals in which compositions and matrix structures delineate their digestive trajectories towards health implications.

In fact, significant research has been done on simple model food systems with scant studies on the physical and chemical interplay between food and meal components that underlie the bioaccessibility and bioavailability of nutrients.

The goal of INFOGEST WG2 is to harmonize efforts to study the underlying mechanisms of food components interactions within complex and realistic food scenarios as they pass through the alimentary canal.

▶️ Main objectives :

1. Outline consensus metrics and standards for studying digestibility of real foods and meals
2. Demonstrate how processing and structure delineate digestibility of meals
3. Gather evidence on the interplay between ingredients on nutrient release and absorption
4. Define synergisms and interferences

▶️ Main activites:

✔️ Collaborations among laboratories inside and outside the INFOGEST consortium

✔️ Erasmus exchange

✔️ Exchange of researchers

✔️ Interlaboratory collaborations for definition of models of meal digestion.

✔️ Online activity to promote food digestion research

▶️ Main results:

✔️ Joint research papers among laboratories:

• Food Res. Int.  2022: University of Naples (Italy)/NMBU, Norway
• Food Chemistry 2023: University of Naples/University of Manchester

 

✔️ Collaborative studies on plant-based food starting autumn 2024

▶️ Perspectives

➡️ Preparation of joint research applications

➡️ Preparation of joint applications for COST (PROMOTE application – COST action on alternative proteins)

➡️ Organizing 2-3 related webinars