Globally, food production is challenged by each climate change and population growth. There may be less and fewer arable land, but there’s a growing need for protected and healthy food. Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) and its partners are taking a look at microbes to seek out sustainable solutions for various stages of food production in an EU-funded project.
Microbes offer various advantages to the production of food and feed and in addition to farming and the processing of side streams. These advantages are the main focus of the international, five-year project SIMBA (Sustainable Innovation of Microbiome Applications in Food System) coordinated by Luke, the last yr of which is underway.
The SIMBA project studies how microbes can promote the expansion and quality of field crops and algae. The project also studies how microbes help produce healthier and more easily digestible food and fish feed.
The inspiration is old. Microbes have been dropped at the fields throughout the ages with nutrients equivalent to manure, and foods equivalent to yogurt, bread and sauerkraut have been prepared with the assistance of microbes by fermentation. The SIMBA project focuses on checking out which microbiomes, or microbial mixtures, are best fitted to each purpose and the way they needs to be manufactured and used. At the identical time, researchers are on the lookout for recent, sustainable ways to make use of microbes in each farming and food production.
At best, using microbes could revolutionize farming. For instance, if potatoes might be grown in salty soil, it might mean that seawater might be used for irrigation in areas which can be currently unsuitable for cultivation. We’re also working on this within the project.”
Anne Pihlanto, principal scientist at Luke, project coordinator
Essentially the most suitable research group for every stage of the worth chain
Pihlanto considers the worth chain of fish farming to be a superb example of a versatile division of labor in a big international research project.
“We, at Luke, took the duty to utilize recycled raw materials in feed development, while our partner began to develop fish feed by fermenting side streams of the food industry. Our experts, in turn, study the results of the feed on fish growth and health at Luke’s experimental facility.”
Finally, life cycle assessment experts at Luke evaluate the sustainability of the whole value chain and compare it to the sustainability of fish feeds containing soy.
“It’s interesting to check not only the environmental effects but additionally the social impact that using soy and side streams have, starting with the working conditions of the farmers.”
Easily digestible foods from broad beans and lentils
Luke’s food scientists selected excellent sources of protein as raw materials for food development: broad beans, peas and lentils. These all contain antinutrients, i.e. substances that impair the absorption of nutrients, and in addition harmful substances that cause, for instance, stomach upsets for some eaters.
“We aim to cut back the quantity of harmful substances by fermenting raw materials with different strains of lactic acid and propionic acid bacteria. We also combined raw materials with oats and developed various preparations equivalent to raw porridge and yogurt,” Pihlanto says.
Luke’s researchers are currently evaluating the composition and digestibility of the foods they’ve developed, while one in all Luke’s partners is specializing in scaling up the production.
“We’ve tested the taste in lots of stages. Surprisingly, the identical bacterial strain can affect different raw materials in very other ways. The taste of 1 becomes clearly higher, the opposite worse.”
Source:
Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke)