HEИндивидуална стипендия2023–2025

DOEP · Delivery of algae oil into vegan milk through novel O/W emulsions (nano-emulsion and Pickering emulsion) stabilized with seaweed peptides

„Хоризонт Европа“ — Действия „Мария Склодовска-Кюри“

Период: 2023-11-01 → 2025-10-31
Финансиране от ЕС: 230 774 €
Участници: 1
Схема: HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF

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Накратко на български

Пептиди и частици от водорасли се използват за стабилизиране на омега-3 масло от водорасли в овесено мляко. Това помага за създаването на здравословни растителни храни, които запазват вкуса и хранителните си вещества по-дълго.

Този кратък обзор е генериран от изкуствен интелект

Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.

Резултати накратко

Delivery of algae oil into vegan milk through novel O/W emulsions (nano-emulsion and Pickering emulsion) stabilized with seaweed peptides

Many people today, especially those who choose plant-based diets, struggle to get enough of the essential omega-3 fatty acids that support heart and brain health. Algae oil offers a sustainable, vegan source of these nutrients, but it comes with a challenge: when added to foods, it tends to spoil quickly, creating unpleasant flavors and losing its nutritional value. This makes it difficult for food companies to include algae oil in everyday products without compromising taste, texture, or shelf life. Our project set out to solve this problem using natural ingredients from seaweed. Seaweed contains tiny protein fragments called peptides that act like natural shields against oxidation, the process that makes oils go rancid. We combined these peptides with simple food ingredients (emulsifiers) that help oil and water stay mixed. Imagine a salad dressing that doesn’t separate; that’s an emulsion. In some cases, we used a special type called a Pickering emulsion, where microscopic particles from seaweed sit on the surface of each oil droplet like protective armor. We also created microcapsules, tiny shells around the oil droplets, formed by a gentle spray process, so the oil stays protected until it is consumed. The goal was to identify and prepare seaweed peptides using environmentally friendly methods, use those peptides and seaweed particles to build stable oil-in-water emulsions, and add the stabilized algae oil to a familiar plant-based drink, oat milk, while testing taste, storage, and digestion. By doing this, we aimed to show that omega-3-rich algae oil can be delivered naturally and effectively into plant-based foods without sacrificing quality. The results enable healthier, shelf-stable plant-based foods enriched with marine-sourced omega-3, using renewable seaweed resources and green processing. Potential impacts include better dietary omega-3 access, reduced food waste through longer shelf life, support for clean-label formulations, and innovation opportunities across functional foods and alternative proteins. The work aligns with EU priorities on sustainable food systems, health promotion, and resource-efficient technologies.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз

Цел на проекта

Health benefits of oils rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, such as algae oil, have surged researchers to find efficient ways to deliver these oxidation-prone oils into food products. One of the hottest areas in this regard is the incorporation of the oils in oil-in-water emulsions; however, the emulsions are physically and oxidatively unstable upon storage, leading to quality deterioration in the final product. The present study is thus an attempt to stabilize these delivery systems by reducing droplet sizes and forming the so-called nano-emulsions as well as taking such measures as the encapsulation of the oil and incorporation of antioxidant peptides from seaweeds. Another state-of-the-art measure is the use of bioactive peptides purified from seaweed in a complex with a cationic surfactant as Pickering particles to form stable PUFA-rich oil delivery systems. The emulsions, either in encapsulated or non-capsulated forms, will then be introduced into oat milk to produce marine oil-enriched vegan food. A unique characteristic of this research is that bioactive agents will be purified from Palmaria palmata, a seaweed found in Denmark, which can contribute to attaining sustainable development in food technology. In this sense, one of the most restricting obstacles to using natural peptides is their bitterness; the present study tries to reduce or ideally remove bitterness by electrospraying the emulsions containing these peptides. This interdisciplinary research will pave the way for prospective researchers to consider the possibility of delivering healthy oil into vegan societies’ food baskets through efficient means in a way that taste and odour of the final products are not sacrificed for this purpose. The gained expertise in the present project will provide great job opportunities for the applicant because an ever-increasing number of food producers are seeking experts in the field of reducing lipid oxidation in their products and producing enriched vegan foods.

Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).

Участници

DANMARKS TEKNISKE UNIVERSITET · Kongens LyngbyКоординаторДания