We are pleased to announce that HGF will have a Session at EFFoST 2023Sustainable Food and Industry 4.0: Towards the 2023 Agenda 6-8 November 2023 | Valencia, Spain

The HGF Session “From innovation to product development gaining consumer acceptability – building sustainability in food system” will take place on November 7th from 16.30h to 18.30h CET and will be chaired by Jan de Vries (NutritionSolutions) and Silvia Folloni (Open Fields srl).

We prouldy present our speakers and talks:

16:30 16:35 Short introduction to Healthgrain Forum Silvia Folloni HGF
16:35 17:00 Cultivating sustainability: The green promise of grass proteins Kaisu Riihinen VTT, Finland
17:00 17:30 Sensory Profiling and Flavor Analysis of Faba Bean Ingredients and Extrudates Fabio Tucillo University of Helsinki, Finland
17:30 18:00 Advantages and Challenges of Using Pulse Flours in Food Applications: A Focus on Sustainability, Protein Enrichment, and Nutritional Benefits Kerstin Burseg GoodMills Innovation GmbH, Germany
18:00 18:30 Exploiting Genetic Variation to Improve the Composition and Health Benefits of Wheat Peter Shewry Rothamsted Research, UK

All conference details and programme can be found here.

HGF members are cordially invited to the TNO Symposium on Optimising Food and Fibre Composition for Enhancing Microbial and General Health on the 20th of September 2023 at Naturalis in Leiden!
This symposium emphasizes the importance of beneficial synergistic effects of combinations of fibres and their interactions with other compounds. It will present new insights and technologies for exploring and optimising synergistic effects and thereby contributing to personal and public health. Keynote: Bruce Hamaker, Distinguished Professor of Food Science, Purdue University, USA.

Moreover,  the end of 38 years at TNO of Jan-Willem van der Kamp will be celebrated!

Please find all the details online and please register before September 8th.

HGF is partner of the new EU Research Project HEALTHFERM, which targets with the help of community science the societal and industrial transition from traditional to sustainable plant-based fermented foods by design for a healthy everyday diet. 

HGF, with the support of ICC, organizes a workshop on omics principles in fermentation technology at the facilities of ETH Zürich, CH.

More detailed information about the programme is available here

HGF is partner of the new EU Research Project HEALTHFERM, which targets with the help of community science the societal and industrial transition from traditional to sustainable plant-based fermented foods by design for a healthy everyday diet. 

HGF, with the support of ICC, organizes the 2nd HealthFerm Webinar on the Impact of microbial fermentation on food composition and nutritional attributes.

This webinar will take place on 15 June 10.30-12.00 CEST and will introduce you in the science of digestive health and fermented cereals and pulses. How good foods are digested, is a fascinating topic that is considered to be relatively well understood, but with still large challenges to be solved. These challenges and the question what scientific evidence is available if it comes to fermented foods and (long term) health will be addressed during this webinar.
Speakers will be:
Prof. Kristin Verbeke – KU Leuven
Prof. Rikard Landberg – Chalmers University of Technology
Jan de Vries, Communication Manager of the HealthGrain Forum, will moderate this webinar.

This is a free webinar and will be held in English.

REGISTER HERE.

More detailed information about HealthFerm project is available here

The Whole Grain Initiative is announcing the formation of a working group with the goal to identify a recommendation for whole grain intake.

Dr. Eleanor Beck, Head of School of Health Sciences University of New South Wales in Australia, has agreed to kick off the discussions.

Although the group will decide the best approach – they will determine the basis for a recommendation, identify the science to support, and then make the recommendation.

There may even be potential for some novel research in one or more regions to generate data or model impact of decisions.

If you would like to join, or know someone who should, be invited to the kick-off – then please contact office@wholegraininitiative.org for inclusion in the participant list.

The WGI is looking forward to make progress on this important issue and the advocacy that follows to encourage adoption!

The Spring Workshop 2023 will be organized from Wednesday 26.4. to Thursday 27.4. at the facilities of the HGF member Puratos, in Groot-Bijgaarden – Belgium on Wednesday and at the facilities of the HGF member KU Leuven at the Arenberg Castle Auditorium in Leuven on Thursday.

The programme outline consists of:

Wednesday April 26

– Visit at Puratos facilities in Groot-Bijgaarden starting from 09:00 CEST
– Afternoon workshop with presentations on the EU project InnoFoodAfrica results
– HGF General Assembly meeting
– Networking dinner in Brussels

Thursday April 27

– From 09:00-13:00 CEST workshop at KU Leuven Arenberg Castle Auditorium in collaboration with the EU project HealthFerm focusing on the state of the art of fermentation processes in relation to sensory quality, food safety and shelf life.

Please find here the final programme.

Please note that the meeting point for the bus transportation will be at the lobby of Hotel Warwick in Brussels on 26.4. and 27.4. at 8 CEST.

Also Non-HGF Members are warmly invited to join the HGF Spring Workshop 2023 but need to pay a cost reimbursement for food and transportation, while the workshop is offered free of charge to HGF Members / IFA Partners and HealthFerm Partners. For the 26.4. a max of 50 people can attend. This shall be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Hotel Warwick reservation in Brussels: please contact Mrs. Portier under following email: lportier@warwickhotels.com and mention HGF workshop to ask for an overnight rate on these days (25-27.04.)

HGF is partner of the new EU Research Project HEALTHFERM, which targets with the help of community science the societal and industrial transition from traditional to sustainable plant-based fermented foods by design for a healthy everyday diet. 

HGF, with the support of ICC, organizes the 1st HealthFerm Webinar on the Impact of microbial fermentation on food composition and nutritional attributes.

This webinar will take place on 24 February 10.30-12.00 CET and will provide a state of the art on microbial fermentation technologies that are used to produce foods. The impact of the fermentation processes on food composition and nutritional attributes will be presented in relation to the raw materials used to produce final products. The presentations wil cover the selection of microbes, conditions of the fermentation processed in solid, semi solid and liquid products and potential control of the fermentation processes.

Speakers will be:
Prof. Marco Gobbetti – Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
Dr. Rossana Coda – University of Helsinki
Jan de Vries, Communication Manager of the HealthGrain Forum, will moderate this webinar.

This is a free webinar and will be held in English.

More detailed information about HealthFerm project is available here

Please check out 2 recently by EFSA published papers :

  1. Update of the list of qualified presumption of safety (QPS)
    recommended microorganisms intentionally added to food
    or feed as notified to EFSA read more.
  2. Update of the list of qualified presumption of safety (QPS)
    recommended microbiological agents intentionally added to
    food or feed as notified to EFSA 17: suitability of taxonomic
    units notified to EFSA until September 2022 – read more.

In the context of the European project HealthFerm, the Institute Paul Bocuse Research Center (Lyon, France) and Umeå Universitet are recruiting a PhD student in Social science applied to Food, nutrition and culinary field.

For more details see here.

New EU Research Project HEALTHFERM Just Launched: Plant-based Fermented Foods for Healthier and More Sustainable Diets.

HGF is part of an interdisciplinary consortium of 22 international partners, which targets with the help of community science the societal and industrial transition from traditional to sustainable plant-based fermented foods by design for a healthy everyday diet.

Fermented foods are consumed in Europe and across the globe. Especially in the past decades, fermented foods have been hailed for their nutritional and perceived health benefits. Yet little is known about the impact of fermentation on human health or how fermentation can be leveraged to enhance the use of sustainable plant-based raw materials. The new EU research project HealthFerm, a collaboration of 22 partners from across Europe, will shed light on this forward-looking topic. Funded through the European Union’s Horizon Europe Framework Programme for Research and Innovation and the Swiss government, the project has a budget of EUR 13 million over the next four years. HealthFerm is coordinated by the KU Leuven, Belgium, and the consortium kicked off its activities with the 1st of September.

HGF, with support of ICC, will be responsible for organising the training and capacity building activities in the project by combining HGF activities with the project activities as much as possible.

Fermented foods are ‘foods made through desired microbial growth and enzymatic conversions of food components’ . Humans have consumed different types of these foods for thousands of years. First, fermentation processes occurred spontaneously rather than intentionally, and the main benefit was the increased shelf-life of foods. In the 19th century, people started to understand the actual fermentation processes better. It was not until the early 20th century that fermented foods gained a reputation for being beneficial to health. At present, they are more popular than ever due to their perceived healthiness.

Interestingly, little concrete evidence exists for their actual health benefits. There are few dedicated studies describing the mechanisms behind any impact of fermented foods on human health, and in-depth knowledge of how fermentation microorganisms and fermented foods interact with the human gut microbiome is missing. Only with the availability of such knowledge will it be possible to design fermented foods with optimal health benefits, rather than relying on spontaneous fermentation processes. At the same time, there is a global trend toward a more sustainable food system by reduced consumption of animal-based foods. Unfortunately, using plant-based ingredients in many food products remains challenging due to, e.g. flavour or processing issues. In Healthferm, new plant-based fermentations will be designed to improve the palatability of plant-based ingredients and leverage their use in a range of foods.

These areas are where HealthFerm will leave its mark: The project has been established to understand better the interaction between food fermentation microbiomes, fermented grain-based foods and the human gut microbiome and how they support human health. At the same time, HealthFerm will use these newly gained insights alongside microbial resources and fermentation technology to develop novel, healthy and nutritious foods based on legumes (pea and faba bean) and cereals (wheat and oat), with particular attention to the inclusion of side stream stemming from the processing of these grains. Consumer attitudes towards fermented foods will be studied throughout Europe.

“The research undertaken in HealthFerm will potentially have a wide-reaching impact on not only individual, societal and planetary health, but also the wider EU food industry through greater resource efficiency and increased use of plant-based raw materials,” explains Prof. Christophe Courtin, Professor of Food Biochemistry at the KU Leuven and Coordinator of the project.

At the heart of HealthFerm lies a community-science approach for developing innovative plant-based food fermentations. Citizens, artisans and companies will collect food fermentation microbiomes in Europe and worldwide to be analysed for their potential to devise these novel foodstuffs that can serve as alternatives to fermented dairy drinks, yoghurts and meat-based products and confer sensorial and health benefits, not only to these alternatives but also to more common products like (sourdough) bread. A specially developed online interface will support this effort.

Prof. Courtin adds: “Of particular interest to us is also how dietary changes including fermented foods can reduce inflammation and prevent chronic diseases such as obesity, metabolic syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease. This we would like to understand better based on human intervention studies and will do so in comparison to a standard plant-based diet. Alongside, we will also optimise fermentation processes and investigate further the consumer perceptions towards fermented and plant-based foods in Europe.”

The HealthFerm consortium responsible for this innovative endeavour comprises academic, clinical and industrial partner institutions from Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Romania, Sweden and The Netherlands. Two Swiss partners complete the consortium. The project officially kicks off its activities with the first meeting in Leuven, Belgium, on September 1 and 2, 2022.

For more details, please visit the project’s website.

Project Key Facts

Full Name
HealthFerm – Innovative pulse and cereal-based food fermentations for human health and sustainable diets
Start Date
1st September 2022
Duration
48 months
Budget
€13 million
Coordinator
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium