Design and formulation of food prototypes considering nutritional aspects (reduction of salt, fats and carbohydrates, fibre richness) and experimentation of technological solutions for the use of new ingredients. Development at lab/pilot plant scale.
Nutritional and rheological characterization of food ingredients and products.
Investigation of the interactions between ingredients in the food matrix (i.e., fibre, starch, lipids) in relation to the development of key functional attributes (i.e., nutritional, technological).
Proximate composition: total proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, dietary fibre, ash and amino acid composition
Protein techno-functional properties
Starch techno-functional properties
In vitro protein and starch digestibility
Rheological properties
Other nutritional components: bioactive compounds with potential benefits for human health (beta glucans, total polyphenols, resistant starch, alkylresorcinols, phytic acid…)

Production and characterization of milling flours and side-stream products (debranning)

The Food and Nutrition Research Centre (AN) of the Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA) is a public institution dedicated to basic and applied research in food science and human nutrition, aimed at evaluating and improving the nutritional and organoleptic quality of foods and food safety for the prevention of diet-related diseases, by means of analyses and studies throughout the entire supply chain from raw materials to finished products ready for consumption. CREA-AN can contribute to the design of food products advising food producers for nutritionally rich food products.
Our research group is dedicated: 1) to the study of the technological, nutritional and functional properties of cereals and derived products; 2) to the evaluation of the influence of technological processes on the nutritional value; 3) to the development of new cereal-based products. In recent years our group has been dealing with the technological quality of organic wheat, with technological issues related to the reduction of salt use in bread making, with markers of wholeness of flour products useful for a critical evaluation of the current legislation regarding the production and marketing of flour products and pasta, with the use of new ingredients (pseudocereals, legumes, waxy wheat, selected milling fractions and algae) and with the optimization of technological processes (leavening, cooking) for the production of cereal-based products with increased health value (content of nutrients and bioactive compounds, reduction of unwanted substances).
Our group has chemistry and rheology laboratories equipped with the necessary instruments (mills, ovens, muffles, spectrophotometers, equipment for determining nitrogen content, dietary fibre content, amino acid analyser, alveograph, farinograph, rapid visco analyser, glutomatic, thermobalance, etc.) for the evaluation of the quality parameters of cereals and derived products, and is also equipped with pilot milling plants (Bühler MLU202 mills for soft wheat and durum wheat); a bread-making and fresh pasta-making laboratory (mixers, leavening cabin, professional oven, extruders and dryers).