Spore-forming bacteria as probiotics With the ever-increasing consumer demand for healthy and functional foods and beverages, probiotics offer a path for producers to differentiate products and meet the needs of more customers. In parallel, probiotics and ingredient companies are looking for ways to use new bacterial strains to deliver probiotic health benefits. However, working with these live and often sensitive microorganisms can be difficult. With their stability and resilience,...

Alternative methods of producing proteins offer exciting opportunities for creating vegan alternatives to animal-based products and ingredients. Some of these even promise to create ‘animal proteins, without the animal’. But with high costs for development and production, how can you be sure you are on the right track? Emma Teuling, Project Manager Protein Functionality Herwig Bachmann at NIZO, tells us about the hurdles of making techniques such as precision fermentation feasible.

Dietary fibre plays a key role in human health; fibre-rich foods and prebiotics can help promote gut health and benefit the gut microbiota, for instance. Adding fibre to foods and ingredients can thus help increase their attractiveness to consumers, and differentiate them in a competitive market. Petra Scholtens, Project team leader Nutrition & Health at NIZO, explains how in vitro models and human trials, supported by bioinformatics, can help manufacturers identify and demonstrate the...

When consumers shop for food, food safety is rarely at the top of their mind, because they see it as a ‘given’. Clearly, all food on the market must be safe and it is up to producers to ensure this. But the risk of contamination runs through the entire food production chain: from raw materials and ingredients, to formulation and processing, and on to the finished product. Some microbial contaminants are pathogenic and cause foodborne infection. Others produce toxins in foods – which can be...

By 2050, the global population may reach 10 billion people. Feeding this booming humanity will require increasing food production by more than 60% placing intense pressure on resources including arable land and fresh water. Food and ingredient companies are thus turning an interested eye towards microbial biomass as a potential sustainable source of protein. Yet, as Rianne Ruijschop, Department Head Health at NIZO, explains, sustainability is only one side of the story for edible biomass....

It has been widely reported that around one third of all the food produced globally is wasted. This represents a huge environmental impact and also is a huge cost for the food industry. Peter de Jong – NIZO’s Principal Scientist in food processing, professor of dairy process technology at Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences and director of New Technology Development for Food at the Institute for Sustainable Process Technology (ISPT) – explains how food fractionation and the...

The market for probiotics and other microbiome modulators is expected to grow 6.7% annually from 2020 to 2027, reaching $76.7 billion by 2027. And as we learn more about how bacteria can promote health beyond the gut, new potential applications abound. But probiotics are no ‘low-hanging fruit’: there are many challenges in developing and producing these living organisms.  To reduce risk and ensure fast time to market, they must be addressed as early as possible. We get the latest insights...

The market for probiotics and other microbiome modulators is expected to grow 6.7% annually from 2020 to 2027, reaching $76.7 billion by 2027. And as we learn more about how bacteria can promote health beyond the gut, new potential applications abound. But probiotics are no ‘low-hanging fruit’: there are many challenges in developing and producing these living organisms. To reduce risk and ensure fast time to market, they must be addressed as early as possible. We get the latest insights...

In this Podcast, NIZO Food Research Division Manager René Floris will be exploring some of the key issues and challenges facing the nutraceutical and food ingredient industry today. Reducing food waste trough microbial quality control Globally, as much as one-third of the food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted every year. One reason food may be discarded is the presence of microbes that can cause spoilage or illness. This makes proper food safety and chain control in food...

Podcast 13: FROM BIOMASS TO HIGH-VALUE FOOD PRODUCT: FERMENTED NON-MEAT PROTEINS In this Podcast, NIZO Food Research Division Manager René Floris will be exploring some of the key issues and challenges facing the nutraceutical and food ingredient industry today. From biomass to high-value food product: fermented non-meat proteins Producing proteins from single cell microorganisms is an exciting and fast-growing area in the food industry. But as Renske Janssen, NIZO’s Project Manager...

In this Podcast, NIZO Food Research Division Manager René Floris will be exploring some of the key issues and challenges facing the nutraceutical and food ingredient industry today. Meeting consumer sensory expectations for “reduced” food products Developing new formulations for familiar products is a major part of the food industry. For example, to meet consumer demands for food products with less fat, sugar and/or salt, or plant-based versions of traditional animal-based favourites. But...

In this Podcast, NIZO Food Research Division Manager René Floris will be exploring some of the key issues and challenges facing the nutraceutical and food ingredient industry today. Scaling up plant protein production processes:  To meet the ever-growing market for food and beverages with a plant-based claim, start-ups and ingredient manufacturers alike are reaching further afield for sustainable sources and side streams from which to extract proteins. Ruud Heshof, Senior Project Manager...

In this Podcast, NIZO Food Research Division Manager René Floris will be exploring some of the key issues and challenges facing the nutraceutical and food ingredient industry today.  Sleep is a key promoter of emotional wellness and health in general. Lack of sleep is known to contribute to conditions such as stress, depression, obesity and diabetes. But in the modern world, sleeping well seems increasingly difficult, with up to 30% of consumers saying they often have trouble getting to...

In this Podcast, NIZO Food Research Division Manager René Floris discusses some of the big issues in today’s food industry. Food production processes are becoming increasingly complex. Small changes can have big impacts on everything from food safety and product quality to production output and efficiency. But finding the right production set up can be a long and costly exercise. In this episode René spoke to Kevin van Koerten, Project Manager and Processing Scientist at NIZO, about how...

In this Podcast, NIZO Food Research Division Manager René Floris discusses some of the big issues in today’s food industry. In this episode he continues his exploration of the protein transition by looking at food safety for plant-based foods. The market for meat- and dairy alternatives is growing at a massive rate. But while these plant-based products may deliver as close an eating experience as possible to their animal-based counterparts, the food safety challenge they present can be very...

In this podcast NIZO Food Research Division Manager René Floris continues exploring some of the key issues and challenges facing the nutraceutical and food ingredient industry today. During the current pandemic, customer demand for immunity-boosting nutraceutical and food products has strongly increased: according to the latest Innova Market insights, over 60% of consumers worldwide are looking for products that support the immune system. In a previous podcast, we discussed the importance of...

In this episode we talk about smarter processing in food. Having chosen the right protein source, the challenge turns to ensuring you can maintain the desired functionality of that protein during processing and deliver the associated benefits to your customers. In this podcast you can find out the role of processing in protein functionality. The role of processing in protein functionality was put under the microscope by asking questions to Peter de Jong, Principal Scientist Processing at...

In this episode we talk about Fermentation while its importance for developing plant-based products has quickly grown. However, selecting cultures, blending strains, and controlling the fermentation process is far from simple. To find out how to do that effectively, René Floris spoke to Wim Engels, senior Project Manager and expert in food fermentation for NIZO, who has over 30 years of experience in the fields of fermentation, chemistry, biochemistry and cheese ripening.

In this episode we talk about Food Safety. All too often, controlling pathogenic and spoilage microbes in a new or reformulated food product comes at the end of the development process. In this podcast you can find out how a more holistic approach from the start can solve potential problems as part of the product development itself. In this podcast, Marjon Wells-Bennik, NIZO’s Principal Scientist Food Safety with over 20 years academic and industrial experience in food safety and...

In this episode we talk about health benefits of food. These are attracting a lot of consumer interest. However, manufacturers can’t just make unsubstantiated health claims.  In this podcast you can find out in vitro testing can provide important evidence to create compelling stories. To find out more, René Floris spoke to Anita Hartog. Anita is Senior Scientist in Nutrition and Health at NIZO and has over twenty years industrial experience studying the health and immunological impact of food.

Continuing our exploration of the protein transition, this month I again spoke to Fred van de Velde, head of NIZO’s Protein Functionality Expertise Group. In a previous podcast, Fred explained all about how to choose the right plant protein for a specific product by balancing the competing requirements of consumer preferences, product developers’ technical specifications and nutritional needs. This time, we looked at the sensory experiences that plant-based proteins deliver and how they can...

One of the key challenges an issues facing the food industry today, is protein transition –  the growing move away from animal proteins to alternative sources. Fred van de Velde, head of NIZO’s Protein Functionality Expertise Group has more than 20 years’ professional experience in protein functionality, Fred oversees NIZO’s “source-to-society” activities in protein food technology covering the full range of protein sources. He is also professor of protein transition in food through his...