PROFLEX – Mastering structure design in model foods containing dairy proteins for flexitarian diets

There is a great interest in being able to develop quality products consisting of both vegetable and animal proteins. This is due to the increasing demands of such products by e.g. flexitarians and consumers who want a more plant-based diet. However, there are a number of challenges in these mixed products like fx structure formation. Therefore, there is a need to better understand how the various food components interact and how processing affects the physico-chemical properties.

By: Grith Mortensen

The ‘PROFLEX’-project is proposing a soft matter approach to link the fundamental knowledge of protein-protein interactions, oil-in-water emulsion systems and processing effects to study novel food applications containing proteins from dairy and plant sources. The objective of this work is to understand, at various length scales, the structure formation of multiphase food matrices containing both dairy proteins and plant proteins, under realistic conditions, in situ. 

The results will provide the opportunity for the discovery of new hydrocolloids-like functionalities of protein blends and will derive new principles on how to design emulsions and gels containing proteins of mixed sources.