Categorie: nieuws

Caroline studeerde Food Science and Technology aan Wageningen University.

Zij werkte in diverse functies in R&D en Innovatieprojecten bij NIZO Food Research, Hahn, Tate & Lyle en CNC.
Ze is nu actief als zelfstandig consultant in de landbouw- en voedingsmiddelenindustrie en werkt onder andere voor Wageningen University and Research, Photanol, Mycelium Materials Europe, Boltthreads en VALA.

Het aanjagen van duurzame innovatie in voedsel en landbouw is haar passie.

Samen met de andere leden van het KFS-bestuur zet Caroline zich in voor een optimaal gebruik van landbouwgrondstoffen.

In april 2021 tekenden Dutch Cuisine en Keep Food Simple een samenwerkingsovereenkomst waarin we streven naar het bereiken van een breder publiek met een duidelijkere boodschap over de gezondheidsvoordelen van plantaardige voedingsproducten.

Dutch Cuisine promoot de bereiding van voedsel van goede kwaliteit met lokale ingrediënten en het vermijden van verspilling. Het wordt ondersteund door een indrukwekkende groep ambassadeurs bestaande uit toprestaurants en hun chef-koks, voor wie traditionele recepten een grote bron van inspiratie zijn. Dutch Cuisine heeft een groot communicatieplatform voor zowel professionals als het grote publiek.

Door middel van wetenschappelijk onderzoek wil Keep Food Simple het volledige gebruik van de geoogste groenten ondersteunen. Op die manier wordt verspilling geminimaliseerd en komen de volledige nutritionele voordelen beter beschikbaar. Als onderdeel van dit werk is aangetoond dat de regelmatige consumptie van combinaties van verschillende plantaardige producten (bijvoorbeeld bieten en wortelen, fruit, peulvruchten, granen en koolsoorten) aanzienlijke gezondheidsvoordelen heeft, waardoor ons lichaam meer veerkracht krijgt en minder vatbaar wordt voor chronische ziekten.

Samen hebben Dutch Cuisine en Keep Food Simple complementaire expertise op een breed terrein van wetenschap en productie tot communicatie. De verwachting is dan ook dat onze samenwerking zal helpen om belangrijke stappen te zetten naar beter voedsel voor iedereen.

In februari 2021 tekenden Food Tech Brainport en Keep Food Simple een samenwerkingscontract gericht op het gezamenlijk verwerven en uitvoeren van nieuwe en innovatieve onderzoeks- en valorisatieprojecten.

Deze samenwerking is gebaseerd op de overeenkomstige doelstellingen en complementaire competenties van beide partijen. KFS heeft een ruime ervaring en een uitgebreid netwerk op vele gebieden van Food Science and Technology, zowel nationaal als internationaal.

De sterke punten van FTB zijn de state-of-the-art technische faciliteiten, de uitvoering en de verdere ontwikkeling van projecten en de implementatie van innovatieve technologieën waarvan al bewezen is dat ze werken (TRL level 6 tot 8).
Deze samenwerking is begonnen met een gezamenlijk project over het gebruik van paprikafval.

In a world striving towards a sustainable future, one’s diet is a highly important aspect which needs improvement. Decreasing meat consumption and incorporating legumes has a great potential to aid in this. Legumes have been consumed since ancient times and are still important to us as they are highly nutritious foods which also contribute to food security and the mitigation of climate change. Unfortunately, consumption remains low due to perceptions regarding taste, structure and gastro-intestinal properties.

As a part of her Bsc thesis at Wageningen University & Research, Alyssa Be is studying processes on how to reduce these undesirable aspects. A promising method is through fermentation, but the exact influende of this on the properties of legumes is not as yet clear.

More information on KFS projects can be found here.

In its last meeting of 2020, KFS confirmed the appointment of Flip van Straaten to its board. Flip is a retired biologist, educated at Wageningen, Salk and Cambridge. He specialised in whole grain fibres. He was director of the Dutch Bakery Centre and also worked at Unilever and Meneba. Flip has now completely changed course and is a self-sufficient farmer living on the Linge.

All six board members look forward to continuing the KFS activities in 2021, and, by doing so, to contribute to practical solutions to the world’s food problems through the promotion of the processing of vegetable agricultural raw materials into high-quality foods.

This year Keep Food Simple has started a tomato research and development project. It focuses on improving the bio-availability of nutrients in tomatoes by applying different types of processing. In so doing we aim to reduce waste and find more sustainable and innovative ways to process tomatoes into healthy and tasty products.
As a part of her MSc Internship Food Quality and Design (Wageningen University and Research), Tania Utami has made a comprehensive literature study of our knowledge of available processing methods and their influence on the quality of tomato products.

The choice of specific processing methods, such as hot and cold break heating and microwaving, will affect viscosity, flavour, and nutritional content. For instance, because of longer holding times in cold break, endogenous enzymes have time to break down the pectin and the unsaturated fatty acids, which results in lower viscosity and a fresher aroma of the final product. Higher temperatures such as in hot break though, will not only increase the viscosity but also the bio-availability of lycopene, one of the key nutrients in tomatoes.
High pressure processing will lead to an increase of redness, viscosity and the bio-availability of lycopene.

Introducing fermentation as a processing method, in combination with one of the methods mentioned before, will support the development of more digestible products, with specific nutritional benefits and more flavour.

More information on our projects can be found here.

Industrial bakeries are increasingly producing sourdough bread in response to a call for healthier foods. A longer fermentation process of approximately 24 hours has been shown to be beneficial in this. Additionally a long dough resting time makes the use of additives unnecessary, which is not the case in shorter resting times.

Customers are generally unaware of the effect of these resting times on the healthiness and authenticity of the bread . Under the guidance of Prof. Caroline Goukens (Maastricht University), Anna van der Scheer made a study of this, together with the effects on buying behaviour.

Using a random approach, it was concluded that respondents did not perceive a bread product with a longer resting period to be more authentic than that with a shorter period or with no mention of a rest time at all. Interestingly, though, bread with a rest period was perceived to be healthier than bread without. Finally an understanding of the rest period did not lead to a willingness to pay more for the product. So in the future more information and education will be crucial to highlight the benefits of a longer fermentation process.

We are proud to announce that the ‘Gravin van Bylandt Foundation’ has decided to become a sponsor of Keep Food Simple and will support our work on legumes. Their support is of great value, not only for financial reasons but also as a recognition for our goals and work.

We want to stimulate the utilisation of the legume as its proteins are seen as a promising alternative to those in meat products. However the current meat replacers are generally high in salt and fat, and low in nutriënts. We take a completely different approach. Our goal is to use the whole legume where possible. We aim to develop healthy and tasty products using both old and new technology, thus offering farmers and consumers the opportunity to move away from meat as the main source of protein.

More information on sponsoring can be found here.