FINEST Healthy and Sustainable food

It is important to integrate sustainability early in an innovation process to make the right choices, while there are opportunities to do so. The researchers at FINEST will develop new methods and working methods for working with sustainability linked to food innovations. By better understanding product and process innovation can be adapted to different conditions, consumer groups and markets.

The research goal is to provide hands on guidance on alternative routes forward considering sustainable technology and product innovations, resource efficiency/more circular food systems and nutritional quality linked to environmental performance with focus on the selected supply chains within FINEST:

For product and technology development linked to wild berries, an initial assessment of different supply chain options and valorization options for utilizing all parts of the berry for sustainable and healthy regional food products will be assessed.

For vegetable proteins different process technologies and supply chain options will be assessed for providing guidance on nutritional and sustainability aspects relating to technology development.

The research aims to evaluate how to optimize the combined nutritional and environmental effects of plant-based dairy products meat analogues. Focus of the assessment will be on how the choice of raw material and process technology affect nutritional quality and environmental impact. Special consideration will be given to fortification and its role for nutritional quality and environmental performance.

Linked to the experimental value chains, the power to food concept will be assessed providing initial guidance on type of products to be synthesized and comparing different options for utilization

FINEST will have a broad perspective that includes different aspects of sustainability, including social and economic. The research conducted within FINEST will help us identify and understand the critical points linked to sustainability. To weigh together and prioritize between sustainability aspects, Multi Criteria Assessment (MCA) is one of the methods identified that will be tested for evaluating circular food systems linked to the vegetable protein chain.

We create FINEST together

At FINEST, we address issues that are too large and too difficult for the individual player to solve on their own. The knowledge we create together is an important key to achieving a sustainable transformation of the food system.