PROMETHEUS

PROcess contaminants: Mitigation and Elimination Techniques for High food quality and their Evaluation Using Sensors & Simulation

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'The PROMETHEUS project will help the European food industry reduce consumer exposure to food processing contaminants without affecting food quality or microbiological safety. PROMETHEUS builds on the previous EU projects HEATOX and ICARE. Its aims are (1) to understand the dynamics of formation of major Processing Contaminants, (2) to provide on-line real time methods to monitor reactions leading to contaminant formation, (3) to develop new processing technologies to mitigate contaminants but maintain the safety and sensory properties of the food and (4) to demonstrate scaling the new technologies to the industry level. Foods (infant formulas, biscuits, canned baby foods, and canned fish and vegetables) have been chosen for their nutritional importance. Processing contaminants (acrylamide, 3-monochloropropanediol esters, glycidol esters, furan, hydroxymethylfurfural and carboxymethyllysine) have been chosen for their toxicity, consumer exposure and relevance to the foods. PROMETHEUS will use a novel holistic approach of continuous real-time on-line monitoring of contaminant formation during food processing. Ambient mass spectrometry, fluorescence spectroscopy and image analysis will measure the contaminants simultaneously and allow modelling of the reactions that form contaminants and affect food quality. Innovative processing technologies will be used: vacuum baking, high hydrostatic pressure, ohmic heating, and ingredient microencapsulation. Improvement strategies will be demonstrated at industry level. The PROMETHEUS consortium has 8 research organisations and 6 industrial partners (including 4 SMEs, 1 large company and the European Confederation of Agro Food industries). The project outcome will help to protect the consumer. It will improve the competitiveness of the food industry by anticipating future contamination regulations, and help it to innovate by implementing new technologies in order to better control the safety and overall quality of their products.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Researchers have developed new technologies to monitor and control food contamination during processing, without compromising taste or nutritional value.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Since the 2002 discovery of trace amounts of acrylamide in a range of food products, concerns have been raised about the safety of substances formed in food during heat processing. PROMETHEUS (Process contaminants: Mitigation and elimination techniques for high food quality and their evaluation using sensors & Simulation), an EU-funded project, that was set up to address these concerns and achieve this without affecting food quality or microbiological safety.

The project investigated how major processing contaminants form and how they are monitored and mitigated. New technologies were developed with industrial applications in mind. Infant formulas, biscuits, canned baby foods, and canned fish and vegetables were chosen as food models. The particular contaminants that were studied included acrylamide, glycidol esters and furan, chosen based on toxicity, consumer exposure and relevance to the food items under study.

Researchers looked at different heating methods to prevent contaminant formation. Applications of ohmic heating for baby foods and high-pressure thermal sterilisation to canned fish reduced the levels of processing contaminants. This application fits important consumer demands concerning high-quality foods with naturalness characteristics, maintaining nutritional value and shelf life, as well as in terms of contaminant reduction. Ohmic heating involves passing an electric current through an element.

Team members developed prototype sensors to monitor the safety, appearance and nutritional value of food items. They have also prepared a list of compounds that can form during heating.

Information and technologies generated during the course of the PROMETHEUS project help protect the consumer. Additional developments also promise to improve competitiveness in the food industry by improving regulation of contaminants.