LIGNOFOOD

Ingredients for Food and Beverage industry from a lignocellulosic source

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Obtaining value-added products from agricultural waste is one of the most relevant key objectives to develop a greener bio-based economy and a future sustainable agricultural framework. This is indeed the objective of LIGNOFOOD project: ingredients for food and beverage industry from a lignocellulosic source. LIGNOFOOD project brings together 5 recognized research organisms and 4 bio-technological SMEs to deal with obtaining xylooligosaccharides (XOS) with the greatest prebiotic potential and xylitol from industrial hemp, an ecological resource of lignocellulosic material. Industrial hemp is one of the oldest cultivated plants and responsible of numerous environmental benefits; resistant to pests allowing reduction of agricultural biocides use, positive crop-sequencing effect for other bioenergy crops, and fast crop growth with low husbandry costs. Thus, it is a renewable resource with great potential to obtain ingredients of added value. XOS are non-digestible dietary components that have been recently reported to stimulate growth and/or modify the metabolic activity of beneficial bacteria and improve gut health. On the other hand, xylitol is also of great value because of its low caloric and low glycemic index, and used as sugar substitute. The combination of two production biotechnologies in one integrated process to obtain two products (XOS and xylitol) from a renewable resource is of great interest in terms of cost efficiency and sustainability. Furthermore, the health functionality and safety of the ingredients will be assured, and their addition to food matrices for food product development will be explored according to the sensorial properties and consumer acceptance evaluation to meet the final user/stakeholder preferences and needs. The participating SMEs will be able to exploit the results of these studies for XOS and xylitol commercialization and improve their competitiveness by gaining access to the rapidly growing market of functional foods.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

The versatile hemp plant has found a use in the food and health product industries by providing a source of dietary additives that improve gut health.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Agricultural wastes, such as plant dry matter left over after harvest, are becoming increasingly important sources of valuable products while helping to preserve limited natural resources. The EU-funded http://www.lignofood.eu/ (LIGNOFOOD) (Ingredients for food and beverage industry from a lignocellulosic source) project aims to produce health-enhancing dietary additives from lignocellulosic hemp waste.

LIGNOFOOD will extract xylan, a sugar-based component of hemp cell walls, which can be used to produce the low-caloric sweetener xylitol and prebiotics called xylooligosaccharides (XOS). In other words, the project will produce two useful products from one waste source.

Having identified suitable enzymes for producing XOS from hemp-derived xylan, researchers are now analysing different XOS structures to determine which have the greatest health benefits. Since XOS stimulates beneficial gut bacteria to grow, these benefits include improved gut health and decreased growth of opportunistic pathogens.

The final stage of the project will entail scaling up the process industrially, finding a suitable food to carry XOS and xylitol, and transferring the technology to end users. Because these products are destined to be eaten, researchers will also ensure they contain no toxins or other potentially harmful substances.

Producing XOS and xylitol from pest-resistant hemp rather than from crops like maize that are chemically treated will benefit both human health and the environment.