Proposals under this topic should:

• Develop innovative food and/or feed ingredients from sustainably sourced bio-based feedstock. The innovation in scope can be related to i) breakthrough processes to obtain known food/feed ingredients, and/or ii) novel food/feed ingredients. Ingredients in scope include bioactive compounds, antioxidants, prebiotics, postbiotics, vitamins, peptides, oligosaccharides; fats; emulsifiers; taste, texture, palatability and digestibility enhancers; colourants, functional/’precision proteins’ (i.e. proteins obtained, for example but not only, from precision fermentation process) among others. Besides the technical properties of the targeted ingredients (organoleptic, nutritional, prevention of intolerances/allergies), proposals should also consider their affordability. The production of bulk proteins, fibres and carbohydrates used as main nutritional component is not in scope per se; however the development of complex food and feed formulations involving the application of innovative functional ingredients working in synergy with them is in scope.
• Any production technique is in scope; proposals are required to pay particular attention to environmental, social and economic sustainability of the chosen pathway (including ingredients’ sources and availability/supply and the use of natural resources such as land, water, energy). In addition to production processes, proposals should consider downstream separation and purification processes to meet the targeted quality for final application aligned with food and safety legal requirements. Circular solutions, e.g. exploiting residual streams, are also in scope and could provide additional socio-environmental benefits. In this case proposals need to take particular care and adopt monitoring solutions to ensure that neither pathogens nor contaminants from the starting residual stream is injected back in the loop.
• Test the properties of the functional ingredients developed, alone and/or in combination and, if applicable, their effect on product formulations according to established testing procedures. Moreover, proposals should test the safety of developed ingredients through in vitro toxicological tests.
• Address the regulatory aspects relevant to the targeted end market(s), ensuring compatibility in the perspective of potential future scale-up.
• Involve end users starting from the early stages of development to assess market acceptance of the new ingredients. When addressing consumer products, involve consumers to gain insight of their perception and future chances of market uptake.