Processing functional foods

As the time-pressed, and stressed, European consumer increasingly relies on semi- and ready-made foods, the food industry perseveres in its desire to meet theses needs with the constant launch of new processed products.

An upcoming conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, will examine the role of functional food ingredients in relation to the eating quality and to the nutritive value in new product development.

An ongoing challenge for the food ingredients sector is to design new ingredients that establish relationships between molecular structure and functional properties in food. New ingredients, typically derived from food material, will allow new types of products to be developed based on controlled release of nutrients and flavour compounds.

According to the conference organisers​, novel types of food will be of interest for several groups of the population such as infants, the elderly, athletes, and speciality foods needed for future space expeditions.

The conference - 'New functional ingredients and foods' - will focus on the material food science behind the current challenges to the industry.

Scientists from a range of food laboratories, universities and manufacturers will present their scientific results with the aim of helping to refocus food science and technology and to use results from new sciences and other fields such as material science in order to improve nutritive value and the eating quality of processed foods.