Lean green food -- sustainable food production

The production of food must be sustainable and socially responsible. This is the thought behind a new international EU financed network called LeanGreenFood.

LeanGreenFood, which is based at Faculty of Life Sciences at University of Copenhagen, is a network of scientists from six countries. The scientists will help educate young food scientists to rethink current established food processes and to utilize new technology to ensure socially and environmentally responsible management of natural resources in a global change context.

Using our natural resources in a more sustainable way in food production will help reduce waste, reduce negative environmental impact and met the growing challenge of competing demands on biomass resources.

In the education of the new food scientists, the focus will be on improved yields of biomasses, decreased water and energy consumption and lower use of chemicals.

New enzyme-based technology

One way to obtain this is through the use of enzymes. Enzymes will be used to extract and process ingredients in food based on natural sources, such as starch, pectin and proteins. This includes the development of new food processes in which enzymatic conversions are performed in highly concentrated systems, chemical extraction is replaced by enzymatic extraction, and where novel analytical tools are developed for characterisation of raw materials, intermediates and the final products from theses processes.

It is hoped to train a new generation of innovative food scientists through the programme which will also be open to participants from outside the programme.

Provided by University of Copenhagen