Boosting Bioactivity & Flavor

Elderberries, rich in bioactive anthocyanins, were incorporated into Blonde Ale and Catharina Sour beers to explore their functional and sensory potential. Addition during the maturation stage maximised colour intensity, red fruit aroma and consumer preference while boosting antiproliferative activity against human colorectal adenocarcinoma cells, a benefit that persisted after pasteurisation. Multivariate analysis linked specific anthocyanins to bioactivity, and industrial-scale brewing confirmed laboratory findings. These results demonstrate that strategically timed elderberry enrichment produces beers that are both sensorially appealing and biologically active, highlighting a scalable approach to craft functional beverages that combine taste, visual appeal, and health-promoting properties.

Monitoring food allergens

Digital PCR represents the third and most recent generation of PCR technology. Its defining feature is the partitioning of a reaction mixture into thousands of individual compartments, within which amplification occurs independently. Microfluidic nanoplate digital PCR (ndPCR) uses fixed partitions embedded in a nanoplate, enabling a more reproducible determination of positive versus negative partitions compared with earlier droplet-based digital PCR systems. This architecture simplifies workflow and reduces analysis time while maintaining high quantitative accuracy.

The successful transfer of real-time PCR to ndPCR was first demonstrated for the quantification of food allergens, using sesame as case study. Sensitivity was 10-fold decreased in ndPCR, with assay performance remaining unaffected by food processing and matrix. ndPCR showed high potential for the detection of food allergens at trace levels, offering high robustness and reliable quantification across complex food matrices.

Alternative Protein Source

Enzymatic hydrolysis stands out as a safe, effective, and industry-friendly strategy to reduce food allergenicity while maintaining nutritional value. Several food matrices promoted as sustainable protein alternatives and applied as technological ingredients in food products, such as sesame, lupine and edible insects (Tenebrio molitor) were selected as case studies to evaluate the effect of commercial enzymes (Alcalase®, Neutrase®, papain) under optimized conditions.

Hydrolysis effectively degraded allergenic proteins, substantially lowering IgE-binding capacity as confirmed by SDS-PAGE, immunoblotting, and ELISA using sera from allergic patients. These findings highlight the versatility and scalability of enzymatic hydrolysis, offering a powerful approach to develop hypoallergenic ingredients.

Emerging Contaminants

The team develops innovative analytical methods to detect emerging contaminants in food samples. Their work emphasizes green chemistry principles, particularly using deep eutectic solvents (DESs) as sustainable alternatives to traditional organic solvents.

They design advanced microextraction techniques to enhance sensitivity and selectivity, applying them to compounds such as endocrine-disrupting chemicals, pesticides, and polycyclic musks in complex matrices (e.g., food products).

A key strength is integrating sample preparation strategies like QuEChERS, membrane-based extraction, and DLLME. The researchers employ experimental design and optimization tools to improve performance, coupling methods with GC-MS for accurate identification and quantification.

Digestion simulation

The optimisation of physiologically relevant multi-organ in vitro cell-based assays to evaluate the impact of complex foods on human health is an important and rapidly evolving area in nutrition research and food toxicology. Assessing the health effects of a wide variety of food compounds — consumed as complex meals containing numerous active molecules—requires experimental systems that enable testing under physiomimetic conditions including mixtures effect evaluation.

Our research group has been actively developing and optimising integrated experimental platforms that combine simulated gastrointestinal digestion to generate bioaccessible fractions, in vitro gastric and intestinal transport models to determine bioavailability, and the evaluation of biological activity both beneficial and deleterious in relevant target organs modeled using cultured human cell lines. This integrated approach allows for a more comprehensive and physiologically relevant assessment of food-derived compounds impact on health, as demonstrated in our publications listed below.

Bioactive peptides

Climate change and global population growth are increasing the demand for sustainable alternative protein sources. Edible insects are promising candidates due to their high nutritional value and environmental sustainability. Besides supplying essential amino acids, protein digestion can release small bioactive peptides (2–20 amino acids) with potential health benefits, including antihypertensive activity through inhibition of the somatic angiotensin-converting enzyme (sACE).

In silico gastrointestinal digestion of insect proteins, followed by the evaluation of enzyme-peptide interactions using molecular docking, allowed the identification of peptides with potential sACE-inhibitory activity. LC-MS/MS analysis confirmed the presence of these peptides in insect digesta, and enzymatic assays demonstrated sACE inhibition by both the peptides and the digesta. The peptides were further evaluated in Caco-2 cells to assess intestinal absorption, cytotoxicity, barrier integrity, and modulation of gene expression markers related to diabetes and hypertension. Two peptides downregulated sodium-glucose cotransporter 1 (SGLT1)) expression suggesting potential antidiabetic effects through reduced glucose absorption. Overall, the results highlight the potential of edible insects as multifunctional ingredients for promoting cardiometabolic health.