Researcher: Abedalghani Halahlah, Doctoral student, Department of Food and Nutrition University of Helsinki
Supervisors: Associate Professor Kirsi S. Mikkonen and Dr. Minh Thao Ho, Department of Food and Nutrition, University of Helsinki.
Description of the project:
The FinPowder project aims to develop a new strategy to develop sustainable and healthy food choices for global consumers while valorizing Finnish wood-based polysaccharides and wild berries. FinPowder will design powder particles to protect healthy and functional phenolic compounds and vitamins found in wild berries during spray drying. The wood polysaccharides to be trialed include both established hydrocolloids and emerging candidates. We aim to optimize spray drying conditions in the hope to achieve stable powder particles. FinPowder will also examine the physiochemical properties, stability, and digestibility of these novel wild berry powders to provide information about their storage, handling and application possibilities. In parallel, this will also allow us to determine their nutritional value, bioavailability and bioaccessibility.
We plan to exploit wood-based hemicelluloses sourced from waste by-products of the Finnish wood processing industry, to facilitate the production of natural and functional products. The aim is to dramatically improve on the existing methods (e.g., burning for energy or hydrolysis into monosaccharides) in terms of sustainability. The spray drying process will be developed in a manner that allows it to be rapidly scaled up and transferred to food processing companies for commercial and high throughput production of wild berry powders. The project has the potential to contribute to wild berry businesses in Finland as it opens the possibility to increase berry product exports internationally. It will also expand on the way consumers will be able to use berries in their every-day meals, supporting a healthy, nutritious diet and prevention of chronic diseases. More broadly, FinPowder will support the sustainable, circular development objective of the Finnish economy by using its natural resources more effectively.
The expected outcomes of the project are a doctoral thesis completed by Abedalghani, including at least three high-impact scientific papers. The highlight being a detailed strategy for the production of high-value, low-cost and easy-to-consume food products from two Finnish natural resources (wild berries and wood biomass) to meet the increasing demands for sustainable and healthy food choices across the globe.
