Summary
- Profile Type
- Technology offer
- POD Reference
- TOES20230925006
- Term of Validity
- 25 September 2023 - 24 September 2025
- Company's Country
- Spain
- Type of partnership
- Commercial agreement with technical assistance
- Research and development cooperation agreement
- Targeted Countries
- All countries
Contact the EEN partner nearest to you for more information.
Find my local partner
General information
- Short Summary
-
A Spanish technological center offers a protein digestibility analysis based on enzymatic digestion, with simulated gastric and intestinal fluids, capable of reducing economic expenses and test times with satisfactory results comparable to other tests in the market.
They are looking for commercial agreement with companies interested in their test or in this kind of technology. - Full Description
-
This Spanish technological center has expanded its field and lines of action, and currently its activities integrate all agri-food sectors, focusing its lines of action on promoting training, research and technological development, increasing quality and improving of competitiveness.
Protein digestibility is currently a booming and growing research topic, being of great interest to the food industry. In the field of cereals, proteins tend to be, in general, nutritionally poor due to their amino acid profile with low digestibility.
Wheat contains the proteins required to form a gluten network with the necessary characteristics to make good quality bread and pastries, but it is deficient in lysine, an essential amino acid for humans. In response to the nutritional deficiencies of cereals and given the growing demand for products with high protein content, the incorporation of seeds or legumes is often seen, resulting in products with high protein quality. This has sparked the interest of both Food Science and industrial researchers.
To describe the quality of these proteins and the products made from them, and to predict their behavior in the body, it is necessary to assess their protein digestibility. These measurements can be made in vivo, resulting in a highly complex determination, or in vitro, by means of laboratory simulation.
So far, there is no official method or common analysis criteria for the protein digestibility.
Although a static digestion protocol called INFOGEST 2.0 has been published in the last decade and is being the most widely used, it is not specific for proteins and involves significant equipment and material expenditure.
At their research department, an enzymatic method has been developed and compared with others already on the market, achieving reliable results and minimizing both costs and analysis times. It should be noted that, when carrying out protein digestion and/or selecting the working method to be used, two factors must be considered: digestion process itself and the determination of the protein content of proteins. - Advantages and Innovations
-
INFOGEST is one of the most used methods and therefore, other authors have bibliography with reference values, but is a very complex method and requires a wide variety of enzymes/reagents from different suppliers. This means higher costs, and the enzymes durability is reduced.
It can be executed in one day.
MEGAZYME is the most complete method for its subsequent determination, but it lacks reference values, requires more equipment than other methods and the purchase of three very expensive reagents, one of which is very difficult to acquire (requires a specific handling license). In case of damage to a reagent, the purchase of the complete kit is required, and it is executable in a day and a half.
Their enzymatic method is the simplest protocol to perform, has lower costs, the testing time is shorter, and it has lower consumable requirements, but as a disadvantage it has a lack of reference values in the bibliography.
There are very few laboratories in Spain that develop this technology, given the complexity of setting it up and obtaining reliable results. In addition, unlike the starch digestibility test, there are hardly any product reference values.
Using the enzymatic method developed by the technological center, it is possible to analyze a total of 4 samples in triplicate per day.
As indicated above, the cost of equipment and time has been reduced compared to other methodologies, although extensive work has been required prior to launching the test.
As a result of this, the researchers have gained wide experience interpretating results as well as internal reference values. - Stage of Development
- Already on the market
- Sustainable Development Goals
- Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
- Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being
- Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
- Goal 4: Quality Education
- IPR status
- No IPR applied
Partner Sought
- Expected Role of a Partner
-
The technology offer is focused to any company or research center that works with whole wheat flour, especially cereal processing companies (flour mills) and cereal-derived products industries (breads, cookies, biscuits, etc.).
The collaborator must provide the flours that they want to characterize rheologically, and it is recommended that they have information on the behaviour of the dough in order to be able to plot the results of the test and be able to determine the acceptable values in the different parameters obtained. - Type and Size of Partner
- SME 11-49
- Big company
- SME 50 - 249
- University
- R&D Institution
- Type of partnership
- Commercial agreement with technical assistance
- Research and development cooperation agreement
Dissemination
- Technology keywords
- 08001004 - Food Processing
- 08002001 - Detection and Analysis methods
- 008003 - Nutrition and Health
- 08001005 - Food Technology
- Market keywords
- 07003002 - Health food
- 007003006 - Other food and beverages
- 007003005 - General food products
- Sector Groups Involved
- Agri-Food
- Targeted countries
- All countries