What is the Innovation Space?
The NewFoodSystems Innovation Space is one of four Bioeconomy Innovation Spaces funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research with a total of €20 million. One of the aims of the Innovation Space is to put research results into practice more quickly and comprehensively than has often been the case in the past.
NewFoodSystem, which runs from December 1st. 2019 to December 31st. 2025, currently has almost 70 partners, of which one third are from academia and two thirds from industry. We are focusing on the new food systems of tomorrow and have defined three areas of innovation: Controlled Environmental Cultivation, New Food and Feed Ingredients, and Resource Efficiency in Energy and Material Flow Management. At the heart of the development of new processes and products is the holistic evaluation, which must be taken into account in all projects, as it is essential for successful transfer into practice.
The Max Rubner Institute in Karlsruhe, Prof. Dr. Sabine E. Kulling, and the TUM, Prof. Dr. Ute Weisz, are jointly coordinating the Innovation Space, with Karlsruhe taking the lead.
Sustainable protein ingredients
As part of NewFoodSystems, Prof. Weisz coordinated the “Sustainable Protein Ingredients” project, which aimed to create a protein database based on plant proteins. Together with the project-partners Fraunhofer IVV, HAW Hamburg and eleven industrial partners, 90 commercial protein ingredients were analyzed for many different chemical and physico-chemical target parameters. Based on these results, a database was created that now allows proteins to be systematically catalogued, specific proteins to be filtered out using a search function, and protein combinations to be calculated in terms of their chemical composition.
Hemp4Food - Holistic use of hemp seeds
The second project "Hemp4Food" (duration: 01.09.2023 - 31.12.2025) aims to develop processes and methods for the processing of hemp seeds. The aim is not only to obtain proteins, but also to investigate the use of all by-products (oil and fibres). Various dry and wet processes will be investigated to obtain protein ingredients from hemp seeds and hemp press cake. The focus will be on characterising the protein concentrates and isolates in terms of their chemical, physico-chemical and technofunctional properties in order to determine their potential applications. In order to fully utilise the hemp seeds, all fractions produced will be used in the project. Fibre-rich fractions, hempseed oil and the protein ingredients obtained will be processed into prototypes for vegan sausage alternatives and seafood alternatives. In addition, sensory analysis and a consumer acceptance study will be carried out to determine the acceptance of hemp as a food. The project will be accompanied by a feasibility study, taking into account the use of the whole hemp plant and its cultivation.
