Mahesha M. Poojary receives a Sapere Aude: DFF Starting Grant

Much rests on increasing the amount of plant-based foods in our diets, including significantly reducing the carbon footprint of the Danish food sector. Recently, the Danish government set into motion the Action Plan on Plant-Based Foods, aiming to strengthen the sector in all parts of the food system, from global exports to the consumer to lower our carbon footprint.

However, many of the plant-based foods products that the consumer will find on the shelves have been heavily processed, changing the products’ properties such as flavor or texture to make it more palatable. But the processing may also alter the chemistry of the ingredients, and we do not yet know the effects of those changes on our health.

That gap of knowledge is set to change, however, as Associate Professor Mahesha M. Poojary has just received one of the prestigious Sapere Aude: Starting Grants from the Independent Research Fund Denmark. In all, there has been awarded 36 grants. The grant is for just under DKK 6,2 mil. and it will finance the project entitled Protein and Lipid Oxidation Interplay in Plant-Based Foods and their Impact on Brain Function.

“We’re seeing more and more new plant-based foods being developed and consumed. And that’s great. But especially with these new foods, we need to look also at the nutritional aspects. Some of them are heavily processed, while also using refined ingredients, which are then again processed, and processing always changes the chemistry of food. It brings new molecules into play, and the question then becomes, what happens when we eat these new molecules? Are they good for us? Bad for us? This really fascinates me, and fortunately, I can now investigate this,” explains Mahesha M. Poojary.

Beneficial for consumers and producers

In all, Mahesha’s project will investigate the chemical molecules that are formed during the heavy processing of some plant-based foods as well as then figure out how those molecules affect us, focusing on the brain to start with, given the strong connection between diet and mental health.

As Mahesha and colleagues have chemical processes as their starting point, their results can hopefully be applicable to a broader range of foods, where the same processing of the same ingredients happens.

“I think one of the beautiful things of this project is that we will identify and quantity these new molecules that are formed during processing. And these molecules can be formed in plant-based drinks, for example, but it could also be in plant-based solid foods. That means that we will be able to relate our results to different food systems. Our hope is, in the long run, that the producers can then use these results to help them tailor their processing conditions to minimize the formation of the unwanted compounds that we find, because we will know the conditions that create those compounds,” explains Mahesha and adds:

“Furthermore, uncovering the link between the consumption of processed plant-based foods and brain function could shed light on how diet influences cognitive health-potentially offering new insights into the development and prevention of neurodegenerative diseases, which represent one of the most pressing health challenges facing our aging society.”

Strong team and a confidence-booster

Mahesha will use Artificial Intelligence tools to handle the vast amounts of data that will be generated, and for this he has allied himself with colleagues from UC Davis. There will also be collaboration with TU Dresden as well as the Technical University of Denmark – DTU. In all, Mahesha describes it as a “very good, very strong team” that will be collaborating with him on the project.

Additionally, he will be adding a Ph.D. student and two postdocs to work with him at the Department of Food Science. Receiving the Sapere Aude allows him to take that next step in his career that he’s been working hard towards, he explains.

“I’m really happy and proud to receive this Sapere Aude grant. It’s one of the most prestigious grants in Denmark, so it really adds a lot to my C.V. But it’s also really a boost to my morale. I have this research vision to understand protein modification in food systems and their biological impact, and the Independent Research Fund Denmark believed in that idea as well. So, it’s bringing me a new level of confidence in my work and gives me the opportunity to have make our expertise in this research area even stronger,” says Mahesha.

Read more at the Independent Research Fund Denmark's site.