Super calcium - Minerals from whey for customized foods

PROJECT IS COMPLETED
Period: 2018 - 2020

The objective is to improve bioavailability of calcium through solubilizing sparingly soluble calcium salts as spontaneously formed supersaturated solutions through the presence of citrate and other hydroxycarboxylates, natural compounds formed in milk during fermentation, and partly hydrolysed milk proteins. The combination of milk-derived peptides with hydroxycarboxylates like citrate from fruits as vehicles for calcium will be tested in physico-chemical experiments with quantification of dissolved calcium by rapid screening methods for mineral concentration and electrochemical determination of calcium activity for partly digested foods or food models.

In a collaboration with Brazilian partners the Danish-Brazilian project “Novel Aging – Technologies and solutions to manufacture novel dairy products to healthy aging” was submitted by professor Lilia Ahrné to Innovation Fund Denmark 1 February 2017 with professor Leif Skibsted as co-applicant. In this project, a microfluidic device based on Caco-2 cells, which are cultivated human cells to be used for quantification of calcium absorption, will be used for testing of model systems and extruded snack foods and novel calcium drinks for calcium bioavailability supporting the supercalcium project.

Funded by:

Project: Super calcium - Minerals from whey for customized foods
Period:  1st of January 2018 - 30th of September 2020
Grant donor: Danish Dairy Research Foundation and Innovation Fund Denmark
FOOD grant: DKK 1,690,000
Total grant: DKK 1,690,000
Total budget: DKK 2,790,000

Contact

Leif Horsfelt Skibsted
Professor Emeritus
Ingredient and Dairy Technology