Healthy and Affordable Proteins for the African Market (HAPFAM)

PROJECT IS COMPLETED
Project period: 2014 - 2018

The aim of HAPFAM is to enable development of sustainable, healthy and affordable foods based on a combination of protein from milk and plants, thereby creating a new and competitive business in Africa for the Danish food industry

The project introduces new business areas for the dairy industry, and adds value to the plant production that has previously been used mainly for feed.

The aim of HAPFAM is to enable development of sustainable, healthy and affordable foods based on a combination of proteins from milk and plants.

We hypothesise that partly replacing milk protein with plant protein gives a cheaper, equally healthy product with which the growth rate can be maintained.

Central research questions / Focus areas

The central objectives for HAPFAM are to:

Establish novel processing for isolation of functional plant proteins from rapeseed,
Elucidate the molecular interaction between specific plant proteins and milk proteins and how these interactions can be used to control the functionality of complex food matrices,
Evaluate the digestibility of specific protein fractions and investigate how the results correlate to growth,
Measuring the effect of partly substituting plant protein with a high-quality protein source on catch up growth compensating for malnutrition early in life,
Understand how protein blends impact on growth and how different protein fractions affect markers of growth,
Determine which combinations of proteins are optimal to promote growth in humans,
Understand the eating habits of West African consumers, and how to change the consumer choices towards a more healthy diet.

Participants in HAPFAM

Associate Professor Birthe Møller Jespersen

Project leader, Grant holder

Department of Food Science, University of Copenhagen

Tasks: Project management, scientific coordination across all WPs

Associate Professor Jens Christian Sørensen

WP1-leader

Department of Food Science, University of Copenhagen

Tasks: Coordination of tasks in WP1, supervisor for PhD student and post doc in WP1

Post doc Anna Maria Sulewska

WP1

Department of Food Science, University of Copenhagen

Tasks: Characterisation of protein fractions isolated from rapeseed

PhD student Marcel Jøhnke

WP1

Department of Food Science, University of Copenhagen

Tasks: Development of method for water-based, zero waste method for isolation of rapeseed protein fractions for human consumption

Professor Richard Ipsen

WP2-leader

Department of Food Science, University of Copenhagen

Tasks: Coordination of tasks in WP2, supervisor for PhD student in WP2

PhD student William Ainis

WP2

Department of Food Science, University of Copenhagen

Tasks: Elucidation of molecular interactions between specific plant and milk proteins, and investigation of how the interactions affects functionality of the complex food matrix

Associate Professor Søren Krogh Jensen

WP3-leader

Department of Animal Science, Aarhus University

Tasks: Coordination of tasks in WP3, supervisor for PhD student in WP3

Senior Researcher Helle Nygaard Lærke

WP3

Department of Animal Science, Aarhus University

Tasks: Planning of feeding experiments

PhD student Sophie van Vliet

WP3

Department of Animal Science, Aarhus University

Tasks: Planning and execution of pig feeding experiments

Associate Professor Dereck Chatterton

WP3

Department of Food Science, University of Copenhagen

Tasks: Investigating mechanisms behind the effect of specific proteins on growth factors, cell line studies

Postdoc Anne Krog Ingerslev

WP3

Department of Animal Science, Aarhus University

Tasks: Pig feeding experiments

Anja Serena

WP4-leader

Arla Foods amba

Tasks: Coordination of tasks in WP4

Associate Professor Christian Mølgaard

WP5-leader

Department of Sports, Exercise and Human Nutrition

Tasks: Coordination of tasks in WP5, supervisor for post doc in WP5

Associate Professor Camilla Trab Damsgaard

WP5

Department of Sports, Exercise and Human Nutrition

Tasks: Human intervention study - determination of optimal protein combinations for promotion of growth in humans

Reader Deborah Johnston

WP6-leader

Department of Economics, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Tasks: Coordination of tasks in WP6, supervisor for post doc in WP6

Post doc Sara Stevano

WP6

Department of Economics, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Tasks: Studies of food consumption patterns among school children in Ghana

Background

Despite economic growth, 22% of African children under 5 years – approximately 31 million children – are underweight and 40% have stunted growth, which has severe consequences for later health and development. This clearly illustrates the strong need to introduce foods that reduce the risk of malnutrition.

Collaboration between the Danish food industry and academia will provide a new strategy for producing affordable foods that fulfil the nutritional requirements of an African population and contribute to catching up the growth of children. Results will further contribute to closing the global protein gap and create business opportunities in other emerging markets.

Innovative value and relevance

In the present project, anti-nutritional compounds related to the use of rapeseed protein will be removed using new separation technologies, making rapeseed isolate a promising protein source for novel foods.

The functionality of protein fractions and mixtures is studied in order to gain knowledge about complex food systems and to develop new prototypes of blended foods in collaboration with the industry. The growth-stimulating potential of these protein blends is then tested in animal studies and human intervention studies conducted in Ghana and Denmark, respectively.

A sustainable production

Use of plant protein compared to ruminant protein is expected to reduce emission of CO2 equivalents by up to 85%. Furthermore, extraction of plant protein is part of a zero-waste water-based extraction method where all main components are used for food or feed and the overall process secures value generation through the production chain.

A new business model

HAPFAM embraces companies from the whole value chain, from raw material production to processing and retail. A future perspective is that protein rich plants are grown and processed locally in Africa. The project introduces new business areas for the dairy industry, and adds value to the plant production that has previously been used mainly for feed.