TERIFIQ - Combining Technologies to achieve significant binary Reductions in Sodium, Fat and Sugar content in everyday foods whilst optimising their nutritional Quality - FP7 Project

The aim of TeRiFiQ is to achieve significant binary (salt and fat or fat and sugar) reductions in the level of sodium, sugar and fat in selected cheese (hard, semi-hard, soft), meat (cooked and dry-fermented sausages), cakes (muffins) and ready-made food products (sauces) whilst maintaining and where possible enhancing nutritional and sensorial qualities of these products to ensure full consumer acceptance. This will be done by fine-tuning current product formulations by engineering the technological parameters of realistic food models specific to each product and by applying state of the art technologies such as cryo-crystallisation, multiple emulsions and multi-layered processes in a manner never done before. In parallel, micro- and macro-structures of the new food matrices will be studied. To ensure the sensorial feasibility of this re-engineering, sensorial analysis and optimisation to ensure consumer acceptability will be carried out in parallel to these technological developments. Moreover, the nutritional value of reformulated foods will be estimated compared to the non reformulated original foods. Beside technological aspects, more fundamental studies from selected models developed above will be conducted to improve the understanding of the main mechanisms leading to perception. That includes flavour release and temporal perception in relation with changes in composition of the selected models with in vivo and in vitro approaches with predictive tools, and a cognitive approach will be carried out as a promising lever to compensate salt, sugar and/or fat reduction. The findings will be transferred to the reformulation actions so that they can be introduced into the new food processes. These new product formulations will be validated via extensive consumer testing and demonstration activities with 9 SMEs for 6 European countries to ensure the industrial feasibility and consumer acceptance in different EU cultures and industries.