The main objective of the CIPROMED project is to increase the stability and resilience of Mediterranean agri-food production systems through direct exploitation of locally produced traditional crops, as well as by valorising the proteins from locally generated agri-industrial side-streams (e.g., brewer’s spent grain, oilseed presscakes), and the upcycling and bioconversion of their extraction residues to protein produced by insects, legumes, microalgae and fermentation to be further utilized in the agri-food and feed sectors.
CIPROMED will use a multi-actor approach, where insects and microalgae will be produced exploiting agri-industrial residues and extraction side-streams as substrates and applying innovative rearing and cultivation techniques to attain higher protein yields. To close the loop, insect frass will be used as soil fertiliser for legume (lupins and faba beans) production. High quality protein ingredients from agri-industrial residues, insects, legumes and microalgae will be extracted for food and feed applications via economically and environmentally sustainable extraction processes.
To achieve circularity, the residues generated by the extraction processes will be integrated in diets formulated for insect rearing and heterotrophic microalgae cultivation, minimizing the residual amounts. Microbial fermentation will be used to enhance the range, stability and health promoting functionality of the new proteins.
All protein ingredients will be fully characterized, in terms of:
Based on the generated results, new prototypes of food and feed products containing the new protein ingredients will be formulated and validated using advanced and optimised processing technologies.
OBJECTIVES
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
To Develop protocols for new protein production value chains based on protein-rich agricultural crops, insects, microalgae and agri-industrial sidestreams produced in the participating countries.
To assess protocols of insect rearing and heterotrophic microalgae (Galdieria sulphraria) cultivation on side-streams to produce biomass with a high protein content.
To develop best conditions for the outdoor mass production of autotrophic microalgae (Chlorella sp.) biomass with a high protein content using fuel gas of a power plant as the CO2 source.
To optimise and establish advanced extraction, stabilisation and conversion technological methodologies for obtaining protein ingredients to widespread food and feed applications.
To integrate the protein extraction residues in insect rearing and heterotrophic microalgae cultivation and optimise procedures to raise insects and cultivate microalgae (auto- and heterotrophic) in order to obtain protein ingredients for human food, terrestrial (poultry) and aquatic feed.
To fully characterise the sensory, nutritional, technological, functional and safety traits and anti-nutritive factors of the ingredients aiming at improved food and feed product value chains.