Future of plant-based food: Bridging the gap of new proteins and FLAVOURsome

About the FLAVOURsome

FLAVOURsome Action propose a new way to break down barriers for improving consumers’acceptance of plant-based protein alternatives by considering the whole food (process and matrices) and its interaction with the human. This means to understand the release of flavour chemicals in mouth, the interaction of molecules with oral medium (saliva), the transport processes to the oral and nasal receptors, the specificity and characteristics of the receptors, the transduction mechanisms and the subsequent processing of signals.

Meet our Working Groups

To achieve the scientific objectives of this Action, the responsibility for the implementation of specific tasks will be allocated to 5 selected and interrelated WGs. This Action will be coordinated by the Action Management Committee (MC) led by the MC Chair and Vice-Chair.

WG1 • Chemical and physico-chemical profiling of food matrices

Chemical and physico-chemical profiling of food matrices: chemical structure, sensory properties and machine learning

WG1 is designed to assemble a comprehensive and systematic platform, collecting all the available data regarding plant-based food matrices, major compounds present, perceived sensory properties, identified compound interactions (e.g. masking abilities, food matrix effects), thresholds, specific references and literature for each compound or food matrix and used methodology.

WG2 • Translation multimodal oral processing

Translation multimodal oral processing: from chemosensory to somatosensory sensations

WP2 is aimed at connecting different disciplines and approaches for solving critical aspects of food taste, aroma and trigeminal sensations.
To achieve this, WG2 will consider human saliva characteristics and the way they can affect molecule release and flavour perception, as well as how inter-individual aspects may contribute to different perception. This WG is also specifically focused on exploring the application of new techniques (e.g. cell assay, patch clamp, etc.) and approaches (e.g. neurosciences) that are not so commonly used in this area, to deep the knowledge about taste, aroma and trigeminal sensations. In-vivo, in-vitro and ex-vivo studies are considered in this WG.

WG3 • Food and oral rheology and tribology inputs to flavour properties

WG3 is aimed at exploiting the potential of rheology and tribology parameters in-mouth to understand their influence on multimodal flavour perception. The texture and/or viscosity modification in a food system helps manipulate its sensory properties to have the desired sensory perception. One of the main problems is that the potential of these techniques has been restricted due to the lack of understanding of the choice of test and the interpretation of the obtained data in relation to sensory analysis.

WG4 • Development of models toward implementation in food chain-production

WG4 aims to enhance synergies between Academia and Industry to explore the potential of the created and established knowledge, to develop suitable and advanced technology, and to add value to some industries. FLAVOURsome is going to consider both the origin of plant proteins (e.g. soybean, horse bean, lupin, pea) but also the degree of purity of the proteins (e.g. flour, concentrate) and the formation of potential supramolecular edifices between plant proteins and polyphenols, which could explain the astringency of plant proteins. It will also explore the impact of processing on protein texture perception such as pressure/shear/temperature process.

WG5 • Dissemination and engaging society and consumers

This is a generic and overarching WG that aims to coordinate and promote the dissemination among WGs, Action Participants, stakeholders, and consumers. The main activities will be linked to coordinate, support, promote, and evaluate all dissemination activities of the results of all WGs within this COST Action, allowing knowledge exchange and providing feedback to the other WG Leaders.

Latest Updates

News

FLAVOURsome online seminar series

Understanding the enzymatic release of volatile sulphur compounds in-mouth and the role of oral microbiota C-S lyases Date: 21 March 2024 | 13:00 (CET) Invited Speaker: Mathieu Schwartz, INRAE-Center for Taste and Feeding Behavior, France

Events

FLAVOURsome Satellite Event at 17th Weurman Flavour Symposium | 23 Sept 2024

On 23 of September, 2024, a dedicated satellite meeting will be organised as a pre-event of the 17th International Weurman Flavour Research Symposium that will be held on 24 – 27 September 2024 at Wageningen University and Research in Wageningen, The Netherlands. Researchers in the fields of food chemistry, biology, neurophysiology, psychology, and taste research from...

Events

FLAVOURsome Advanced Training School – “Tongue-on-chip 2.0: Taste receptors and other oral components involved in flavour perception”

Dates 3-6 June 2024 Description The Advanced Training School, as part of the FLAVOURsome COST Action CA22161, presents a comprehensive program focused on the cutting-edge topic of the role of taste receptors and various oral components, such as salivary proteins involved in flavour perception. After an introductory symposium, participants will receive hands-on experience with the...