KIT/University of Karlsruhe (TH)

Institute of Process Engineering in Life Sciences; Food Process Engineering (LVT)

Competencies:

With its competences in dispersion and emulsion technology, especially for product design by micro structuring, micro- and submicro- encapsulation, and extrusion technologies the department of food technology is specialized in the development of technologies for the incorporation of nutritionally valuable ingredients, esp. fats into emulsion-based and extruded food matrices. These technologies are supported by simulation, micro-processing and corresponding analytical techniques. The research goal is to understand the stability of selected bioactive ingredients in food processing technologies of high thermal and mechanical stress. Lab-scale and pilot plant-scale equipment and all other analytical techniques are available. The institute has extensive experience in direct collaboration with industry and other research institutions, including numerous AIF, esp. PRO INNO II, EU, DFG, and BMBF research projects and has already been a partner in several joined or cluster projects.

Major research objectives:

• Investigation regarding the stability of bioactives under high thermal and mechanical stress in extrusion.

• Incorporation of bioactives in extruded starch based matrices.

• Development of micro structured emulsion based carrier systems for bioactives.

• Designing of instant cereals and snacks with functional ingredients.

Institute of Applied Biosciences; Department of Food Chemistry and Toxicology (LMC)

Tasks:

The expertise of the Institute is in the characterisation of cellular mechanisms of food and food constituents and their relevance in terms of chemoprevention and food safety. In this case the Institute is focused on potential health effects, e.g. anticarcinogenic, antioxidative, or antiinflammatory properties. For risk/benefit evaluation these studies were completed by investigating the toxic potency of food constituents. The aim is to clarify the biological response of natural products in order to identify a concentration range with desired health effects.

Major research objectives:

• Investigations regarding the impact of food, food constituents (single compounds, nano- and microstructures) on cancer preventive mechanisms such as on proliferation associated signalling cascades and their subsequent gene expression.
• Metabolism studies of natural bioactive food ingredients in cell culture models.