FEED PROJECT – From edible sprouts to healthy food.

The Argonaut Association, together with the Faculty of Food and Biotechnology from Zagreb, is a partner in the FEED project. The FEED project (From Edible sprouts to hEalthy fooD) aims to promote the development of a new trend towards the consumption of “functional food”, using fresh sprouts of different botanical origin, with special reference to traditional, local and wild edible species. Sprouts will also be formulated to produce new food ingredients and will be transformed into various functional foods that will offer additional health benefits to meet consumer demand while maintaining environmentally friendly processes/products. Moreover, since fresh sprouts are highly perishable and have a short shelf life, new bio-based and biodegradable active packaging will be developed to extend the shelf life and safety of the sprouts.

FEED integrates a multidisciplinary team that addresses the nutritional challenges of an ever-changing world by rediscovering culturally important species that may have health benefits and applying new technologies to successfully accept them by consumers.
FEED will perform an in-depth characterization of fresh sprouts of cultivated species and wild relatives, particularly focusing on their content of bioactive compounds and antioxidants, then these species will be tested for their immunomodulatory and prebiotic benefits.

Argonauta’s role in the project is participating by communicating the main results of the project to children and young people, encouraging them to become interested in healthier eating habits based on the Mediterranean diet. Therefore, as project partners, we will create and test an educational e-manual for high school teachers and everyone who works with young people, including trainers in informal education, and provide useful and simple teaching materials for the popularization of healthy eating habits. We will create both an interactive website and an online archive on Mediterranean food with associated social media channels documenting online Mediterranean diet recipes across the Mediterranean region.

These innovative activities will serve to promote a change in behavior towards a healthy diet for the target groups (children and youth) through intersectoral collaboration between scientists and stakeholders in the educational and civil/non-profit sectors.

GOALS: *Promoting well-being by encouraging healthier food choices. *Development of new plant-based products effective in the treatment of chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular problems and inflammation. *Introduction of new biodegradable packaging developed for the food industry, in accordance with the principles of ecological responsibility. *Production of new functional food with the addition of fresh/processed germs through innovative and sustainable technologies: microencapsulation and 3D printing of food. *Promoting the Mediterranean diet to younger generations for a healthy and sustainable future.

USERS: Children, young people, educators, everyone who works with young people, the general public.

PARTNERS: National Research Council (CNR) - Italy; Ricerca in agricultura e l'analisi dell'Economia Agraria (CREA) - Italy; Italbiotec (ITB) - Italy; Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) - Spain; Asociación de la investigation de la industria del juguete, conexas y afines (AIJU) - Spain; Department of Natural Resources, Agricultural Research Organization (ARO), the Volcani Institute - Israel; Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology at the University of Zagreb (UNIZG) - Croatia; Association for Nature and Environment Conservation and Sustainable Development "ARGONAUTA" - Croatia; Faculty of Engineering, Dep. of Food Engineering at Adana Alparslan Turkes Science and Technology University (ATÜ) - Turkey; Brewing and Beverage Technology (BGT), School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technical University of Munich - Germany.

DONORS: PRIMA program through the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Croatia

DURATION: 36 months starting from 1.6. in 2023

BUDGET: EUR 29,833 (partner share)