Technology Transfer Services

Production of natural, low cost and environmental friendly food flavors

Code: 21-UOI-01

The Opportunity

The increasing demand for natural ingredients in food products is a market’s driving factor. Today, there is a decreased availability in the market of food additives with positive nutritional and environmental sign. Therefore, we have developed a low-cost green technology for the production of food flavor esters from low-added value agro-industrial wastes, which could be labeled as natural. An economically viable process for the synthesis of flavor esters is now available; these products can be formulated in easily handled encapsulated forms and launched into the market with domestic use perspectives.

Our Offer

The synthesis of food-flavors is a promising approach conformed to the increasingly markets' demands for safe, pure, low-cost and easy-handled products labeled as natural, according to the Legislations in EU and the USA. Long self-time preservation and controlled release during food processing, are prerequisites for their successful marketing. Therefore, we scheduled the development of two different commercial products synthesized catalytically by microbial lipases.

Product A: Depending on the end use and processing conditions of these esters, we selected water-soluble, lipid-stable and edible soft gelatin capsules, each containing about 5 mg of the pure finished product, which will be commercially available for use in vials of 25 easily handled capsules.

Product B: Commercially available food flavors in liquid form in small dropper vials containing ester’s quantities varying from 2 to 5 ml.

Both of these high-quality products can be used in the food industry (e.g. desserts, confectionery, instant soft drinks, etc.), in many forms of home cooking and baking and in cosmetics, to add a desired fragrance and ameliorate their organoleptic properties.

The Technology

This integrated cost-effective and advanced technology for food flavors production is based on the lipase catalyzed esterification of short chain fatty acids, from acidogenesis of liquid agro-industrial waste biomass, with selected alcohols. We applied “smart “strategies in order to enhance the quality and yield of the products.

Additionally, in order to maintain the integrity and stability of these particularly expensive compounds and for commercial use, encapsulation techniques have been employed. The encapsulation follows the dissolution of ester in vegetable oils (30 %), in order to avoid its loss through volatility. These innovative technologies enable the two distinct forms of food flavor esters (product A & B) to satisfy all relevant market demands and consumer's inclination towards “natural” products.

Advantages & Innovations

• A low-cost green technology for production of food flavor esters has been developed
• The applied technology releases pure compounds free of contaminations from other chemicals
• The described products are safe and effective for use in foodies
• The produced esters could be labeled as natural
• Encapsulation enables long storage and shelf life and easy product handling for domestic use
• Our aim is orientated to decrease the cost of the commercially available proposed products by means of continual study and experimentation

Stage of Development

The proposed sustainable bioprocess for the production of food flavor esters has already been validated in Laboratory scale.There are many prospects for the industrial scale-up expansion of this technology in order to evaluate the effectiveness, quality and the economic viability of the products.

Partner Search

FOOD INNOVATION RI is seeking for Partners capable to develop the proposed technologies. Potential Partners should be food industries and/or flavor manufacturers interested in driving the further development of this proposed technology in a relevant and operational environment.

Offered by

Department of Chemistry, University of Ioannina, University Campus, 45110 Ioannina, Greece

Contact

Prof Emmanuel M. PAPAMICHAEL
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