DEVELONUTRI - Development of High Throughput Approaches to Optimise the Nutritional Value of Crops and Crop-Based Foods

Plant metabolites play a key role in human health and well-being, thus the improvement of nutritional composition in breeding programmes and the optimisation of nutrients in product formulations have become important targets. This degree of continued sophistication in vertically integrated food chains will lead to demands for analytical protocols which can monitor a wide range of nutrients and metabolites to accelerate breeding and to identify processes contributing to nutritional losses.
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The DEVELONUTRI consortium will develop and validate state-of-the-art and emerging technologies (NMR, GC-(ToF)-MSn, LC-MSn; FT-NMR; ICP; MALDI-ToF-MS; FT-MS; LC-NMR; LC-ECD) to identify a set of technologies and methodologies that can be deployed in crop improvement, production and processing platforms. The profiling approaches will be used to assess their added value in crop and crop-based food analysis using model species (tomato, potato, wheat), which are economically and socially important in Europe. Studies include traditionally bred and GM crops grown under a range of environmental conditions. Many samples will be derived from existing EU networks e.g. SAFEFOODS, EU-SOL, QLIF, providing added European value. Scientific outputs include improved chemical databases, standard operating procedures and databases, which facilitate the merging of data from a range of analytical approaches.
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The consortium will collaborate with SMEs in the practical assessment of raw and processed materials quality and to ensure knowledge transfer to policy makers, the commercial sector and consumers with regard to the value of the research outcomes in the evolution of food quality standards, The consortium includes participants with proven metabolomics expertise, including Bruker and the renown ed database experts NIST. Participation of an INCO country and emerging member states will make important contributions to the development of harmonised approaches for food analysis.