The APC-KHC collaborative project will initially run for 12 months and employ a team of 4 researchers
APC Microbiome Ireland has announced a new collaboration with the Kraft Heinz Company (KHC) aimed at developing new natural cultures for food fermentations.
Fermented foods are created using controlled microbial growth, facilitated by microorganisms or microbial communities, usually in the form of starter cultures, adjuncts or probiotics. The fermentation process helps prolong shelf-life, improve food safety and quality and increase the palatability of foods. It may also enhance the nutritional and functional properties of foods due to the transformation of substrates to bioactive end-products. This collaboration plans to focus on a variety of these bioactive end-products and their applications in food systems.
APC Microbiome Ireland is a leading Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre based in University College Cork and Teagasc Food Research Centre and is the largest and oldest microbiome research institute in the world.
The APC-KHC collaborative project will initially run for 12 months and employ a team of 4 researchers led by APC Principal Investigators Professors Paul Ross, Colin Hill and Catherine Stanton.
“We are very excited to partner with Kraft Heinz for this research collaboration” said Professor Paul Ross, Director of APC Microbiome Ireland and leader of the new research collaboration. “Research on fermented foods and culture metabolites forms part of the APC’s overall strategy to manipulate the microbiome of food for quality, safety and human health associated improvement. APC’s research feeds into industries such as human health, animal welfare, nutrition, infectious disease, infant formula and sustainability. APC is currently working on research projects with more than 30 companies, from multinational food and nutrition corporations to indigenous SMEs.”