Impact of production technologies on structural and nutritional properties of low fat foods

The present project aims at investigating how different production technologies can be used to obtain low fat (LF) products (i.e., biscuits and mousses) with improved nutritional functionality and quality features comparable to those of the traditional counterparts. In particular, extrusion-cooking and depositing technologies will be compared for LF biscuits production, while high-pressure homogenization and blending will be compared for the pre-mix preparation of LF mousses. The importance of understanding interlinks between production technology, nutritional properties and sensory quality lies in the possibility to develop new approaches in process/product optimization and a broader variety of healthier products of high quality.