The day began with a brief history of Cargill. From its origins as a small family business with a single storage silo, Cargill has evolved into one of the world's largest privately-owned company. Today, Cargill employs 155,000 people in 70 countries, integrating the fields of food, agriculture, nutrition, and risk management. Ralf Jakobi, Global Strategic Platform Leader, warmly welcomed the students.
The students had the opportunity to present their research to Cargill employees involved in all aspects of food and beverage product development.
1st PhD prize winner Gabriele D’Oria explained that despite the known health benefits, a large part of the adult populations in many countries worldwide does not consume enough dietary fibers. Therefore, finding ways to formulate fiber-rich foods is crucial to increase dietary fiber consumption across the globe. However, dietary fibers often negatively affect food texture and flavor. In this study, they found a novel strategy to significantly decrease negative mouthfeel of pea cell-wall fibers. They designed a gel coating which was able to significantly reduce negative mouthfeel of pea fibers like particle detection, grittiness, and mouth dryness. This strategy can be an effective tool to design more palatable, sustainable, and nutritious foods for the future.
Unfortunately, Maximilian Kannapinn who won the 2nd PhD prize was unable to attend and present his work on “Digital Twins for Autonomous Thermal Food Processing: Critical Role of Conjugate Heat and Mass Transfer”.
Mohsen Ramezani, 3rd PhD prize winner explained that oleogels are promising as animal fat substitutes in food, but more research is needed for their full potential. His research modified glyceryl stearate-based oleogels with plant-based lecithin, showing that these oleogels could support healthier and more sustainable food products.
With her research on " Novel plant-based protein biphasic gel” Shay Moguiliansky won the 1st MSc prize. This research combined wax-based oleogel and protein-based hydrogel to create plant-based bigel. The study examined the effects of varying oleogel ratios and the addition of transglutaminase on gel properties. The findings highlight the potential of these bigels for various food applications.
This presentation was then followed by a study on bioactive peptides from wine production by-products by Franziska Knuf, 2nd prize winner in the MSc category. These protein fragments, containing 3-20 amino acids, have health benefits beyond nutrition, including potential antioxidant and ACE-inhibiting activities. Her research suggests that these peptides could be valuable as health-promoting ingredients.
Last but not least, the Popular vote award winner Magdalena Trusinska studied the effects of ultrasound (US) and pulsed electric field (PEF) on vacuum-impregnated apples in aloe vera juice. Her research found that US enhanced the vacuum impregnation process more than PEF. Both treatments caused bioactive compound leakage and texture changes, with PEF softening and US hardening the apples. US treatment can improve VI efficiency but requires parameter adjustments for optimal results.
In the afternoon, the students toured the Cargill R&D facility, visiting various departments to discuss their work with Cargill food scientists. The R&D centre continually strives to meet the evolving needs of Cargill’s customers, spanning the full spectrum of food and feed ingredient science as well as non-food applications.
Three young Cargill scientists gave an enthousiastic and interesting presentation on their work; which surprisingly was not only on Novel Food ingredients, but also on broader topics like implementation of AI tools and apps for both Cargill as well as their clients.
During the EFFoST2024 Conference on November 12-14 in Bruges, the new Student of the Year Award winners will be announced and handed over their prices.