Functional Food Products and Health

Food technology: processes and materials

The development of food technology in the 20th century has enabled the vast manufacturing of staple food products with assured quality and security, able to supply the population of Western countries. However, the area is now facing new challenges to adapt to new sustainable and plant-based products, which requires the development of new processes and food products with tailored composition, functional properties (e.g. texture) and sensorial perception able to both guarantee the sustainability and health benefits. This requires the integration of fundamental competences on chemistry, biotechnology and process engineering adapted to the food sector.

Food and health

Western societies have mainly focused on a pharmacological approach to medicine, based on the development of treatments against specific diseases. However, the area of preventive medicine is an important target for health and well-being, where dietary habits and specific food intake is of paramount importance. This has been lately highlighted with the booming research interest on the microbiome (the bacteria that colonizes our gut, which is fuelled by our food intake), and the connections between gut and brain health (the gut-brain axis). The fundamental understanding of mechanistic relations between dietary habits and food products with their health benefits needs the integration of complex systems biology approaches, together with epidemiology studies. Here the integration of the KTH competences in Life Sciences is required towards personalized nutrition.

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