By 2050, 10 billion people will need to be fed, which will require an additional 250 million tons of protein per year. This initial project aims to overcome the challenges of extracting protein from grassland plants, especially from ryegrass. It aims to lay the necessary foundations for the sustainable use of grass protein in human nutrition and for use in the food industry to provide structure. The project at the German Institute of Food Technology (DIL) is investigating fundamental scientific questions for a process to extract techno-functional proteins from grassland plants. Four interdisciplinary sub-projects at the DIL are working together to analyze all process steps from the laboratory to the pilot plant level.
Particular attention is being paid to protein yield and quality, economic efficiency, and a positive life cycle assessment. Food chemists, laboratory assistants, technologists, and technicians are coordinating the experiments and analysesin order to thoroughly investigate and optimize each step from extraction to the use of grass protein in functional foods.
A key aspect of the project is the comprehensive characterization of the isolated proteins in terms of their composition and techno-functional properties. These findings are essential for process optimization and are incorporated into the environmental assessment using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Challenges such as preventing protein losses due to aggregation and oxidation, adjusting the pH value, and key steps such as temperature treatment for protein precipitation have already been identified and are being addressed through systematic optimizations.
The project also examines the suitability of these directly derived proteins as a substitute for or supplement to traditional milk and meat proteins, with a particular focus on the technological adaptations required for food production.
The safety of forage proteins is also being evaluated. Nutritional characterization and studies on their potential allergenicity are being conducted. The presence of toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs), which occur in some forage plants such as ragwort, is also being investigated. Methods for reducing these alkaloids and other antinutritional substances, as well as agronomic techniques for separating PA-containing plants during harvest or processing, are part of the research aimed at developing sustainable and safe protein sources for the food sector that meet the requirements for novel food authorization .
Project lead: Dr Andreas Juadjur (DIL) a.juadjur@dil-ev.de