Whole foods - components from crops that are usually discarded in modern food production could be the key to making our food more nutritious, affordable, sustainable and filling.
Dr. Alejandro Marangoni
In a new Nature Food study, University of Guelph food scientist Dr. Alejandro Marangoni describes a model that encourages designing food "from field to colon."
This method would incorporate raw plant materials from the start, such as seeds, pulps, husks or microbial elements, while considering their impact on digestion, gut health and nutrient absorption.
Most food processing, the study says, relies on purified ingredients like protein isolates and additives a method that drives up costs, reduces nutritional value and creates waste.
Researchers propose a new approach that embraces, rather than discards, the natural complexity of plant-based ingredients, incorporating fibres, micronutrients and bioactive compounds.
Their idea came from experiments on developing food.
"We were trying to make plant-based cheese," Marangoni says, Department of Food Science. "The industry standard is to use protein isolates expensive and highly processed. But we succeeded using flours and concentrates, cutting costs by 75% while retaining full functionality."
'Field to colon' design will lead to more sustainable food
The proposed "field to colon" design is a major shift from the food industry's current approach, which focuses on isolating compounds, says Marangoni, "resulting in food that's highly refined and less nutritious."
Instead, using traditional processes like fermentation and dry extrusion can turn raw ingredients into high-quality foods.
Current chocolate production, for example, wastes up to 75% of the cocoa fruit as it discards the pulp and husk. Researchers propose making chocolate with the concentrated juice of the cocoa fruit pulp and the sweet gel from the cocoa pods instead of cane sugar.
This practice would retain all of chocolate's crucial physical properties while also reducing the greenhouse gases required to produce chocolate - one of the biggest CO2 producers in food, after beef and cheese.
Similar alternatives could be achieved with plant-based cheeses if made with whole legumes, grains and natural fats like avocado oil.
Food produced with this new approach would benefit consumers in several ways:
"Fuller, more natural taste, greater satiety, more nutrition and at lower cost," says Marangoni. "This is not about going back to the roots.' It's about moving forward by reconnecting with them."
