Laboratory of Food Technology

The LFT research activities revolve around three key interrelated research lines: (i) process-structure relations or structure engineering answering the question on how food structures can be generated and maintained (key research interest: Prof. Marc Hendrickx); (ii) process-structure-quality relations or omics and kinetics for food quality design investigating the influence of the processes used and the structures obtained on biochemical, chemical, and physical food quality aspects during processing and shelf life (key research interest: Prof. Ann Van Loey); (iii) process-structure-health relations or in silico and in vitro digestion and bio-accessibility studies with focus on how food structure can be steered to influence/optimize nutrient bio-accessibility and digestion of plant-based foods (key research interest: Prof. Tara Grauwet). In our research, we include a reverse engineering approach starting from consumer PAN-profiles (Preference, Acceptance and Needs) taking into account the physiological processing during digestion. The research approach integrates reaction mechanisms, chemometrics (fingerprinting), and kinetics (including multiresponse kinetics) at different length scales (molecular, microscopic, mesoscopic, and macroscopic) and time. This information is translated in predictive models that can serve in solving problems of design, evaluation, and optimization of unit operations and (multiple) indicator systems for process impact evaluation. We particularly focus on fruit-, vegetable- and legume-based foods and ingredients.