|
Project Topic
|
Mediterranean diet (MD) has long been considered a landmark in healthy nutrition, but changing eating habits has meant that people have become less adherent to it. The younger population lost the connection with traditional foods while older people experience life changes that result in significant swaps in their diet. Despite this, both groups could benefit from a diet rich in antioxidants that has been shown to help prevent disease over the long term. PROMEDLIFE aims to reverse, through a multi-actor approach, the decline in adherence to the MD pattern. Specifically, four lines of intervention will be adopted: 1) The project will analyze socio-economic, cultural and personal factors driving consumers in adopting a healthy Mediterranean lifestyle. Surveys involving children, adolescents and family caregivers will be administered in Greece, Italy, Morocco, Slovenia, Tunisia in the local language to at least 500 people/country. Focus groups will be organized in each country in living labs to learn more about specific dietary habits. A country-wide nutrition profiling database will also be established to guide educational programs. 2) PROMEDLIFE will promote tailored and country-specific actions using “learning through play and living labs approaches” targeting primary and high school students and their families/carers. PROMEDLIFE will look at the characteristics and specificity of each country involved in the project through a series of initiatives using novel tools and strategies to address regional cultural specificities and apply validated educational techniques in different cultural environments. 3) Part of the work will be devoted to creating new healthy snacks targeted at young and older adults, based on traditional Mediterranean premium ingredients (saffron, dates, pomegranate, argan oil, selected vegetables). The products will be tested in each country in terms of acceptability and ability to promote healthy choices. The traditional and innovative eco-friendly food processing technologies and tools used in PROMEDLIFE will be optimized to preserve nutritional value and to enrich the final food products with nutritional compounds. Strong high-throughput chemical characterization and bioassays will assist the whole chain, from raw materials to the final products, to monitor their bioactivity and sensorial properties. New cultivation technologies and agronomical practices (i.e. soilless culture approaches and/or selection of local varieties for saffron and Argan trees) and innovative food processing technologies (e.g., encapsulation/immobilization) will be applied and tested. For each snack, the global value chain will be analyzed to investigate the cost advantage, market receptivity and sustainability. 4) PROMEDLIFE will codify and valorize local Mediterranean products through the development of food labeling using innovative tools (traceability and metabolomics) to increase people's connection with their cultural and local heritage and improve their awareness of food healthy choices. The link with local Mediterranean sources will be exploited as a tool for valorizing the PROMEDLIFE novel Mediterranean food products. Overall, revisiting the MD proposed in a more modern and appealing way through a transversal approach will guarantee the link between the innovativeness of PROMEDLIFE and the productive sector. PROMEDLIFE will aspire to understand the factors affecting consumers' healthy choices and turn to education to promote adherence to Mediterranean lifestyle in the young generation and their families. It will also promote adherence to the MD taking advantage of its health benefits for young people and families by developing novel and attractive products. By doing this, PROMEDLIFE will conserve local biodiversity and exploit its uniqueness for both cultural and regional economic development while improving the value chain and market competitiveness of locally produced sustainable Mediterranean food products.
|
