Project: Bio-protective cultures and bioactive extracts as sustainable combined strategies to improve the shelf-life of perishable Mediterranean food

Acronym	BioProMedFood (Reference Number: 2019-SECTION2-4)
Project Topic	The BioProMedFood proposal focuses on investigating two innovative and sustainable concepts (bioactive components and bio-protective cultures) with objectives to increase efficiency of the food chain, to prolong shelf life of perishable Mediterranean food and to enhance food safety. Additionally, the proposal aims to add economic value to food processing by-products and reduce food wastes by using them as a resource of bioactive components with ability to improve the qualitative performances of Mediterranean foods. To prove this concept at TRL 5 level, the project aims at: i) extraction, purification and production of bioactive compounds from different matrices, important for Mediterranean economy and characterised by a great biodiversity potential (i.e. macro algae, process by-products from olive, grape and fruits) and demonstration of their antioxidant and antimicrobial properties in vitro ii) isolation and selection of functional bio-protective lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains from spontaneous artisanal fermented meats, characterisation of their inhibiting activity against foodborne pathogens and their fermentation performances in order to select bio-protective and improved functional starter cultures; iii) application of bioactive compounds and LAB isolates and their synergy in different food models, food packaging methods and in development of polymeric packaging material and evaluation of the necessary production technological parameters. This will enable the reduction of invasive physical treatments and synthetic preservatives, exploitation of Mediterranean microbial biodiversity and of its agro-food system by-products, implementing sustainable, low cost innovative solutions and optimizing biotechnological tools, able to reduce small-scale traditional production safety concerns, meeting the consumer demand for fresh and minimally processed foods by assuring most stringent safety parameters.
Network	PRIMA
Call	Section 2 Call 2019 - Multi-topic

Project partner

Number	Name	Role	Country
1	Cukurova University	Coordinator	Türkiye
2	University of Split	Partner	Croatia
3	Croatian Veterinary Institute, Regional Veterinary Department	Partner	Croatia
4	CROSME	Partner	Croatia
6	DOMCA	Partner	Spain
7	Department of Agriculture and Food Sciences, UNIVERSITA DI BOLOGNA	Partner	Italy
8	Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore	Partner	Italy
9	CLAI S.C.A	Partner	Italy
10	UNIVERSITY OF LJUBLJANA, Biotechnical Faculty, Dept. Food Science and Technol.	Partner	Slovenia
11	Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, UNIVERSITY OF MARIBOR	Partner	Slovenia