THE PROJECT

Description of the project

Oleoprotid will address crucial issues related to the diversification of dietary protein in a stressed environmental context, with the unfeasibility of feeding the planet following current agricultural practices. Indeed, the world population will reach more than 9 billion people by 2050. Camelina is a plant with excellent and promising agronomic properties for food. In addition to providing an oil particularly rich in omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants, it contains a lot of protein (~25%) whose nutritional properties for humans will be studied. However, this oleaginous crop remains relatively orphaned from research and some locks remain to be removed. As most plants, Camelina seeds contain anti-nutritional factors and the industry has little knowledge of extraction and formulation processes. We wish to identify opportunities to valorize the proteins of the seed, to characterize them for human consumption, but also to identify opportunities for other co-products for the food or cosmetic industry in a circular economy perspective. Oleoprotid brings together a transdisciplinary group of professionals. It is based on the collaboration of research structures in the fields of plant biology, varietal selection, extraction and purification processes of ingredients, human nutrition, formulation and food quality assessment, with a socio-economic actor expert in plants. We will conduct trials on different camelina varieties to see the impact of growing conditions on the protein content and the different components of the seed. Protein extraction trials on different fractions of the seed will allow to optimize the yield and the quality of the proteins. Food prototyping, nutritional and sensory quality evaluations, allergy risk and consumer perception explorations are planned based on the know-how of the project partners. There is no data available on how to valorize camelina proteins for human consumption. We hope to develop a protein extraction process that can be transposed to an industrial scale. We will also study ways to valorize different co-products. We hope to achieve a prototype of functional food, of good nutritional and sensory quality and without risk for the health of the consumer.

Scientific and technical description of the project