The Functional Food project is a permanent offer of technical-scientific consultancy in Nutrition to local agri-food industry partners to develop functional foods framed to the nutritional interests that these partners intend to explore commercially. The formulated products are nutritionally optimised to provide health benefits to consumers by replacing harmful ingredients and incorporating value-added ingredients.

In the future, we plan to validate these health benefits through clinical trials.

To date, several products have already been developed: new coffee blends (e.g. addition of silver skin byproduct to increase fibre content, optimised roasting and minimally processed coffees to increase the content of the antioxidants trigonelline and chlorogenic acids) and new regional and traditional products have been adapted for obese, celiac, diabetic and hypertensive patients (e.g. gluten-free Caldas da Rainha “Cavacas”; muffins with split peas and apples from Alcobaça without added sugars; brownies with “Rocha do Oeste” pear and slipt peas without added sugars; pies with purslane rich in omega 3).

Principal Investigator: Vânia Ribeiro

Duration: 72 months (2014 – 2020)

Institutional Partners and Others 

• Ernesto Morgado S.A.
• Delipan – Sandes e Bolos
• Frubaça-cooperativa De Hortofruticultores Crl
• Delta Café
• Pastelaria Pires