Project summary
Improving the quality, safety and sustainability of fermented vegetable food and fruit beverage using a knowledge-driven synthetic ecology and modelling approach.
The increasing consumption of vegetable and fruit fermented food and beverage is among one of the striking diet transition observed in western societies. However, the strong demand for clean label food (rejection of chemical preservative) and for sustainable agricultural practices leads to unforeseen modifications in the quality and safety of these foods.
Generic scientific approaches to understand and anticipate the complex microbial ecology changes are needed, but solutions have to focus on sustainable approaches, like the leverage of microorganisms and their biodiversity rather than of the process itself.
We will develop a knowledge-based strategy using a Synthetic Ecology approach combining high troughput meta-omics analysis with ecological networks modelling for understanding how new tailormade microbial consortia could be built to overcome the changes. Wine and fermented vegetables will be used as key two food models at the heart of this challenge.
