EASYDIGEST

New strategies for digestibility improvement in legumes.

The EASYDIGEST project researches and develops food products based on legumes with improved digestibility, through the application of physical, fermentative and enzymatic treatments, maintaining all the organoleptic and nutritional properties of the original product.

The digestibility of legumes depends on external factors during processing, such as hydration, cooking or grinding, as well as internal factors linked to the composition of the legumes themselves.

In this sense, the technological improvements that EASYDIGEST wants to apply to legumes have as their main objective the reduction of the presence of antinutrients, natural compounds that interfere with the absorption and digestion of the different nutrients in the diet.

The EASYDIGEST consortium is made up of two companies, Gvtarra and Cultiply, and two technology centres, CTIC-CITA and Eurecat. In the future, the aim is to apply the different technologies at an industrial level and to commercialize the products, so that the final consumer can benefit from these improvements in food technology.

In the case of Eurecat, the technological units involved in the project are Nutrition and Health, which focuses on the fermentation process to improve the digestibility of legumes, and Omic Sciences, which analyzes the amount of antinutrients and the amino acid profile of the different legumes generated during the study.