Portugal – EoI 1115

Brief Description

Expertise: Food Chemistry and Human Nutrition; Evaluation of Food bioactive compounds, vegetal extracts and agro-food industry by-products; Promotion of innovative practices for coordination and sharing of results / data using Blockchain Technology.

Our team is a multidisciplinary research group with experienced professionals available to provide investigative and analytical research support to the knowledge hub on food security and nutrition. Our main fields are analytical chemistry, biochemistry, physical and chemical studies of food, development and validation of analytical methodologies, among others. Our research projects are related to topics within the broad area of food chemistry: nutritional and chemical composition of food/by-products; presence of bioactive compounds and respective bioactivities; development of clean and green technologies for quality, safety and authenticity control of foodstuffs and food supplements. One of our featured projects takes into account the topic “valorization of food by-products”, giving answer to the Food Security world challenge, disseminating knowledge, and applying sustainable approaches to an industrial level.

National and transnational collaboration in R&D projects together with the transfer of knowledge and technology to industry has been a major aim of our team. Moreover, green chemistry, sustainability and circular economy are key points of our scientific studies. Given this scenario and assuming that sharing data is one of the key roles of the research network, we are members of the WP2 (task 2.3) with the following activities:

  1. The use of Blockchain as a technological solution. This new paradigm uses decentralized technology, in which nodes are connected in a peer-to-peer network crossed by a consensus algorithm, consequently, the hierarchical relationship is eliminated. Blockchain technology is the most reliable and secure way to share information across a network. Currently, its application in the food area is very restricted to the control and tracking of the supply chain. The opportunity to participate in the Knowledge Hub will allow not only the implementation of this technology in transnational projects, but also the dissemination of its application in the area of scientific research. To meet this challenge, our research group collaborators are from different areas of knowledge, including specific areas of information technology.
  2. Projects aiming the quantification and characterization of wastes/by-products of agro-food industry and aiming to presenting real solutions for wastes/by-products valorization. By this way, environmental challenges could be converted into economic opportunities, according to the principles of circular economy and sustainability.
  3. Projects aiming at the characterization and nutritional evaluation of unconventional edible plants as a way to face the challenges related to food security

EoI responsable
M. Beatriz P. P. Oliveira
Full Professor – Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto
REQUIMTE/LAQV
e-mail: beatoliv@ff.up.pt

People involved
Thelma de Barros Machado
Researcher – REQUIMTE/LAQV
e-mail: thelma_machado@id.uff.br

Leonardo Ricciardi
Researcher – REQUIMTE/LAQV
e-mail: leonardo.ricciardi@gmail.com