Líneas de investigación

Proteins are essential nutrients in a balanced diet and must be consumed. The growth in the world’s population has led to the need to promote the production and use of plant-based proteins given their lower production costs, reduced impact on the environment and beneficial impact on health.
At CNTA we perform research to identify new sources of high-nutritional value protein, and to obtain protein-rich ingredients from agrifood by-products.
Another branch of development is to improve or achieve additional functions from these ingredients. In this case, we seek to facilitate their incorporation into food matrices, to optimise their nutritional impact, minimise – depending on the plant source – the presence of anti-nutritional factors that hinder its digestibility and/or give it new functionalities as a texture-adding agent or its capacity to disperse/dissolve, giving its use in food some new technological advantages.

Capacidades

• Pilot plant scale high voltage electric pulsation machine.
• Pilot plant for ATEX extraction, concentration and filtration by plates and cross-flow filtration
• Pilot lyophilisation equipment.
• Industrial kitchen
• Continuous treatment line and sterile packaging of liquid, semi-solid and particulate foods:
• Pasteurisation and preservation line: horizontal and rotating autoclave
• Packaging line: bag and tray sealing machines, gas mixer with vacuum application and/or modified atmosphere injection, can and jar closing machines
• Climatic chambers
• Sampling room