Ingredients for food, animal feed and cosmetics

New extraction and fermentation processes offer access to a wide range of products for the food and feed industry from resources that have been insufficiently tapped to date. These include, for example, alternative proteins from plants, insects or microalgae, but also (modified) carbohydrates. Further functional ingredients can also be obtained from microorganisms and microalgae or via new fractionation technologies from byproducts from the agricultural and food industries. Due to their antioxidant, immunostimulant or antimicrobial properties, they are suitable for use in animal feed or as food supplements. For this purpose, we develop cultivation methods and product-friendly separation processes, for example for extraction and purification.

Product-friendly processes for extraction and fractionation

For the efficient extraction of functional ingredients from biogenic raw or residual materials and intermediate products in agricultural and food production, we at the IGB are developing robust extraction processes that are gentle on the product.

For cell disruption and thus the release of intracellular ingredients from microalgae, for example, we use high-pressure technology in combination with pressure change technology (PCT).

Various separation processes are used for the subsequent fractionation and purification of the ingredients.

Longer shelf life with the same product quality – food, cosmetics and active ingredients need to be stabilized or preserved without affecting the taste or damaging functional ingredients.

With our superheated steam drying process, we can dry food and animal feed in an energy-efficient way and thus preserve them for longer.

UV irradiation with newly developed excimer lamps enables us to inactivate bacterial contamination on surfaces such as eggshells. 

Barrier layers, e.g. against water vapor or oxygen, are playing an increasingly important role, especially in the food industry, as they protect the product against unwanted oxidation or drying out.

We are also developing surfaces from which liquid/viscous products can run off better.

Another application of the plasma technology established at Fraunhofer IGB is security labels, which guarantee the originality of the packaging and thus protect against product piracy.

Fraunhofer IGB develops three-dimensional in-vitro models based on human cells and tissue, cell-based assays and rapid tests that can be used to analyze ingredients and active substances for various parameters.

To detect pyrogenic substances (remains of bacteria, fungi or viruses), we use the receptors of the innate immune system in our cell-based test system. A new rapid test stick can be further developed for the detection of allergens in food.

In order to establish sustainable value-added cycles as well as the most economical production processes possible, we also develop processes to separate valuable by-products or residual materials from food production for the further use of functional ingredients (pigments, antioxidants, proteins and peptides) or to convert them into valuable materials, e.g. using catalytic or biotechnological processes.

We have also already established various processes for recovering nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen, potassium) from wastewater or waste fractions.

Finally, organic freight can be fermented into biogas to create added value.

We would be happy to advise you on which methods are suitable for your production processes!