Plant Food Technical Centre

In the "Plant-based foods" technical centre, work is done with plant-based raw materials, such as cereal flours. The theoretical basics of plant-based food technology are supplemented by practical tasks, the corresponding techniques are practised and questioned with regard to alternatives. New methods of food production are developed and tested. In addition, technical problems are worked on that are demanded by industrial companies. In general, the aim is to ensure that products are produced in the best possible way: How can the product best be adapted to the production machine? What happens, for example, if ingredients are omitted or added to a roll dough? Similar questions are dealt with in this pilot plant with vegetable raw materials for many areas, which include the following focal points in particular:

• Cereals, flour and pasta (with kneaders, ovens and extruders)
• Chocolate and sugar confectionery (with tempering devices, enrobing machines and NIR analysis)
• Fats and oils (with oil presses, food processors and texture analysers)

The pilot plant is divided by type of experiment into a wet area and a dry area where little water is needed. Equipped with high-quality special equipment such as a texture analyser, with which it is possible to determine the textures of foods, or a laser-controlled full scan profiler, which can determine the volume of bread, it offers a wide range of possibilities for practical investigations. In addition to the practical courses that the students complete in the "Plant-based Foods" technical centre, project work also takes place there: Starting in the 4th or 5th semester, students can bring their own ideas and work on their implementation. One such idea, for example, was chewing gum that is non-sticky and biodegradable.

The practicals in the 3rd semester include the quality assessment of different flour types by means of different measuring methods. Appropriate equipment is available for these measurements, such as a farinograph, a protein washer and a falling number device. In the area of chocolate and confectionery, the students learn, among other things, how to optimally adjust the enrobing machine for cores from a sensory point of view: For example, the chocolate should not melt in the hand and must also meet the demands of potential consumers in terms of breakage, gloss and aroma. Experiments are being conducted with sugar in relation to fondant and caramel. In the production of oil from rapeseed or sunflower seeds, the students learn about different settings for pressing the raw materials. From the 4th semester onwards, students learn how to make optimal rolls and how the dough changes when milk protein is added as part of the "baker's experiment". In addition, multi-component food products (e.g. pasta with filling) are produced with a co-extruder. Here the students learn how to adapt the product to the machine so that, for example, the filling is not unevenly distributed.

In the Master's programme, one focus is the topic: scientific work with plant-based raw materials. To learn the scientific way of working, the students generate data on a proposed topic through independently optimised experiments and then try to publish this data in a scientific publication in English.

Data for the research topics are generated in the technical centre through scientific experiments. For this purpose, corresponding bachelor's, master's and doctoral theses are carried out in the technical centre.

Focal points and research topics in the "Plant-based Foods" pilot plant are:

• The composition of foods according to consumer trends, e.g. less sugar, salt and fat, vegan, high protein, low calorie, FODMAP reduced, etc.
• Changing the molecular structure of food components through extrusion (hot extrusion with single and twin screw extruders, co-extrusion).
• Influencing the five basic tastes through molecular individual components (e.g. mechanisms of bitterness masking)

Companies also make use of the know-how of the very well-equipped technical centre in Fulda by commissioning certain experiments (e.g. meat substitutes made from plant proteins by hot extrusion, gluten-free pasta and baked goods low in cooking salt, etc.). For this, the companies often provide raw materials and know-how. In addition, the technical centre also works together with regional companies. For example, the "Carisma" facility of the Caritas Association Fulda has commissioned the production of vegan gummy bears without gelatine as a research project. For this company, mushrooms from their cultivation are also enriched with vitamin D through sunlight irradiation. This project is even being funded with research money by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research as part of the RIGL project at Fulda University of Applied Sciences.

Every year, chemical-technical assistants from the Eduard Stieler School take part in the experiments; so do pupils from the vocational high school.