Sugars are important dietary components due to their physical and biological properties. Their nutritional value and potential in functional foods is apparent in a wide range of food products.
Challenges
IBCarb has identified a number of challenges in the ‘Food’ sector. Specifically IBCarb is devoted to develop and deploy tools and reagents underpinning increased knowledge and exploitation of food carbohydrates. Using, for instance, synthetic biology or biotransformation approaches to:
- Engineer carbohydrates to obtain functional food products with the ability to modulate the gut microbiome and improve metabolic health
- Devise new strategies to identify and produce potential dietary polysaccharides with the ability to enhance intestinal immune response
- Develop new ways to produce functional food components, including natural low calorie sweeteners and antimicrobial agents
However this list is not exclusive and future networking IBCarb events will aim to identify and discuss other potential activities within the ‘Food’ remit.
