Sustain-a-bite develops sustainable, cost-effective processes to create plant-based food ingredients from underused crops and side streams. By transforming materials like barley, faba bean, chickpea, and fruit/vegetable pomace into high-value ingredients, it supports healthier, affordable food products and boosts resilience in the EU agri-food sector—closely aligning with Wageningen Food & Biobased Research’s (WFBR) mission for a more sustainable food system.

High-Pressure Processing for Sustainable Plant-Based Ingredients

Sustain-a-Bite technologies focus on low-energy, non-thermal methods, with high-pressure processing (HPP) as one of them. At WFBR, we apply advanced processing expertise to investigate how HPP reduces energy, water, and raw material use in plant-based ingredient production. We also study how HPP—alone or combined with bioprocessing—enhances safety, improves nutrient bioavailability, and boosts ingredient functionality.

Procestimator: Driving Data-Informed Design of Sustainable Plant-Based Foods

As the demand for sustainable, minimally processed plant-based foods grows, we are developing new processing approaches through Procestimator that supports the design, evaluation, and optimization of innovative food production processes.

Procestimator is a science-based decision-support tool developed by WFBR to systematically analyze co-(bio)processing strategies developed in Sustain-a-bite. It integrates comprehensive data on raw material properties, environmental impacts, and techno-economic parameters—including estimates of energy, water, and raw material use, as well as processing costs.

By applying detailed mass balance model, Procestimator enables the evaluation of various process scenarios, facilitating the selection of efficient, scalable, and sustainable processing routes. This capability is essential for the early-stage design of new food ingredients and products, where trade-offs between environmental impact, resource use, and product quality must be carefully assessed.

By leading the development and application of Procestimator, we are providing the scientific community and food industry with a robust foundation for data-driven, sustainable food design.

WFBR’s Holistic Approach to Formulating Next-Gen Plant-Based Foods

Complimentary to processing expertise digital analysis, we are leading the development of a formulation design methodology that redefines how plant-based foods are created—focusing not on individual ingredients, but on how their physical and functional properties interact to deliver optimal nutrition, texture, and taste.

This holistic approach uses validated formulation guidelines that connect ingredient properties to food structure, rheology, and sensory characteristics. It supports the development of food prototypes across liquid, semi-solid, and solid systems, each defined by specific physical descriptors like viscosity, chewiness, or crispiness—benchmarked against widely liked but extensively-processed commercial products. Nutritional quality, consumer liking, sustainability analysis and affordability are all connected, enabling re-design of concepts towards the set goals.