Recent results

Fermented vegetables, traditional in Asia and Eastern Europe, are booming in Western countries. They are made using a simple process consisting of incubating cut and salted raw vegetables, packed in jars in their juice or in brine, at room temperature. Fermented vegetable, apart sauerkraut, are mainly produced on a domestic and artisanal scale by spontaneous fermentation, which raises questions about their health safety.

Food is a significant contributor to humans’ environmental impacts and appropriate metrics to quantify them is essential to take and follow mitigation actions. Industrial processing accounts for less than 5% of the overall impacts of food systems but is central to sustainability. While agricultural production of commodities like milk generates over 75% of the food’s environmental impacts, processing prevents food waste and food spoilage to the expense of energy and water resources. However, industrial processes often involve separation of the commodity into coproducts, among which these environmental impacts must be shared.

Staphylococcus aureus, an opportunistic pathogen, causes a wide range of illnesses, from benign skin infections to potentially fatal food poisoning. It is also one of the main bacteria responsible for nosocomial infections in France. Initially thought to be extracellular, S. aureus has recently been detected inside various cell types of infected hosts. Identifying the biological processes involved in the cellular response to S. aureus is necessary to understand the mechanisms of chronic infection, and to develop methods of combating it.

The effect of shear stress on the accumulation of whey protein deposits at a liquid/solid interface is linked to their unfolding and aggregation. Understanding these phenomena is essential to deal with critical and costly industrial issues occurring at the bulk solution/surface interface, such as the formation of a fouling layer during heat treatment and or concentration by evaporation.

Cheese manufacture begins with a specific hydrolysis of one protein of milk, a casein, that is located at the surface of a macrostructure called the casein micelle. After the hydrolysis, the casein micelles aggregate and form a gel that is cut in pieces to induce whey release. The concentrated gel pieces are then put together to form a curd. As casein gel properties such as its firmness and its ability to drain are extensively dependent on the mineral composition of casein micelles, we have changed this composition and observed the effect on gel properties

Faced with the development of food-related chronic diseases, the scientific community concentrates on understanding the digestion process, taking into account food in all its aspects and complexity. Especially, the issue of food structure influence on nutrient bioavailability is addressed.

The objective of our research was to design foods that fit the nutritional and sensory needs of senior citizens to help keep them in good health and fend off risks like sarcopenia (muscle wasting) and osteoporosis. We also had a wider goal to help them keep enjoying meals, as with advancing age, fading oral health can make adequate food intake difficult or even painful.

Human milk is preferentially fed to very low birth weight infants. When mother’s milk is not available, human milk from milk bank can be administered after pasteurization. Our objective was to evaluate the impact of the technological treatments on the digestive behaviour of human milk.

Studies on egg white, particularly on lysozyme and ovotransferrin, all demonstrate activities against bacterial membranes from many bacteria groups. We studied how lysozyme acts on bacteria membranes.

Artisanal fermented foods constitute a significant part of the Mediterranean diet and represent a cultural heritage that needs to be preserved and protected. Nyons table black olives are produced in south-eastern France, and benefit from a PDO Label. They are produced according to a traditional process by a slow spontaneous fermentation in brine, i.e., without any starter adjunction. The manufacture and unique sensorial properties of these olives thus only relies on autochthonous complex microbiota, which we have deciphered.