NSERC Industrial Research Chair on electromembrane processes aiming the ecoefficiency improvement of biofood production lines
Chaires de recherche en partenariat
Domain(s):
- Sciences de la santé et de l’alimentation
Laurent Bazinet
Full Professor
Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences
Holder of a degree in food and agriculture engineering from the École Supérieure d’Agriculture D’Angers (France) and a Ph.D from Université Laval, Laurent Bazinet is one of the pioneers and international leaders in the field of application of electromembrane processes to biofood components. Since its creation, he is the director of the International Associated Laboratory on Bioproduction of Natural Antimicrobials, launched jointly by the Charles Viollette Institute of Université de Lille 1 (France) and Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods of Université Laval.
Chair holder’s Areas of expertise
Food and Nutrition
Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals
Cranberry
Separation processes
Membrane processes
Fouling
Proteins physico-chemistry
Electroconvective vortices
Ecoefficiency/ecodesign
Polyphenols
Dairy proteins
Green tea
Objectives
- Validate new electromembrane approaches allowing functional food production enriched with bioactive ingredients while minimizing their environmental impacts
- Demonstrate health effects of generated food and understand the biological mechanisms involved
- Demonstrate the feasibility at large scale and on long time of the new applications developed
- Evaluate the impact of eco-designed changes in the production lines through the concept of ecoefficiency
Canada’s nutraceutical and functional foods industry regroup more than 750 compagnies with an annual growth rate average of approximately 6% and an estimated market value of 11 billion $.
As the markets grow, the impact of food industry on the environment is increasing considerably, leading to major changes in the businesses actions. Many research and development steps are now required to reduce environmental impacts of unit operations used (ecodesign) and to ensure access to healthy food whose harmlessness has been validated scientifically to the population.
Nowadays, the agri-food sector must not only ‘’feed’’ the world, but mostly respond to new challenges in terms of healthy foods. Thus, sustainable development requires a review of production processes because of the emergence of new technologies. The Chair’s program focuses on technology development to improve the efficiency of food processing lines and by its integrating aspect of health components with the ultimate goal to define, evaluate and improve the ecoefficiency of agri-food products.
Mission
- Develop electromembrane approaches to optimize biofood production lines while minimizing their environmental impact and increasing the benefit of final products.
- Demonstrate the health effects of new ecologically designed products and understand the biological mechanisms involved
Research impacts
Scientific scope
The Industrial Research Chair will allow:
- the production of new functional foods by the incorporation of demonstrated bioactive fractions
- the production of deacidified beverages and the reduction of intestinal inflammation
- the development of industrial processes to reduce input needs (energy and drinking water) and to minimize releases and also to increase the value of these products in relation to their environmental footprint
For the partners
The tools and data generated will allow industrial partners to directly apply research results by contributing to the elaboration of nutraceuticals and functional foods currently unavailable in the market, and finally to enhance the valorization of their co-products and to eco-design their operations.
For the society
The research carried out within the chair’s work will increase the competitiveness of the canadian industries, contribute to sustainable development by electromembrane processes, discover new molecules and obtain products with improved characteristics. Finally, the chair will increase life quality and reduce costs associated to health care through the production of eco-designed healthy food.
NSERC Industrial Research Chair on electromembrane processes aiming the ecoefficiency improvement of biofood production lines
Pavillon Paul-Comtois, bureau 1403
Université Laval
2425, rue de l'Agriculture
Québec (Québec) G1V 0A6
418 656-2131, poste 7445