Projects

The overconsumption of sugar is one of the main reasons cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes have reached pandemic proportions. While the obvious solution would be to eat less and make healthier lifestyle choices, the desire for sweetness in our food remains strong. Artificial sweeteners are widely used to lower calorie intake. Several of them, however, are suspected to pose health risks of their own, and many do not taste as well as sucrose, often leaving a lingering off-taste. The development of novel sweeteners is hindered by the scarcity of measurable data on what constitutes an ideal non-caloric sweetener. We aim to develop biochemical assays to determine these metrics, facilitating the discovery of healthy, sustainable, and good-tasting sweeteners.

According to OECD, Estonia is one of the EU countries where obesity and diabetes are most prevalent. According to WHO, every fifth child in Estonia is overweight. Therefore, our task is to help people reduce their consumption of sugar, salt, and fat, which are associated with obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. The Estonian food industry is already committed to food reformulation, transforming former sinners in to saints. For example, muffin, which has been a delightful dessert in the past, has now become a food with reduced sugar, extra fiber and with a Nutriscore value B. However, its health impact is noticeable only when the taste is equally enjoyable and consumers accept it. This reformulation project explores sweet-tasting and healthy peptides and oligosaccharides to replace added sugars, the synergy of flavor compounds and salt, and the effect of fats on flavour. We aim to have a positive impact on public health without compromising quality, safety and taste.

Using surface plasmon resonance and calorimetry, the binding of hypertriglyceridemia drug candidates to lipoprotein lipase was tested.