The Mediterranean Gastronomy Center, Gasterra, within the framework of its collaboration agreement with the Dénia Town Hall, has launched a call for research grants to facilitate the implementation of projects or lines of study in the field of gastronomy .
The grants, to which a total of 36.000 euros are allocated, have gone to eleven of the sixteen research projects that have been submitted to the call and that belong to different areas of knowledge.
In the field of the use of food waste, aid has gone to a project aimed at reusing cocoa husks, responsible for the flavor and aroma of chocolate, which the industry treats as food waste, but which has multiple properties as a functional food as it is healthy.
In this field, another project has been presented, entitled "New ingredients with a technological function from agri-food waste for use in gastronomy and the food industry", which pursues the application for food packaging and obtaining functional foods from the waste resulting from the elaboration of Valencian horchata, facilitated by a traditional company, the Horchatería Daniel, from Alboraya.
In the area of botany, the project entitled "Obtaining selected types of Pebrella Thymus piperella of interest to gastronomy in the southeast" has received research aid, as it is a wild aromatic plant that is present in many of our dishes. traditional, such as gazpachos.
With regard to marine biology, the help has fallen on the proposal "The quality of the fish we consume: an analytical approach using nuclear magnetic resonance (HR-MAS)".
With regard to research on avant-garde food, the following works have received help: "Reducing the generation of food waste in restaurants by implementing conservation techniques based on UV radiation", "Cellular and molecular agriculture for a cutting-edge kitchen: health and sensations” and “Vegetable oils enriched with encapsulated bioactive compounds to reduce the acrylamide content in French fries”.
Regarding the recovery of the traditional gastronomic heritage and the appreciation of the Mediterranean diet, the project "The memory of the menjars of the counties of Alicante a l'obra del folklorista Francisco G. Seijo Alonso (1925-2013)" has been presented. ”.
In the field of research and health, the evaluating court has awarded a grant to the proposal "Effects of compounds used in molecular gastronomy on the composition of the intestinal microbiota."
To combat the effect caused by the expansion of the blue crab, an invasive species native to the American Atlantic, which has a high fertility and survival rate, the project "Quality as a gastronomic product of the American blue crab" has been presented, which tries to encourage the consumption of this species, which has spread by sea, rivers and wetlands throughout the Valencian Community, since it appeared in the Ebro Delta in 2012.
Finally, the gastronomic study project entitled "Gastrodiplomacy and gastronomic intelligence quality mark" has been another of those selected by the court in this call for public aid.
