Mariana Geraldes Macas

Project Title: Application of novel techniques to elucidate new structural and shelf-life information in high-protein bakery products (HighPbreads)

Overview: Sustainable proteins and fibre are currently playing a major role for innovation in the bakery industry. However, it is still not known how these ingredients affect the structural, physical, chemical, and sensory properties of bakery products.

Mariana’s project aims to integrate Irish crops for the production of bread with high nutritional value and study the physicochemical parameters along the production process. The bread formulations will include wheat, peas, and fava beans as base ingredients. In a further step, the incorporation of other crops will be evaluated. Irish wheat produces weak flours which find little application in the food industry. Peas and fava beans can enrich the nutritional value of the bread. Therefore, increasing and optimizing the use of Irish crops in bread, a relevant commodity in daily nutrition, will bring economic and environmental advantages for the Irish community. 

The research will develop novel methods on the NIR spectroscopy area and it will apply immersive virtual reality technology and sophisticated biometric tools to establish new relationships between the internal structures, kinetic staling process, and the consumer sensory response of innovative bakery formulations.

Programme Area: Food Programme, Food Quality and Sensory Science

Supervisors: Dr.Eimear Gallagher, Dr. Alessandro Ferragina and Prof. Elke Arendt

Location: Teagasc, Ashtown

Funding Source: Teagasc