The
objective 

The FEED project aims to promote the development of a new trend towards the consumption of “functional foods”, using fresh sprouts of different botanical origins, with particular attention to traditional, local and wild edible species. Sprouts will be also formulated to produce new food ingredients and will be transformed to different functional foods offering extra health benefits to meet the consumer demand while maintaining environmentally-friendly processes/products. Moreover, as fresh sprouts are very perishable and possess a short shelf-life, new bio-based and biodegradable active packaging will be developed with the aim of extending the sprout shelf-life and safety.

FEED integrates a multidisciplinary team that faces the dietary challenges on an ever changing world landscape by the re-discovery of species of cultural importance that could have health benefits and applying new technologies to successfully be accepted by consumers.
FEED will perform a deep characterization of fresh sprouts from cultivated species and wild relatives, particularly focusing on their content of bioactive compounds and antioxidants, then these species will be tested for their immunomodulating and prebiotic benefits.