Food research: 1st place for the University of Hohenheim in the FEI research balance sheet
A university with top food research: 38 of the 210 (partial) projects funded by the Research Association of the Food Industry (FEI) are located at the University of Hohenheim. This means first place in Germany with a total of 8.2 million euros in funding. The Technical Universities of Munich and Berlin are in second and third place. The ranking can be found in the current research funding report published by the FEI at its annual conference on September 11, 2024. The recently published ranking by the National Taiwan University (NTU) also confirms that the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart has the highest level of research in Germany for the eleventh time in a row. The NTU ranking also includes the fields of food science and technology, horticulture and nutritional science and dietetics in the subject of agricultural sciences.
Germany's No. 1 in food research: The University of Hohenheim has been recognized by the Research Association of the German Food Industry (FEI) as a leading institution in food research.
Universität Hohenheim / Max Kovalenko
In order to accelerate the transfer of research findings into practice with cooperation projects, the Research Association of the Food Industry (FEI) funded a total of 38 (sub-)projects at the University of Hohenheim in 2023 with a total sum of around 8.2 million euros. This makes the University of Hohenheim the leading institution for food research in Germany, ahead of the Technical University of Munich.
With more than 46.7 million euros acquired from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK) and third-party funding from industry, the RDI supported a total of 210 (sub-)projects at 57 institutes from 36 research institutions in 2023. RDI projects often consist of two or three sub-projects based at different institutes and facilities. Almost three quarters of these institutions are universities, making them by far the most important research institutions in the field of food research.
Examples of Hohenheim research projects
The majority of Hohenheim's projects are based at the Institute of Food Science and Biotechnology. Researchers there are working on plant-based meat and milk alternatives, among other things, but also on the introduction of artificial intelligence into food production.
From oat or pea drinks to cheese alternatives made from cashew nuts: Plant-based alternatives to dairy products are becoming increasingly popular with many consumers. The range on offer has become more diverse and demand is growing continuously.
But how can the protein fractions of the raw materials, which are decisive for the quality of the end products, be evaluated? Two research teams from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the Department of Dairy Science and Technology in Hohenheim are working on this. Also based there is a research project that is looking into the reliable preservation of these plant-based milk alternatives.
Another research project in collaboration with Junior Professor Dr. Christian Krupitzer from the Department of Food Informatics is looking at how machine learning can be used to optimize food processing. This is because many companies in the food industry see digitalization as a great opportunity and an essential element for sustainable economic development.
Award-winning food research
The aim of Dr. Sandra Renz's research work, led by Prof. Dr. Jochen Weiss from the Department of Food Materials Science, was to contribute to greater sustainability in the production of meat products. As part of a German-Belgian project, she examined a large number of plant proteins for their functional properties and their suitability for hybrid meat and alternative products. In 2023, she received the Friedrich Meuser Research Prize from the FEI for the best dissertation.
In the TROPHELIA Germany ideas competition, the FEI honors ideas for innovative food products that have an ecological benefit. In 2023, a team of students from the University of Hohenheim took second place: Paulina Welzenbach, Cora Schmetzer and Anna-Lena Wahl developed a vegan alternative to mozzarella based on yellow lentils and cashew nuts - the "Mozzabella" - at the Department of Dairy Science and Technology under Prof. Dr. Jörg Hinrichs.
BACKGROUND: Research group of the food industry - RDI
The Research Association of the German Food Industry (FEI) promotes innovation in small and medium-sized companies in the food industry beyond the boundaries of competition. More than 90 percent of the approximately 6,000 companies in the German food industry belong to it.
Industrial Collective Research (IGF) is of great importance for the innovative strength of these companies. In 2023, the RDI coordinated a total of 120 IGF projects, which were funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK) with a total volume of 47.58 million euros.
Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.
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