Prosoy to offer 'hands-on' protein course

Prosoy has organised a three-day 'hands-on' course on applications for food proteins in Europe.

"Various companies have asked us to organise a course with a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience and know-how of food proteins combining theory and practice," said Gerard Klein Essink, director of research and strategy at Prosoy. "

Therefore we organised a course on 'Food Proteins: Properties, Functionalities & Applications' in Den Bosch, The Netherlands from 25 to 27 April 2007."

Plant and animal-based proteins consumption is increasing globally.

Product innovations in food proteins offer new solutions for existing and new applications.

Understanding the properties and functionalities of the basic materials is very important for product development, claimed Prosoy.

The design of the Food Proteins Course takes the participants to the origin of the various proteins, their functional and nutritional properties and the relative importance of the proteins in the various food applications.

Participants will evaluate various protein gels of soy, wheat, pea, lupine, egg albumin, whey, caseinate, gelatine and blood plasma and various foods with the different proteins in order to combine theory with practice and to obtain "hands-on" experience.

"This is a real point of difference with other courses," said the company.

Albert Zwijgers, one of the initiators of the Anton Jurgens Institute (AJI), explained that this Food Proteins course is one of the first business co-operations of the AJI.

The Institute is an active player forming an international platform for open innovation and collaboration between food professionals.

Courses are organised to train young enterprising professionals at Master's level.

The network-founding members are Unilever, VION Group, Cargill, BIOX Biosciences, HAS Den Bosch and Wageningen University & Research Centre.

Ten speakers from multinational companies such as Cargill , Bouwhuis Enthoven , Cosucra , Sonac and Rousselot (VION Group), FrieslandFoods DOMO , DMV International , Unilever and Li Frank will share their experiences with the delegates.

Dr. Michel Mellema of Unilever will topic protein denaturation and agglomeration.

Prosoy Research & Strategy aims to be a source of information for soy foods and other health foods in Europe.

Each year Prosoy publishes market reports on the European soy foods markets and organises conferences and courses around health foods.