Public Funding for The Foundation and Friends of The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

The pre-harvest measurement of sugar content (Brix) is desirable in many crops but for the area of bio-fuels the data offers an essential revenue and efficiency control. Existing in-field measurement methods are not accurate or easily deployable for the most common bio-fuel crops. This project will enable the development of a new handheld field deployable product in conjunction with testing on a sugarcane crop grown within the UK. The projects technology will also be used within the EU for the measurement of fresh fish, fruit and vegetables.

This project aims to deliver a new range of food and beverages that provide health benefits by virtue of being produced from plant varieties that are naturally rich in phytonutrients, and not by fortification. Many varieties, both common and underutilized, from a number of different fresh produce types will be analysed to identify those that are naturally richest in health-giving nutrients. New processing technologies will be evaluated at lab scale on these naturally phytochemical-rich plant materials to produce improved food and beverage products. Central hypotheses are i) some older and underutilised varieties of plants will be richer in phytonutrients per fresh mass (many standard varieties have often been bred for yield, shelf-life and appearance rather than nutritional content); ii) high levels of phytonutrients can be maintained via milder processing technologies. Key activities include biochemical analysis of a broad range of different varieties of well-known UK and tropical crops, and design of food and drink prototypes for bioavailability and sensory studies.

Awaiting Public Summary