Category: News

TFTAK team – Raivo Vilu, Ranno Nahku, Taaniel Jakobson and Mariane Barrier, attended the biggest biotechnology fair BIO International Convention from 13 to 16 June 2022. The event took place in San Diego, USA, and brought together thousands of biotechnology companies.

TFTAK was one out of five Estonian companies (+ the Connected Health Cluster) who shared space in the amazing Estonian booth arranged by Enterprise Estonia. The other Estonian companies who attended the fair were:

• IKO Science OÜ

• Solis BioDyne

• Icosagen Cell Factory OÜ

• Bioatlas OÜ

• TBD-Biodiscovery OÜ

• Connected Health Cluster

BIO International Convention was a great opportunity for TFTAK to have one-to-one schedule and unscheduled meetings with possible partners. It was firstly interesting to see what other companies do. Secondly how things have changed during the last two years. And thirdly, where to put the scope.

TFTAK can now position itself more precisely and is highly motivated to continue to develop our optimization services.

Mr. Raivo Vilu importantly commented that it was a good and right decision to participate at the fair. Moreover, Ranno Nahku has confirmed that the companies’ representatives met on the spot, the discussions and information exchanged should lead to new partnerships with TFTAK.

In addition to meetings, the BIO International Convention program was extremely busy with panel discussions, presentations, and events!

In conclusion, TFTAK is looking forward to continuing discussions with newly established contacts. And above all, looking forward for the next, BIO International Convention 2023 meeting in Boston, USA!

TFTAK is glad to share good news!

Three food products developed in cooperation with TFTAK food scientists are awarded as best of the best at Eesti Parim Toiduaine 2022 competition (the biggest food competition in Estonia).

Happy to announce, products with the golden badge:

• The Best Non-alcoholic Drink in 2022 in Estonia is Värska Naturaal Plus goji-cranberry by Värska Originaal.

• The Best Milk Product and The Best Food With Added Value in 2022 in Estonia is TERE Hi!Fiber peach-turmeric AB-yoghurt with dietary fiber by Nordic Milk OÜ.

In addition, Tallinn City Government gave out special award to Thormi plant based burger patty.

Congratulations!

TFTAK has cooperates with these companies for years and it has been a great journey! We are delighted to see, that input from our scientists to product development has raised interest in consumers and food experts, and has brought these motivating awards!

The competition took place for the 28^th time. 161 products from 66 different companies got nominated. Read more information about Eesti Parim Toiduaine 2022 competition from Eesti Toiduliit.

Thank you teamTFTAK. We keep developing!

On December 27th the two-year project “Platform establishment for optimizing probiotic microbial consortia industrial production: CoFerm” was approved to get support from European Regional Development Fund.

The project aims to develop a platform that will allow the effective development of growth conditions and environments for consortia manufacturing. CoFerm focuses on human gut bacteria and demonstrates the production of 25 common human gut microbiota species. The technology will allow us to provide support for companies that develop microbial therapeutics.

Research on human gut communities has significantly intensified in recent years. Bringing the new generation probiotics to the market is an important next step and we are confident that our platform will help to make the industrial production processes more effective.

Our Microbial Bioprocessing experts have already started the work on the project. “We are excited to discover the secrets of inter species interactions and microbial behavior in communities.” said the lead of the project Anna Kattel.

The project is partially funded by Enterprise Estonia. Project 2014-2020.4.02.21-0406.

On July 13th XPRIZE announced the 28 semifinalist teams moving forward in XPRIZE Feed the Next Billion. The $15 million competition, launched in December 2020, is aimed at reinventing the food of future generations by boosting the production of structured chicken breast or fish fillet alternatives that replicate or outperform conventional chicken and fish in: access, environmental sustainability, animal welfare, nutrition and health, as well as taste and texture.

Selected by the competition’s panel of judges, the 28 semifinalist teams were chosen based on their technical submissions and represent 14 countries all over the world of which only 4 from Europe (Umiami from France, Revo Foods from Austria, Enough – no limits from UK and TFTAK from Estonia)

As the world grows in wealth, the availability of sustainable food can meet the rising demand that allow the next billion to live active and healthy lives. According to Dr. Sirli Rosenvald (TFTAK Team Lead in XPRIZE competition) team TFTAK is aiming to develop plant-based white fish analogue. “We are focusing on Nordic crops like oat, pea, and fava beans to develop advanced plant-based prototypes. As a result, our aim is to reduce the addition of unsustainable and allergenic sources like soy and gluten. In our laboratory we use a broad range of different methods like extrusion, fermentation, enzymatical treatments combined with analytics and sensory methodologies to achieve delicious, nutritious, and sustainable analogue product.”

Over the next year, TFTAK’s team is going to work closely with the competition’s ecosystem and sponsors, which include ASPIRE and The Tony Robbins Foundation, as they begin to develop the first iteration of our product. We are looking forward to end up in the Finalist teams which will be chosen based on the merit of the technical solution prototypes towards the end of 2022. The winning team will need to create at least twenty-five cuts of structured chicken breast or fish fillet analogs of 115 gram or 4 oz that replicate the sensory properties, versatility, and nutritional profile of conventional chicken or fish. Final judging will award one grand prize team a prize of $7 million.

Read more about our plant-based food development.

TFTAK’s partner Lallemand Inc. is specialized in development and production of yeast starter cultures for fermented beverage industry. We are looking for a student for our Cider project (project duration 6 months). Can be part of your summer work and related to BSc or MSc thesis. Scholarship available.

Please contact: inisamedtinov@lallemand.com

“Selection of fast and slow growing bacteria from fecal microbiota using continuous culture with changing dilution rate.”

A recent study from Kaarel Adamberg published in the Journal Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease (Volume 29, 2018 – Issue 1) suggests that specific growth rate has important effect on the dynamics of colon microbiota. Manipulation of the proportions of fast and slow growing gut bacteria through modulation of the transit rate could be a target in human nutrition studies. The De-stat study would enable to predict changes in microbiota composition associated with the decrease or increase of the colonic transit rate.

Read more: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/16512235.2018.1549922

Find out more about our microbiome test.

The Good Food Institute works with scientists, investors, and entrepreneurs to make groundbreaking good food a reality. They focus on clean meat and plant-based alternatives to animal products — foods that are more delicious, safer to eat, and better for the planet than their outdated counterparts.

Last year they announced a call for research project worth 3M dollars from two generous donors. Now, 66 submissions from 18 countries and many rounds of review later, they announced fourteen scientists whose projects will be funded through GFI’s inaugural Competitive Research Grant Program. The resulting research in critical areas of plant-based and cell-based meat R&D will be shared for the benefit of the entire scientific community and good food industry.

We are happy to announce that The Center of Food and Fermentation Technologies research project “Fermentation of oat protein for application in extruded meat analogs” was one of the funded projects. The project leader Mari-Liis Tammik said: “We are excited to go in more detail with our research which is aiming to make plant-based meat better digestible”.

See the full list of grantees here: https://lnkd.in/diA86qd

TFTAK is the first Estonian research organization to join European Sensory Network (ESN) and tighten international collaboration in the field fo sensory analysis. The European Sensory Network (ESN) is an international network of leading research institutions and industrial partners at the cutting edge of sensory and consumer sciences.

During the ESN autumn meeting in Dublin, Ireland this year TFTAK representatives Sirli Rosenvald and Julia Rosend introduced TFTAK to ESN members and partners. We were excited to see that ESN is already researching the topics that interest us, reports Sirli Rosenvald. These include the ESN research project on the relationship between texture and food intake.

First impression of ESN?

“The ESN meeting offers first-class lectures, intensive discussions in small focus groups, participation in experiments and the creative hunt for new research ideas. There is also the opportunity to jointly finance innovative research. This is a unique opportunity,” said Sirli Rosenvald.

Expanding the frontier

ESN welcomes new member from Estonia to the European Sensory Network. ESN is thus extending its feelers even further east, and in so doing gains expertise in new fields of research. Claire Sulmont-Rossé, ESN chair, explains: “TFTAK has special expertise in molecular biology and analytical methods. Since they also use sensory panels and classical sensory methods, they can bridge the gap between sensory and biotechnological research. This fits in with ESN’s interests; we want to understand even better how the biophysical properties of a product contribute to a subjective overall impression”.

We are looking forward to working with ESN!

The European Sensory Network (ESN) was founded in 1989 to meet the challenge of the rapidly developing science of sensory analysis within Europe.

Today, the European Sensory Network brings together 30 member organizations acting in 17 European countries, and five non-European countries. ESN members and partners share their knowledge and expertise to explore the value and applications of sensory sciences in food and non-food industrial practices.

A focus of ESN activities is on cross-border studies. ESN offers numerous close cross-border links between sensory scientists and industrial partners. These collaborations have proven to be very valuable. The well-established contacts among ESN members make it easy to plan and perform international studies and guarantee exceptional research following universal standards.