PRP team

 Team leader

The main objective of the PRP team is to understand the involvement of phenolic compounds, particularly tannins, in the production of foods and beverages.

Phenolic compounds are present in almost all plants, helping them to defend themselves against aggressors. In the current context of more agro-ecological agriculture, their presence in cultivated plants could increase over the next few years, either through the selection of varieties richer in polyphenols that are better able to defend themselves without pesticides, or by increasing their content in response to aggression.

In plant-based foods, their presence can, depending on the compound, be an advantage (nutritional benefits, flavour, colour, etc.), but also sometimes a disadvantage (anti-nutritional factors with regard to proteins, excessive astringency, undesirable colour, etc.). The nutritional benefits of polyphenols are mainly attributed to their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, which act against cardiovascular disease and cancer, or to their action on the microbiota. Their anti-nutritional impact and astringency are linked to their interactions with proteins. Their sensory contribution is diverse: some compounds have a gustatory impact linked to their perception by bitterness receptors, while others are coloured by the presence of chromophores in the initial molecule or in the products formed by oxidation. Finally, they can also cause technological difficulties (insolubilisation of proteins, formation of cloudiness, loss of protein properties).

Although the cider apple, because of its richness in polyphenols, is still a favoured model for study, we are now looking at other plant models that correspond to questions that are increasingly present in the context of dietary transitions. When plant proteins are extracted from protein crops or oilseed cakes, polyphenols bind to the proteins and alter their properties (solubility, digestibility, expansion, emulsification). We need to understand which compounds are involved and what their interaction and reactivity mechanisms are with proteins (prior oxidation or not) in order to propose innovative technological solutions.

Areas of work for the team

Skills and methods

Some results

Video library