HYDROPHOBINS: Specialized Proteins for Food

This HFBfood project has the vision to build the scientific knowledge and
foundation for future development of clean-label ingredients for plant-based foods. The cross-disciplinary collaboration will provide the knowledge base for new, scalable solutions for fungal fermentation of side-streams to enabling sustainable food production. The special protein type, hydrophobin (HFB) expressed exclusively by filamentous fungi, has a uniquely high tendency to form thin and very strongly elastic films at interfaces. Many food products are complex colloidal systems, such as a foam or an emulsion, which are naturally very unstable. Typical stabilisers needed for building and stabilise such foods are hydrocolloids or animal-based proteins. However, in the view of sustainability and ‘green’ product demand, new molecules are needed. HFB can easily absorb on the air/water or oil/water interfaces, and the strong film gives high mechanical resistance to both coalescence and disproportionation, which provide exceptional stabilization of air bubbles and oil droplets, thereby long-term stability. The overarching aim is to establish the way to harness food-grade fungi to express HFBs so that they can be functionally used as ingredients in production of food products.