Residents of the Altai State University Student Business Incubator developed a line of healthy products based on honey, berries and vegetables

25 April 2020 Department of Information and Media Communications
In conditions of self-isolation, residents of the Student Business Incubator of Innovation Projects (SBI) of the flagship Altai State University are developing technologies for the production of personalized functional food products.

The new high-tech business line in the Altai State University Student Business Incubator of Innovation Projects is being developed by the Meta-Resource team, which includes students of the Institute of Chemistry and Chemical and Pharmaceutical Technologies of the flagship university under the supervision of a graduate student of this institute, Vitaly Tsarev, employee of the laboratory of industrial pharmacy and supercritical fluid technologies. Development is carried out in accordance with the priority area of scientific and technological development of the Russian Federation - the creation of safe high-quality functional foods.

About the relevance of this direction explains Vitaliy Tsarev:

“Analyzing the role of nutrition in the life of a modern person, we understand that its contribution to our resource state and health is significantly underestimated. According to the World Health Organization, more than 75% of the population is in a state of vitamin deficiency. Modern research confirms the fact that micronutrients that are not artificially synthesized and added to products are absorbed more efficiently, but natural, originally contained in raw materials. Moreover, refined food with long shelf life is one of the reasons for the steady growth of metabolic diseases and the cardiovascular system, especially among the younger generation. Therefore, it is so important today to create technologies that maximally preserve all necessary micronutrients in products as a result of processing of raw materials. Thus, we decided to develop a line of healthy products based on the natural raw materials of our region - honey, berries and vegetables. We use modern technologies to extract the full range of biologically active substances from raw materials in their native, that is, in a natural state. This allows to combine the taste and benefits of the product".

“I decided to enter this project, because I was always interested in a unique product - honey. Of particular interest is the composition of this natural “cocktail” enriched with various healthy substances that can have a positive effect on the human body. An interesting fact is that no laboratory has yet been able to synthesize honey equivalent to natural. As part of our project, we will develop recipes for functional products based on honey, taking into account the characteristics of different gender and age groups, and using high technology to give these products new consumer properties: ease of packaging, transportation, the convenience to always have a healthy “snack” with you. Our product is aimed at strengthening and maintaining the body's immune system, stimulating the human mental activity” says Ekaterina Makeeva, a 1st-year student at the Meta-Resource team, a student at the Institute of Chemistry and Chemical-Pharmaceutical Technology.

Olga A. Vysotskaya, Director of the Center for the Development of Technological Entrepreneurship, Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property Management of AltSU, emphasizes that today science-intensive business all over the world is moving towards creating foods with proven health benefits.

“If we analyze publications in the leading international database of medical publications PubMED with the keywords “functional foods” and “nutraceuticals ”, we can see that interest in this topic has been sharply increasing since 2008-2012. That is, in fact, this is a new and promising niche for development. Our residents are developing products of a new qualitative level for the functional nutrition market, which, according to experts, will yield an annual increase of 8-10%. And, which is very important, these products are based on environmentally friendly natural raw materials of Altai Krai”.

Printable version