SBIR Phase I: Cost-effective manufacturing to enable adoption of a novel nutrient-dense chickpea dough platform in mass-market processed foods

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种高卡路里、营养不良的可口食品的替代品。这项提议将创造一个营养密集的配料组合，基于一种新的鹰嘴豆面团，在加工食品中有广泛的应用。这套配料将由脆脆、高蛋白、高纤维和低卡路里的配料组成，在加工食品领域具有广泛的适用性；这可能会影响人群健康，包括II型糖尿病、肥胖症及其共病的流行。配料设置的这种变化也将导致这项研究的巨大商业影响。经济效益包括开发新的产品、品牌、生产和加工设备，以优化使用这些以鹰嘴豆为基础的营养密集的新型成分。这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目的重点是评估一种新型鹰嘴豆面团，以创建在加工食品中广泛应用的营养密集配料组合。一般来说，用营养密集的配料生产的食品味道浓郁，接受度低，但替代品需要缓慢、低效和昂贵的加工。为了解决这一挑战，我们正在评估一种新的微波技术。拟议创新的目标包括：确定几种配料应用的配方和工艺参数，展示消费者的感官接受能力，并通过成本分析验证扩大可行性。技术目标包括：加热模式的预测建模和确定形状、尺寸和工艺参数范围；干燥试验以确定多种用途的面团配方；货架稳定性测试；消费者接受度测试以证明市场可行性；以及营养分析以全面确定最终产品的特征。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to develop an alternative for high-calorie, nutrient-poor, palatable foods. This proposal will create a nutritionally dense ingredient portfolio, based on a novel chickpea dough, with broad application in processed foods. The set of ingredients will consist of crunchy, high-protein, higher-fiber, and low-calorie ingredients with broad applicability in the processed food space; this could potentially impact population health, including prevalence of type II diabetes, obesity, and their co-morbidities. Such a change in ingredient sets will also result in a large commercial impact of this research. Economic benefits include the development of new products, brands, production and processing equipment to optimize the use of these novel, chickpea based, nutrient dense ingredients. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project focuses on the evaluation of a novel chickpea dough to create a nutritionally dense ingredient portfolio with broad application in processed foods. Generally, foods produced with nutritionally dense ingredients have strong flavors and poor acceptance, but alternatives require processing that is slow, inefficient, and costly. To solve this challenge, we are evaluating a novel microwave technology. The goals of the proposed innovation include: identification of formulations and processing parameters for several ingredient applications, demonstration of consumer sensory acceptance, and validation of scale-up viability through cost analysis. Technical goals include: Prediction modeling of heating patterns and identification of shapes, sizes, and ranges of processing parameters; drying trials to identify a versatile dough formulation for multiple applications; shelf stability tests; consumer acceptance tests to prove market viability; and nutritional analysis to fully characterize the final products.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.