Developing innovative plant-based added-value food products through the promotion of LOCAL Mediterranean NUT and LEGume crops (LOCALNUTLEG)

Dietary habits of population of the Mediterranean basin have been changing during the last decades for the strong growth in vegetarianism, the high demand of plant-based meat analogues rich in proteins, the religiousconsiderations having a significant impact in the development of prepared plant food, and the increase of launching products to cover metabolic diseases and allergies such as lactose and gluten intolerance or cow's milk protein allergy. In view of this growing demand, the development of innovative food products or the re-design of traditional Mediterranean recipes and ingredients in order to satisfy consumers’ demand has led to explore alternative-protein and plant-based extracts. In this sense, the nuts and legumes have a high fat and protein content being potentially good raw ingredients for different food categories including vegetable beverages, dairy analogues, alternative bread and pasta or meat analogues.
Despite there are thousands of known nut and legume species in the Mediterranean region, there are species that still need to be exploited through food processing applications. For instance, the application of nuts and legumes with Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) or Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) or legally registered trademark as main ingredient in the formulation of plant-based prepared foods can have a good potential. The idea of this project proposal is to empower local Mediterranean nuts and legumes with characteristics that depend exclusively on the territory where they are produced through their exploitation in the development of innovative plant-based products alternatives to animalbased or grain-flour products; moreover, they can be reintroduced in traditional Mediterraneanrecipes for niche consumers. The goal is to identify main local nuts and legumes, provided by each participating country, with high nutritional and technological properties to be integrated in novel plant-based products. The innovative plant-based alternative products will be formulated by the application of food processing strategies to preserve or improve their healthiness and quality. In addition, an integral valorization through all the plant-based food processing value chain will lead to obtain valuable cascade natural ingredients contributing to vegetarian meals.