AlimaSSenS

In most developed countries, the proportion of elderly people in the population is growing rapidly and approaching the elderly market represents a key issue. The global population aged 60 years and older has doubled since 1980 and will probably reach two billion by 2050. In Europe counts 17% of the population is 65 years old or older and 4.7% 80 years old or older. The population of elderly people in Europe is increasing rapidly and in 2060 nearly 30% will be over 65 years old, and 12% over 80. Developing age-friendly products and services for this target group is an absolute necessity for facing the specific health challenges of the 21st century, caused by population ageing. The question of the needs of elderly people in term of food products with optimized nutritional and sensory values in order to permit longer life and better ageing without deficiencies is therefore of crucial importance. The ambition of AlimaSSenS is to address this issue by gathering food industry representatives and scientists in a strong combined research effort with a focus on Food Oral Processing (FOP) efficiency in the elderly. AlimaSSenS is a large and highly integrated project whose main objective is to develop and offer at the end food products, that are as appropriate as possible for the FOP abilities of elderly people living at home while retaining both ease of eating and eating pleasure and high nutritional value. In particular, AlimaSSenS aims at (1) understanding the impact of changes in oral status with age on food oral processing and their consequences on ease of eating & eating pleasure and bio-accessibility of nutrients using in vivo, in vitro & in silico approaches (2) developing food products adapted to the food oral processing efficiencies of the elderly and still considering meal and purchase practices of this population. Three types of food product are being investigated (meat, cereals and dairy products). To reach its objectives, AlimaSSenS proposes a multidisciplinary approach associating expertise in odontology, physiology, sensory evaluation, consumer behaviour, nutrition, epidemiology, data mining, food process, sociology and economy. It is a four year project divided into 4 phases: The first phase consists of setting up panels & methodologies (including FOP related sensory profile) and the choice of food matrix to be developed The second phase consists of (i) the development of novel food products using iterative approaches involving input from food processing and structure including data-mining, sensory data, FOP, bioavailability and bio-accessibility, food industrial partners (ii) characterization of elderly population in terms of food choice, food consumption, culinary and purchasing practices. The third phase consists of experimental economics of the novel food products to be released. The last phase is devoted to the dissemination and valorisation of the results AlimaSSenS is a public-private collaborative research project involving 10 academic and 4 industrial partners and a network of technical centres represented by 1 technical centre. AlimaSSenS is thus presented as an industrial-academic partnership project.