GreenLeaFood - Added food value from green leaves

GreenLeaFood aims to characterize compounds and evaluate opportunities to valorize high value food components from green leafy biomass.

Simultaneously, side-streams will be evaluated as nutritious feedstock of Swedish origin for animal production, as substrates for biogas production and as biofertilizers. The food system is a major contributor to green-house gas emissions, with a large negative carbon foot-print.

To meet the challenges of sustainable food production, sustainable cropping systems that capture carbon, reduce nutrient leaching, and eliminate unsustainable imported food and feed products are needed.

By utilizing green leafy biomass such as cover crops, forage legumes and green leaves, GreenLeaFood will contribute sustainability in all dimensions along the food value chain, producing added value to food in terms of nutritious and functional protein, nitrite/nitrate, functional dietary fibers and phenolic compounds.

Feed products for animal production and biogas substrates will add extra value and sustainable potential to the project. GreenLeaFood will use the Plant Protein Factory in Alnarp for fractionation of protein and the other compounds.

Thereafter, these compounds, present in different streams after fractionation, will be characterized and opportunities for valorizaion as components of interest to the food industry will be evaluated. The full process will be evaluated by economic and life cycle assessment as well as regarding novel food regulations.