Utilization of plant sources of protein, dietary fiber and antioxidants in food production

Recently, the interest of consumers for foods that beside the basic nutritional benefits possess health enhancing compounds, as well as compounds that may decrease the risk of some chronic diseases is increasing. For this reason the study will investigate the possibility of the utilisation of proteins, dietary fibers and antioxidants originating from grain of commercial cultivars and hybrids of cereals and legumes in the production of food with balanced and improved nutritive and functional properties. Beside the identification of plant ingredients with potential effects on human health, the optimization of food processing and conditions of enzymatic modifications in order to produce potential chemopreventive substances, will be investigated. The effect of bioactive proteins, and allergenic proteins (naturally present in grain or formed during grain processing) on cancer cells and immune reactions, respectively, will be observed, and constitute important part of these studies. The objective of the overall studies is to create recipes for nutritive balanced food mixtures with the increased content of antioxidants whose usage decreases the risk of chronic diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases, and for special foods designed to meet certain nutritional requirements for people diagnosed with specific illnesses, such as celiac disease and autism, or for people suffering from constipation.