Fermentation, prebiotic ingredients and metabolomics for sustainable food and nutrition solutions

Our research group at Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) develops fermentation-based solutions for sustainable food systems, functional ingredients, and microbiome-oriented innovation. Our expertise combines lactic acid fermentation, prebiotic ingredient development, advanced metabolomics, and fermented food consumption assessment.

We investigate strain-dependent fermentation of conventional and novel substrates, including plant materials, algal biomass, extracts, and enzymatic hydrolysates, to improve nutritional quality, functionality, sensory properties, and bioactivity. In parallel, we develop prebiotic ingredients through enzymatic synthesis and evaluate their biological potential in collaboration with partner laboratories.

Core expertise includes:

• Development and optimisation of lactic acid fermentation processes for food and biomass valorisation.

• Screening of starter cultures and substrate combinations for targeted functionality and product quality.

• Enzymatic synthesis and characterisation of prebiotic oligosaccharides.

• Advanced targeted and untargeted metabolomic profiling of fermented foods and ingredients using LC-MS/MS, LC-QTOF-MS, GC×GC-MS, GC-FID and HPLC platforms.

• Evaluation of compositional changes, bioactive compounds, and functional properties resulting from fermentation.

• Development and validation of dietary assessment methodologies for fermented food consumption.

• Stakeholder engagement and networking through established European collaborations, including COST Action PIMENTO.

What we can contribute

• Development and optimisation of fermentation processes at laboratory and semi-pilot scale.

• Starter culture and substrate screening for food and ingredient innovation.

• Development of fermented and prebiotic ingredient prototypes.

• Metabolomic, compositional and functional characterisation.

• Fermented food consumption assessment methodologies and consumer-related research.

• Leadership of technical tasks and work packages related to fermentation, food bioprocessing, metabolomics and dietary assessment.

Partners sought

We are interested in joining consortia involving:

• Food and beverage manufacturers.

• Starter culture and fermentation technology developers.

• Microbiome, sequencing and bioinformatics research groups.

• AI and data science teams working with food composition and omics data.

• Clinical, nutrition and public health research organisations.

• Regulatory and food safety experts.

• SMEs and industry partners developing functional foods, fermented products and prebiotic ingredients.

• Organisations working on sustainable food systems, consumer nutrition and personalised nutrition.