Rández, a member of the Industrial Yeast Fermentation Biotechnology group at IATA, opened the third edition of the fair with a scientific presentation to a large audience. The talk, titled ‘Bread with a future: sustainability, innovation, and new opportunities’, explored future trends in food.
The researcher detailed her team's lines of work, focused on creating sourdough breads from food byproducts. Breads have been developed with carob pod, rich in antioxidants; with spent grain from beer, high in fiber; and with citrus, a source of vitamin C. These innovations received a very high acceptance from consumers in all aspects, including purchase intention.
As a result of this research line, the Ceratopía project has been launched, aiming to revalue carob as a healthy and sustainable food. This project collaborates with the Valencian Bakers and Pastry Chefs Guild, AMUFOR, and IHSM-CSIC. Ceratopía also seeks to promote biodiversity conservation and reduce forest fires.
The main lines of Ceratopía include agri-food, agroforestry management, and training. In the agri-food sector, new applications will be created from carob pulp, traditionally of low commercial value, and microbiological diversity in soils and carob trees will be studied. IHSM-CSIC will investigate new materials and bio-packaging from carob biomass to extend product shelf life.
The agroforestry aspect will focus on recovering abandoned carob terraces to create a landscape mosaic that prevents the spread of fires, and their fertilization capacity will be analyzed. Dissemination events and an agritourism guide are also planned, featuring the recovery of centenary carob trees between Chelva and Enguera.
Rández predicted that the future bakery industry will use sustainable ingredients, long and controlled fermentations, healthy local products, and minimize food waste. Traceability of ingredients will also gain importance.
Following the presentation, the fair included the live broadcast of the podcast ‘Disfrutons’ and a product tasting. Subsequently, a round table discussion ‘Continuity and generational change’ took place, featuring master bakers from Campanar, Patraix, Mislata, La Canyada, and Xirivella, moderated by the president of the Valencian Bakers and Pastry Chefs Guild, Juanjo Rausell. The event concluded with an exhibition and tasting of traditional Valencian bread.
