Functional foods have already appeared in the Greek market and everything shows that they will be the future of the food industry.
Recently, it became known that ice cream desserts, with raw material rice and its by-products are designed on the basis of an innovative recipe, developed in the framework of the “RiceCream” project.
The goal is to improve the quality of life of vulnerable groups of the population, who are either lactose and milk protein intolerant or have autoimmune diseases. The choice of raw material for the innovative ice cream recipe attempted through the “RiceCream” project is brown rice, which has a high content of antioxidants, oils and at the same time is a product of high nutritional value, said the research director of ELGO-DIMITRA, Dr. Dimitris Katsantonis, scientific director of the “RiceCream” project.
“After special processing, it will be possible to produce vegetable milk from brown rice or rice flour, to replace milk of animal origin in ice cream desserts, while fruits and vegetables, as well as their by-products of high nutritional value, will be used to replace the sugar, the cream but also the egg, thus reducing the percentage of added calories “, he underlined.
As Mr. Katsantonis stressed, the goal of the program is to make possible the possibility of creating foods that will not contain any dairy products, nor lactose (dairy free and lactose free), while at the same time will meet the requirements of people who have excluded from the diet their consumption of animal products, such as vegans or fasting people “
The project is funded by the "Research - Create - Innovate" program of the General Secretariat for Research and Innovation of the Ministry of Development and Investment and is implemented by the Institute of Genetic Improvement and Phytogenetic Resources of ELGO Dimitra, in collaboration with Ioanchanos Z. Ergoplanning and the accredited QLAB analysis laboratory.