RADiation harvesting of bioactive peptides from egg prOteins and their integration in adVanced functional products

RADOV moves from the well-established radiation process applications in food irradiation for disinfection and shelf-life increase, and from several decades of fundamental studies of the biological effects of radiation in vivo, to explore completely new routes for the production of bioactive peptides from egg proteins based on radiation-induced fragmentation, and new product prototypes that incorporate egg protein-derived peptides.High energy radiation from electron accelerators will be used to produce peptides and the collection of the results acquired regarding the peptide structure, irradiation conditions, and related bioactivity properties will be one vital output of the project.

To expand the application of ionizing radiation and to demonstrate the broad scope of its applications, new products containing bioactive proteins/ peptides will be designed and developed with the use of electron beam irradiation to manufacture them.

In particular, two target products will be developed as demonstrators of egg-derived AMPs by radiation-induced fragmentation: peptide-laden antimicrobial/antioxidant hydrogel wound dressings and peptide-grafted active food packaging film.