Researchers Help Peruvians to Find New Uses for the Native Food Plants of the Andes
Researchers of the University of Turku are working in co-operation with the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina (UNALM), an agriculture university in Molina, Peru, to develop the research and utilisation of the native food plants of the Andes. The university will establish a doctoral programme in food science as well as a centre of excellence which will promote the multidisciplinary research of the native plants and UNALM’s collaboration with the local food companies.
The common goal of the universities is to create a model for centres of excellence, which will support business life, and a doctoral training system to the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina.
From the University of Turku, Functional Foods Forum and the Food Chemistry and Food Development of the Department of Biochemistry are participating in the collaboration. The Indigenous Food Innovations from the Andes (IANA) project is funded by the HEI-ICI programme of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.
Collaboration in Peru is a new opportunity as there is very little co-operation between companies and national universities in the country. Coordinator Jaakko Korpela from the Functional Foods Forum, who is working in Peru at the moment, believes that the role of the universities is seen purely as the producers of new experts.
– In addition to developing the doctoral training, our goal is to create a model to UNALM which will increase the university’s co-operation with the local food companies, says Korpela.
The purpose of the new centre of excellence is to create new and innovative research and development projects which aim at applying current scientific information in business. The researchers are striving to increase co-operation especially in the utilisation of the significant native food plants of the Andes.
–In the project, we are making use of the experiences and methods we have discovered in our work developing food industry at the Functional Foods Forum during the last decade, says Korpela.
The Native Plants Possess Attributes That Advance Health
Among other things, the universities have together organised a course week on the native food plants of the Andes and their better utilisation.
– The native plants have a great deal of potential as health foods and food components. The basic research has to meet the applied research so that the companies and sponsors’ interest is sparked. This is how the attributes that advance health can be effectively made use of in the product development and in promoting export, says Docent Jukka-Pekka Suomela from the Department of Biochemistry of the University of Turku.
The Peruvians presented interesting cases, for example, the use of Andes grains in bread and the sacha inchi plant, the oil of which has just been approved as a novel food in Europe. Doctoral Candidate Liz Gutierrez presented the Andes crops that have not been properly utilised and told the audience about the joint project on blue potatoes that are native to the Andes.
– The joint workshops of the project give us a chance to share, compare and develop the universities’ curricula and research plans. We get ideas which we can use in our new doctoral programme, which in future will hopefully be the best training programme in food sciences in Peru, says Particia Glorio who is the chair of the working group establishing the doctoral programme.
The co-operation between the University of Turku and La Molina began in the 1990s. The University of Turku has supported the development of the local laboratories and developed the training of the teaching staff with donations. Doctor of Philosophy Ritva Repo de Carrasco, who defended her dissertation on the nutritional values of the native grain to the Andes and their bioactive components at the University of Turku in 2011, is the liaison and director of the project in Peru. Repo de Carrasco is a also the Professor of Food Sciences at UNALM.
Text: Erja Hyytiäinen
Photo: Emmanuel Dyan
Translation: Mari Ratia