Vegetable flours produce natural aromas of passion fruit and meat
Sustainable technology uses Amazonian mushrooms to transform peels and seeds.
The aroma of fresh passion fruit or the characteristic smell of cooked meat may have a new origin route with high innovation potential, adding value to food products: the biotechnological fermentation of agricultural waste by Amazonian fungi. This is because research developed at the Faculty of Food Engineering (FEA) at Unicamp, in collaboration with the National Institute for Amazonian Research (Inpa) and the Good Food Institute (GFI Brazil), has resulted in a technology capable of producing aromas labeled as "natural" through environmentally sustainable processes, using potato peels, oats, and even açaí waste as raw materials.
The invention arose from a challenge launched by GFI Brazil, an organization that promotes the development of alternative proteins. What began as a search for ingredients for meat analogues—plant-based products that mimic meat characteristics—revealed an unexpected aromatic potential: by fermenting solid substrates of potato peels, oats, and açaí with fungal strains from Amazon rainforest areas, researchers initially identified a strong passion fruit aroma in some fungus-substrate combinations. The big surprise came with the heat treatment, because, upon heating the material, the fruit's scent transformed into an aroma reminiscent of meat broth.
“We tested different fungi and substrates until we identified the specific aroma of passion fruit. Since the smell of meat usually emerges with cooking, we decided to apply heat to the fermented product to see how the aroma behaved. The heat transformed the fruity aroma into something reminiscent of cooked meat,” reports Juliano Lemos Bicas, professor at FEA and inventor of the technology.
Natural fermentation
Unlike synthetic aromas produced in the laboratory, Unicamp's technology utilizes what nature already does in classic food production processes, such as wine and cheese making. "Having a microorganism producing aromatic compounds seems modern, but this has been done empirically for centuries in beverages or cheeses, like Roquefort cheese," comments Bicas.
The professor explains that current legislation classifies aromas obtained through fermentation from natural substrates as "natural aromas." This gives the technology an advantage in the market. clean label (Clean label), a global trend in which consumers seek products with less processed ingredients and traceable origin.
One of the key advantages of this method is solid-state fermentation. In this model, the fungus grows directly on the residue, such as potato or oat peels, without the need for large quantities of water or chemical solvents. In addition to being environmentally sustainable, the process avoids a bottleneck in the flavor industry: the cost of purification.
Normally, to obtain a natural aroma, it is necessary to process tons of raw material to extract a small amount of essential oil, as in the case of passion fruit. The developed technology proposes the use of the fermented product directly in food formulations, whether in the form of paste, powder or flour, eliminating extraction and aroma purification steps. "It's the idea of Roquefort: you don't extract the aroma from the cheese to put in the sauce, you put the cheese itself in," compares Bicas.
Nutrition beyond aroma
According to Professor Mário Roberto Maróstica Junior, also a professor at FEA and inventor of the technology, the benefits go beyond the sensory. The biotechnological process improves the nutritional profile of the substrate used in fermentation, increasing the protein content of food industry waste, altering the amino acid profile, and producing bioactive compounds such as ergosterol, a precursor to vitamin D.
“In fermentation, we have double nutritional gains: first, we reduce antinutrients that prevent the absorption of vitamins and proteins; second, the fungus itself enriches the matrix by producing its mycelium, generating new amino acids and vitamins. It is a way to transform substrates with little protein into ingredients of high nutritional value, something important for the plant-based meat market,” explains Maróstica Junior.
The technology offers three pillars of benefits: sensory (aroma), nutritional (fortification), and technological. According to researchers, there is evidence that fermented flour possesses other properties, such as improved emulsification and water retention capacity, which would make it a multifunctional ingredient for the snack, baking, and even animal feed industries. Although solid-state fermentation still faces scalability challenges compared to liquid processes, researchers point out that products such as sake, miso, and soy sauce are already produced this way on a large global scale.
There is already a patent application for this technology, developed strategically by the Inova Unicamp Innovation Agency, and a search for partners for licensing and complementary development aimed at large-scale application. Also participating in the technology's development were FEA professor Liliana de Oliveira Rocha, graduate student Gustavo Aparecido Martins, and INPA researchers Ceci Sales-Campos, Larissa Ramos Chevreuil, and Maria Aparecida de Jesus.
This report was produced by the communication team of the Inova Unicamp Innovation Agency as part of a partnership with the Executive Secretariat of Communication.