Former funded projects

OnFoods

Project funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.3 - Call for tender No. 341 of 15 March 2022 of Italian Ministry of University and Research funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU; Project code PE00000003, Concession Decree No. 1550 of 11 October 2022 adopted by the Italian Ministry of University and Research, Project title “ON Foods - Research and innovation network on food and nutrition Sustainability, Safety and Security – Working ON Foods”.

	Project: NUBI - Promoting healthier habits in children and their families: the nubi app intervention study Duration: 2024-2025 PI: Francesca Scazzina HNU participants: Alice Rosi, Perla Degli Innocenti, Federica Bergamo Other participants: Margherita Dall’Asta (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza) Web site: NUBI		The project entails the design and development of an intervention study in which a web app (i.e., NUBI)) is applied to support parents or legal guardian in managing their children’s daily diet by helping them in organizing and preparing healthy and balanced meals. NUBI complements the school catering service by proposing healthy and balanced weekly menus with the purpose of promoting proper nutrition. In addition, the application offers daily educational contents on the topic of a healthy and sustainable diet through user-friendly tips.
	Project: EDSUSDIETS - Curriculum application of EDucational and empowering models aimed at promoting healthy and SUStainable DIETS in University canteens Duration: 2023-2025 PI: Francesca Scazzina HNU participants: Alice Rosi, Beatrice Biasini, Cinzia Franchini, Damiano Callegaro, Tatiana Crosina Other participants: University of Bologna (Italy), Council for research in agriculture and the analysis of the agrarian economy (CREA, Italy), University of Milano-Bicocca (Italy) Web site: EDSUSDIETS		The EDSUSDIET project aims to promote healthy and sustainable eating habits among Parma University students. Through collaboration with the food service operator, a reorganization of cafeteria premises and optimization of menus from both nutritional and environmental perspectives will be implemented. Additionally, the development of a mobile application and a communication campaign is intended to raise student awareness of environmental issues and encourage conscious food choices. The expected results include a renovated and inclusive cafeteria, a decreased environmental impact in menus, and reduced food waste.
	Project: ENDOPHENOL - Investigation of in vivo endogenous and/or exogenous production of phenolic metabolites using (un)target metabolomics Duration: 2023-2025 PI: Pedro Mena, Letizia Bresciani, Daniele Del Rio HNU participants: Laila Zeraik, Claudia Favari, Nicola Bragazzi, Maria Sole Morandini Other participants: Marco Ventura, Francesca Turroni, Valeria Barili (UNIPR), Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Parma (Italy), De’Longhi Group (Italy), Bolton Group (Italy) Web site: ENDOPHENOL		When (poly)phenols are ingested, they are broken down into smaller molecules. However, the same smaller compounds can come from the metabolism of amino acids and catecholamines. To understand the presence of small phenolics that originate from the dietary (poly)phenols and the other sources, the Endophenol study is designed as randomized crossover trial with healthy volunteers following a (poly)phenol-free diet for 4 days, having coffee (known source of phenolics) or a control on the 3rd day. Urine and feces are collected at selected time points for (un)targeted LC-MS metabolomics analyses. A saliva sample is collected for genetic analysis and, together with the gut microbiota characterization, will be used to understand interindividual variability in production of these metabolites.
	Project: NEW PRACTICE - Development of new approaches to elucidate the metabolism of nutritionally relevant bioactive compounds Duration: 2023-2025 PI: Pedro Mena, Letizia Bresciani, Daniele Del Rio HNU participants: Marta Berzaghi, Elisabetta Viale, Claudia Favari Other participants: University of Bari (Italy), Roger Williams Institute of Hepatology (United Kingdom) Web site: NEW PRACTICE		Frozen organs will be sectioned transversely and analyzed by desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) mass spectrometry imaging (MSI). With this approach the aim is to map the production and absorption of native and colonic metabolites in tissues, deepening the understanding of the in vivo metabolism of the bioactive compounds under investigation. The objective includes the development of an innovative MSI analytical method applied to (poly)phenolic metabolites to shed light on their potential bioactivity in situ.
	Project: OBI-WAN-DIET - A multi-omics approach to tackle obesity at individual level with plant-based diet Duration: 2023-25 PI: Pedro Mena HNU participants: Daniele Del Rio, Maria Sole Morandini, Cristiano Negro, Joana Maria Santos Rebelo, Cristiana Mignogna, Claudia Favari, José Rinaldi De Alvarenga, Costanza Michelini, Vicente Agulló, Letizia Bresciani, Laila Guimaraes Zeraik Cardoso, Elisa Monica, Nicola Bragazzi, Alice Rosi, Nicole Tosi, Francesca Scazzina, Sara Dobani, Elisabetta Viale Other participants: Marco Ventura, Ruggero Bettini, Annalisa Bianchera, Ilaria Zanotti, Chiara Dall’Asta, Valeria Barili, Riccardo Bonadonna, Alessandra Dei Cas, Valentina Spigoni, Raffaella Aldigeri, Massimo Corradi, Silvia Ranzieri, Alessandro Barbarese, Francesca Turroni (UNIPR), Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Parma (Italy), Università di Milano (Italy), Roger Williams Institute of Hepatology (United Kingdom), CEBAS-CSIC (Spain) Web site: OBI-WAN-DIET		The project aims to understand the role of sustainable, personalized, plant-based dietary interventions, as well as the contribution of the interplay oral microbiome – genetic polymorphisms – hormonal regulation on obesity prevention. It will shed light on the development of translatable predictive models to manage weight control in overweight/obese adults. This study will help to build a new paradigm in the management of chronic diseases, focused on individuals and using multi-omics approaches, predictive tools, and plant-based diets with demonstrated health effects.

Former projects funded through competitive international calls

	Project: SWITCHtoHEALTHY - Switching Mediterranean consumers to Mediterranean sustainable healthy dietary patterns Call: PRIMA - Initiative Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area, Section I, 2021 Duration: 2022-2025 PI: Francesca Scazzina HNU participants: Alice Rosi, Perla Degli Innocenti Other participants: Federico Bergenti (UNIPR), ENCO Consulting Srl (Italy, coordinator), Regione Campania (Italy), Confederation of Egyptian European Business Associations - CEEBA (Egypt), Fundació EURECAT (Spain), Centro Nacional de Tecnología y Seguridad Alimentaria – CNTA (Spa Spain gna), Centre de Recerca en Economia i Desenvolupament Agroalimentari UPC-IRTA - CREDA (Spain), Delafruit SLU (Spain), Generalitat de Catalunya, Departament d'Acció Climàtica, Alimentació i Agenda Rural - DACC – (Spain), Centre for Research and Technology Hellas – CERTH (Greece), Consumers Lebanon (Lebanon), Université Ibn Tofail - Kénitra, Unité Mixte de Recherche en Nutrition et Alimentation - CNESTEN-IUT (Morocco), University of Mohammed Premier – UMP (Morocco), Soconarjiss Sarl (Morocco), Association Slow Food Tebourba (Turkey), Bursa Uludağ Üniversitesi - BUÜ (Turkey), Kocahan Şekerleme (Turkey), İzmir Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism (Turkey). Web site: www.switchtohealthy.eu		Description SWITCHtoHEALTHY project aims to generate a dietary behaviour change by demon- strating and reinforcing the role of the family in promoting a sustainable transition towards enhancing the adherence to the Mediterranean dietary pattern of the family members (adults, adolescents, and children). This will be done by making available to families a combination of hands-on educational material and digital tools and comple- menting the dietary and lifestyle recommendations with easy-to-eat healthier snacking products.
	Project: PROmedLIFE - Novel food products for the PROmotion of MEDiterranean LIFEstyle and healthy diet Call: PRIMA - Initiative Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area, Section I, 2021 Duration: 2022-2025 PI: Francesca Scazzina HNU participants: Alice Rosi, Beatrice Biasini, Cinzia Franchini, Perla Degli Innocenti Other participants: Davide Menozzi (UNIPR), Fondazione Edmund Mach (Italy, coordinator), Università di Trento (Italy), Jozef Stefan Institute (Slovenia), INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique Maroc (Morocco), University of Carthage (Tunisia), Association Tunisienne des Sciences de la Nutrition (Tunisia), Hortus Novus (Italy), ATLAS Safran (Morocco), Mlekarna Planika (Slovenia), Ellinogermaniki Agogi (Greece), Contento Trade SRL (Italy), ENEA - Agenzia nazionale per le nuove tecnologie, l'energia e lo sviluppo economico sostenibili (Italy). Web site: www.promedlife.com		Description PROMEDLIFE aims to increase adherence to the Mediterranean Diet through a multi-actor approach by encouraging the adoption of a healthy eating lifestyle while decreasing the environmental and economic impact of food production and processing. It also aims to attain optimal food communication and education through training programs that target students as well as their families, from children to older adults. PROMEDLIFE aims to reverse the decline in adherence to the Mediterranean Diet, adopting four lines of intervention: 1 - analysis of socio-economic, cultural and personal factors; 2 - promotion of tailored and country-specific educative actions; 3 - creation and acceptability test of new healthy snacks; 4 - valorization of local Mediterranean products.
	Project: FOODPHYT - Food phytochemicals matter for cardiometabolic health Call: JPI HDHL-INTIMIC (2019): METADIS - Impact of Diet, Food Components and Food Processing on Body Weight Regulation and Overweight Related Metabolic Diseases, co-funded by the Italian MiPAAF Duration: 2020-2024 PI: Daniele Del Rio HNU participants: Giuseppe Di Pede, Claudia Favari, Nicole Tosi, Letizia Bresciani, Pedro Mena Other participants: INRAE (France, coordinator), Max Rubner-Institut (Germany), IDIBAPS & University of Barcelona (Spain), Chalmers University (Sweden), King’s College London (UK) & University of Alberta (Canada). Web site: www6.inrae.fr/foodphyt		The ambition of FOODPHYT is to raise awareness and better understanding of the enormous potential of food phytochemicals to support the global fight against obesity and associated cardiometabolic diseases. A key objective is critically reviewing the existing knowledge on the metabolism, health effects, and mechanisms of action of plant food phytochemicals, making the information available to all in the open-access database PhytoHub. Another crucial lever is to improve our assessment of individuals' exposure to phytochemicals. Beyond these scientific objectives, the project fosters the capacity building of Early Career Scientists in the fields of food phytochemicals, metabolomics, dietary assessment, databases, and the prevention of obesity and cardiometabolic diseases.
	Project: SAFFROMFOOD - Valorisation of saffron and its floral by-products as sustainable innovative sources for the development of high added-value food products Call: PRIMA - Initiative Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area, Section II, 2018 Duration: 2021-2024 PI: Daniele Del Rio HNU participants: Letizia Bresciani, Pedro Mena, Alice Rosi, Federica Bergamo, Lorena Sánchez Martínez, Milena Scauso Other participants: Camilla Lazzi, Valentina Bernini, Erasmo Neviani, and Annalisa Ricci (UNIPR), Universidad Miguel Hernández (Spain, coordinator), Universidad de Murcia (Spain), Centre de Recherche Scientifique et Technique sur les Régions Arides (Algeria), Université Abderrahmane Mira de Béjaia (Algeria), Max Rubner-Institut (Germany), INRA-Nutri NeurO University de Bordeaux (France), Activ’Inside (France) e Instituto de Biología Experimental e Tecnológica (Portugal). Web site: mel.cgiar.org/projects/saffromfood		The project aims at developing new innovative and added-value products from saffron and its floral by-products, improving the saffron quality in the Mediterranean area and turning it into a highly profitable botanical source. The project will develop new functional foods from the traditional Mediterranean diet, and saffron production will become more sustainable, by cultivation and processing condition optimization, and more profitable, taking advantage of a high-value biomass. Finally, the bioactivity of new developed functional products, rich in bioactive compounds, will be investigated in vitro and in vivo.
	Title: MED4Youth - Mediterranean Enriched Diet for tackling Youth Obesity Programma/call: PRIMA - Initiative Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area, Section II, 2018 Duration: 2019-2023 PI: Daniele Del Rio HNU members: Alice Rosi, Elena Bertolotti, Perla Degli Innocenti, Vicente Agulló, Nicole Tosi, Claudia Favari, Pedro Mena, Francesca Scazzina Other participants: Federico Bergenti, Eleonora Iotti, Davide Beretta e Susanna Esposito (UNIPR), Maddalena Petraroli e Maria Elisabeth Street (AOUPR), EURECAT (Spagna, coordinatore), University of Coimbra (Portogallo), SHIKMA (Israele), Scientific Food Center (Giordania) e Novapan (Spagna) Sito web: med4youth.eu/		The MED4Youth project has the aim to strengthen the link between the Mediterranean Diet and the health benefits against youth obesity and associated cardiovascular disease risk factors. The project has also the objective to elucidate whether the health effects of Mediterranean Diet are associated with changes in gut microbiota and gut-derived metabolites. Project partners carry out a multi-center interventional study targeting 240 adolescents with obesity from different Mediterranean countries (Italy, Spain and Portugal) and including Mediterranean products. The study is complemented with an educational web-application to encourage and sustain healthy behaviours.
	Project: PREVENTOMICS - Empowering consumers to PREVENT diet-related diseases through OMICS sciences Call: H2020-SFS-2018-2020 (cordis.europa.eu/project/id/818318) Period: 2018-2022 PI UNIPR: Daniele Del Rio HNU partecipants: Claudia Favari, Pedro Mena, Alice Rosi, Furio Brighenti, Letizia Bresciani, Francesca Scazzina Other partecipants: Eurecat (coordinator), ALDI, Alimentòmica, Onmi, Simple Feast, METEDA, Carinsa and Practio, University of Southampton, Institute of Communication and Computer Systems, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, Leitat, Wageningen University, Uniwersytet Jagiellonski, Universiteit Maastricht, Osteoarthritis Foundation International (OAFI), Spanish Consumers Organization (OCU) & Spanish Standardization Association (UNE). Web: preventomics.eu/		Preventomics has developed a platform with a Decision Support System tool that integrates genetic, nutritional, biochemical, physiological and behavioural factors to assess the unique metabolic profile of individuals using machine-learning techniques. The platform delivers personalised nutritional and lifestyle plans taking advantage of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to ultimately drive sustainable healthy behaviour change and thereby, prevent obesity-related chronic diseases. The HNU has been particularly active in the development of a validated platform for the analysis of biomarkers of food intake, allowing a quick, objective dietary assessment.
	Project: STRENGTH2FOOD - Strengthening European Food Chain Sustainability by Quality and Procurement Policy Programma/call: H2020-SFS-2014-2015 (cordis.europa.eu/project/id/678024) Period: 2016-2021 PI UNIPR: Filippo Arfini HNU partecipants: Beatrice Biasini, Alice Rosi, Daniele Del Rio, Francesca Scazzina Other partecipants: Maria Cecilia Mancini, Michele Donati, Antonio Bodini, Cristina Mora, Davide Menozzi, Mario Veneziani, Antonello Zangrandi & Gianluca Lanza (UNIPR). Web: strength2food.eu/		Strength2Food identifies and implements strategies for upscaling: creating new and expanding existing markets for quality food products and fostering the development of an ‘economy of quality’. To do that, Strength2Food aids policy makers and other relevant stakeholders in improving the effectiveness of current policies and developing new ones on food quality designations and public sector food procurement to enhance their sustainability and promotion of healthy and nutritious diets. The role of the HNU has been particularly relevant in the study of the sustainability and quality of school canteens.
	Project: VALID - Valerolactones and healthy Ageing: LInking Dietary factors, nutrient biomarkers, metabolic status and inflammation with cognition in older adults Call: JPI ERA-HDHL: Biomarkers in Nutrition and Health, co-funded by the Italian MIPAAF Period: 2017-2019 PI UNIPR: Daniele Del Rio HNU partecipants: Donato Angelino, Luca Calani, Alice Rosi, Pedro Mena Other partecipants: Ulster University (coordinatore, Regno Unito) e Trinity College Dublin (Irlanda). Web: jpi-valid.com/		VALID aimed to validate plasma phenyl-γ-valerolactones as stable biomarkers of catechin/procyanidin-rich foods and demonstrate their association with markers of inflammation and metabolic health, and ultimately cognitive function, in an ageing European population. To do this, we utilized data and performed new analysis on samples from the Trinity, Ulster, Department of Agriculture Study (TUDA) cohort study, a unique resource designed to assess nutrition and ageing in 5,186 adults aged 60-102 years recruited from the UK and Ireland, and including a range of existing biomarkers, metabolic health status and cognitive measures.
	Project: POSITIVe - Interindividual variation in response to consumption of plant food bioactives and determinants involved Call: COST Action FA1403 (cost.eu/actions/FA1403/) Period: 2014-2018 PI UNIPR: Daniele Del Rio HNU partecipants: Pedro Mena, Margherita Dall’Asta, Daniela Martini, Letizia Bresciani, Michele Tassotti Other partecipants: INRAE (France), CEBAS-CSIC (Spain) & many others. Web: www6.inrae.fr/cost-positive/		To combat the burden of cardiometabolic disease, which constitutes a major public health issue in Europe, it is of crucial importance to develop efficient strategies that target the dietary behaviours of European consumers and improve the food supply. POSITIVe specifically addressed inter-individual variation in bioavailability and physiological responses to consumption of plant food bioactives in relation to cardiometabolic endpoints. This Action coordinated a multidisciplinary and multisectorial European network, harnessing and combining the currently fragmented knowledge and ensuring the optimal translation of findings into applications.