Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

We will use a new technology called high hydrostatic pressure-enzymatic hydrolysis (HHP EH) to convert phosvitin from egg yolk residue into a valuable ingredient for natural foods and calcium supplements. Phosvitin is a protein from egg yolk with 120 different binding sites for calcium, making it an excellent calcium carrier. Using HHP EH, we will cut phosvitin into smaller pieces (peptides) that still bind large amounts of calcium. These calcium carrier peptides may provide more available calcium to people when they are added to food products or taken in capsules as calcium supplements. The HHP EH technology is proven, but we must still optimize the processing conditions for phosvitin. The HHP EH processor mixes water, phosvitin and enzymes in a process like human digestion. We can control the pressure in the processor, the temperature, and the incubation time. We aim to find the optimal conditions to cut phosvitin into smaller peptides that bind the most calcium. Our research in this project will supply the required optimized HHP EH parameters and lead to a prototype commercial system. Our central commercial and economic outcomes are to supply food products based on HHP EH peptides to substantial and rapidly growing global markets. Our research will diversify Canadian agriculture by boosting demand for waste yolk from egg processing, and eventually for other low-value and underused animal products.