The AZTI-Tecnalia technological centre has placed itself in the vanguard of food research in Europe with its new headquarters at the Derio Technological Park in the Basque province of Bizkaia, inaugurated 5th February. The new building houses the Food Research Unit, which will double the capacity of the centre and enhance its provision of services with the installations.

A multidisciplinary human team of more than 70 experts, a total of 13 laboratories equipped with state-of-the-art technology, a pilot plant of almost 1,000 square metres and an experimental food technologies kitchen are some of the elements which the new installations have. With this commitment to latest-generation scientific and technological infrastructure, the new centre culminates a trajectory of more than 25 years dedicated to the study of and innovation in foods, providing an effective response to the needs of the food market.

Pilot plant

The pilot plant of nearly 1,000 square metres where pre-industrial scale processes are reproduced is one of the highlights of the new centre. This space, where new food products will be developed and where new and emerging technologies will be validated, will be both of internal use and for total or partial renting. This is why, and with the goal of assuring confidentiality in the development projects undertaken by the companies, the access to this pilot plant is restricted.

The pilot plant incorporates technologies for the enhancement of food products and processes - unique worldwide. Notable amongst these are high pressure combined with temperature application - with design and specifications exclusive to AZTI-Tecnalia - enabling an increase in the useful life of products, at the same time as maintaining most of their sensorial attributes (colour, texture, taste), as well as nutritional qualities. Likewise, AZTI-Tecnalia is the first technological centre in Spain that has committed to CAS, an alternative to traditional freezing processes and which enables obtaining defrosted products of greater quality.

Latest generation laboratories

The new installations have 13 laboratories equipped with state-of-the-art technologies, some of which are unique worldwide. Notable amongst these are the laboratories for microstructures, new foodstuffs, sensorial analysis, biodetection, biological, physical-chemical and R+D.

The control and enhancement of sensorial characteristics of foods needs a prior microestructure study of the foodstuffs. In their microstructures laboratory, equipped with the latest microestructural characterisation techniques, AZTI-Tecnalia studies the functional properties of each ingredient and the interactions that may occur between them. In this vein they are working on the use of these techniques for preparing high-quality cuisine products (foams, gels, emulsions, and so on).

With the laboratory for new foodstuffs AZTI-Tecnalia intervenes from the first stages of the laboratory-scale design and formulation and the pilot plant as a definition of the processes for preparation, the study of useful life and the acceptability of the products, to the phase of transference at an industrial level and launching on to the market.

The technological centre has taken part in the development of multiple products with companies from a wide range of sectors of the food industry: Café relax (Cafés Fortaleza); Txahaltxitxas (Urkaiko Cooperative Society); low-salt anchovies (Grupo Consorcio); snack products with "low fat content" (Celigüeta); pasteurised precooked dishes (Gastronomía Baska); sandwiches in controlled atmospheres (Gastrolunch) and Omegas del Norte mackerel hamburgers (Bermeo and Onari Fishermen's Guilds).

AZTI-Tecnalia is also pioneer in the use of the Zebra fish for Food Research and is expert in the development and application of molecular analysis methodologies based on DNA, fields developed in their biodetection laboratories.

The new centre also inaugurates a renovated laboratory for sensorial analysis with the latest methods of analysis, as well as the statistical procedures and tools required for boosting developing new products and control of their quality.

Science and gastronomy

Another of the innovative elements of the new AZTI-Tecnalia Food Research Unit is the experimental kitchen - a space of 150 square metres which will act as a nexus of the world of gastronomy, science and technology and the installations of which are due to finish at the end of February.

In this vanguard kitchen, in which the R+D Department of the Mugaritz restaurant and the Dietrich electrical household goods firm are working together with the AZTI-Tecnalia Technological Centre, science and gastronomy come together to develop new healthy and user-friendly products of great quality.

Pedro Subijana's Akelarre restaurant has also made a commitment to collaboration with AZTI-Tecnalia, in a project aimed at enhancing the development and design of gastronomic dishes. In this way, times for such preparation are reduced and new techniques, technologies and applied equipment can be tested in the world of haute cuisine.

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