Toward offering healthy food products better adapted to elderly people – AlimaSSenS

During oral food consumption a bolus is formed until swallowing. This oral processing is essential as it contributes mainly to the perception alf food sensory properties but also to the bio-availability of nutrients. This process depends on food product properties but also on oral subject physiology. In elderly population, oral capacities are modified with age leading to a specific oral processing. The main innovation of AlimaSSenS is to reconsider the sensory and nutritional properties of food product through a detailed characterization of the food bolus and its process of formation in aged population.
To do this, the project will conduct research using in silico, in vitro and in vivo approaches on three types of food matrix, grain products, dairy and meat products.
A panel of 100 elderly subjects with different masticatory and salivary capacities will be set up to test food products designed in the project.
Furthermore, epidemiological and socioeconomic studies will be carried out to identify the best solution in proposing food products to the senior population.
Highly multidisciplinary, this project thus combines expertise in dentistry, physiology, sensory evaluation, consumer behavior, nutrition, epidemiology, data mining, food processing, sociology and economics.

AlimaSSenS will contribute to high quality scientific benefits that will have a high impact inside the scientific community working on this topic. In particular AlimaSSenS will lead to:
- Characterize aroma release among elderly population during eating and to propose working hypothesis on the variability in aroma release pattern and aroma sensitivity among elderly based on oral health, masticatory performance and salivary characteristics.
- Establish a clear impact of specific dental status on masticatory performance and food bolus formation during eating among the elderly
- Consecutive to new process and formulation related to an enhancement of nutritional and sensory properties, characterize the change in structural and physicochemical properties of food matrix and food bolus at different scale and evaluate their consequences on bio access and bioavailability
- Validate the relation between in vitro and in vivo approaches related to food bolus structure and nutritional properties of food
- Characterize the relation between pleasure and comfort to eat, food sensitivity and culinary practice during the retirement period
- Establish the relation between structure/composition, choice and nutritional value of food through a data mining approach
AlimaSSenS will also develop numerous methodology aiming at describing elderly in terms of sensory pleasure and food oral processing performance. It will also lead to propose innovating technologies in food processing and food structure aiming at facilitating food bolus formation and comfort to eat while maintaing good nutritional properties in elderly.
At last, AlimaSSenS will lead to important economical benefits by proposing new and innovating food product with a potential market of 200 millions €.

The prospects of the project are mainly economic, with the launch of a range of products adapted to the oral capacities of elderly population.
From a scientific point of view, the follow up of this work will consist of a clinical validation of the nutritional benefits of the food products. Thus, the proposed technological solutions should also be applied in other place of living such as EHPAD or hospitals.

- Descamps M. et al (2016). Salivary flow decreases in healthy elderly people independently of dental status and drug intake – Journal of Texture Studies (sous presse).

In most developed countries, the proportion of elderly people in the population is growing rapidly and approaching the elderly market represents a key issue. The global population aged 60 years and older has doubled since 1980 and will probably reach two billion by 2050. In Europe counts 17% of the population is 65 years old or older and 4.7% 80 years old or older. The population of elderly people in Europe is increasing rapidly and in 2060 nearly 30% will be over 65 years old, and 12% over 80. Developing age-friendly products and services for this target group is an absolute necessity for facing the specific health challenges of the 21st century, caused by population ageing.
The question of the needs of elderly people in term of food products with optimized nutritional and sensory values in order to permit longer life and better ageing without deficiencies is therefore of crucial importance.
The ambition of AlimaSSenS is to address this issue by gathering food industry representatives and scientists in a strong combined research effort with a focus on Food Oral Processing (FOP) efficiency in the elderly.
AlimaSSenS is a large and highly integrated project whose main objective is to develop and offer at the end food products, that are as appropriate as possible for the FOP abilities of elderly people living at home while retaining both ease of eating and eating pleasure and high nutritional value. In particular, AlimaSSenS aims at (1) understanding the impact of changes in oral status with age on food oral processing and their consequences on ease of eating & eating pleasure and bio-accessibility of nutrients using in vivo, in vitro & in silico approaches (2) developing food products adapted to the food oral processing efficiencies of the elderly and still considering meal and purchase practices of this population. Three types of food product are being investigated (meat, cereals and dairy products).
To reach its objectives, AlimaSSenS proposes a multidisciplinary approach associating expertise in odontology, physiology, sensory evaluation, consumer behaviour, nutrition, epidemiology, data mining, food process, sociology and economy.
It is a four year project divided into 4 phases:
The first phase consists of setting up panels & methodologies (including FOP related sensory profile) and the choice of food matrix to be developed
The second phase consists of (i) the development of novel food products using iterative approaches involving input from food processing and structure including data-mining, sensory data, FOP, bioavailability and bio-accessibility, food industrial partners (ii) characterization of elderly population in terms of food choice, food consumption, culinary and purchasing practices. The third phase consists of experimental economics of the novel food products to be released. The last phase is devoted to the dissemination and valorisation of the results

AlimaSSenS is a public-private collaborative research project involving 10 academic and 4 industrial partners and a network of technical centres represented by 1 technical centre. AlimaSSenS is thus presented as an industrial-academic partnership project.