DOMINO (Harnessing the potential of Fermenting for Healthy and Sustainable Foods)

An ancient food preservation practice, fermentation has the potential to address modern consumer demands for healthy and sustainably produced foods. Consumer interest in fermented foods can be drawn from their distinctive flavours and textures, with advantages for improved sensory properties, food safety, shelf-life stability and nutritional properties. The health advantages of fermented foods range from high levels of essential nutrients to being strong levers for shaping a healthier gut microbiome. Nevertheless, there are gaps in fully understanding the health impacts of a fermented food diet and the approach required for sustainable production of fermented products. To respond to these challenges, DOMINO aims to establish scientific evidence on how fermented foods shape the gut microbiome and provide health benefits whilst also designing novel plant-based fermented foods which address societal demands for healthier and more sustainable nourishment.

DOMINO is a 5-year research project funded by the European Commission through the Horizon Europe program. Coordinated by the French Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE), the project gathers 19 partners from 10 countries in a collaboration between top universities and research centres, as well as expert non-profit organizations and the private sector. This approach builds on the partners’ multidisciplinary expertise and knowledge in the field in a combined effort to help investigate the health impacts of a fermented food-based diet.

DOMINO’s main objectives are:

• To determine how fermented food consumption shapes the gut microbiome and provides health benefits to consumers
• To move toward environmentally sustainable food sources while maintaining a healthy nutritional diet in the transition from animal to plant-based products
• To engage relevant actors in the co-creation and validation of products, tools, methods and recommendations to ensure their relevance for society
• The resulting innovative knowledge from DOMINO will feed into the EIP-AGRI (The Agricultural European Innovation Partnership) website for broad dissemination to practitioners.

DOMINO works closely with its other EU-funded projects, including HealthFerm and PIMENTO COST Action, to create beneficial opportunities and work collectively, represent ongoing actions linked to fermented foods and show the European strength on these issues.

EUFIC leads DOMINO’s communication, dissemination and exploitation activities to empower citizens and stakeholders and will work towards maximising the project’s impact. This will be done through the engagement of the project’s target groups (e.g., via events and social media) and the dissemination of project results in a timely and audience-adapted manner. EUFIC will also support the creation of Living Labs, which will engage both citizens and target food systems stakeholders.

EUFIC's main objectives for the project are:

• To streamline, support and co-create communication, dissemination and exploitation activities.
• To co-create and implement a communication, dissemination and exploitation strategy.
• To ensure that the project is visible, recognisable and easy to access from the start of the project.
• To engage different target groups effectively, exchange knowledge and find synergies.
• To develop an appropriate intellectual property management and exploitation strategies.

Project logo with the slogan: The symbols on the left resemble three common good gut bacteria – Lactobacillus, Lactococcus and Bifidobacterium. They are slanted to symbolise the ‘domino effect’ benefits of a fermented foods-enriched diet.

For further information, visit https://www.domino-euproject.eu/

This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101060218.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor the REA can be held responsible for them.

• Debora Serra, Collaborative Projects – Manager (debora.serra@eufic.org)
• Darya Silchenko, Collaborative Projects – Junior Manager (darya.silchenko@eufic.org)
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