Umeå University is one of Sweden's largest universities with approximately 36,000 students and 4,200 employees. Here there is a diversity of high-quality education and world-leading research in several scientific fields. Umeå University is also the site of the ground-breaking discovery of the gene scissors CRISPR-Cas9 – a revolution in genetic engineering that has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

The Department of Food, Nutrition and Culinary Science created in 2020 joined the food-related fields of nutrition and gastronomy at the University. The Department has about 1000 students, and 45 staff members. Multi-disciplinary research is carried out around people and food consumption. Our expertise includes biological perspectives on a microscopic level, therapies using diet and nutrition, didactics, as well as historical and social perspectives on food. The Department has state of art equipment at research and education restaurants, that allow for designing meals, hedonic evaluations and studying meal consumption choice and related behaviours. Furthermore, testing of meals with public consumers is possible, upscaling interventions to actual canteen level.

Role in Healthferm

Umeå University is leading the consumer work package, providing actionable insights into consumer behaviors, profiles and trends. The aim is to assess, in different social contexts, consumer acceptance of fermented foods, their technologies and their role in the transition towards a more sustainable and healthy diet. The knowledge will be used in collaboration with other partners to give feedback loops to other areas of the project.

Team members