Exploring flavour research at the European Researchers’ Night 2025

On September 27th, the BIOPROTLab team joined the European Researchers’ Night 2025, hosted at i3S – Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Porto. This annual initiative, funded by the EU-Embraces project (European Researchers’ Night 2024-2025) under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, brings science closer to society and celebrates the role of research in shaping our future.

Our activities, inspired by the growing demand for healthier and more sustainable plant-based diets, explored how bioactive compounds in plant foods contribute to health benefits but also to less pleasant sensations such as bitterness and astringency. Visitors of all ages (from 10 to 80 years old!) were invited to experience science through hands-on activities, including:

🎲 Food & taste matching game – linking different foods with their characteristic flavors.

🥤 Guess the flavor challenge – tasting drinks and identifying their hidden flavors.

🔬 Protein–polyphenol interaction demo – showing how salivary proteins interact with plant compounds to create the dry, puckering feeling of astringency.

👁️ Microscope exploration – visualizing oral cavity cells in contact with foods that trigger astringency.

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These interactive experiences sparked lively conversations about how food science and cooking strategies can help minimize bitterness and astringency, making plant-based foods more appealing without compromising health.

This activity was supported by the BeTASTy project (GA 101046462) and the COST Action FLAVOURsome (CA22161), alongside EU-Embraces.

We warmly thank our lab members - Carlos Guerreiro, Inês Emanuel, Joana Guedes, Joana Vieira, Inês Ferreira, Bernardo Almeida and Rita Vilaça - for their enthusiasm and dedication throughout the event, as well as the thousands of visitors who visited i3S and stopped by our stand to discover the science behind flavor and sensation.

Together, we made science tangible, tasty, and fun!