RESFOOD Project: “Resource efficiency and safety for the whole food chain”
It’s been a year now that the RESFOOD project started its research activities to develop innovative technologies with the aim to boost resource efficiency and safety in the whole food chain, from horticulture to food processing and retail. The RESFOOD research partners have already achieved encouraging preliminary results during this first year and a set of new technologies are now selected to be further investigated at the pilot scale in the coming months. Rafael Muñoz from ADESVA, the RESFOOD partner leading the Horticulture research says, “In our first field trial of blackberry growth in soilless crops, we have proved that it is possible to reduce over 40% of the water consumption maintaining the same fruit quality and yield. So for the producers it is cheaper and they can reduce the total fertilizers and biological control agents used”. Equally important focus is on the water management in food processing: “We close the water cycle: instead of discharging after the first use, we re-use the water and this has a potential of decreasing the water and energy use in food processing by 50-80%” says Willy van Tongeren, the RESFOOD Project Coordinator and the leader of the Food Processing workpackage. The project also focuses on biomass recovery: “Various valuable components can be extracted from the side streams of the agrofood industry before they go to feed or bio-energy”, says Maarten Uyttebroek from VITO, leading the Biomass workpackage. “These components can be used at different stages of the food chain or in other industries such as pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. So we will use the resources more efficiently.” Reducing health and safety risks by mitigating food-borne outbreaks is another major concern for RESFOOD partners. For Eva Petri from CNTA, “The main importance of the project for food industry is reducing food safety risks by innovative and cost-effective disinfection technologies that will use just half of the water used by chlorination”. Reminding the recent E-coli outbreak in Europe, which caused the death of dozens of people and hospitalization of many others, Ester Segal from Technion emphasizes that it took about 2 months for the authorities to identify that the source was not cucumbers from Spain but were in fact sprouts from Germany. In reference to this, she underlines that “The technologies that we are developing detect a contamination already during food processing and even at the growing stage for some specific products; so, in the very early stage of the food chain”. The RESFOOD concept is based on offering “affordable, practical and cost-effective” solutions for the food production and processing industry. The new technologies offered by the project will stimulate new markets and lead new start-ups especially in the water treatment sector and biomass valorization. The new solutions for the disinfection and detection of pathogens in food and water will increase the consumer confidence towards the fresh-cut produce. For RESFOOD, developing innovative technologies is not enough, as Mr. Van Tongeren says, “We need to convince stakeholders that food can be produced and processed with reused water and nutrients without doing any concessions at food quality and safety”.
Countries
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia, Slovakia, United Kingdom