Project description
Reinforcing the innovative development of superior quality fruit snacks
Although the consumption of fruit is a prerequisite for a healthy diet, the rapid speed of the modern lifestyle prevents people from achieving their optimum daily intake. This challenge could be addressed through the production of natural, nutritive, healthy and personalised ready-to-eat snacks. The EU-funded FRIETS project will create a solid framework for the development and marketisation of customised, nutritious and innovative, soft fruit smart snacks that contain no added sugar, sodium or chemical preservatives. Bringing together a team of cross-disciplinary scientists and a network of international SMEs, FRIETS will focus on the optimisation of smart, low-impact production and the sustainable development of superior quality processed berries for products tailor-made to the needs of specific groups.
Objective
Maintaining a healthy diet requires sufficient consumption of fruits and vegetables. However, nowadays, the fast pace of modern lifestyle discourages individuals from reaching their optimal daily intake via consumption of fresh fruits/vegetables, ultimately creating an increasing demand for natural, nutritive, healthy and personalized ready-to-eat snacks. It is also an accepted actuality that there is a lack of healthy food snacks for personalized nutrition in the market. Hence, the development of such products, which can also be tailor-made to the needs of specific groups (young children, elderly, diabetic, sportive etc.), is a long-awaiting innovation. FRIETS project aims in training crossdisciplinary scientists from 5 European countries, in collaboration with international SMEs, for the development and marketization of personalized, nutritious and innovative, soft fruit smart snacks that contain no added sugar, sodium or chemical preservatives, as a palatable way to increase daily fruit consumption. FRIETS smart snacks will include novel processed berries (strawberry, raspberry and blackberry) with superior quality and nutritional characteristics, as well as extended shelf-life. Pre-harvest management practices will be optimized for cultivating high-quality berries. Low impact post-harvest technologies will be developed and optimised including (1) mild and energy efficient drying techniques (e.g. osmotic dehydration, freeze drying, microwave vacuum drying or their combination) using limited or no sugar or salt, and low temperatures, (2) composite or multi-layered edible coatings, based on micro- and macro-algae components, including encapsulated or non-encapsulated natural functional ingredients. Life Cycle Analysis and socio-techno-economic analysis will be implemented for the sustainable development of new products. FRIETS implementation will be based on staff secondments, strengthening collaborative research among different countries and sectors.
Fields of science
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagriculturehorticulturefruit growing
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringcoating and films
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesnutrition
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagriculturehorticulturevegetable growing
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and management
Keywords
Programme(s)
Coordinator
25200 Patras
Greece
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.