The ERC PoC focused on the exploitation of the technical viability of ImproVITA in order to leverage the TRL level of the technology towards TRL 5, validation in relevant environment. To achieve this, several contacts with industrial partners were done and three main collaboration protocols were established.
Company A is the global market leader for fresh strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. It has 100 years of farming heritage and hundreds of independent growers around the world.
Company A has tested ImproVITA at their facilities in two different assays, one in the final period of the harvest season and one in the peak of the harvest season. Experiments were carried out in ready to ship raspberry cuvettes and in the plant, 24 and 48h before harvesting. The assessment of the shelf life was performed exactly as it is regularly performed by the company and it was clear the extension of the shelf life when ImproVITA is applied. The applications in ready to ship cuvettes, however, may have some drawbacks as it increases the preparation time, decreasing the productivity of the farmers. The team has hence suggested the pulverization of ImproVITA in the plant, just before harvest to evaluate if the shelf life extension would be similar. Results demonstrate that the applications of ImproVITA 24h before harvesting is detrimental for the fruit, while the application 48h before present similar results as the samples with no treatment.
Company B is an Organization of Small fruit production (raspberries, strawberries and blueberries), located Portugal, with productions filed in different sites.
ImproVITA was tested at the end of the harvest season, and equivalent tests as the ones described for Company A were performed. The results suggest that the applications of ImproVITA 48h before harvesting the fruits is beneficial to the enhancement of the properties of the raspberries, increasing their shelf life to up to 15 days, and delaying the appearance of fungi.
Anit-microbial and anti-fungal activity of ImproVITA was tested for different strains, however, the most relevant is the activity towards Botritis cinérea, which is the one that most affects these plants/fruits. Despite the fact that ImproVITA only demonstrated up to 12% anti-fungal activity, this may explain the results observed in the pilot test carried out at Company B.
Company C is a IV range product company dedicated mostly to vegetables. The company comes from three farmer owned cooperatives aims to make fresh vegetables more accessible, presenting them in practical formats that make people’s lives easier. Company C team continues to pursue, innovating and offering an ever-increasing variety of fresh, healthy and tasty products to help people have a better diet. In this sense, Company C was very open to our solution and we have carried out tests in two different samples: spinaches and iceberg lettuce. Experiments carried out with spinach leaves demonstrated a clear extension of the shelf life compared with control samples. Improvita was impressive at day 25. Leaves kept their consistency, no brown showed up. Control was dull and lacking brightness, yellowish and brownish. In the case of iceberg lettuce the results were not as expected and ImproVITA did not offer any advantages. Company C, has showed high interest in testing our product for further licensing but it will depend on the response to the following critical points: 1 – The application of ImproVITA should easily adapt to the process used at the producers facility; 2 – Evaluate the legislation applied to the use of ImproVITA as preservative for IV range products, which is directly related to the assessment of labelling and packaging which, might have to be adapted.
