Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SCHOCKO3 (Novel Ozone and Thermal Shock Conservation Process for Vegetables)
Período documentado: 2015-05-01 hasta 2015-08-31
In order to address these issues, our project SHOCKO3 aims at introducing ozone in the processing line and eliminating the use of oil to preserve food. Research and recent commercial applications have verified that ozone can replace traditional sanitizing agents, like chlorine, and provide other benefits. Ozone is considered one of the most powerful oxidizing agents used to increase safety of fruits and vegetables, and to increase shelf life. Furthermore, ozone is a safe and environment-friendly technique, more effective than chlorine, without formation of harmful by-products.
Our technical team has evaluated the efficiency of replacing chlorine by applying ozone under different conditions (exposure times and concentrations) with real representative semi-dried tomatoes samples. The results of the technical study have helped us to identify the operational and technical parameters that need to be optimised and adjusted in our processing line in order to implement SHOCKO3, and to prove the viability of the technique.
We also have developed an exhaustive commercial plan, including a market analysis, end users’ needs, competitors and market barriers, to properly define our commercialisation strategy. We have conducted an internal survey with our main customers in order to identify the most important decision factors to stablish a commercial relationship and to obtain preliminary feedbacks of finished products. Furthermore, we have advanced in our commercial pre-agreements with a food technology supplier, which will help us to design and manufacture the prototype and the full industrial process during project development.
Finally, all our findings have been gathered to prepare a business plan, where we define our value proposition and positioning strategy, we identify our strengths and opportunities and analyse our financial projections.
• Better Quality: The application of ozone will improve the organoleptic properties of tomatoes, maintaining its original colour, odour and taste.
• Better Antioxidant Properties: The antioxidant activity is increased by 30% and higher content of vitamin C (>35%) than traditional preservation methods.
• Longer Shelf Life: Up to 4-5 months.
• Weight Reduction: The elimination of oil will reduce the packaging weight by 35%.
• Transport and Energy Savings: The weight reduction will decrease the associated transportation cost by 30%, with final estimated energy savings of 20%.
• Sustainable Process: A 30% of reduction of CO2 emissions mainly due to improvements in transportation (100 kg weight reduction represents a CO2 emission saving of 1 Kg/100 km).
• Versatility: SHOCKO3 can be applied to sanitize different types of vegetables in various conditions, fresh or dried.
• Convenience: There is no need to freeze or to keep into oil in order to preserve the final product, so SHOCKO3 will produce ready-to-eat products.