Project description
A revolutionary shelf-life monitor measures time and temperature of products in the cold chain
Most packaged food products come with a label informing consumers of the expiration date. When it comes to the cold supply chain, food spoilage is critically dependent on temperature as well. The Norwegian SME Keep-It Technologies has developed an indicator that relies on a patented chemical process to monitor the time since production and the temperature to which the product has been exposed. The solution will reduce food waste, prevent foodborne infections and minimise manufacturers’ financial losses. The EU-funded KEEP-IT-UP project will support the company in optimising the product and production line to begin international expansion.
Objective
Keep-it Technologies AS (Norway) is a fast-growing company backed up by an outstanding team of 23 experts in food retail, brand building and product development. We have developed the Keep-itUp Time-Temperature Indicators, using a patented chemical process to measure the time and the temperature to which a product has been exposed to. These provide continuous and quantitative information (in days left to spoilage) of fresh food and ready-to-eat meals’, according to the temperature they are exposed to over time, thus introducing the concept of planning in consumption for the first time: when a product is kept at proper temperatures, it allows the extension of its shelf life in 5-6 days. Although a first version of Keep-itUp indicators has been already produced in small scale in Norway the feedback confirms that there is a lot of room for improvement. The goal of the Keep-itUp project is to increase accuracy, adapt them to different types of food products and target markets’ needs, to optimize their production line, and to seek further international expansion. The Keep-itUp project responds to two pressing needs: reducing food waste (an EU priority) and the quality assurance of food, as it regulates the spread of foodborne illness. Keep-itUp will contribute to a more suitable food future, by reducing food waste and will help its end-users (consumers) to improve their consumption habits, thus reducing food waste; will help retailers increase their profits by guaranteeing the quality of products sold through different stages of the cold-chain; and allow producers to increase their ROI, reduce food losses and deliver higher quality products. With Keep-itUp we will reach our sales objective of 300M units/year, thus growing our revenues to €12.76 million by 2022, while creating 47 new direct jobs. The project has an estimated ROI of 4.01 per euro invested
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- natural scienceschemical sciencesanalytical chemistry
- engineering and technologyother engineering and technologiesfood technologyfood safety
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesnutrition
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensors
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Programme(s)
- H2020-EU.3.2. - SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy Main Programme
- H2020-EU.3.2.4. - Sustainable and competitive bio-based industries and supporting the development of a European bioeconomy
- H2020-EU.3.2.1. - Sustainable agriculture and forestry
- H2020-EU.2.3.1. - Mainstreaming SME support, especially through a dedicated instrument
- H2020-EU.3.2.2. - Sustainable and competitive agri-food sector for a safe and healthy diet
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
1081 Oslo
Norway
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.