Project description
Revolutionising the fight against food waste
In the EU, a staggering 5 % of fresh fruits and vegetables (FF&V) traded annually never make it to supermarket shelves, resulting in a wastage of 3.9 million tonnes of food and a loss of thousands of millions of euros. Spoilage caused by microorganisms and the release of ethylene gas contributes to this alarming problem. To address this, the EU-funded FRESHTRAY project will introduce a game-changing solution called FreshTray, developed by SAECO, a renowned cardboard packaging manufacturer. This cost effective innovation extends the shelf life of FF&V by an impressive 40 % through a patented multi-active coating applied to the inner surface of the packaging. With successful trials on tomatoes and peppers, FreshTray promises efficacy, versatility, and benefits that far surpass its competitors.
Objective
In the EU28, 5% of the fresh fruits and vegetables (FF&V) yearly traded never make it to the supermarket shelves due to spoilage. This means a waste of 3.9 Mt of food and the loss of 8,970 M€. FF&V spoilage is caused by the contamination of micro-organisms activity (bacteria and fungi) and the F&V’s release of ethylene gas.
We have developed FreshTray a cost-effective solution to significantly diminish FF&V discards in Europe. FreshTray is a multi-active cardboard packaging to extend the shelf-life of fresh FF&V by +40%. It consists on the application of a patented multi-active coating – made of natural substances – over the inner surface of the cardboard. This coating has proved antimicrobial, antioxidant and ethylene scavenger functions over the F&V contained in the packaging. We have successfully tested the solution in tomato and pepper.
Besides its effectiveness and the price, there are two key additional advantages of our solution against our competitors: (i) easy implementation by users and (ii) versatility of the solution that can be adapted to any FF&V company need.
F&V companies will be willing to adopt our solution, since it (i) will provide them more flexibility and bargaining power, (ii) will increase their competitiveness against regular products, (iii) will increase their benefits and (iv) will loss on average 50% less of F&V along the supply chain.
In our company SAECO – cardboard packaging manufacturers since 1974 – we enjoy a privilege location close to more than 600 target users (some of them are current customers), since we are based in the south-east of Spain, a region known as the “European’s orchard”. FreshTray will be first launched in Spain and in further stages of commercialization we will reach other EU28 countries.
This project will give us the possibility to add value to our products and to open new markets. We will upgrade from selling cardboard, to market advanced multi-active packaging solutions to F&V industries.
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. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture horticulture fruit growing
- engineering and technology nanotechnology
- engineering and technology materials engineering coating and films
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture horticulture vegetable growing
- natural sciences chemical sciences organic chemistry aliphatic compounds
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.2.3. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.3. - PRIORITY 'Societal challenges
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H2020-EU.2.1. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
30509 MOLINA DE SEGURA
Spain
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.