Food production has proven to be too expensive, responsible for 70% of H2O consumption and 30% of energy usage, while delivering 25% of greenhouse gas emissions. The food systems in place have exerted excessive pressure on natural resources, exceeding planetary boundaries and compromising the Earth’s ability to produce safe and secure food for the future. Thus, sustainable food production has become a European and global priority. A paradigm shift in food production was necessary to reduce the environmental footprint while ensuring the continuous supply of safe and secure food.
Recognizing the central role of natural microbiomes in environmental, plant, and animal health, CIRCLES has successfully explored their potential as an untapped resource of probiotic functions within food systems. This approach has presented a significant opportunity to reduce the ecological impact of food production while maintaining its safety and efficiency. With this awareness, CIRCLES has worked to discover, translate, and communicate innovative microbiome-based applications to enhance the EU food systems in terms of quality, productivity, safety, and sustainability.
CIRCLES has provided Smart Microbiome Food Systems (SMFSs) for eight key food chains relevant to the EU market: spinach, tomatoes and grapes (wine), poultry and pig meat, Atlantic salmon and seabream aquaculture, and wild marine organisms (e.g. wild fish, corals, shellfish, and crustaceans). These new food system paradigms have been structured to optimize microbiome circulation and dynamics, improving productivity, quality, safety, and sustainability. The SMFSs were achieved through a microbiome biotechnology approach, involving microbiome-tailored circular actions supported by Smart Microbiome Modulators (SMMs) to optimize food system microbiomes.
The insights gained through CIRCLES have provided decision-makers, academia, businesses, and consumers with a comprehensive vision of microbiomes’ impact on food systems, from farm to fork. Ultimately, this has enabled Europe to address the needs of a growing global population by implementing resource-efficient circular economy principles in food production and significantly reducing Europe’s environmental footprint.
