Project description
Aloe vera to fight food waste
Fresh fruits and vegetables are perishable products with high post-harvest food loss. There is a growing market demand for organic solutions to increase the shelf life of fresh products and reduce food waste. Edible coatings are the most promising solutions to prevent vegetable food loss and extend vegetable shelf life. However, synthetic additives are present in most of them. The EU-funded ALOEco project will commercialise a 100 % organic, effective, safe, and sustainable Aloe vera-based post-harvest edible coating. The product extends a 40 % shelf life of vegetables, eliminates the need for post-harvest fungicides and reduces the energetic requirements for post-harvest conservation, the residue levels on fresh vegetables, and the need for synthetic packaging.
Objective
The demand of fresh fruits and vegetables is increasing gradually. However, fresh fruit and vegetables are perishable products whose freshness is difficult to maintain along the supply chain. There is a need for reduction of post-harvest food loss by increasing the efficiency of the whole food chain, as one of the first means to fight imbalances and reduce tensions between the increase in food consumption and the challenging increase in food production. At the same time, primary producers are facing the challenge of reducing the use of chemicals to comply with ever stricter regulations. Therefore, there is a market need for 100% organic solutions to increase the shelf life of fresh products and reduce food waste.
Among the existing solutions, edible coatings are the most promising to prevent vegetable food-loss and extend vegetable shelf life. However, there are very few solutions free of synthetic additives and suitable for the organic market.
To contribute to solve this challenge, we aim to bring to the market our in-house developed product: ALOEco – a 100% organic, effective, safe and sustainable Aloe vera-based post-harvest edible coating. ALOEco extends a 40% the shelf life of vegetables, reducing by 100% the need for post-harvest fungicides, also reducing the energetic requirements for post-harvest conservation, the residue levels on fresh vegetables and the need for synthetic packaging. Our initial sales forecast shows potential cumulative revenues of 12.1 M€ thanks to sales of 4,000 m3 of ALOEco in Europe.
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.
- engineering and technology materials engineering colors
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture horticulture fruit growing
- engineering and technology materials engineering coating and films
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture horticulture vegetable growing
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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-1 - SME instrument phase 1
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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.
04004 ALMERIA
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.