Project description
Innovative food freshness indicator extends shelf life
The expiry date of food products is fixed during the packaging and derives from studies, but it causes money losses and food waste. The information offered by existing traceability tools concerning the actual state of freshness and quality of food products is not reliable. The EU-funded ColorSensing project will carry out a feasibility study on an innovative, cost-effective and non-invasive food freshness indicator that reduces food waste. The technology relies on an advanced algorithm to correct colour distortions of quick response codes made of smart inks for sensing parameters inside food packages. Integrated with digital solutions allows for monitoring freshness in packaged foods and extends their shelf life.
Objective
Every year more than one 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted which is a huge both environmental and economic problem. Food waste happens all along the pathway to the plate and is a massive food supply chain inefficiency. For example inefficiencies occur when the fresh food manufacturers perform destructive quality controls every hour to detect leaks in the packaging, or when the cold chain breaks occur during transit, or when consumer fights against uncertainty by throwing away food. The expiry date is fixed during the packaging through studies of life-time and causes all agents in the food supply chain to lose money and waste resources at some point. Currently, the traceability tools available in the market do not offer information on the real state of freshness and quality of food products.
ColorSensing is based on an advanced algorithm able to correct color distorsions of QR codes made of smart inks for sensing parameters inside food packages. Integrating this with digital solutions allows to monitor the freshness of packaged foods and extend their shelf life. Our innovative technology (TRL6) is a quantitative, multifunctional, cost-effective and non-invasive food freshness indicator to reduce food waste. We have received public funds to develop our technology (e.g. €1.5m from the EU ERC program) and been selected to participate in multiple startups accelerator programs such as ENPENTA VII or Innofood. We have created an ecosystem of industrial partners (food manufacturers as Embutits Monells, Barrufet Group and supermarkets as Bonpreu and Condis) that are interested in our technology and are asking us to develop our prototypes up to a market-ready solution. We aim to become the next quality standard in packaged food manufacturing and now we are applying to the SME Instrument Phase 1 to carry out an exhaustive Feasibility Study.
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.
You need to log in or register to use this function
We are sorry... an unexpected error occurred during execution.
You need to be authenticated. Your session might have expired.
Thank you for your feedback. You will soon receive an email to confirm the submission. If you have selected to be notified about the reporting status, you will also be contacted when the reporting status will change.
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.
-
H2020-EU.2.3. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme -
H2020-EU.3. - PRIORITY 'Societal challenges
See all projects funded under this programme -
H2020-EU.2.1. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies
See all projects funded under this programme
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
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
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
See all projects funded under this callCoordinator
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.
08029 Barcelona
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.