ERA-NET Innovative Mild Processing Tailored to Ensure Sustainable and High-Quality Organic Fruit Products (MILDSUSFRUIT)

During the last decades there has been a considerable growth of the organic food sector in Europe which has been driven by the benefits provided by such foods in terms of healthier and more environmentally friendly products. One of the most important categories of organic food is fruit and vegetables which are characterized by high quality features in terms of sensory properties and nutritional content compared to conventional products, but these products are also high perishable. To this respect food processing technologies can contribute to extend the shelf-life of organic foods able to reduce food waste, improve sensory properties, and maintain higher nutritional content. However, traditional food processing techniques are used to process organic foods can have negative effects on the qualities of such products that can reduce consumers acceptance as well as have larger environmental impact. However, EU regulations do not specify and indicate which food processing technologies can be used to process organic food. Thus, there is a lack of understanding on which food processing technologies can be used and a lack of knowledge of processing technologies that are able improve the sensory and nutritional qualities of organic food and to reduce the environmental impact of processing technologies. Thus, there is a need of conducting research in developing new organic food processing technologies able to provide more sustainable production able to meet the consumer needs in terms of quality characteristics and reduced environmental impact. This project aims to improve the competitiveness of the organic sector in Europe by increasing the level of quality, sustainability, and consumer confidence of organic processed food products by testing new mild organic food processing technologies. This research can be beneficial to meet consumer expectations and needs in terms of organic food (i.e. better health, higher nutrients, reduce environmental impact), for organic food businesses to expand and diversify businesses opportunities, for policy makers to develop policies able to support the sector and, for the society as a whole to reduce the environmental impact, and create new job opportunities.

Additional information: This contract has been awarded by Defra to the UK Partner who successfully competitively tendered for an EU Let ERA-NET project.