five foodnexus ready-to-go projects€¦ · five foodnexus ready-to-go projects ... the project’s...

All five projects support FoodNexus’ common strategy with respect to ‘Health and wellbeing’ as well as ‘Food quality and safety’ and ‘Food security and sustainability’. In addition, they all involve partners across Europe from public and pri-vate organisations.

In early 2017, the project leaders prepared action plans and started to organise the first workshops and joint participa-tion to open calls. By March 2017, the Ready-to-go project on Education submitted a proposal for external funding, and

thereby moved one step closer to implementing an ambition of FoodNexus – that of ensuring flexible continuing learning for – and with – food professionals across Europe.

In the following pages, you will find more basic information on the five projects regarding the problems they are to solve and initial partners engaged in each project. To read more on current activity, which is constantly moving forward, the FoodNexus consortium invites you to visit the FoodNexus website: www.foodnexus.eu

FoodNexus is launching its first five projects. The projects include a selection of proposals on how to develop solutions for common challenges within the European food sector.

Five FoodNexus Ready-to-go projects

Gentle processing and zero waste

Food & wellbeing platform

Smart dairy system

Continued education for food professionals

Agrofood startup of the year challenge

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3

5

CONTACT FOODNEXUS [email protected]

Twitter: FoodNexus EU

WWW.FOODNEXUS.EU/FIVE-FOODNEXUS-READY-TO-GO-PROJECTS

The FoodNexus project ‘Gentle processing and zero waste’ will focus on improving the European food industry’s ability to re-engineer food unit operations by combining nov-el technologies in a smarter way. Through smart, gentle processing, the food industry can secure more high-quality final food products in which sensory attributes, biological preservation and nutritional benefits from the raw material are kept while the use of resources (e.g. water, energy, raw materials) is minimised.

SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH MILD PROCESSING The FoodNexus consortium is established to ensure lead-ership in the change towards a food system prepared for common challenges, one of them being food security and sustainability. When food is processed (e.g. is exposed to high tempera-tures), the raw products’ sensory attributes and beneficial nutrients can be damaged. At the same time, food process-ing risks using excessive resources such as water and energy, as well as creating unwanted or unused side-streams. Industrial food processing thereby provides an opportunity for improving the food system’s sustainability footprint.

NATURAL FOOD PRODUCTS Gentle processing takes the approach of mildly generating fractions from plant-based raw materials, to optimise the individual components and maximise their functionality. This allows the nutritional benefit of ingredients in the food products and the sensory attributes of the raw material to be preserved, which equally is living up to the consumers’ increasing demand for high quality, natural food products they can trust.

USING ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES IN A SMARTER WAYThe introduction of technologies such as ‘Internet of Things’, robotics, micro- and nanotechnologies, biotechnologies (KET) all along the food chain provides opportunities for food process innovation and represents a paradigm shift in the food production system. In this project, novel enabling technologies as well as technology will be combined and applied to food processing across the food system.

THE PROJECT’S OBJECTIVEThe final objective is to carry out re-engineering of food unit operations and processes combining new technologies in the right way, and thereby improving ingredients and final food products’ expected functions (technical functionalities, sensory attributes, biological preservation, nutrition compo-sition) while adding new value to co-products and reducing industrial and domestic waste. The project will lead to prototypes of a new generation of foods, ready to be tested for consumer acceptance.

Towards gentle processing and zero waste: better preservation of nutrients and micronutrients

Gentle processing and zero waste

GENTLE PROCESSING – PAGE 1/2

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THE PROJECT’S ACTIVITYWithin the mild processing area, several sub-areas need to be addressed ranging from mild separation technology development to component functionalisation in complex mixtures to predicting product generation from these com-plex mixtures. From there, the aim is to generate separation technologies based on mild and natural processes (e.g. wa-ter-based or physical processes), and mild processing steps that maximise the functionality of each of the components present in the plant-based extract (colour, taste, structure, preservatives, etc.). Another action will be to build large datasets of product characteristics from whole-plant struc-tured products. These datasets will then be analysed and

modelled such that we can build understanding on how to generate products from non-refined starting materials in a robust and sustainable manner.

• At the first stage, the project will work within the field of seeds and grains while the ambition is to ex-pand the knowledge generated to other agricultural raw material areas.

• In March 2017, the project obtained seed funding from FoodNexus and is engaging with other external funding agents. The project is expected to deliver its first results already within 2017.

FOODNEXUS PARTNERS PARTICIPATING IN THE PROJECT:

CargillLund universitySILLTRIFIROUniversity of CopenhagenUnilever

GENTLE PROCESSINGCONTACT PERSON:

Marcel van der [email protected]

GENTLE PROCESSING – PAGE 2/2

1LEARN MORE AND ENGAGE: The FoodNexus partnership is open to collaboration with relevant organisations and individuals sharing our vision and mission. Project activity is updated on the FoodNexus website, where you can also read more about the FoodNexus partner-ship, as well as follow news and activity. For more information about this particular project you are welcome to get in touch with the contact person.


The FoodNexus ‘Food & wellbeing platform’ will develop new and interactive forms of mobile digital communication with consumers on diet and perceived wellbeing and will integrate this with existing data sources such as food styles and activities. Integrating these data sources in a joint plat-form will allow giving individualised feedback to consumers with regard to food choices, furthering wellbeing as well as encouraging behaviour change with a specific and dedicated interaction with the consumer. The platform will also allow us to detect similar trends towards consumers, compare populations and compare culture impact at EU level. At the same time, it will improve the competitiveness of the food industry by supporting consumer-led new product development, leading to a better match between consumer preferences and food supply and an increase in consumer wellbeing.

HEALTH AND WELLBEING FOCUSThis ‘Ready-to-go’ project is addressing the food system’s challenge within ‘Food for Health and Well-being’, which is one of the three FoodNexus strategic objectives. It puts the consumer (and behaviour) at the centre, and leverages the participating FoodNexus partners’ common insight from ex-isting data for a better common understanding of consumer

behaviours and needs. Thereby, it is in line with two other aspects of the FoodNexus strategy; ‘Connecting, informing and empowering consumers to put them at the heart of innovation and embracing them as partners within the sys-tem’, as well as ‘Creating and integrating new technologies’.

EMPOWERMENT FOR BETTER HEALTH The aim of establishing a food and wellbeing platform is to empower consumers to make more informed food choices. The project will have an impact on the food-related wellbe-

ing of consumers, and will improve consumers’ trust in the food industry.

FROM KNOWLEDGE SHARING TO NEW PRODUCTS Following three steps (see Figure 1) the project will devel-op a platform for collecting various consumer data with the objective of sharing and analysing insights among the FoodNexus partners in the project. From there, the project partners will develop further actions for establishing a sus-tainable platform such as:

• Mobile data acquisition tools and exploitation of data streams

• Increased consumer engagement

• A ‘dedicated platform’ that combines main consumer data

• Product innovation (development of consumer-led products)

• Promotion of behavioural change.

It will identify pilot and proof-of-concept activities that can be started in the second half of 2017.

Towards empowered consumers making informed choices

Food & wellbeing platform

FOOD & WELLBEING PLATFORM – PAGE 1/2

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ALIGNMENT AND COLLABORATION The project is being developed by members of the Food-Nexus community, taking into account ongoing activities in borderline areas, and drawing on external experts where necessary (e.g. in the area of quality of life and wellbeing research). The project will take into account research prior-ities in H2020 (including ETP Food for Life’s recent research strategy), as well as national funding priorities.

To make sure this ‘Ready-to-go’ project is strongly aligned with the intention/aims of the EU (e.g. H2020 and EIT) it will:

• Ensure that consumer (behaviour) takes centre stage in this project’s actions, to allow for consumer-driven innovation.

• Secure investments and long-term commitments from the business by having a clear (big and small) industry-led programme (industry vision on the aim and expected deliverables prior to the first work-shop).

• Link to the other Ready-to-go projects and thus involve all sides of the Knowledge Triangle in order to enhance the EU’s ability to innovate and contrib-ute to the defragmentation of the whole food supply chain.

• Exploit synergies and complementarities with other relevant European programmes/projects (e.g. Rich-fields, Elixir, xx, …..).

In March 2017, the project obtained seed funding from FoodNexus and is engaging with other external funding agents.

3 steps to empower consumers


AINIAATOLBelCluster Food+iCorporación Tecnológica de AndalucíaDanoneDanone NutriciaGhent University

IRTAMaastricht UniversityMAPP (Aarhus University)NOFIMAUnileverUniversity of KentUtrecht UniversityVitagoraWageningen University

FOOD & WELLBEING PLATFORM CONTACT PERSON:

Michel [email protected]

CharacteriseThe real food &

drink Intake

CharacteriseThe way to prepare, cook,

consume , share…

Perceived wellbeing

Data & involved consumers

1 2Apply

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Social food practices & behaviour

Dietary intake

Ponderation drivers?

Consumer characterisation:• Gender• Age• Lifestyle• …

Create a sustainable platform

Promote innovation in new diet, products,

practices

Reinforcehealthy diet

Set up the platform & modelling

FOOD & WELLBEING PLATFORM – PAGE 2/2

2LEARN MORE AND ENGAGE: The FoodNexus partnership is open to collaboration with relevant organisations and individuals sharing our vision and mission. Project activity is updated on the FoodNexus website, where you can also read more about the FoodNexus partner-ship, as well as follow news and activity. For more information about this particular project you are welcome to get in touch with the contact person.

Figure 1


The FoodNexus project ‘Towards a smarter dairy system’ will enhance the sustainability of the dairy system through a transdisciplinary effort involving sustainability, marketing, ICT and technology. It will focus on using digital technologies to gather data at multiple points along the supply chain and translating this data into knowledge that will increase value creation along the entire dairy supply chain. Whilst initially focussing on dairy production, the ambition is to expand the results to other food domains.

SMARTER USE OF AVAILABLE DATA AND TECHNOLOGYThis ‘Ready-to-go’ project is working within the area of ‘smart dairy production systems’, and addresses challenges within ‘Food security and sustainability’, which is one of the FoodNexus strategic objectives. It takes into account the span from dairy production to consumers where possible and includes the use of novel ICT technologies for a more sustainable and resilient dairy system. The project will focus on ICT big data and data analytics and is focussed on the FoodNexus approach ‘creating and integrating new tech-nologies’ to ‘reduce fragmentation and remove barriers to innovation’.

CHANGE AGENT FOR A SOLUTION-DRIVEN APPROACH The project is engaging the FoodNexus partnership for developing streams of activity and collaborative proposals in line with other EU-initiatives and ready for proposals such as ICT AGRI ERA–NET. As one of more actions, the partners in the project identified an opportunity to develop and quantify a number of sustain-ability metrics in the dairy production sector by taking a

standardised approach and a common methodology across a number of countries. This is because worldwide, there is huge interest in the application of precision technologies and ICT in agricul-ture. Precision technologies in farming promise increased efficiency, improved product quality, reduced environmental impact, and overall improvements in animal health and wel-fare, thereby facilitating a holistic approach to sustainable farming (i.e. economic, environmental, stakeholder percep-tion and food security). However, the promised benefits of precision technologies have been slow to be realised. In a review of sensors in health management for dairy farms, Rutten et al. (2013)¹ noted that, while the measurement part of systems largely worked, the integration and decision-support parts were inadequate because a solution-driven approach was not adopted. As a result, while many relevant technologies are currently available, their value to farming systems is unclear.Therefore, the project proposes capitalising on existing da-tabases that are available in each of the relevant countries.

Towards a smarter dairy system

Smart dairy system

SMART DAIRY SYSTEM – PAGE 1/2

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Sensors ICT Data

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Profitable

SustainabilityFood quality& safetyConsumer trust

Indicators:EnviromentalEconomicSocial

Farm Production Processing Consumer Waste

Smarter application across disciplines

1 Rutten, C.J. Veilthuis, A.G. Steeneveld, W. Hogeveen, H. (2013). “Invited review: sensors to support health management on dairy farms,” Journal of Dairy Science, Elsevier, vol. 96, no. 4, pp. 1928-1952Figure 1


These will be enriched with data collected specifically for the computation of sustainability metrics in dairy produc-tion. The data collection process will use SMART technolo-gies to maximise the opportunity for interaction within the overall system.

The models will be developed to a number of different standards based on differing guidelines including LEAP, PAS 2050 and ISO standards. Once completed, the analysis will be used to benchmark sustainability across countries and over time and will facilitate the completion of detailed anal-ysis on various strategies to increase sustainability across the supply chain.

TASKS WILL INCLUDE:1. Development of a relevant and pertinent set of sus-

tainability metrics along the dairy production chain2. Review of available databases within the project

partners3. Development of a set of sustainability-based models4. Development of a SMART mechanism to collect addi-

tional data5. Computation of dairy production sustainability met-

rics6. Benchmarking across countries and over time7. Inputting of more “consumer” aspects.

NEXT STEPS

Following a meeting with the relevant experts from interested parties, projects are being developed:

• An ICT hub

• Digital dairy production processibility for next gener-ation milk-based products

• Connect-au-Lait.

Two of these are being developed for H2020-projects while one is ready for submission in ICT AGRI ERA-NET in April 2017.Whilst initially focussing on dairy production, the ambition is to expand the results to other food domains. SMART DAIRY SYSTEM

CONTACT PERSON:Declan Troy

[email protected]

SMART DAIRY SYSTEM – PAGE 2/2

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Aalborg University - FoodADItechArlaBiolan Microbiosen-soresCoop ItaliaDairy Industry Inno-vation Institute Ltd., PolandDCA, Aarhus Uni-versityENEA Research CentreEurofinsExperimental Station for the Food Preserving Industry (SSICA)

Fondazione Edmund MachFriesland CampinaIBM ResearchIK4-CIDETECInternational Iberian Nanotechnology LaboratoryIRTAITENEMalmö UniversityNational Research Council, ItalyNofimaPortuguese Institute of the Sea and At-mosphere (IPMA)RISE Research Insti-tutes of Sweden

SonaeTeagascTechnical University of DenmarkTetra PakUnilever, UKUniversidad de Córdoba, SpainUniversidade de EvoraUniversitat Politènca de ValenciaUniversity of Bo-lognaUtrecht UniversityWageningen Univer-sity & Research


LEARN MORE AND ENGAGE: The FoodNexus partnership is open to collaboration with relevant organisations and individuals sharing our vision and mission. Project activity is updated on the FoodNexus website, where you can also read more about the FoodNexus partner-ship, as well as follow news and activity. For more information about this particular project you are welcome to get in touch with the contact person.


The FoodNexus project ‘Programme for continued education for food professionals’ will launch multidisciplinary, inno-vative, flexible education modules for food professionals of the future. The modules, which are tailored to the needs of the food industry, are based on state-of-the-art compe-tences at Europe’s top universities and developed together with industry. The education modules will cover a variety of topics including nutrition; food production & sustainability; entrepreneurship & innovation; sensory sciences; consumer engagement; food safety. The courses will ensure that both SMEs and large companies are highly competitive in the global food system and that they can contribute to solving global challenges.

FUTURE-ORIENTED LEARNING ACTIVITY In a fast-moving environment with high pressure on the food system to contribute to solutions to common, societal challenges, an immense responsibility rests on the food sys-tem to continuously upgrade its human capital. FoodNexus is working to address this, and more specifically:

• Attracting and developing young talent with the right education and entrepreneurial mindset.

• Tackling the lack of sufficient talent and business initiative, which is a major barrier to transformation of the EU food sector.

• Highlighting the current gap between the proposed education by universities and the problems experi-enced in the industry.

The FoodNexus Ready-to-go project is addressing the issues by taking an integrative approach, in which industry is co-de-fining the learning activities based on the problems identi-fied in the industry.

The partners involved in the project have developed a three-stage learning model for education (see Figure 1), and work-ing groups within the project have suggested developing six tentative course descriptions within six fields of interest.

While modules within the matrix will be built to shape new talents with multi- and cross-disciplinary capabilities, others provide solutions for specialised lifelong learning, at individ-ual and collective levels. The model provides solutions using technologies for ‘Massive Online Open Courses’ (MOOCs) as well as on-site education.

The matrix-approach of the project provides a suggestion for FoodNexus education, which covers all three of FoodNexus’ strategic areas (‘Food security and sustainability’, ‘Food for health and wellbeing’ and ‘Food quality and safety’).

Developing continued education together with the industry

Continued education for food professionals

CONTINUED EDUCATION FOR FOOD PROFESSIONALS – PAGE 1/2

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3 learning stages

1

MOOC

E-learning

On-site

Basic level,broad scope 1000s

100s

<100

Intermediatelevel

Advancedlevel

FoodNexus modular education

Figure 1


MULTIDISCIPLINARY AND INNOVATIVEThe aim of this project is to launch new multidisciplinary, innovative and flexible education modules for food pro-fessionals of the future, tailored to industry needs and leveraging on the state-of-the-art competences at Europe’s top universities. Building on existing competencies in new combinations and involving technological tools, the engaged FoodNexus partners can be firstmovers within this area and provide learning activities that create an impact on both SMEs and large companies.

THREE-STAGE LEARNINGThe partners involved in the project have developed a three-stage learning model for education (see Figure 1). The stages are MOOCs, e-learning and on-site learning. The two first provide an opportunity to reach out to many, whereas the on-site module is tailor-made for the organisa-tion in question. Working groups within the project have developed six tentative course descriptions within the six fields of interest. These six areas, which are to be further developed in work-shops, are:

• Nutrition

• Food production & sustainability

• Entrepreneurship & innovation in the food system

• Sensory sciences

• Consumer engagement

• Food safety.

Some on-site courses already exist, while MOOCs and most e-learning courses are still to be developed further.

FUNDING AND NEXT STEPS There is readiness among university partners to develop and provide the courses, when funding is available. Companies have declared their tentative interest in the course topics. The next step is to adapt course descriptions to fit company needs.

At the end of March 2017, the project obtained seed fund-ing from FoodNexus, and has applied for additional external funding. The FoodNexus Ready-to-go project on Education also seeks to leverage through engagement with the existing technology platforms.

AgroParisTech

Chalmers University of TechnologyFU BerlinLund UniversityTechnical University of DenmarkUniversity of BolognaUniversitat Politècnica de València

University of CopenhagenUniversity of Natural Re-sources and Life Sciences, ViennaWageningen University and ResearchWroclaw University of Envi-ronmental and Life Sciences

CONTINUED EDUCATION FOR FOOD PROFESSIONALSCONTACT PERSON:Tove Enggrob Boon

[email protected]

CONTINUED EDUCATION FOR FOOD PROFESSIONALS – PAGE 2/2

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LEARN MORE AND ENGAGE: The FoodNexus partnership is open to collaboration with relevant organisations and individuals sharing our vision and mission. Project activity is updated on the FoodNexus website, where you can also read more about the FoodNexus partner-ship, as well as follow news and activity. For more information about this particular project you are welcome to get in touch with the contact person.



The FoodNexus project ‘Agrofood startup of the year chal-lenge’ will strengthen its EU network of startups, investors and corporates within the agritech and food area. It will set up a two-round challenge for food startups. The best startups will be connected to investors and corporates to strengthen and build the EU network of startups, investors, researchers, educators and corporations. It will demonstrate how entrepreneurship and innovation can solve societal challenges in agritech and food.

RATIONALE AND AIM This project is developing a European Agrifood startup of the year challenge in cooperation with FoodNexus part-ners across Europe. The challenge has preliminary national rounds and ends with a European round awarding the ‘Best European Agrofood Startup of the Year’. The aim of the challenge is to:

• Strengthen and build the EU network of startups, investors and corporates

• Celebrate and inspire: demonstrate how entrepre-neurship and innovation can solve societal challeng-es in agritech and food.

This project is an example of the FoodNexus partnership’s role as a change agent for stimulating an entrepreneurial mindset and at the same time better integrating the food sector.

THE CONCEPTThe European Agrofood startup challenge in Europe will consist of:

• National rounds in 5 EU countries, with each country delegating the 3 best national startups to the EU final.

• An EU final with changing locations in Europe.

• A final consisting of 15 startups from the organising countries and 5 wildcards for startups from other countries (European selection).

• The challenge will choose the best EU startup in agritech and food, and connect them with investors and corporates.

• The thematic challenges will depart from the strate-gic objectives of FoodNexus.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR STARTUPS?The winner will get business development support as well as a cash prize. Yet the main added value for startups for par-ticipating is visibility and networking within the FoodNexus corporate network as well as:

• Connection and feedback from investors and corpo-rates

• Support from the FoodNexus Corporate Startup Engagement programme

• Strong communication and visibility

• Confirmation of the strength of its business idea and impact.

Embracing and stimulating the best ideas and entrepreneurs

Agrofood startup of the year challenge

AGROFOOD STARTUP OF THE YEAR CHALLENGE – PAGE 1/2

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A startup is defined as an organisation of max 6 years with a team in place and the basis of the business model designed, but before the scaling phase. To be accepted in the chal-lenge, its potential must have worldwide economic and social impact and it must fit within the thematic areas. A set of requirements for national organising partners is in place in order to ensure that only relevant, excelling organ-isations with proven track records in organising capabilities and startup networks can participate.

STATUS AND NEXT STEPS In March 2017, the project received seed funding from FoodNexus. A consortium of best in class partners from within the partnership is committed to leading the national rounds and some are engaging with investors within their own region in Europe.

The project has engaged a group of national leading part-ners, has appointed StartLife as the owner and driver of the European setup of the concept in 2017 and is looking for main European sponsors.

Throughout 2017, with a kick-off in May, the national rounds will take place ending up in December 2017.

SPONSORSHIPStartLife and the national FoodNexus partners are looking for European and national corporate partners and sponsor-ships, and have developed a sponsorship plan. Corporate partners are part of the European and national selection rounds and in this way get access to and contact with the most interesting startups.

STARTUP OF THE YEAR CHALLENGECONTACT PERSONS:

Linze [email protected]

Frans [email protected]

AGROFOOD STARTUP OF THE YEAR CHALLENGE – PAGE 2/2

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Enterprise IrelandFIABFood+iFuture Food InnovationLiege and Ghent UniversityRISE

StartLifeThe Entrepreneurship Center of the University of BolognaVitagora

LEARN MORE AND ENGAGE: The FoodNexus partnership is open to collaboration with relevant organisations and individuals sharing our vision and mission. Project activity is updated on the FoodNexus website, where you can also read more about the FoodNexus partnership, as well as follow news and activity. For more information about this particular project you are welcome to get in touch with the contact person.


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