SHEALTHY proposal aims to assess and develop an optimal combination of non-thermal sanitization, preservation and stabilization methods to improve the safety (inactivation of pathogens and spoilage microorganisms), while preserving the nutritional quality (up to 30%) and prolonging the shelf-life (up to 50%) of minimally processed F&V products. By combining and modulating non-thermal technologies with minimally processing operation, we will respond to consumers’ demand for fresh, healthy, convenient, sustainable and locally produced and additive-free food. The combined and optimised mild technologies will be demonstrated and validated in 2 business cases: Minimally processed fruits and vegetables and Fruit and vegetable-based juices & smoothies. Sanitization during washing will be optimized by applying in combination ultrasound (US), electrolysed water, plasma activated water, High Intensity Pulsed Light and Blue Light. Bioactive coating, active and intelligent packaging will be applied for quality preservation and shelf life extension of minimally processed F&V. F&V-based juices & smoothies will be stabilized by US and high pressure processing. For F&V by-product valorisation, US, pulsed electric field and membrane filtration will be used to extract bioactive compounds. Sustainable and flexible processing methods will be transferred and adapted to the need of local F&V micro and SMEs, interconnecting primary producers through novel cooperative business models and new logistics systems, to enhance the traceability and authenticity of raw materials along the F&V value chain. Commercial feasibility will be assessed, including consumer acceptance and regulatory, safety and environmental aspects. SHEALTHY will combine the technology trends and consumer needs to afford the business models, technology transfer and market orientation that will facilitate the transition towards a new collaborative agrifood ecosystem for traditional, local and rural SMEs around EU.

The effective application of biotechnology plays a crucial role in building a sustainable European industry, in line with the EU Bioeconomy Strategy and its Progress Report, and contributing to the transformation of Europe outlined in the Green Deal. But despite the enormous potential of biotechnology for contributing to sustainable development in areas such as healthcare, materials, chemicals and food production, the technology is not widely accepted and supported by the general public. This leads to reluctance among industry to adopt and invest in biotechnological solutions, uncertainty among investors, and creates little incentive to eliminate regulatory barriers that prevent implementation. Recognising their concerns is therefore essential for improving the adoption of these technologies. The main objective of the B-TRUST project is thus to develop a transparent and inclusive governance model enabling the application of biotechnology to the bio-based and agri-food sector. More specifically, to (1) inform and create transparency related to consumer and environmental safety, (2) leverage engagement from citizens and other stakeholders, and (3) develop and exchange best practices. This model will be built based on the Theory of Change, to ensure impact while keeping all actors committed, and use co-creation trajectories with civil society and stakeholders as trust catalysts, leading to a set of measures and principles for building trust. The model will be developed and finetuned via four biotech use cases chosen to cover different types of concerns and benefits. Mapping out the real and perceived risks and benefits of these technologies will lead to a comprehensive assessment of the technologies, laying the foundations for general trust-building. Lastly, a forum will be created to deploy trainings and keep stakeholders engaged and informed, allowing the model to be replicated and sustained for further research and development, policy making and funding schemes.

Agri-food industry generates nearly 50% of the average composition of global waste in form of organic residual stream. Current management practices for waste management, including landfilling as the worst option, have to be improved to fulfil the targets of the EU. Agri-food residual streams are a potential substitute of fossil-based resources and have an important added value if used as feedstock in for the BBI, but present a high complexity and variables mixture of molecules, which makes difficult its valorisation. For this reason, the integration of a deeper knowledge on composition, logistics and volume of various organic streams could support the decision-making process to maximise profit from a specific feedstock and to select the most appropriate technologies for its optimal valorisation . The main project objective is to develop and validate at a relevant environment, the MODEL2BIO Decision-Support System tool. This will be an innovative concept that using predictive models, will estimate i) the agri-food industry residual streams composition (considering the seasonality, territorial features and origin); ii) the best recommended ways for valorising it. These recommendations will be made under a holistic perspective (technical, economic, environmental and social), with the prioritisation of the valorisation possibilities through technical and economic criteria and the final decision through holistic criteria. This innovative tool is based on the interconnection of three complementary elements: Simulation module, Optimisation algorithm and the LCA module. MODEL2BIO consortium consist on a multidisciplinary team of 11 partners from 5 different countries, covering the whole value chain and containing RTDs, universities, SMEs and clusters, and the active involvement of 27 companies providing residual streams, production process data and validating the MODEL2BIO tool. MODEL2BIO Budget is 5.970.976,16€ and request 4.730.393,8€ for funding.

The aim of the project is to implement and demonstrate at large scale the long-term technological and economic feasibility of an innovative, sustainable and efficient solution for the treatment of high salinity wastewater from the F&D industry. Conventional wastewater treatments have proven ineffective for this kind of wastewater, as the bacterial processes typically used for the elimination of organic matter and nutrients are inhibited under high salinity contents. Therefore, generally combinations of biological and physicochemical methods are used which greatly increase the costs of the treatment, making it unaffordable for SMEs, who voluntarily decide not to comply with EU directives and discharge without prior treatment, causing severe damage to the environment. The solution of SALTGAE to this issue consists in the implementation of innovative technologies for each step of the wastewater treatment that will promote energy and resource efficiency, and reduce costs. Amongst these, the use of halotolerant algae/bacteria consortiums in HRAPs for the elimination of organic matter and nutrients stands out for its high added value: not only will it provide an effective and ecological solution for wastewater treatment, but also it will represent an innovative way of producing algal biomass, that will subsequently be valorized into different by-products, reducing the economic and environmental impact of the treatment. Moreover, the project will also address cross-cutting barriers to innovation related to wastewater by developing a platform for the mobilization and networking of stakeholders from all the different sectors related to wastewater, and for the dissemination of results, enabling the development of a common roadmap for the alignment of legislation, regulation and pricing methodologies and promoting financial investment and paradigm shift in perception from ‘wastewater treatment’ to ‘resource valorisation’.

The MANDALA project presents a sustainable solution for the plastic packaging sector which tackles 3 pillars: eco-design, dual functionality & end-of-life; with the aim to find a final solution based on multilayer monomaterial packaging with functionalities compared to multimaterial ones and fully produced with biobased & recycled polymers in order to reach a full circularity of resources. MANDALA will develop new adhesives with dual functionality (easy to split and barrier properties) by incorporating thermoreversible covalent bonds and radiation absorbing nanoparticles, which at the same time will generate a tortuous path enhancing barrier properties that are critical for end-user. In addition, new polymer blends with increased biobased and recycled content of film layers will be developed. Their combination in a multilayer product will set the basis for new food (meat, ready-to-eat) and pharma (pill blister) packaging products. MANDALA project will demonstrate that the de-lamination technology can be up-scaled and applied to reach intermediate solutions for multilayer/multimaterial packaging (being biobased or not) progressively helping to become the end-of-life more sustainable by recovering all fractions and providing clean streams for their biodegradation or recycling. MANDALA project will directly contribute to achieve KPI 1, KPI 2, KPI 6, KPI 8 and demonstrate the solution decreasing the end-of-life costs and CO2 emissions in more than a 30%. It will develop innovations in 3 KETS. MANDALA consortium involves 12 partners (4RTD, 5SME, 1SME cluster and 2 Large Companies) accounting 2 BIC full members and 2 associated. The 42-months project will comprise a total estimated budget of 4,573,892,5€ and requested funding of 3,650,921,75€. There is a strong engagement of the industry with 922,970,75€ in-kinds (20,2%) and 4,869,731€ in additional activities during the project (machine acquisition) and 3,820,000€ envisaged to upgrade TRL after the end of the project.