The risk of mycotoxins is a global issue that represents a serious risk for human and animal health. Οchratoxin A (OTA) is a very toxic mycotoxin that constitutes a severe problem for viticulture and taking into account the extreme climatic events that are frequently faced in recent years, the OTA problem is arising in wine and raisins/currants. OchraVine Control project will offer an inexistent innovative, sustainable and integrated smart ICT solution (OchraVine Control DSS) considering fungal, host and environmental indicators that affect OTA contamination along the vine grape-wine value chain. The OchraVine Control DSS will allow prediction and monitoring at pre- and post-harvest level to control Aspergillus infection and OTA contamination in vine cultivation by combining epidemiological data, biological and chemical management strategies, post-havrest technologies and precision agriculture tools. OchraVine Control DSS solution will pursue a field-to-fork approach and will link and translate the information derived from the OchraRisk and OchraDetect predictive map tools and real data obtained during the monitoring controls by the OchraSensor. OchraVine Control DSS tool will be placed in an open access web platform and in combination with data from the OchraRed Integrated Management Strategy will provide risk prediction information (i.e. geographic OTA vine alerts), practical recommended solutions for OTA management and will verify the compliance with legislation requirements in a rapid and cost-effective way. The project will have a multi-actor international approach involving 3 RTDs and 5 SMEs that will exchange skills and knowledge and will all have a vital role in the design of the solutions, implementation, testing, dissemination, communication and economic exploitation.

Maintaining a healthy diet requires sufficient consumption of fruits and vegetables. However, nowadays, the fast pace of modern lifestyle discourages individuals from reaching their optimal daily intake via consumption of fresh fruits/vegetables, ultimately creating an increasing demand for natural, nutritive, healthy and personalized ready-to-eat snacks. It is also an accepted actuality that there is a lack of healthy food snacks for personalized nutrition in the market. Hence, the development of such products, which can also be tailor-made to the needs of specific groups (young children, elderly, diabetic, sportive etc.), is a long-awaiting innovation. FRIETS project aims in training crossdisciplinary scientists from 5 European countries, in collaboration with international SMEs, for the development and marketization of personalized, nutritious and innovative, soft fruit smart snacks that contain no added sugar, sodium or chemical preservatives, as a palatable way to increase daily fruit consumption. FRIETS smart snacks will include novel processed berries (strawberry, raspberry and blackberry) with superior quality and nutritional characteristics, as well as extended shelf-life. Pre-harvest management practices will be optimized for cultivating high-quality berries. Low impact post-harvest technologies will be developed and optimised including (1) mild and energy efficient drying techniques (e.g. osmotic dehydration, freeze drying, microwave vacuum drying or their combination) using limited or no sugar or salt, and low temperatures, (2) composite or multi-layered edible coatings, based on micro- and macro-algae components, including encapsulated or non-encapsulated natural functional ingredients. Life Cycle Analysis and socio-techno-economic analysis will be implemented for the sustainable development of new products. FRIETS implementation will be based on staff secondments, strengthening collaborative research among different countries and sectors.

“KATANA - Emerging industries as key enablers for the adoption of advanced technologies in the agrifood sector" supports European SMEs in the agrifood value chain to simultaneously access knowledge, technology, capital and markets in order to respond to the global competitive environment. KATANA aims to provide this access to companies by leveraging upon the multiplier potential of cross-border/cross-sectoral collaboration and the systemic approach which homogenizes services towards the overall aim to place new products/ services in the market. KATANA proposes a systemic approach by combining (i) an innovative selection and funding scheme based on peer to peer evaluation and crowdfunding; (ii) a holistic portfolio of support services covering the entire KATANA lifecycle and (iii) three large scale demonstrators capitalizing upon emerging industries (eco-industries, mobile services and personalized health). KATANA is a cluster-driven project, bringing together 7 active clusters of SMEs from all over Europe (from Scandinavia to Mediterranean and Balkans) covering the entire ecosystem, namely agriculture, food production and ICT/ emerging industries. At the same time a diverse and strong presence of five SMEs – technology providers within the consortium will guarantee that the technological infrastructure for the large scale demonstrators will be delivered by actors who understand the needs of the community. The innovative selection method and the corresponding algorithms will be provided by an RTD organization with long experience in organizing and running Open Calls and competitions for SMEs.

The main objective of YPACK is the pre-industrial scale up and validation of two innovative food packaging solutions (thermoformed tray and flow pack bag) based on PHA, with active and passive barrier properties. New packaging will use food industry by-products (cheese whey and almond shells), assure the biodegradability and recyclability, and reduce food waste, in the frame of the EU Circular Economy strategy. YPACK will use a holistic approach and methodology involving different knowledge areas: Development of packaging solutions (Production of PHBV layers, compounding, prototyping, Industrial Validation), Product Validation (Quality / Shelf life), Social approach (Customer profiling, Dissemination, Policies & Regulatory) and Market Assessment (Business study and Risk assessment). YPACK is aligned with the EU Circular Economy strategy, including the use of raw bio-based food industry by-products, LCA studies, recyclability & biodegradability of packaging and trying to reduce Food Waste. The project is constructed in line with the Responsible Research and Innovation guidelines of the European Commission. The project has a total duration of 36 months. Several processes related to the production of multilayered passive and active systems based on raw PHBV will be optimised and scaled up to pre-industrial size to validate the production of the proposed packaging solutions for extend the shelf life of selected food products. They consist in: i) a multilayer tray involving an inner active layer, and ii) a multilayer flow pack with improved barrier properties. A consumer profiling and market study will be performed at the first stage of the project in order to identify consumers´ preferences, market needs and match them with the new EU regulations and packaging materials breakthroughs.

VOLATILE aims in the development of an innovative Volatile Fatty Acids Platform for the bioconversion of municipal solid bio-waste fraction and sludgy biowaste from other industries. The platform will be integrated in anaerobic digestion. The volatile fatty acids will be recovered continuously using sophisticated membrane technology and will be provided as feedstock / carbon source for value added fermentation approaches such as biopolymer PHA to be tested in material applications, single cell oil as precursor for oleochemical industry as well as long chain unsaturated health-promoting Omega-3 fatty acids to be used as food ingredient or nutraceutical. PHA will be obtained by bacterial fermentations, single cell oil from yeast cultivation and Omega-3 fatty acids via heterotrophic microalgae. The process development will be accompanied with sophisticated LCA study in order to ensure environmental friendly process design. The project will also work on solutions to typical barriers beside others such as quality requirements, continuous and sufficient feedstock supply or interaction between members of value chain using agent-based modelling. Also the effect of legal stimuli and restrictions and subsidies and taxes will be studied and a link between product requirements and markets will be established. VOLATILE will prepare a Roadmap indicating future research needs but also giving suggestion for legislative improvements. A CEN workshop will be initiated to discuss with external stakeholders rules for the VFAP & to set up standard requirements in the form of a CEN workshop Agreement.