Call 2020
The #AnnualFoodAgenda
The #AnnualFoodAgenda events cover some of the food topics aligned with EIT Food Strategic objectives, to make sure that food is valued throughout society. This project encourages consumers to embark on a trustworthy food journey, in which they will better understand some topics such as healthy nutrition and food sustainability. The project aims not only to empower future generations of consumers, but to inspire them to consider careers which are food related. In 2020, the participation of new partners will allow an increase in the scope and resonance of the events in a larger area of Europe. The project’s main goal is to continue designing activities that encourage debate among academia, industry and consumers, so that we are able to gain the trust of consumers and convert them into active players as change agents. The project will target young people, families and food stakeholders.
Venture creation as part of food related trade and scientific events III
30 students from many study backgrounds and many countries come together to use their scientific expertise to come up with new concepts and products that will lead to sustainable utilisation of marine resources. During seven days participants are informed about marine innovation, food and graphic design, human nutrition in food systems as well as food and digital disruptions. They work in interdisciplinary teams, identifying problems, prototyping viable solutions with a validated value proposition and pitching their results in front of a panel of experts. Finally they present and pitch their ideas at an event/exhibition as a part of the Design March festival in Reykjavik.
The workshop is organised by the food and biotech institute Matis in Iceland, University of Cambridge, England and VTT the Technical Research Centre of Finland together with the Icelandic Academy of Arts and the Food Science and Nutrition Department of the University of Iceland with input from entrepreneurial companies in marine innovation in Iceland.
C-SNIPER: Campylobacter-Specific Nullification via Innovative Phage-mediated Enteropathogen Reduction
Consumption of poultry, especially chicken meat, is considered the most common route for human infection. Colonization of broiler chickens at farm level leads to transmission of Campylobacter along the production chain, resulting in contamination of poultry meat at retail level. Standard control measures at farm level rely upon the use of antibiotics, which promote the selection and spread of multidrug resistant strains, an additional threat to public health. This project aims to reduce the prevalence of Campylobacter in poultry through innovative, non-antibiotic based mitigation measures that can be integrated into existing hygiene protocols. Specifically, the use of bacteriophage-based strategies as natural antimicrobials in the farm (pre-harvest) and in slaughter and/or processing facilities (post-harvest) will reduce incidence of poultry-borne food poisoning without impacting on animal welfare.
Consumers and Environmental Safety: Food Packaging and Kitchenware
A course in the general field of food safety, intended for a general audience, consumers’ associations, and all interested subjects and groups. The course aims to build knowledge and raise awareness on chemical contaminants potentially present in food and drinks, derived from food-contact material, and their impact on consumers’ health and on the environment. A new field of nutritional health and medicinal chemistry is addressing the possibility that long-term exposure to very low doses of food-contact substances may have relevant endocrine-like activities that may interfere with the thyroid and sex hormones, and on the control of appetite and bodyweight. The course will illustrate the current knowledge on these issues, the cellular and biological test assays and the search and testing of new and safer materials. Finally, the course will mention possible scenario for the near future. In addition to a general audience, the course will also be of interest for students in chemistry and biology, as well as for personnel of the food manufacturing, conservation and distribution industry.
Optimization of bakery processes by a computational tool together with consumer feedback to minimize ecological footprint and food waste
Present machinery in bakeries is used to optimize the production process. The reduction of make span and idle time of machines, but also combinations thereof will lead to a higher economic and ecologic efficiency, thus, lower production costs for bakeries and lower climate change impact for society. The tool is developed using a flow-shop model, optimized by evolutionary algorithms, digital twins and artificial intelligence procedures. Adaptation to consumers’ preferences will minimize food waste, hence, ecological footprint in bakeries, and lead to further optimization of the baking process, product range and amount. Consumers’ demands and expectations related to e.g. weather or holidays, and their acceptance of changes in product availability will play a big role in the analysis.
In the end, a computational application will help SME bakeries as users to adapt their production planning and processes to best practice. Subsequently, its potential in practical application will be examined and its impact broadened to the rest of Europe and beyond. Dissemination through technology transfer to users by involving professionals, students and learning videos will be performed. The product will be commercialized in the end to make it possible for bakeries to adapt to the truly needed amount and product range with optimized baking schedules to reduce energy consumption.
SUDAPS : Support for Dairy Production Sector in RIS Region
The aim of the project is to support the regional development and to provide solutions to sustainable dairy industry, addressing farmers in diary production, feed manufacturers, advisers, and employees in milk and dairy factories, as well as managers responsible for the strategy and profitability of milk production in all RIS-eligible regions. The project seeks to highlight at the national and international level the current challenges, pathways and solutions related to this sector through knowledge transfer activities.
These will focus on the topics of: improvement of competitiveness by implementation of innovations, building a trend-driven entrepreneur culture, encouraging the use of available local resources, and sustainable management of post-production waste in milk by farming. 4 pilot SME workshops will be held in Poland and Italy. The exact scope of the workshops will be based on the surveys of needs and challenges conducted among the target SMEs operating on the market. Qualified specialists from partner institutions will be involved to share best practices, latest scientific evidence, and market-driven experiences.
The V-PLACE: Enabling consumer choice in vegan or vegetarian food products
For many consumers wanting to replace products of animal origin partly or completely, the search for the right information including the avoidance of nutritional deficits is a challenge. Integrated into FoodUnfolded, the V-PLACE web portal will bring this information together empowering consumer choices in an easily accessible and consumer centric platform. Consumers can select their preferred diet (omnivore, flexitarian, pescatarian, vegetarian, or vegan) and will receive tailored information in an easy and understandable way. An engaging and informative app with games and quizzes will complement the V-PLACE and present health and environmental benefits. In the market for food products, significant growth is predicted via mass-market substitutions rather than expansion of niche products. There is an identified need to research and actualize the knowledge about consumer expectations, attitudes, and needs to adopt current strategies accordingly. V-Place looks at the interplay of product properties, expectations, and communication on vegan and vegetarian food products in consumer studies including ingredients and health properties (perceived and expected). Results and data will continuously feed into the V-PLACE web portal on EIT FoodUnfolded – thereby making it a living knowledge hub also after the project has ended.
Growing Consciousness: RIS Challenge project aimed at revitalizing agro-food chains in rural areas through sustainable innovation
The objective of the project is to produce a set of activities (summer schools, focus groups, professional workshops, stakeholders and community meetings, business creation support), which will foster skills, techniques and know-how aimed at revitalizing the cultivation of ancient/almost vanished varieties of cereals, medicinal plants and aromatic herbs in rural areas across RIS countries in Southern and Eastern Europe in a sustainable way. The activity aims at bringing knowledge about sustainable innovative farming techniques as well as on innovative tools and machinery for agriculture digitalization and production yield increase, from EIT Food partners companies and Rising Food Stars to agro-food sector professionals in RIS countries.
The Classroom as a Platform for Community Engagement with Food Production and Science
This is a collaborative multidisciplinary research project that centered around student-led research into the origins of their commonly consumed industrialized food items (e.g., breakfast cereals, yogurts, snacks, etc.). In a multiple stage class project, students in middle school (aged 13-16) will learn about the history of industrial food production (in collaboration with food engineering researchers and with materials, e.g. info-graphics, developed by EUFIC) and develop a survey to learn about commonly used food products in their community. Then, in small groups, each group will focus on one popular item as they investigate how it is manufactured, what are the different ingredients, and how could they be manufactured in a healthier way. Their final project will include a public campaign to disseminate their finding to engage the food industry and their community. This process will be done simultaneously in the two participating countries (Poland and Israel), and at the end students will connect with students enabling them to compare with commonly consumed foods in the different countries involved in the project. The results of students’ inquiry will be shared using a social media tool kit and templates (e.g. on for the school’s websites and newsletters) developed by EUFIC.
Call 2019
CHAMPP: Contemporary challenges and issues of the poultry production sector
The aim of the SME workshops is to identify contemporary challenges and solutions in poultry industry dedicated to feed manufacturers, advisors, farmers and employees in poultry factories, as well as managers responsible for the strategy and profitability of fodder and poultry production, all from RIS-eligible regions. There is a need to highlight at the national and international level current challenges in this sector by providing support to SMEs through knowledge transfer in e.g. improvement of competitiveness, building a trend-driven culture, creation of high quality products adjusted to consumer needs, promoting health-oriented products and encouraging to use available local resources. The qualified specialists from Germany, Poland, Italy, United Kingdom and the Netherlands will be invited to share knowledge during SME workshops, which will be held in RIS regions of Poland, Lithuania, Italy and Hungary.
Campylobacteriosis is the most frequently reported food-borne illness in the EU. Consumption of poultry, especially chicken meat, is considered the most common route for human infection. Colonization of broiler chickens at farm level leads to transmission of Campylobacter along the production chain, resulting in contamination of poultry meat at retail level. Standard control measures at farm level rely upon the use of antibiotics, which promote the selection and spread of multidrug resistant strains, an additional threat to public health. This project aims to reduce the prevalence of Campylobacter in poultry through innovative, non-antibiotic based mitigation measures that can be integrated into existing hygiene protocols. Specifically, the use of bacteriophage-based strategies as natural antimicrobials in the farm (pre-harvest) and in slaughter and/or processing facilities (post-harvest) will reduce incidence of poultry-borne food poisoning without impacting on animal welfare.
#AnnualFoodAgenda
The project engages consumers, encouraging them to think about the food they eat and involving the entire value chain. An agenda of interactive events will be co-developed by the activity partners, deploying dissemination activities in different European regions to achieve broad resonance and topic coverage aligned to the EIT Food’s objectives. These interactive events will inspire large numbers of people to dive in food topics, targeting the general public, with particular focus on the younger population, food producers and food stakeholders. The agenda includes a variety of activities such as interactive exhibitions, scientific cafes and hands-on activities marquees. Activities are designed to inspire debate and to foster dialogue between experts and consumers, using dynamics of co-creation to encourage exchange among academia, industry, producers and consumers in every-day environments.For broader impact and engagement, some events are programed in singular locations in UK and Spain.
Venture creation as part of food related trade and scientific events II
Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research in Olsztyn (IARFR) Poland, Matis ohf in Iceland, VTT in Finland and University of Cambridge, England will run a venture creation workshop connected to XXIV Session of Young Scientific Staff and VII International Session for Young Researchers in Olsztyn Poland in June 2019. The participants will learn the art of creation by building and testing their own strategy instead of listening to theory as well as the opportunity to find others to launch a start up with. It will address the needs of students from RIS countries. The proposed action addresses the challenge of improving entrepreneurial culture, gaps in talents and skills of university graduates as well as well as insufficient adoption of emerging technologies. There is an opportunity to get more impact out of food related scientific events by linking them to “Venturing Schools”
SME Workshop: Supporting SMEs for new business opportunities
The main objectives of the SME workshops are an innovation process around “sustainable food production” to identify challenges and solutions in an accelerated innovation process building on the experiences of a previous project. The first step is a creative problem-solving process to identify the challenges and needs of SMEs related to sustainable food production in Europe. The second step will identify trends as growth opportunities and apply the new knowledge to create innovative solutions, discover niche markets, promote innovation ecosystems (networks), and improve competitiveness. In the final step, “knowledge transfer”, 6 SME workshops will be held in Germany, Spain, Poland, UK, Finland and Italy. Lectures are combined with creative activities that yield the intended outcome and match the objectives: to create new business opportunities for food SMEs in an inspiring, stimulating and accelerated way. Additionally, job brokerage for students will be included
EIT Food RIS Solutions
EIT Food RIS Solutions is aimed at engaging students groups with multi-disciplinary backgrounds, from RIS countries and of all educational levels, to work jointly on problem cases responding to agri-food challenges in RIS countries. Developing industrially relevant solutions for a period of 4 months students will be supported in their activities by both academics and professionals and will also receive coaching and mentoring services about IPR issues. Selected students groups will present the results of their activities (i.e. a food prototype, a new solution, a business model) in „Food Marathon – Foodhatons”. The Foodhaton will enable students to improve proposed food solutions through learning-by-doing activities, intensive collaboration with peers and consultations with main stakeholders/users. Two Foodhatons will be organized in 2019 and they will serve as a catalyst for the creation of sustainable and tangible solutions to real challenges by innovative and talented students.
Call 2018
Massive Online Open Courses – Superfoods: myths and truths
Drawing from the fields of biology, cognitive sciences and nutritional sciences this MOOC aims to discuss superfoods from multiple perspectives, including communication and marketing aspects, the real dietary value of, biological and metabolic aspects of superfoods consumption (positive and negative) and how regular foods are viewed in comparison to superfoods. The course will give its viewers useful information and actionable advice in order to raise awareness about food trends and myths associated with them.
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/superfoods-myths-and-truths
Massive Online Open Courses – Food for thought: the interaction between food and brain
This MOOC will discuss the psychological, unconscious and neurobiological factors underlying food choices as well as focus on the effects of eating disorders and some diets on the brain. The courses underpinned by the findings of biology, psychology, neurosciences and nutritional sciences will familiarize the students with research-based facts about the food they eat as well as with the strategies to improve their everyday diet routines.
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/food-for-thought
SME Workshop: Supporting SMEs for new business opportunities
The main objective of this SME workshop is a trend-driven innovation process around “sustainable food production”, to identify challenges and create solutions in an accelerate innovation process. The first step will involve identifying SMEs challenges and needs related to “sustainable food production” in Europe. The second step will be to determine and study trends related with the challenge as growth opportunities, and apply this knowledge to create innovative solutions, discover niche markets, promote innovation ecosystems and improve competitiveness. Finally, as a part of knowledge transfer approach, 4 SME workshops will be held in Poland, Germany, Spain and UK.
YOUR FORK2FARM – Increasing nutritional value (bio-stimulated) of selected performant tomato varieties to be cultivated in areas with temperate climate
The major objectives of this project are to look for, evaluate, and select processing tomato cultivars best adapted to RIS northern countries. Multiple trials will be developed to study physiological and agronomical performance under a wide range of growing conditions, with an improved eco-footprint. To increase the nutritional value of processed tomato, new biostimulants which increase mineral bioavailability for humans, will be developed.
ZERO WASTE AGENDA – INNOPOULTRY. The poultry food chain: tackling old problems with innovative approaches
The aim of this project is to test and to promote solutions for the poultry industry in Italy, Poland and Spain in the area of safety risks for public health. Innovative ingredients (insects and fruit pomace) and new feeding strategies (probiotics) will be used to allow sustainable productions, to reduce pathogens and antibiotic resistance in the gastrointestinal tract resulting in an improvement of animal welfare and of the safety and the quality of poultry meat. Breeders and consumers will have a central role to define the applicability and the acceptability of such approaches, respectively. The project will improve innovativeness for multiple stakeholders through engagement in learning processes, participation in supply chains, and benefiting from diffusion of technologies and knowledge developed in this project.
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