FDBusiness.com

Resource efficiency can represent an economic opportunity for the food sector with the help of innovative research that takes into account the environmental impact of a food item from its production through to its processing and its eventual disposal.

The European Union funded project RESFOOD  has shown that water to irrigate large-scale crops can be reused by farmers if fertilizers can be efficiently removed from drain water and made available to the industry; new tools for pathogens monitoring and decontamination methods of fresh food can be integrated with water savings techniques so as to produce healthier and more marketable food; food waste can be limited if integrated solutions are applied and valuable components can be extracted from waste products during each stage of the agro processing.

The results of the RESFOOD measures and technologies are tangible: water and energy use reduced by more than 50%, safer detection techniques of bacteria that permit the adoption of methods alternative to chlorine for fresh vegetable washing; more efficient and environment-friendly extraction techniques for bio waste.

These solutions have been tested in real case scenarios and represent an opportunity of exploitation for the European food industry, especially SME’s in the water treatment sector and companies in the biomass market.

Applicability and cost-effectiveness of these tools will be presented in Brussels, on October the 27^th, 2015, in the framework of an international conference organised by the RESFOOD project, jointly with the Food for Life and the Water Supply and Sanitation European technology platforms.

The conference will include an information and brokerage session addressing the upcoming Horizon 2020 call for project proposals on food security and sustainable agriculture with the aim to present a number of project ideas and further develop the RESFOOD research.