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Issue 5 2010 / 5 November 2010 / Lilia Ahrné, Director of Department Process and Technology
Development, SIK and Ariette Matser, Senior Scientist Novel Processing, Wageningen UR, Food & Biobased Research
One of the goals of NovelQ is to facilitate and speed up industrial exploitation of novel technologies by carrying out extensive demonstration activities with real food products and industrial equipment in close collaboration with the food industry. A variety of activities have been undertaken during the lifetime of NovelQ demonstrating the advantages of novel processing and advanced heating with respect to product quality and shelf-life (Figure 1). (more…)
Issue 5 2010 / 4 November 2010 / Ariette Matser & Hennie Mastwijk, Wageningen UR and Diána Bánáti, Director General, Central Food Research Institute and Liesbeth Vervoort & Marc Hendrickx, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
The overall objective of the EU FP6 NovelQ Integrated Project was to formulate strategic solutions for technical and basic research hurdles to enhance the development and successful demonstration of Novel Processing (NP) schemes. A parallel approach was chosen based on providing a sound scientific base and technology transfer.
The first approach has generated new insights for mechanistic and kinetic aspects on the impact of novel technologies on food safety and quality as a basis for process and product development. The second has led to integrated product and process development, and demonstration trajectories. It has also resulted in enhanced implementation of NP. (more…)
Issue 5 2010 / 4 November 2010 / Ulf Sonesson, Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology (SIK)
Food is indispensible to humans. Aside from the provision of energy and nutrients, it contributes to a range of important aspects of human life such as pleasure, cultural identity and heritage. At the same time, food accounts for a significant global share of total environmental impact and resource use. It is difficult to accurately quantify this impact, but estimates show that food chains globally account for 25 – 30 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions and energy use, and food production occupies most of the available arable land. Agriculture is also the single largest user of water and has a tremendous impact on biodiversity. (more…)
Issue 5 2010 / 4 November 2010 / Nathalie Gontard, Valérie Guillard, Miguel Mauricio Iglesias, Stéphane Peyron & Sana Raouche
Joint Research Unit Agropolymers Engineering
and Emerging Technologies – UMR 1208 Montpellier
SupAgro, INRA and Salvatore Iannace, Institute of Composite and Biomedical Materials, National Research Council of Italy and Giuseppe Mensitieri & Ernesto Di Maio, Dept. of Materials and Production Engineering, University of Naples Federico II
In the last few years, the fast development of novel processing methods for food preservation to improve safety, quality and shelf life of packaged foods gave place to important gaps of knowledge that must be filled in the area of suitable packaging materials. In particular, in the European Project NovelQ (more…)
Issue 5 2010 / 4 November 2010 / Edyta Margas & John Holah, Campden BRI and Alexander Milanov & Lilia Ahrné, SIK
The hygienic design of food processing equipment is a critical factor in determining the quality and safety of foods produced. It involves the selection of suitable materials of construction, their fabrication into a functional piece of equipment, the ability of constructed equipment to produce food hygienically and the maintenance of hygienic conditions throughout the equipment’s working life. There is a significant amount of guidance and information available on the principles of hygienic design for traditional food processing equipment (from the European Hygienic Engineering Design Group; www.EHEDG.org), but the nature of NP techniques such as High Pressure Processing (HPP) and Pulsed Electric Field (PEF) may impose other additional stresses on the equipment surfaces, their construction materials and their fabrication. (more…)
Issue 5 2010 / 4 November 2010 / Ariette Matser & Hennie Mastwijk, Wageningen UR and Milan Houška, Food Research Institute Prague
The implementation of a novel processing technology needs a science-based approach where product benefits initially demonstrated in a laboratory environment and the associated risks are used to predict enhanced quality when the technology is used in large-scale industrial operation. We discuss four novel technologies business cases developed for food application moving from laboratory to industrial-scale application. (more…)
Issue 5 2010 / 4 November 2010 / Anders Pettersson, SlK and John O. Gray, IIT
Food production constitutes the largest European manufacturing sector, employing some four million people and generating an annual turnover of approximately EUR 850 billion of which EUR 50 billion products are exported. The sector is unusual in that a large percentage of its output still depends on manual operations; a situation that is probably due to the way the industry has evolved over previous decades and the fact that a vast number of companies in the sector are SMEs where the take up of automation has been relatively slow throughout the European arena. (more…)
Issue 5 2010 / 4 November 2010 / Ariette Matser, Miriam Quataert, Remco Hamoen and Huug de Vries, Wageningen UR, Food & Biobased Research
In past years, it has become clear that the variety and complexity of novel processing methods is a major bottleneck for companies in deciding where to invest. Even though the pros and cons of technologies have been highlighted in various books (HPP, PEF-books, EME etc.), the most appropriate technologies for specific applications often have not been compared directly. Thus, NovelQ has created a decision support tool for companies.
By answering a short list of specific questions, a potential user (e.g. a food manufacturer) can easily evaluate whether a technology is relevant for their products and if implementation is economically feasible. (more…)
Issue 5 2010 / 4 November 2010 / Huug de Vries, Project Coordinator, NovelQ and Huub Lelieveld
Executive Committee, Global Harmonisation Initiative
On 18 February 2010, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn – the new Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science – gave a speech at the American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union. Mrs Geoghegan-Quinn made two striking remarks:
“My job title covers research, innovation and science. I am glad that President Barroso decided to connect up these different areas. While science and research creates a pool of ideas, innovation policy must bring these ideas to the market. So, it makes sense to link them. In fact, I am the first ever European Commissioner for Innovation – a clear sign of its growing importance for our jobs and growth and our society.” (more…)
Issue 5 2010 / 4 November 2010 / Dr Jürgen Lucas, European Commission Project Officer for NovelQ
In May 2010, we interviewed the European Commission Project Officer for NovelQ, Dr Jürgen Lucas. Dr Jürgen Lucas works at Directorate-General Research, Directorate E – Biotechnologies, Agriculture and Food, Unit E.3 – Food, Health and Well-being in Brussels. We asked about European Commission activities, project opportunities in the food processing area and about the added-value for an industry partner in participation in a European project. The interviewers underline the new approach of the EC towards industry, in particular SMEs. (more…)
Issue 5 2010 / 4 November 2010 / Floor Boon, TNO and Nicolas Meneses & Dietrich Knorr, Technische Universität Berlin
Shelf life is defined as the period during which a product is acceptable for human consumption. Products are spoiled by microbial, chemical and physical processes. Shelf life is determined by the raw material quality, product formulation, processing, packaging and storage conditions. Processes that determine shelf life can be described using mathematical models, which can be used to predict shelf life or determine preservation conditions to achieve a desired shelf life. In this article, a predictive shelf life model for orange juice treated by high pressure (HP) and pulsed electric field (PEF) processing is described. Shelf life is based on microbial and enzymatic spoilage. (more…)
Featured news, News / 8 September 2010 / Wageningen University & Research centre
NovelQ shares its results with the industry on 5 and 6 October in Wageningen. The EU-funded project is exploring novel processing technologies for foods.
35 partners from across Europe have spent the last five years translating scientific insights into applications in the field of novel processing and packaging for high-quality and safe foods. Some of the technologies, such as high-pressure pasteurisation, are already being used by many companies. (more…)
Issue 3 2010, Past issues / 30 June 2010 / Huug de Vries, Project Coordinator, NovelQ
New Food editor Helen Difford spoke with NovelQ Project Coordinator Huug de Vries about the EU-funded integrated project. After five years, the project is drawing to a close and our October issue of New Food will incorporate the NovelQ project findings and what it means for the industry.
Huug, can you give some examples of applications of novel processing technologies?
“High pressure for pasteurisation applications has now being widely implemented for fruit juices, ham, seafood, tapas, etc. Also, the first pulsed electrical field equipment is available for pasteurisation of liquids and for extraction purposes. A first demonstrator for cold plasma disinfection is on the market. (more…)
Issue 2 2010 / 12 May 2010 / Nina Veflen Olsen (Nofima Mat) and Anne-Mette Sonne (MAPP)
New products and processing techniques are continuously being developed within the food industry. While food scientists may focus on the technical novelty and applaud the progress of science, consumers are often more conservative and sceptical about changes. From earlier experiences with gene modification and irradiation, we have learnt that advantages that new processing technologies offer do not guarantee the success of a product in the market place. Consumer acceptance depends on whether they perceive specific benefits associated with the product,1,2 which means identifying factors that influence consumer acceptance is important.
Within NovelQ (see www.novelQ.org for more information), consumer acceptance of novel foods has been investigated. Conventional processing techniques such as pasteurisation lose the fresh characteristics associated with the raw ingredients of plant origin (taste, aroma, texture, healthy ingredients). New treatments, which extend shelf-life without compromising these attributes, are therefore desirable. Two such treatments are High Pressure Processing (HPP) and Pulsed Electric Fields (PEF). Whether consumers will accept food processed using these novel technologies has been investigated within NovelQ. Consumers’ acceptance of apple juice treated with PEF and HPP was compared with their view of pasteurised and fresh apple juices in four European countries: Norway, Denmark, Hungary and Slovakia, using three methods: 1) focus group analysis, 2) MEC-analysis and 3) Conjoint analysis. (more…)
Issue 4 2007 / 16 November 2007 / Huug De Vries, Project Co-ordinator, NovelQ
The European Commission’s (EC) strategy in the past ten years has been changed from stimulating and supporting scientific projects in specific research areas towards more integrated research projects. The term ‘integrated’ refers to multi-disciplinary approaches to address and find answers for complex research questions. In 2000, the definition of the Lisbon Agenda – focused on three per cent innovation rates in Europe, thereby increasing the European competitiveness – has added another dimension, namely a new balance in supporting basic science up to applied research and demonstrations with the goal to achieve successful market implementations of scientific findings[1].
As a next step, the concept of European Technology Platforms has been launched. Here, the industry has been asked to take the lead in defining the European R&D agenda for the area in which they are active. Recently, the concept for the European Institute of Technology (the EU version of MIT in Boston, USA) has been presented. Strong footholds – either as virtual networks or physical centres – should arise that further strengthen innovations in Europe. The recently published EC Green Paper “European Research Area: New Perspectives” provides information for debates on joining forces in Europe. (more…)
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