Novel sensor technology and automation for improved quality and process control

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Today's markets demand that the food industries improve the efficiency of production while maintaining or amending product quality. Also modern consumers are more critical and ask for full exploitation of raw materials in order to minimize production wast e. In order to obtain target quality, reduce production waste and increase efficiency by automation, a thorough characterization of raw materials followed by differentiation prior to production is required. To perform a full scale raw material characteriz ation, rapid in-/at-line methods for industrial use are needed. Technology development for new processing strategies is necessary to meet the new and future market trends. Wider diversification of products demands new technology for efficient and automate d processing. Focus will be on integrated systems for automation involving robots, and intelligent sensing and detection. The present project addresses these industrial needs for process control tools, which can optimize the use of raw materials, improve logistics, increase profitability and reduce waste. It is a highly multidisciplinary undertaking involving top level sensor technology research, applied spectroscopy, food raw material know-how and modern data modelling in order to enable rapid and non-de structive assessment of critical food quality attributes throughout the processing lines. Novel and potentially very low-cost instruments for FT-IR and near-infrared spectroscopy will be developed based on state-of-the-art Norwegian technology. Such instr uments will greatly lower the threshold for food companies to take advantage of these effective control measurements, which in turn will strengthen the social and environmental impacts of the project results and findings. The project will focus on importa nt foods and key processes regarding milk, meat, salmon and herring. The developed methodology will have generic value and applicability within all food sectors. The project is intended to spark long-term innovative future collaboration between the resear ch communities and the food industry.