Food production significantly contributes to climate changes. In addition, one-third of the food is wasted or lost! Up4Food will focus on side-streams from large European value chains, i.e. potato, oil seed and pelagic fish value chains. Up4food will build knowledge to improve the food resource utilization by using a system approach meaning that the project partners (from Ireland, France, Romania, Poland and Norway), will work together with food actors and citizens to design food concepts, create technological solutions and develop sustainability assessments fit for these side-streams. Up4Food will use environmentally friendly technologies to collect ingredients from the side-streams and investigate technological, nutritional and safety aspects as well as sustainability aspects of implementing these ingredients into different food concepts. Up4Food will gain increased insight on challenges and possibilities of new ingredients in the food industry. Through engagement of end users Up4Food will obtain consumer insight on perceptions and acceptability. To build knowledge Up4Food will use new methodology and visualization tools in collaboration and communication with food actors and citizens. Overall, Up4Food aims to enable new opportunities for food actors for further development of a wider range of healthy and sustainable food products and concepts in the European market and thereby positively impact health of Europeans. Up4Food will make European food actors and researchers more qualified also to further participate in complex projects aiming to solve future food security by improved resource utilization. Ultimately, Up4Food will contributing to equip food actors and citizens with tools and attitudes to meet the necessary dietary shift for a more sustainable future.
Up4Food will build knowledge to improve food resource utilization by using a system approach to upcycle processing side-streams from three selected value chains in Europe (potatoes, oil seeds and pelagic fish). The project consortium comprises researchers with different expertise from 5 countries and will co-create with stakeholders in the food system and citizens to design new value chains and food concepts and make toolboxes on technological solutions, sustainability and life cycle assessments fit for upcycling of side-streams and co-creation methodology. Up4Food will use green novel technologies to extract and refine nutritive and functional ingredients from the side-streams and investigate technological, nutritional and safety aspects of implementing these ingredients into different food concepts. Up4Food will gain increased insight on barriers and possibilities and reflectively increase the applicability of novel ingredients in the food industry. Through engagement of end users Up4Food will obtain consumer insight on perceptions and acceptability. All ingredients and food concepts will be developed with emphasis on sustainability aspects and evaluated by life cycle assessments and material flow analyses. Further, this building of knowledge needs an innovative approach using innovation methodology and visualisation tools in the multi-actor co-creation and communication. Up4Food aims to enable new opportunities for food actors for further development of a wider range of healthy and sustainable food products and concepts in the European market and positively impact health of Europeans. Up4Food will make European food actors and researchers more qualified to initiate and engage in complex food system projects aiming to solve future food security by improved resource utilization. Ultimately, Up4Food will contributing to equip food actors and citizens the necessary tools and attitudes to meet the necessary dietary shift.