The EU28 imports 77% of the protein it requires, for food or feed, representing an important vulnerability for our economy, risking our self-sufficiency and food security. GreenProtein aims at a major innovation by producing high-added value, food-grade and fully functional proteins and other ingredients, out of vegetal residues mainly from sugar beet. The main outcome will be the valorisation of 4,000 tons of agricultural residue /yearly into a high quality dried RuBisCo powder ready to enter into food industry production chains as an alternative of the widely extended egg white preparations or whey protein. We are the first team worldwide, covering the whole food chain, to design an extraction system of functional RuBisCO. The project will design and implement specific equipment to establish a demonstration plant with capacity of 1,500 kg/hour of vegetal residue input, rendering 28 Kg of dry RuBisCO and 82 Kg of dry dietary fibre (25-30% dry matter). The obtained protein has top valuable functionalities required in food industry, such as gelling, foaming or emulsifying. The outcomes have excellent market projection due to their application in growing consumer needs like high-protein foodstuff, vegan, halal, etc. Establishing this DEMO plant will allow fine-tuning the extraction process at industrial scale in order to define the optimal conditions for industrial manufacture. It will be built in a compact design, ready to be “plugged” to the production line, an easily replicable system with a high spreading projection in whole EU.

The overall aim of the REFRESH project is to contribute significantly towards the objective of reducing food waste across the EU by 30% by 2025 (which amounts to between 25 to 40 million tonnes of food not being wasted in 2025[1], worth tens of billions of Euros a year) and maximizing the value from unavoidable food waste and packaging materials. To achieve this ambitious goal, we will adopt a systemic approach and use cutting edge science to enable action by businesses, consumers and public authorities. A central ambition of the REFRESH project is to develop a ‘Framework for Action’ model that is based on strategic agreements across all stages of the supply chain (backed by Governments), delivered through collaborative working and supported by evidence-based tools to allow targeted, cost effective interventions. Success will support transformation towards a more sustainable and secure EU food system, benefitting Europe’s economy, environment and society.

PROVALOR is a highly innovative Dutch SME dedicated to the development of functional foods located in Hoofddorp (The Netherlands) and employing 15 people. Since 1998 we have been working in processing food wastes, particularly from vegetable remnants and obtaining functional ingredients for human consumption. Our strategy focuses in obtaining high-value ingredients, and we have a vast know-how in this field having released to the market several successful products such as foodfibers refined from vegetables, a meat substitute made exclusively from vegetables (first without soja), and juices refined from vegetable remnants. We have obtained a functional extract from fermented vegetable remnants through our ad-hoc exclusive methodology. When included as a functional ingredient in pig feed in an amount of 0.02-0.05%, it promotes agglutination of hazardous bacteria in the pig’s gut, allowing them to get expelled with the faeces, minimising illnesses and reducing the necessity of the use of antibiotics. Antibiotics are a key tool against infectious bacterial diseases. The use of sub-therapeutic doses of antibiotics in food-animal feeds (growth promoters) has been a very common practice to prevent animals from diseases and to improve production performance in intensive animal husbandry, but this practice has been banned since 2006. This problem is a big issue, in the EU and worldwide, and great effort is being put to find viable alternatives. Actually there is a recently constituted Focus Group within EIP-AGRI, dedicated to “Reducing antibiotic use in pig farming”. They encourage to “further examine use of plant-based pig feed additives”. We have obtained an effective solution in this line, and considering an average content of 0,04% of PLANTIBIOTICS there is a potential market for 20.000tn yearly only in the EU.