REPRO
There is great pressure from consumers and legislation (e.g. EC Landfill Directive) for food processors to reduce disposal of co-product wastes, which are biologically complex, environmentally unfriendly, and often microbiologically unstable.
Within this framework, REPRO is a STREP project funded by the 6FP Food Quality and Safety priority of DG Research addressing advanced methods to enable total transformation of food-processing-derived plant-based organic waste co-products [vegetable trimmings and brewers’ spent grain] into high and medium added value food, feed and pharmaceutical products such as biopolymers, phytochemicals, nutrients and micronutrients.
REPRO aims to develop advanced methods to recycle and upgrade food-processing organic waste co-products (by-products) into high added value food and feed products.
REPRO will develop cost-effective and safe integrated methods by targeting two high-volume waste co-products which have had relatively little research: Spent grain (barley residues from the brewing industry) and vegetable trimmings (such as leaf, stem and pod tissues). These co-product wastes are rich in plant biopolymers, phytochemicals, nutrients and micronutrients.
This will be achieved by focusing the multidisciplinary expertise of a Pan-European team of participants on 4 key scientific and technical objectives:
- Development of approaches and procedures for microbiological safety, stability and co-product traceability
- Development of a precision, enzyme-based bioprocesses to deconstruct and tailor co-product components
- Integration of the enzyme-based bioprocesses with modern physical processes, thereby developing hybrid bio-processing systems incorporating closed-loop water-recycling activities
- Minimisation of market risk for new processes by
a) Ensuring economic and environmental acceptability of new processes and products by the consumer, retailer, and regulator (fork-to-farm concept)
b) Developing sustainable dissemination and exploitation routes via stakeholder interaction platforms, and an international, web-based brokerage platform to link co-product producers, users and process R&D experts
