Project

SPOTDETECT

The SPOTDETECT Project, under REACT-EU, contributes to "a green, digital and resilient recovery of the economy". First of all, the technology developed in the project will helpimprove food quality and reduce FLW by revolutionizing the way testing is performed in food value chain, supporting mission D of the KIA. Achieving a FLW reduction not only can bring significant environmental, economic and social benefits but as well has been recognized critical to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG Target 12.3). Moreover, the whole chain will be more secure to frauds and scandals thanks to more accessible testing (cheaper, faster and applicable by users without any basic knowledge). Finally, the benchmarking platform establishment will allow to consolidate WFBR expertise and knowledge on methods and technologies used in research and practice for evaluating fruits quality and freshness, with the ambition of becoming a reference institute for testing new technologies in this field.

The SPOTDETECT project aims to develop an innovative, portable and user-friendly device based on mass spectrometry technology to help reducing food loss and waste (FLW). The project partners are cooperating for optimizing and validating a groundbreaking technology which, by integrating volatiles (aroma) and non-volatiles compounds analysis in real-time (without time delay), will be applied for monitoring food quality and safety. One of the main advantage of the device will be its portability that will allow to reverse the actual testing paradigm “from sample to the lab” by bringing “the lab to the sample”. By adopting a source-based screening it will be possible to lower the costs and the time needed for food contamination testing. The technology will be applied in different agri-food sectors including diary industry, aquaculture, meat & poultry and fruits & vegetables. In parallel, the project aims to establish a benchmarking platform for new sensors technologies in the quality domain of fresh products (especially fruits).

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