Some thirty Basque companies are exploring new R&D systems to extend the shelf life of their foodstuffs
BASQUE FOOD CLUSTER, AZTI and TECNALIA launch the ViUtiFood project with the aim of increasing the shelf life of food, reducing wastage and opening up new business opportunities for companies in the Basque food chain.
In the food sector’s battle to reduce the volume of waste generated throughout the value chain, one of the main solutions is to extend the useful life of foodstuffs through new technologies and production and conservation strategies that make it possible to maintain their nutritional and organoleptic characteristics for as long as possible without affecting food safety. In order to identify the R&D&I solutions that best meet this purpose, BASQUE FOOD CLUSTER and the AZTI and TECNALIA research centres are launching the ViUtiFood project, an initiative that has already attracted the interest and support of almost 30 companies in the Basque food chain.
ViUtiFood seeks to identify solutions and promote their implementation to enable Basque companies to extend the shelf life of their food, guaranteeing both food safety and the quality standards of consumers and the demands of distribution. It also seeks efficiency in energy consumption, contributing to a more intelligent use of resources, without forgetting the opening up of new commercial opportunities for companies.
The project’s launch day served to focus on the main causes that affect the useful life of food products in each of their phases: from the choice of raw materials to their commercialisation, through the processes of formulation, preparation, transformation, packaging, storage, logistics, etc.
Among the challenges identified are the optimisation of the control of storage, distribution and transport conditions, the improvement of new sustainable packaging materials, the incorporation of new processing technologies and the use of natural resources.
ViUtiFood is a project funded through the Circular Economy line of the Transversal Tractor Initiatives promoted by the Basque Government within the PCTI Euskadi 2030.
