An introduction to the project "Code of Practice for organic food processing - ProOrg"

To develop a Code of Practice addressed to organic food processors and labeling organizations with the aim to provide a set of strategies and tools that can help them for making the best choice for careful processing methods and formulations free of additives, while addressing the organic principles, high food quality, low environmental impact and high degree of consumer acceptance

CORE Organic Cofund Project: Code of Practice for organic food processing - ProOrg

To develop a Code of Practice addressed to organic food processors and labeling organizations with the aim to provide a set of strategies and tools that can help them for making the best choice for careful processing methods and formulations free of additives, while addressing the organic principles, high food quality, low environmental impact and high degree of consumer acceptance

Final report for the CORE Organic Cofund funded project "Code of Practice for organic food processing - ProOrg"

The project “Code of Practice for organic food processing – ProOrg” is based on the fact that the EU organic regulations only set a legal frame with mainly general principles for technologies used in organic food processing. With the exclusion of a positive list of additives and processing aids, mandatory standards for the processing technologies used for organic food are lacking in the European Regulation 2018/848. Indications that can guide the processors in the selection of appropriate technologies and innovations in line with the organic principles are very limited. The aim of the ProOrg project was to contribute to fill this gap by developing a Code of Practice (CoP) for organic food processors (https://www.proorgproject.com/codeofpractice). Specifically, the objective of ProOrg was to develop a Code of Practice addressed to organic food processors as well as labeling organizations, with the aim to provide a set of strategies and tools that can help them for making the best choice for careful processing technologies, methods, and formulations free of additives, while addressing the organic principles, high food quality, low environmental impact, and high degree of consumer acceptance. The ProOrg Consortium was composed of 15 partners from 8 European countries, with a balanced geographical distribution. The project was based on a participatory approach with a direct involvement of organic food processors and other stakeholders that contributed to the development of the CoP and participated throughout the duration of the project. The Code of Practice for organic food processors is composed of three parts: the “Management Guideline for organic food processors”, the “Assessment Framework for the evaluation of the organic food processing”, and the “Guidelines for consumer communication”. The “Management Guideline” (MG) (https://www.proorgproject.com/codeofpractice) aims to give organic food processing companies a guideline for the implementation of the regulatory requirements of the organic food sector applicable for the daily practice. It came just in time for the implementation of new organic regulation from 1st of January 2022 on. It also addresses other aspects that exist in the industry but are not legally anchored and provides existing documents, tools, and information. For the MG, an Excel format was chosen which can easily integrated into existing internal documentations and systems. The user can find an overview of the legal requirements in several spreadsheets, divided into the different areas in a company, as well as a checklist with the relevant information. The “Assessment Framework” (AF) (https://www.proorgproject.com/_files/ugd/88a346_72d47789193346a1ba42b030b46f39e7.pdf) is a guidance that enables companies or labelling organisations to compare potential processing technologies under the organic principles and to decide on the gentlest possible variant. The AF is generic, flexible, adaptable to all conditions and situations. Aspects and criteria for the evaluation of processing technologies have been defined based on existing concepts from the literature, of the legal requirements and the IFOAM organic principles. The AF is presented as a step-by-step guide and a calculation method is provided to get a score for each alternative to be compared to make the choice. An Internet-based version of the AF is under development to facilitate the daily usability of this tool. The “Guidelines for consumer communication” (https://www.proorgproject.com/_files/ugd/88a346_cf27fc4976c845f78655d084f565d049.pdf) aim to give organic food processors an idea of how to deal with consumers’ expectations on food processing. In particular, the aims are: i) to improve processors’ understanding of consumers’ perception of processing technologies; ii) to support processors in the selection of processing technologies which are acceptable for/accepted by consumers; iii) to support processors in successfully communicating with consumers. The development of the Code of Practice followed an iterative process. A first draft of the Code was tested for its understandability and practicability in the so-called “case studies”, mainly performed at level of companies. The feedbacks from the case studies were used for adjusting and finalizing the Code of Practice. The Code of Practice and the scientific results of the project have been presented in scientific and non-scientific conferences, webinars, workshops. Articles have also been published also in technical journals, magazines. The Code of Practice, the outcomes of the project, scientific publications and other documents, and further information can be found on the project website www.proorgproject.com. Most of the documents have been also uploaded to the Organic E-prints platform. Bachelor and Master theses were produced through the project

Fresh-Cut Vegetables Processing: Environmental Sustainability and Food Safety Issues in a Comprehensive Perspective

The fresh-cut industry supplies the food market with healthy fresh fruit and vegetables and, in that way, may contribute to improve the nutritional status of the general population. On the other hand, over the last few years increasing concerns have been raised regarding the environmental impact of the fresh-cut industry, human health risks from exposure to disinfection by-products found in fresh-cut products and chlorine-based disinfection treatments during produce processing. This review provides a comprehensive view of the main interlinked aspects related to food safety and environmental impact of processing of fresh-cut vegetables. Advantages and downsides of the mainstream disinfection strategy, based on the use of chlorine-related disinfecting agents, along with some alternative treatments close to a wide commercial application, are discussed. Limitation in the application of these strategies to processing of organic fresh-cut produce are also highlighted, examining the specific environmental and food safety problems in the organic sector. Areas where lack of available information hinders at present a clear understanding of priorities of research and action are pointed out. Innovative conceptual tools are proposed to address these multiple and interlinking issues and to overcome limitations of currently available technologies. A comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach is suggested to move toward a more safe and environmentally sustainable production of fresh-cut products

Environmental sustainability of typical agro-food products: a scientifically sound and user friendly approach

The paper introduces an approach, developed in Agriculture & Quality programme, to evaluate the environmental sustainability of Apulian quality agro-food products that is integrated in the regional quality scheme "Quality Products". It highlights the methodological approach adopted, the sustainability themes identified and the indicators selected. Indicators measurable at the farm/firm level were selected in relation to the following environmental themes: biodiversity, land use and management, energy use and climate change, use of chemical inputs, and responsible management of by-products and waste. A scoring scale was developed for each indicator; going from 0 (unsustainable) to 10 (very sustainable) with 5 corresponding to the sustainability threshold or reference value. The presented approach is both robust and user friendly and is in line with the principle entailing continuous improvement; the key sustainability thresholds will be periodically reviewed and updated. It represents a practical and innovative way to develop an information scheme for typical agri-food products and can be, with some refinement and contextualisation, easily scaled up to other territories

Impact of different temperature abuse scenarios on sensory quality and off-odour formation in ready-to-eat salad leaves

Packages of ready-to-eat (RTE) wild rocket and lettuce baby leaves were subjected during 8 days of cold storage to a chronic temperature abuse (CTA) at sub-optimal storage temperature (10 °C) or to a shortterm (6 h) abuse at ambient temperature (STA) to evaluate the impact of two temperature abuse scenarios on gas composition within the packages, leaf sensory quality and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In both species, the CTA scenario had a markedly higher impact on gas composition, sensory quality and off-odour formation than the STA, and the limit of sensory acceptability was reached in the CTA scenario 4 days or more earlier than in the STA. Sulphur compounds were the main responsible for offodour perception in both leafy salads. Results from the present study may be useful in the assessment of critical points in the cold chain of RTE fresh produce and in prioritising actions towards improved coldchain management

X‐ray microscopy. A non‐destructive multi‐scale imaging to study the inner workings of batteries

X-ray microscopy (XRM) is a non-destructive characterization technique that provides quantitative information regarding the morphology/composition of the specimen and allows to perform multiscale and multimodal 2D/3D experiments exploiting the radiation-matter interactions. XRM is particularly suitable to afford in situ images of inner parts of a battery and for the early diagnosis of its degradation in a non-invasive way. Since traditional characterization techniques (SEM, AFM, XRD) often require the removal of a component from the encapsulated device that may lead to non-desired contamination of the sample, the non-destructive multi-scale potential of XRM represents an important improvement to batteries investigation. In this work, we present the advanced technical features that characterize a sub-micron X-ray microscopy system, its use for the investigation of hidden and internal structures of different types of batteries and to understand their behavior and evolution after many charge/discharge cycles