Van afval naar maaltijd

Het doel van het project is om te onderzoeken in hoever het benutten van afval of reststromen voor de productie van, voor mensen geschikt voedsel, haalbaar is. Door middel van een case (uitgevoerd in samenwerking met het bedrijf Smeding) worden een aantal aspecten omtrent de voedselkwaliteit en -veiligheid, keteninrichting en economische haalbaarheid van dit concept onderzocht. De ontwikkeling van de Too good To waste concepten is gerealiseerd. Uit de restafvalstroom van de productie van verse kruiden en met tomaten zijn vier concepten geproduceerd: kruidensaus, basilicumpesto, tomatensoep, tomatentapenade

Tomaten verpakken in tomatenbladverpakkingen

Het doel van het project “Tomaten verpakken in tomatenblad” is om een verpakking op basis van tomatenblad te ontwikkelen. Het project bestaat uit 2 fasen: fase 1 is gericht op te technologisch ontwikkeling en fase 2 op de productie van prototypes en het testen van de ontwikkelde verpakkingen onder ketenrealistische omstandigheden (ketensimulaties). In fase 2 is ook een consument perceptieonderzoek uitgevoerd. De resultaten van dit project geven aan dat de realisatie van een verpakking op basis van tomatenblad perspectiefvol is

Het effect van licht op bio-aardappel vergroening in de retail

Uit peilingen van de Nederlandse Aardappel Organisatie en andere, blijkt dat er nog steeds kwaliteitsgebreken vast te stellen zijn bij de biologische aardappels in het schap. Vergroening lijkt één van de belangrijkste aspecten van de kwaliteitsgebreken te zijn. Het doel van dit projectonderdeel is daarom om te onderzoeken welk type licht in de supermarkt leidt tot de beste resultaten om vergroening van bio-aardappels in het schap tegen te gaan

Onderzoek Schapkwaliteit Biologische Aardappelen

Samenvattend verslag van: Onderzoek naar de kwaliteit van biologische aardappelen in het winkelschap, Effect van kiemremmingsproducten op het schapleven, en Effect van licht op vergroening in de retail

Control of restrictive supply chains : biomarkers as indicator for Erwinia infection on potato tuber

The Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality has financially supported the research programme named “Total use of unrefined and unprocessed food(crops)”. The programme consisted of a number of projects and one of the projects was entitled “Control of Restrictive Supply Chains; biomarkers as indicator for shelf life” ( KB 33 002 011). The aim of the project is to build up knowledge needed to optimize and re-design restrictive supply chains of fruit, vegetables and flowers to avoid postharvest losses, maintain high resource use efficiency and connect consumer demands to production and supply chain restrictions. The objective of this project is to measure the production of volatiles in healthy and rotten (infected) potatoes and as such identify volatiles that may be used as a biomarker for rot development. A key aspect of the envisaged experimental design is to measure the development of these volatiles over time. This will give insight in the potential of this idea as an early detection method to avoid the further expansion of a rot infection during storage of potatoes. An experimental set up was built to allow the production of volatiles and respective sampling. The potatoes were placed in a glass jar and an air flow was applied. The volatiles were sampled and measured in the air flow. Three treatments were applied: potatoes wounded and infected with the bacteria Pectobacterium polaris, wounded potatoes (without infection) and healthy potatoes. Each treatment was applied in duplicate. The six glass jars with the potatoes were kept at room temperature for maximal 17 days and the production of volatiles was daily monitored. The volatiles in the out coming air were measured with a thermo-desorption GC, a PTR-ToF-MS and a GC-MS (via a SPME). In addition, the amount of oxygen consumed and carbon dioxide produced was also measured in the air flow with a CompactGC. The amount of infection was visually quantified (through the glass jar). The following has been concluded: - Clear differences in volatile production between infected and non- infected potatoes were found. - Those differences are measurable very early upon the infection. Even when the infection is not yet visible. This indicates that the production of volatiles is a suitable biomarker for bacterial infection in potatoes. - Next to the volatile production, the effect of bacterial infection on the production of CO2 and the consumption of O2 (respiration rate) was studied. The respiration rate of infected potatoes is much higher than that of healthy or wounded potatoes. The tubers react prompt to the infection by increasing the production of CO2 and consumption of O2. Also this change in metabolism may be used as biomarker. - Several methods have been explored for the measurement of the volatile production. The measurements were done with a Thermo-Desorption GC, a PTR-ToF-MS and a GC-MS. Despite the differences in the type of gas analysis the results of the different methods show a good agreement with each other and seem to be suitable for measurement of produced volatiles. - Another important result of the project is the development of a suitable inoculation protocol for the bacteria Pectobacterium polaris (an Erwinia infection has been chosen for this project because this is an aggressive type of microorganism and commonly found in potatoes). The developed protocol makes it possible to successfully infect the tubers in a controlled manner and create a suitable model system. The results are directly relevant for the industry as this kind of micro-organism is responsible for a large amount of infections during storage hence contributing for product waste. The volatiles measured with the Thermo-Desorption GC and the PTR-ToF- MS have not yet been identified. The GC-MS results do not allow to identify all the volatile compounds as the column and the sampling methods differ too much from the ones used with the GC with desorption unit. Only 10 of the 45 volatiles were identified with their chemical names via GC-MS analysis. At this time, not all compounds have been identified with certainty

Tomaten verpakken in tomatenbladverpakkingen

Het doel van het project “Tomaten verpakken in tomatenblad” is om een verpakking op basis van tomatenblad te ontwikkelen. Het project bestaat uit 2 fasen: fase 1 is gericht op te technologisch ontwikkeling en fase 2 op de productie van prototypes en het testen van de ontwikkelde verpakkingen onder ketenrealistische omstandigheden (ketensimulaties). In fase 2 is ook een consument perceptieonderzoek uitgevoerd. De resultaten van dit project geven aan dat de realisatie van een verpakking op basis van tomatenblad perspectiefvol is

Retail benefits of dynamic expiry dates-Simulating opportunity losses due to product loss, discount policy and out of stock

When setting an expiry date on fresh food products producing companies have to buffer against two major uncertainties. The initial number of microbes is unknown in practice, and will be variable. Moreover the storage and transport temperatures until consumption will be uncertain and variable too, which will make microbial growth uncertain and variable. In order to cope with these two uncertainties, expiry dates are set at a rather cautious level, resulting into high numbers of product losses or out of stock (lost sales) at retail. In this paper we propose a so-called dynamic expiry date (DED) as an alternative for the fixed expiry date (FED) as applied nowadays. On the basis of a quality decay model that describes the growth of the number of microbes as a function of time and temperature, the expiry date can be dynamically adjusted depending on the measured temperature profile along the distribution chain and the initial number of microbes on the product. We present computer simulation experiments that quantify the effect of a dynamic expiry date on product losses and out of stock at retail outlets. For this purpose, a logistics simulation model of a Dutch pork supply chain was developed. Simulation results show that the DED concept is a promising concept. We predict that a dynamic expiry date decreases opportunity losses by almost 80%. Moreover, advantages are higher when having lower shelf temperatures. Therefore, implementing DED may be an incentive for retailers to optimize their climate control

Report on first simulation model, that predicts the feasibility of communicative packaging concepts : Deliverable 6.14

One of the objectives of this part of the SustainPack project (WP 6.3) is to facilitate the implementation process of communicative packaging in the chain of production, storage, distribution and use of packed products. New packaging concepts are more easily implemented if the benefits can be demonstrated. The objective of this study is to investigate the benefits of a quality indicator integrated in packaging. To do so a case was chosen to monitor and draw conclusions from. This case is the transport of vine tomatoes from the Netherlands to the US by boat. The communicative packaging is a transport box equipped with a sensor that is able to register time, temperature and relative humidity. In a dedicated simulation program, called Aladin, the distribution chain of vine tomatoes was simulated; using product quality models to predict shrinkage in four different logistical concepts. Shrinkage is defined as the amount of product in a chain, which drops below a certain quality level, causing the product to be lost since it is no longer acceptable for the end user. Product quality of vine tomatoes mainly depends on four factors: time, temperature, relative humidity and biological variation. The different scenario¿s predicting shrinkage are divided in two categories: ¿ OSLO control to reduce shrinkage in the chain. This means the optimal quality, predicted by measuring environmental conditions, is delivered as last to the next step in the supply chain. The effects of different variations in temperature and RH are investigated. ¿ Anticipating shrinkage and sending products to a discount channel to decrease shrinkage in further parts of the chain (supermarkets). In both categories the quality in the chain is determined measuring different factors: i) only time, ii) temperature and time or iii) time, temperature and RH. From the simulation results it can be concluded that under certain circumstances, the use of transport boxes equipped with a temperature sensor can result in significant reduction of shrinkage of the vine tomatoes. Shrinkage reduction can be 4% and a temperature sensor may cost ¿0.31. Another conclusion from this study is that the impact of relative humidity on the tomato quality is not large enough to justify the implementation of a relative humidity sensor. A third conclusion is that there can be economical benefits when products of inferior but still acceptable quality are sold to a discount channel for 75% of the supermarket price