Food quality is a global key priority area where technological advances in terms of quality control have been limited. The aim of the IPCOS Network is to bring innovation to the field of food quality by offering an international, interdisciplinary and intersectorial doctoral training programme that will target the development of chemical sensors, using the molecular imprinting technology, for application in the coffee industry, focusing on three main targets: chlorogenic acids, cafestol and kaurene terpenes, caffeine and its metabolites, all of which have been shown to have an impact on consumers’ health. This project brings together 2 academic teams, 1 large international company, 1 SME and one non-profit research centre of excellent, supported by 4 associated teams, with a very multidisciplinary and multisectorial expertise. The IPCOS training program will require ESRs to work 50% of their time in industry, providing them with a set of unique scientific and transferable skills that will match both public and private sector needs, together with a strong development of innovation and entrepreneurship ethos, therefore considerably enhancing their career perspectives. All researchers will aim to achieve a doctoral degree at the end of their training. As a result of the close collaborative links, IPCOS will strengthen the innovation capacity of universities/research institutes to commercially exploit their research and enhance the research potential and competitiveness of European companies and SMEs.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are organic chemicals that have a high vapor pressure at room temperature. Based on their origin and formation mechanisms, VOCs can be markers in many industrial processes; in food production as quality markers, technological indicators, process contaminants; in plant phenotyping as botanical/geographical tracers, authenticity markers; and in crops storage as shelf-life indicators. VOCs also pose a range of hazards to human health and the environment. EVOQUE’s main objective is to develop a novel photonic-based sensory system with potential to outperform the current standards and to meet the challenging requirements of at-line, on-line & in-field needs of Agriculture, Food, Environmental Pollution monitoring and Industrial Emissions monitoring. EVOQUE will combine gas chromatography (GC), Quartz Enhanced Photo-Acoustic Spectroscopy (QEPAS), long wavelength quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) and mid-IR metasurfaces to produce a compact, easy to use, low cost, at-line and ultimately online, field deployable VOCs analyser that will have equivalent performance to the gold standard lab based GC-MS. EVOQUE will leverage GC’s separation of components from complex mixtures, and QEPAS’s high sensitivity, specificity and quantification. Unlike simpler GC detectors, QEPAS will provide molecular recognition based on the specific spectral features of single VOCs. The system measures the target compound even in presence of interferents, thus avoiding issues with poor repeatability of elution times and reducing the false positive rate relative to GC with non-specific detectors. Also, optical spectroscopy of many VOCs is hampered by absorption by atmospheric compounds at the wavelengths of interest or overlapping absorption features of related molecules; using the GC column, these compounds are separated and eluted from the column at different times, thus unleashing the potential of photonics for sensitive fast, non-destructive measurements of VOCs.

Fruit tree crops (FTC), represented by more than 50 species grown on over 100 M Ha, are strongly affected by climate change (CC). Thanks to grafting, rootstocks can confer enhanced tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses, providing a valuable solution to expand food production. BOLERO aims to i) develop phenotyping tools, ii) employ them to score root system architecture (RSA) traits of coffee/cocoa, including grafted plants, under controlled and on-field conditions, iii) decode the microbiome of coffee/cocoa plants and the interface with the root exudates with large-scale metabolic modelling, and iv) use these resources to build predictive models of RSA traits in terms of genotypic data and microbiome composition and abundance to accelerate coffee/cocoa breeding. This data compendium will be used in combination with a data hub to survey the genetic diversity in FTCs and use it to dissect the genetic basis of RSA traits and their plasticity. BOLERO will propose fast and low-cost breeding strategies to create rootstocks, which will be tested in low-input coffee/cocoa farming systems. The agronomic performances and profitability of grafted plants will be assessed in Vietnam. BOLERO will rely on the knowledge of the large scientific community in Europe, the support of national institutes in tropical countries, and the expertise of industries to lead a multidisciplinary study for rootstocks selection with Coffee as a model, Cocoa as proof of concept, and propose tools and techniques transferable easily to all FTCs. BOLERO will develop and demonstrate for the first time at a large scale the open-source seeds initiative. BOLERO will therefore contribute to the Biodiversity and Farm to Fork Strategies, through significant impacts on the way FTCs are bred and on the use of beneficial soil biota and biodiversity, leading on adaptation to CC, inputs used and soil carbon sequestration.

Agro-industrial residual biomass, side streams and food production by-products like legumes, fungi and coffee are potential sources of valuable ingredients even though the routes for their exploitation are still at an early stage. Pursuing the ambition of achieving prolific valorization of untapped biomass streams, the project R%D&I activities and partners of Prolific have been positioned around a central innovation cycle that is mainly driven by industrial end-users who exactly know the needs of their customers and the technical constraints and industrial environment in their respective sector. The PROLIFIC project will apply a range of processing technologies to recover significant amounts of proteins/peptides and other value added compounds (e.g. carotenoids, phenols, caffeine and fibers) from industrial processing residues of legumes (seeds of peas, beans and chickpea), fungi (cuttings and mycelia of different species) and coffee (silver skin residue and not compliant roasted seeds). The economically and environmentally sustainable extraction, enzymatic modification, and conditioning techniques will be upscaled in industrially relevant environment. This will enable the production of consequent amounts of compounds and fractions necessary for the production of 16 product prototypes for the food, feed, packaging and cosmetic sectors. The Prolific project will assess the environmental, societal, ethical, safety, and regulatory issues at each step of the targeted value chains. SME and large companies strive at achieving competitive biomass exploitation and attracting when needed additional investors. The industrial partners business strategies for the future market penetration starts with the clear identification of the customer needs and goes up to the preparation of give-aways of food and cosmetics prototyped products as a reward for filling in questionnaires about the Prolific products along with intensive dissemination and communication.

Many tropical tree crops are threatened by climate change (CC), including coffee which is highly sensitive to high temperatures, droughts and diseases. 60% of coffee today is cultivated in Agroforestry Systems (AFS), which reduce dependence on external inputs and mitigate the adverse effects of CC. So far, however, breeding has developed cultivars only for open-sun cultivation. Using new Arabica coffee F1 hybrids as a case study, we will design and test coffee varieties, better adapted to AFS and CC and maintaining a robust defense system to biotic and abiotic stresses. By doing so, we will show how breeding programs can benefit both smallholder farmers by improving their incomes, increase the options for sustainability, and benefit the European industry through sustained supplies and a wider range of specialty coffees. The project will take advantage of hybrids, established in 8 countries (Portugal, France, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, French Guyana, Cameroon, El Salvador, Vietnam) under controlled conditions (temperature, light, CO2), field trials and networks of on-farm plots. GxE will be assessed through a multidisciplinary approach where genotypes will be grown in a wide range of environments and low-input management inherent to AFS. Farmers will participate in developing the farm assessment methodology and their experiences with new hybrids (profitability, social acceptance) will inform the breeding strategy. Roasters will be involved in the breeding process through evaluation of beverage quality. By combining extensive phenotyping with metabolomic and transcriptomic analysis, we will develop analytical and predictive tools for Coffee Metabolic Networks, leading to marker aided rapid selection and a new approach for breeding of perennial crops. Impacts will be ensured by innovation platforms, technology transfer for clonal propagation, promotion of direct trading between roasters and farmers, and promotion of new hybrids adapted to AFS.