Agro-food and Paper mill side streams and by-products are sources of unexploited organic fractions exploitable into safe microbial biomasses, functional ingredients and intermediates, e.g. prebiotics, pre-fermented ingredients, bioplastics and chemicals. The INGREEN bio-based ingredients/materials will be used to produce innovative functional products for food, feed, packaging, pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and cosmetic sectors. The INGREEN outcomes will be obtained by validated tailor made biotechnologies based on safe microorganisms or eco-friendly approaches. Logistics and storage conditions will be optimized to favor the flow from feedstock to the bio-based prototype producers. INGREEN aims to demonstrate in industrial environments the efficiency and sustainability of the target biotechnologies to produce i) lactobionic acid (LBA), galactooligosaccharides (GOS), microbial safe biomasses from whey; ii) polyhydrohyalkanoates (PHA) enriched biomasses and purified PHA, as prebiotics and bioplastics respectively, from paper mill wastewater; iii) functional pre-fermented ingredients from rye/wheat milling fractions. Safe and characterized INGREEN ingredients will be used for innovative functional cheeses, bakery products and nutritious feeds. Functional GOS, LBA and pre-fermented bran will be used to produce prebiotic immune-stimulating gel, nutraceutical supplement and cleanser for human health. INGREEN biodegradable material will be valorised into bag in box to boost INGREEN fluid prototype sustainability. Prototype safety, shelf-life, quality and functional performances will be compared to benchmarks. Also LCA/LCC, sound business cases and plans and compliance with REACH and any relevant EU safety legislation will be applied over the whole project to assess prototype benefits compared to benchmarks. INGREEN product specifications will contribute to define/standardize the regulatory requirements for outcome innovation deals, market uptake and societal acceptance.

In Europe, each year foodborne hazards, including bacteria, parasites, bacterial toxins and allergens, already cause more than 20 million cases of illness and thousands of deaths. Foodborne chemical risk, often associated with occurrence of toxins, are of growing concern. Food safety management systems established over the past decades in our European food businesses, and European food safety governance need to be adapted to make the food system more robust towards multiple stressor coming dynamically up (so as climatic impacts). FoodSafeR aims to design, develop and test the building blocks of an innovative pro-active and holistic food safety warning and management system with a look on the dynamics of emerging risks at its heart. FoodSafeR embodies integrated approaches to hazard characterisation and risk management in a comprehensive suite of future oriented case studies, tools, methods, strategies, models, guidance and training materials. An open and accessible digital hub designed to form a core of a sustaining information system will be set up as a ‘One-Stop-Shop’ vehicle targeted at risk managers and assessors, food safety authorities and the relevant actors and stakeholders operating in the European food system. To reach the ambitious goal, FoodSafeR has united a world-class consortium of 18 organisations from across 14 European countries integrating science, industry, SMEs and policymakers. FoodSafeR will contribute to prevent food safety incidences occuring from biological and chemical hazards in the European food system as well as relevant socio-economic impacts. By bringing this approach to a success, FoodSafeR contributes to ‘sustainable, healthy and inclusive food systems delivering co-benefits for climate mitigation and adaptation, environmental sustainability and circularity, sustainable healthy nutrition, safe food consumption, food poverty reduction, the empowerment of communities, and flourishing food business operations.

The overall aim of the MYCOBEANS project is to strengthen the collaboration and promote the excellence of the academic and non-academic institutions involved with the common goal of exploring the emerging risk due to the occurrence of mycotoxins in legumes intended as alternative plant proteins, and therefore increase the resilience of the beans and legumes sector. Thanks to its top-class partnership, MYCOBEANS will bring innovation in mycotoxins diagnostics, toxicological evaluation, and biotechnological mitigation along the entire plant protein supply chain. The consortium, led by the University of Parma, Italy, involves internationally-leading academic and non-academic partners from the EU, UK and ASEAN countries, and has been designed around the already existing network of the International Joint Research Center on Food Security, Thailand. The strong connectivity already in place among partners will ensure the knowledge and expertise transfer, help build new research alliances, and enrich staff and young researchers' capacities from all members of the consortium. Young researchers will be exposed to a very diverse and multidisciplinary environment, thus ensuring a quick professional growth. The specific objectives will be achieved through an extensive program of interdisciplinary and intersectoral short- and medium-term staff exchanges and expert visits, involving doctoral and postdoctoral researchers as well as senior staff, aimed at cross-pollination among scientific disciplines, from chemistry to toxicology, biotechnology, industrial processing as well as regulatory science. As a complement, a rich program of training workshops, seminars, summer schools and dissemination and outreach activities will ensure a significant impact both at a professional career level as well as for industry and society.

MyToolBox mobilises a multi-actor partnership (academia, farmers, technology SMEs, food industry and policy stakeholders) to develop novel interventions aimed at achieving a 20-90% reduction in crop losses due to fungal and mycotoxin contamination. MyToolBox will not only pursue a field-to-fork approach but will also consider safe use options of contaminated batches, such as the efficient production of biofuels. A major component of MyToolBox, which also distinguishes this proposal from previous efforts in the area mycotoxin reduction, is to provide the recommended measures to the end users along the food and feed chain in a web-based Toolbox. Cutting edge research will result in new interventions, which will be integrated together with existing measures in the Toolbox that will guide the end user as to the most effective measure(s) to be taken to reduce crop losses. We will focus on small grain cereals, maize, peanuts and dried figs, applicable to agricultural conditions in EU and China. Crop losses using existing practices will be compared with crop losses after novel pre-harvest interventions including investigation of genetic resistance to fungal infection, cultural control, the use of novel biopesticides (organic-farming compliant), competitive biocontrol treatment and development of forecasting models to predict mycotoxin contamination. Research into post-harvest measures including real-time monitoring during storage, innovative sorting of crops using vision-technology and novel milling technology will enable cereals with higher mycotoxin levels to be processed without breaching regulatory limits in finished products. Research into the effects of baking on mycotoxin levels will provide better understanding of process factors used in mycotoxin risk assessment. Involvement of leading institutions from China are aimed at establishing a sustainable cooperation in mycotoxin research between the EU and China.