Project

Nutritious, safe and sustainable seafood for consumers of tomorrow

Acronym
SEAFOODTOMORROW
Code
41G01217
Duration
01 November 2017 → 30 April 2021
Funding
European funding: framework programme
Promotor
Research disciplines
  • Agricultural and food sciences
    • Sustainable fishery management
Keywords
sustainability consumer quality seafood safe shellfish nutritional value
Other information
 
Project description

SEAFOODTOMORROW aims to validate and optimize commercial solutions for improving the socioeconomic and environmental sustainability of the seafood production and processing industry, while contributing to product quality and safety. Activities will focus on the sustainable production and processing of nutritious and safe seafood products through the demonstration and first application in the market of eco-innovative, sustainable solutions of marine and aquaculture-derived food products and nutrients. The proposal will take into account impacts across different regions and population segments, as well as the specificities of different types of seafood. Activities will include among others: utilization of agro and seafood byproducts to develop sustainable feeds for aquaculture enabling the production of tailor made products fortified with specific essential nutrients for consumers, assess the feasibility of salt replacers in seafood, validate digestible, attractive, functional and nutritionally adapted seafood for senior people and youths, validate strategies to prevent/remove contaminants from seafood, and optimize sensors and biosensors for the assessment of safety, among others. The consortium expects strengthening the wider utilization of eco-innovative solutions, as a result of greater user acceptance, higher visibility of these innovative solutions and creation of scalable markets, and increasing the availability of healthier seafood to improve consumers' diet and health. The consortium is built on interdisciplinary research teams of 19 RTDs involved, renowned by its top-quality applied technological development and with strong and cohesive links gathered in previous funded activities (e.g. FP7 ECsafeSEAFOOD), thus anticipating successful outcomes. In addition, 4 IAGs and 13 SMEs with diverse and complementary interests in the solutions under validation and optimization will also integrate the consortium.

 
Role of Ghent University
Ghent University leads work package 4 on markets, acceptability, sustainability and demonstration. The main objective of WP4 is to assess market interest, consumer acceptance and the impact of the solutions developed in other project work packages on economy and society, while demonstrating and stimulating their technology transfer to SMEs, allowing them to create new business activities. The main UGent partners involved in this project are the Department of Agricultural Economics and Food2Know.