ABP Food Group has announced that it has been selected as part of a winning pan-European consortium to lead ground breaking food research.
The consortium includes 50 partners spanning market-leading businesses, technology innovators, best-in-class research institutions and consumer facing organisations.
Following a competitive selection process, the winning consortium was chosen by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) and will work to improve food production levels throughout the supply chain.
Over the next seven years, the consortium partners will invest close to €1.2 billion matched with up to €400m which will be financed by the EIT.
Aims of the Project
The project, called EIT Food, will set up four innovation programmes to target a number of important societal food challenges.
These challenges will include:
- FoodConnects Assistant: Examining the sphere of personalised healthy food and nutrition.
- The Web of Food: Researching the digitalisation of the food system.
- Your Farm2Fork: Exploring consumer driven supply chain development and new technology adoption in farming processing and retail.
- The Zero Waste Agenda: Focusing on transforming the current linear “produce-use-dispose” food model into a circular bio-economy.
Additionally, EIT Food will train thousands of students and food professionals through workshops, summer schools and online educational programmes.
The consortium includes a diverse range of companies and research institutions from right across Europe.
ABP Food Group will be joined by the likes of Robert Bosch, Siemens, PepsiCo, Nestle, Sodexo, John Deere, Givaudin, Matis, Nielsen, Queens University Belfast, Cambridge University and the University of Reading.
ABP are delighted to be part of this initiative which will help tackle the many challenges facing the food supply chain, according to the Group Technical and Sustainability Director at ABP Food Group, Dean Holroyd
From ABP’s perspective, this is a great opportunity to be partnering with leading global players as we look at ways to improve the sustainable production and processing of beef from farm to fork.
“We look forward to collaborating with our colleagues in EIT Food with a view to making a lasting and positive impact on European and global food production,” he said.
Meanwhile, EIT Food is committed to create the future curriculum for students and food professionals as a driving force for innovation and business creation, the Chair of the Interim Supervisory Board of EIT Food Peter van Bladeren said.
Bladeren is also the Vice President of Nestec and the Global head of Regulatory and Scientific Affairs for Nestle.
EIT Food will give the food manufacturing sector, which accounts for 44m jobs in Europe, a unique competitive edge, he said.
Set up by the EU in 2008, EIT is an independent body which has been modelled on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US.
The organisation has already put in place collaborative research models between business and research institutions in the areas of climate, digital, health and sustainable energy.
