On the 27th and 28th of June, the General Meeting of the European project ZeroW (Systemic Innovations Towards a Zero Food Waste Supply Chain), an initiative funded with 12 million euros by the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Union, was held in Brussels. The ZeroW consortium is made up of 46 partners from 17 countries, including the Andalusian CTA, the Andalusian Institute for Agricultural, Fisheries, Food and Organic Production Research and Training (IFAPA), Grupo La Caña and Multiscan Technologies.

CTA’s Innovation consultant, José Luis Gallego, attended this meeting to get to know and share with the rest of the ZeroW members the status of the project, its main advances and future challenges. From its start in 2022 until its end in 2025, the consortium is working towards its goal of halving food waste by 2030 and achieving zero waste by 2050.

To achieve this, ZeroW uses nine Systemic Innovation Living Labs (SILLs), i.e. systemic innovation environments that seek solutions to tackle the factors that encourage food waste. Some of the aspects addressed by ZeroW’s SILLs are sustainable packaging, the monitoring of fresh produce in greenhouses and post-harvest, and the use of food waste to promote the production of algae.

The Andalusian SILL, coordinated by CTA and whose experimental technology is located in the facilities of Grupo La Caña (Motril), focuses on the detection and valorisation of ugly food, as well as on the evaluation of its useful life. Using a multi-sensor platform that integrates artificial vision and a real-time data processing system, it is estimated that this developing technology would have the capacity to analyse the condition and shelf life of some 300,000 fruits per hour.

More information on the Andalusian SILL: https://www.zerow-project.eu/news/imperfect-food-and-technology-the-key-to-avoiding-food-waste