FOOD2020 II

Future offensive for the food industry

In April 2018, the INTERREG/EDR Steering Committee approved the second phase of the project, which was initiated by the Deutsches Institut für Lebensmitteltechnik e.V. (DIL) from Quakenbrück with a budget of 4.4 million euros. The project includes various funding opportunities for companies and associations in the border area. GIQS is one of seven regional project partners of the DIL and responsible for the region North Rhine-Westphalia.

With FOOD2020, the food industry in the German-Dutch border region is to be made fit for 2020. The activities of FOOD2020 specifically aim at cross-border cooperation of companies with experts and business-oriented research institutions to stimulate technology transfer and innovation development in the companies. It is the aim of FOOD2020 Phase II to react together with the companies to the existing and new social and societal challenges of the sector. Topics to be addressed are “food security”, “sustainable food”, “food safety”, “healthy food” and “social innovation”.

In FOOD2020 Phase II the successful activities from FOOD2020 Phase I will be continued. In particular, the positive results from the innovation projects on product and process innovation and sustainability have shown that positive impulses help SMEs to achieve outstanding and forward-looking results. Successful feasibility studies from Phase I provide ideas for new innovation projects in Phase II.

Further information can be found on the projekt website and the social media profiles of FOOD2020 on Twitter, Youtube, LinkedIn and Xing.

Innovation projects and accompanying measures

Due to the successes in FOOD2020 Phase I and the manifold ideas of the SMEs from the product region, the main focus in FOOD2020 Phase II will be on innovation projects: It is planned to carry out five cross-border innovation projects (each with a budget of around 270,000 euros) and 14 light innovation projects (each with a budget of around 135,000 euros). The SMEs in the project region will receive 50% funding, while research institutions can expect a higher funding rate.

In addition to the innovation projects, there will again be accompanying measures. On the one hand, there will be seminars and events for further and advanced training and to secure young talents, in which information on current and relevant topics in the industry will be conveyed. On the other hand, accompanying measures are planned in which the focus is not only to be on the pure passing on of information on new technologies and new approaches to solutions for existing and future challenges. Thematic think tanks will be established, working in small groups over several sessions. Creative formats will be used to develop new concepts, business cases and solutions to problems within the framework of social challenges that companies can implement in their operations. Participating SMEs from the project region will receive financial support for participating in the interactive workshops.

Ten specialist seminars with an average of at least ten participants and at least seven participating companies and ten think tanks with an average of four participating companies are planned.

Innovation projects (co-)supported by GIQS

Flambéing is a masterpiece of food preparation by caramelizing the grilled food. Flambéing in its simplest form involves pouring high-proof or pure alcohol over the food to be flambéed and igniting it using a source of ignition. The alcohol, which has previously spread on the surface of the food to be flamed, ignites and burns off with a comparatively cool flame. The disadvantage of this method is that it is a source of danger for deflagration and neither the alcohol, its dosage nor the spread of the flames can be precisely controlled, so that the procedure requires a lot of practice and experience.

The aim of the Burning Bernd project is to produce a combustible ketchup that can be caramelised and dosed directly from the bottle using a two-chamber system. In this way, the taste of the grilled product can be increased and the risk of accidents can be reduced significantly.

GIQS is the leading FOOD2020 regional partner in this project.

Term: 11/2018 – 07/2020

Partners (co-)supported by GIQS: Robert Meyer Catering GmbH (Gronau); Smart Material Printing B.V. (Glanerbrug)

In the Cook.3D project, a “kitchen robot” is to be developed which, in addition to the individualised additive fabrication (colloquially 3D printing) of pasty food, also takes over its preparation. At present, this is a two-step process, and even the first step is often insufficiently successful for individual foods. By mathematical modelling of the pasty substance and the iterative and interactive, software-controlled feedback of sensor data, a new quality and generalisable application to any pasty substance shall be achieved. For this purpose, the parameters viscosity, pressure, temperature, printing speed, nozzle diameter and geometry, layer height and pressure path are included in the mathematical modeling and software control.

The result will be a prototype of a kitchen robot with integrated 3D printing process for the automatic creation of individualized food products.

GIQS is the leading FOOD2020 regional partner in this project.

Term: 11/2018 – 08/2020

Partners (co-)supported by GIQS: University of Applied Sciences Ruhr West (Bottrop), VormVrij.3D (Afferden), EAS GmbH (Rheinberg), Progress Events (Groningen)

In Germany and the Netherlands, 6 percent of the population suffer from food allergies and 50 percent of these suffer from fruit allergies – and the trend is rising among young people. So far, apart from the consumption of old varieties or complete abstinence, desensitization alone has been successful with varying degrees of success. For those affected, the current situation is often associated with significant losses in terms of quality of life and healthy nutrition.

For this reason, the AllerGoFree project aims to develop a method for reducing allergens in fruits. The core of the process is a printing process for treating fruit with carbon dioxide. The enrichment of the fruits with gaseous carbon dioxide leads to the hydrolysis of the allergens, as they are water soluble. As a side effect, the fruits become sweeter.

GIQS is the leading FOOD2020 regional partner in this project.

Term: 11/2018 – 07/2020

Partners (co-)supported by GIQS: Smart Material Printing B.V. (Glanerbrug), Hautärztliche Gemeinschaftspraxis Petri/Möcklinghoff (Ahaus), TM Bolz GmbH (Gronau)

The project aims to implement a new method for the local production of natural flavourings from food industry by-products.

A source of natural carboxylic acid from a food industry by-product stream and a natural source of selected alcohol have been identified. These two raw materials will be combined with a special technology, by using which a known natural flavouring substance can be produced in a sustainable process. In this way, the principles of recycling management can be implemented and CO2 emissions reduced.

In the project Circular Flavours the technology will be scaled up and samples will be produced which can be tested for purity, natural origin and market applications. The final goal of the project is to validate the calculated market price and the purity of the produced flavours.

GIQS is one of two supporting FOOD2020 regional partners in this project.

Term: 07/2019 – 09/2020

Partners supported by GIQS: Axxence Aromatic GmbH (Emmerich)

There are thousands of varieties of seed for every crop and countless differently structured farms. One in four harvests is either poorer or fails. There are simply too many parameters that determine success. This problem is to be addressed in the project. The aim is to select the optimal seed for farms, minimise the amount of resources and work required and maximise yield. The aim is to increase sales by 25 percent; this means that an average farm can expect additional sales of around 100,000 euros per harvest and at the same time operate more sustainably.

The first goal is to gather all relevant data. Sensors will be used to measure 20 different environmental parameters and detailed agricultural information will be collected using questionnaires, photos, local weather/forecast data, geolocalisation and horticultural data on individual crops. These data are then analysed to create AI models. These models will be used to select the best seeds for each farm and provide each farmer with personalised supply recommendations in real time via a mobile app.

GIQS is one of three supporting FOOD2020 regional partners in this project.

Term: 04/2019 – 03/2021

Partners supported by GIQS: ISIS IC GmbH (Wesel)

The quality of wine is largely determined during the fermentation process in cisterns or autoclaves. The process should be closely monitored to control the quality and identify any corrective action that may be required. Information that needs to be collected relates to the fermentation process, which must provide a good indication of the final product. The corresponding measurements are usually carried out in the laboratory, with possible manual errors and considerable time delays. This is an ineffective procedure that reduces the overall quality of the product, can lead to considerable losses, prolongs the time to market and places a severe constraint on the way the end customer is treated.

A much better solution would be to provide real-time measurements of the sensitive parameters that predict the evolution of the winemaking process and consequently improve the quality of the final product by minimizing costs and reducing the risk of losing part of the production. Such a system will be developed within the project. The objective of this innovation project is to develop and demonstrate a prototype of a monitoring platform for controlling the fermentation process of wine.

GIQS is one of three supporting FOOD2020 regional partners in this project.

Term: 10/2018 – 07/2020

Partners supported by GIQS: ISIS IC GmbH (Wesel)

Project partners

The two-and-a-half-year project is coordinated by the DIL and carried out jointly with seven partners from the German-Dutch border region. Partners on the German side are FPI (Food Processing Initiative e.V.) and GIQS. In the Netherlands, the business development agencies N.V. NOM (Investerings- en ontwikkelingsmaatschappij voor Noord-Nederland), TCNN (TechnologieCentrum Noord-Nederland), Oost NL (Ontwikkelingsmaatschappij Oost Nederland), LIOF (Limburgse Ontwikkelings- en Investeringsmaatschappij) and BOM (Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij) are involved in the project.

Funders

FOOD2020 is implemented within the INTERREG programme Deutschland-Nederland and is co-financed by the European Union, the Ministerium für Wirtschaft, Innovation, Digitalisierung und Energie of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Ministerium für Bundes- und Europaangelegenheiten und Regionale Entwicklung of Lower Saxony, the Dutch Ministerie van Economische Zaken en Klimaat and the provinces of Drenthe, Fryslân, Gelderland, Groningen, Limburg, Noord-Brabant and Overijssel. It is supported by the programme management of the Ems Dollart Region.

  • Funding programme: INTERREG V A
  • Term: 07/18 - 06/22
  • Budget: 4.4 MM Euro
  • Partners: GIQS + 7