GRUB'S UP - Recycling and Upgrading Wastes from Food Production for Use Within the Food Chain

Europe's fruit and vegetable industries generate about 30 million tons of waste a year. At present the main fate of this waste is to be landfilled, or used as a low quality compost or animal feedwithout segregation or significant treatment, wasting valuable nutrients and biomass. Fruit and vegetable waste have especially strong potential for being recycled and upgraded for use within the food chain, in products such as high value added food additives, composts and animal feeds <P>There has been a great deal of research into these applications, involving a wide variety of disciplines. However, partly because of this multidisciplinarity, the research has been poorly coordinated and too often projects have not led to commercialised products. <P>GRUB'S UP aims to: <UL> <LI> Direct research into processes for recycling and upgrading vegetable and fruit waste towards the development of viable technologies <LI>Accelerate the take up of these technologies by assessing their viability and disseminating the results to industry </ul> The project will achieve this through: <UL> <LI> Reviewing the state of the art in research on relevant processes and collating a database of centres of relevant research excellence <LI>Undertaking a detailed study of 6-10 processes under development, investigating their potential environmental impact, their impact on food quality and safety, their economic impact, risks associated with them, consumers' and retailers' opinions of them and the industry needs they address <LI>Disseminating the results of the project to industry and more broadly through a project website and a layman's guide to research in the area with detailed case studies.<LI> Bringing together researchers from disparate disciplines engaged in relevant research, together with industrial end-users and a number of other specialists.<LI> Encouraging the cross fertilisation of ideas between partners, through seminars, meetings of expert groups and staff secondments