ECOFUNCO Final Event | AgriMax Biorefinery - Valorization of crop and food processing by-products

Approximately one third of all food produced globally is wasted every year throughout the whole value chain from farmers to consumers which corresponds to around 1.3 billion tons. According to FAO, about 14% of the food loss occurred before reaching the consumer. Within the European Union approximately 90 million tons of food are wasted and about 700 million tons of agricultural wastes are generated annually. These wastes can be reused in other production processes and are potential sources of bioactive compounds. Within the AgriMax project, the extraction of active molecules was carried out from agroindustrial by-products specifically tomatoes, cereals, potatoes and olives, which are largely available and currently underutilized feedstocks. For this purpose two biorefineries were built, one in Spain and one in Italy, to recover, through a cascade approach, a large number of substances and molecules of interest defined as primary (i.e. cutin, proteins, polyphenols, ferulic acid) and secondary fraction (i.e. lycopene, fibers, aromas) to apply in several sectors as packaging, food and agriculture.
Dr. Serena Chierici graduated in Chemistry at the University of Pavia in 2014. She is a researcher at SSICA Packaging Department since 2015. She deals with European Projects (BiocopacPlus, AgriMax and ECOFUNCO) focusing on the valorization of food processing wastes, in particular of tomato by-products. She is also involved in the study and evaluation of the packaging materials in terms of shelf-life and hygenic-sanitary compliance.
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ECOFUNCO is a European research project which will develop new bio-based coatings for plastic and cellulosic substrates.
ECOFUNCO has received funding from the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking (JU) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 837863. The JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and the Bio-based Industries Consortium.
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