SADAIFO - PLANT Project

Sectors

The North-Western (NW) Italy system, specifically in Piemonte and Western Lombardia, is of high quality agricultural and zootechnical productions. However, agriculture in the NW requires a profound renewal, to respond to the major challenges of sustainability and digital transformation.

In this scenario, the activities proposed by Spoke 7 aim to increase the competitiveness of the local food system in terms of safety, quality, and added value of food products, through digitalization, circularity, and sustainability of the supply chain.

Scientific Leader 
Luisa Torri, Full Professor of Food Science and Technology (SSD/AGR15) - Università di Scienze Gastronomiche

Themes

• “HEALTHY” FOOD – High quality, healthy and safe food productions. The Spoke aims at implementing successful strategies to push business on the route to the market of food products with high added value.
• “GREEN” FOOD – Sustainable food productions through the application of circular economy principles. The Spoke activities aim at: valorization of food waste; new circular solutions for food industries’ resources; development and promotion of a sustainable food education and culture.
• “SMART” FOOD – Intelligent systems, new processes and tools for food processing supported by the paradigms of Industry 4.0 and 5.0. Building intelligent and interconnected systems in order to extract and process data, with the support of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, obtaining the needed information and generating the helpful actions for the agri-food stakeholders.

Objectives

The “SADAIFO – PLANT” Flagship Project proposes the design of an innovative approach to reach the objective of improving the competitiveness of the plant origin foods and wine sector in the target territories, by applying several strategies in the field of food science and technology, food engineering, nutrition, economics, anthropology and consumer science.

The Flagship project will focus on an area in which primary production meets/can meet the development of a processing industry up to the quality and quantity of the raw material, allowing to reach a result that, compared to the current situation, offers a better balance between unity of work, value produced, multidimensional sustainability and development of the local gastronomic culture.

The overarching aim of the Flagship Project is to contribute to the innovation and increase of the sustainability and competitiveness of the plant origin foods and wine sector in North-Western Italy framed by the Po River and the Alps-Apennine Mountain range.

Expected Results

The expected impact of the SADAIFO - PLANT project in relation to the recruitment is about six units of new employment, promoting female employment, in accordance with gender equality guidance, and contributing to the ecosystem objective to reach 40% of female fixed-term staff, as required by the Call.

At least 32 publications are foreseen for the dissemination of the results of the applied research activity, in scientific and sector journals. 2 is the number of intellectual property rights, meaning patents, utility models, trademarks, industrial designs, which will be registered. Interactions and synergies with the projects of Spoke 6 are probable, due to the complementarity of topics and results achieved. Strong interactions and synergies will be foreseen with the stakeholder committee.

Through the flagship project it is expected to be able to reach a TRL of 6

Impact on the territory

The goal is to improve the competitiveness of the agrifood industry in Piedmont and Lombardy regions. The involvement of a different geographical region (Sicily) in the spoke’s activities allows for a validation of developed technologies, processes and solutions into a different relevant environment.

The main impact of the Spoke activity can be summarised as follows:

• Strengthening of knowledge, technologies and collaborative approach;
• More integrated and digitally interconnected supply chain allowing a better valorization of high-quality products (DOP, IGP, STG, etc.) and easier access to markets;
• Efficient valorization of food waste/by-products for several purposes and enhanced efficiency thanks to the use of digital and sustainable technologies;
• Food design and advanced food technologies to produce food products with guaranteed safety and enhanced nutritional profile.

Participants:
 

POLITO: 

• Department 1 - Architecture and Design
• Department 2 - Control and Computer Engineering
• Department 3 - Environment, Land and Infrastructure Engineering
• Department 4 - Management and Production Engineering
• Department 5 - Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Department 6 - Electronics and Telecommunications
• Department 7 - Applied Science and Technology
• Interuniversity Department 1 - Regional and Urban Studies and Planning

UNISG:

• Research Group 1 - Sensory analysis and consumer science
• Research Group 2 - Food quality, perception, culture, education, lifestyle
• Research Group 3 - Biodiversity – Ethnoecology
• Research Group 4 - Legal quality schemes, Topic Origin-related quality of food, Global Food Governance, Quality Protection, Consumer Protection, Supply Chain Regulation, Comparative Law Analysis
• Research Group 5 - Circular Economy for Food, Systemic Thinking, Ecodesign
• Research Group 6 - Ethnography, Social Qualitative Analysis, Entrepreneurship Analysis, Qualitative Market Analysis

UNITO:

• Department 1 – Management
• Department 2 – Law
• Department 3 – DISAFA
• Department 4 - DSV

UNIPV:

• Department 1 - Public Health, Experimental and Forensic Medicine
• Department 2 - Biology and Biotechnology
• Department 3 - Drug Sciences
• Department 4 - Law

UNIPA:

• Department 1 - Agricultural, Agrifood and Forestry Sciences (SAAF)
• Department 2 - Culture and Society (C&S)
• Department 3 - Law (DIGI)
• Department 4 - Center for Sustainability and Ecological Transition (CSET)
• Department 5 - Economics, Business and Statistics Sciences (SEAS)
• Department 6 - Biological, Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies (STEBICEF)
• Department 7 - Engineering (DI)