Sustainability in the Food Chain * Sustainability in the Food Chain * Institute of Food Research: Exploitation Platform

About the NAMASTE project

  • Project Sponsor: Collaborative project in coordination with DBT (India), funded by the European Commission.
  • Topics addressed: KBBE-2009-2-7-02 Valorisation of by-products in food processing
  • Project Title: New Advances in the integrated Management of food processing wAste in India and Europe: use of Sustainable Technologies for the Exploitation of by-products into new foods and feeds (NAMASTE)

Purpose and significance of the project

NAMASTE is a proactive international cooperation effort directed at the valorization of selected byproducts where a clear mutual benefit exists in terms of knowledge generation and market expansion for the global Food & Drink Industry.

The NAMASTE is an innovative EU project dealing with the conversion of fruit and cereal processing
byproducts and wastes into new healthy foods. It is the first time that such a challenge of key relevance for the sustainability and competitiveness of the fruit and cereal processing sectors of European food industry is faced through a synergistic European and Indian effort. Such an effort has been also specifically tailored for addressing the wellbeing request of modern society which displays an ever widening demand for “simple and ready to eat” foods with improved nutritive value, novel shapes and flavours, colour and texture.

The overall aim of the NAMASTE R&D project is to identify and introduce innovative and industry relevant approaches for the valorization of fruit (citrus, mango & pomegranates) and cereal (rice & wheat) wastes and by-products. This will be achieved through an holistic conversion into functional and health-benefitting beverages, foods and feeds by means of environmentally and economically sustainable protocols and technologies. Through this type of approach it is envisaged that the production of food processing waste would be minimized and underpinned by building a synergistic research programme between Europe and India to serve the future knowledge-based economies through improved competitive advantage.

At IFR, the focus is on the use of wheat bran. The work, co-ordinated through the Sustainability of the Food Chain Exploitation Platform, involves collaboration with the IFR Imaging Partnership and Integrated Biology of the GI Tract.

The Consortium

The project consortium includes partners in both the EU and India.

The European partners are:

  1. Alma Mater Studiorum-Università di Bologna, Italy (Coordinator : F. Fava)
  2. The Institute of Food Research (UK)
  3. AZTI Tecnalia / Unidad de Investigación Alimentaria (Spain)
  4. Campden & Chorleywood Magyarország (Hungary)
  5. Agrotechnology and Food Innovations B.V. (The Netherlands)
  6. Grupo Leche Pascual (Spain)
  7. J. Rettenmaier & Söhne GmbH + CO. KG, (Germany)

The Indian partners are:

  1. North East Institute of Science & Technology, Jorhat, Assam (Coordinator : P. K. Goswami)
  2. Euro India Research Centre, Bangalore
  3. University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore
  4. Nature Fresh Logistics Pvt Ltd, Maharashtra
  5. Desai Fruits and Vegetables, Mumbai.

Project newsletters:

Who to contact for further information:

Professor Keith Waldron / Dr Jim Robertson
Institute of Food Research
Norwich Research Park
Colney
Norwich
NR4 7UA
UK
Phone: +44 (0) 1603 255000
Fax: +44 (0) 1603 507723

E-mail: keith.waldron@ifr.ac.uk

E-mail: jim.robertson@ifr.ac.uk

 

Sustainability in the Food Chain Exploitation Platform Copyright Institute of Food Research Institute of Food Research