In Europe, almost 2 million tons of berries are grown. More than 15% of these berries do not enter the fresh market for quality reasons. Part of these non-premium fruit are sold at dumping prices to the industry. Economically relevant functionalities and bio-activities have been assigned to berry biomass. Most of the berry species are rich in a broad set of functional molecules such as polyphenols. This provides multiple opportunities for bio-based product development.
OPTIBERRY targets innovative processing and biorefinery/extraction concepts to food prototypes and (non)-food ingredients for sustainable use of berry biomass available, especially the non-premium fruit. The project will result in high added value (non)-food applications to process or market the non-premium class fruit of raspberry, strawberry, and blackberry. This valorisation will result in a more resilient berry supply chain.
The functionality-guided process and product development will result in innovative concepts useful for a wide range of actors in the future circular economy, including food & drink applications and cosmetics applications.
*At the time of the proposal. Please consider this data as an accurate estimate; it may vary during the project’s lifespan.
Total costs include in kind contribution by grant holders and can therefore be higher than the total requested funding.