'Food fermentations are among the traditional industries that have a long standing history worldwide. In spite of great technological advantages, much of the industry is still based on traditional, experienced-based techniques that are strongly rooted in specific geographic regions. In food fermentations, consortia of microorganisms are essential to the process, and determine the characteristics of the end products. They also are responsible for the production of biogenic amines (BA) that may cause serious human health problems following ingestion of fermented foods containing high concentrations of these compounds. This project focuses on the microorganisms in the food chain that produce biogenic amines with the main goal to improve the quality of traditional fermented food products by reducing/eliminating their biogenic amine content. Control of biogenic amines in the food products will significantly reduce the health risk for the consumer and, thereby, increase the competitiveness of the local industries. The challenge for the food industry is to produce food and beverages in which the levels of BA are minimized. The project focuses on three different fermentation processes in four different region of Europe. The project has both an analytical component aiming at identifying BA producers in the food chain and the conditions that result in BA production, as well as a controlling component aiming at a significant reduction or even elimination of BA in the food products. This will be achieved by formulating best practice guides, development of tools, and the utilization of new starter LAB. The whole food chain is considered. At the beginning of the food chain, the potential of microorganisms to form BA is analyzed; during the fermentation process the physiological conditions that result in BA formation are controlled and at the end of the chain the survival of microorganisms producing BA in the digestive tract is analyzed and their effect on the consumer considered.'

The MARG project addresses the need to increase the competitiveness of the SME partners by developing an accurate, real-time and user friendly measurement system for monitoring spatial distribution and intensity of rain in rural and urban scale. By providing the innovative system and the data acquired via the system to business that are directly impacted by rain consortium SMEs intend to capture a significant share of the weather market that is valued at € 200 billion only in Europe. SMEs that cover the supply chain want to take an advantage of early market penetration and outrun the competition. During the project a pre-competitive prototype will be crafted by partners for single radar and network application. Partner SMEs strongly believe that it will turn to a marketable product by 2014 and within the first 5 years of exploitation it will gain a total profit of € 1.5 M for them.

VITISENS proposes the development of an innovative hand-held device that integrates the three steps for accurate detection of nucleic acids (extraction, amplification and detection) in a single platform with a cost below €1000 \ €10/test. This in-field tool will allow non-technical staff to easily detect the Flavescence dorée, the most destructive phytoplasma disease of grapevines. The incidence of this disease is epidemic and rising rapidly in many European countries, straining grape and wine producers already struggling to maintain global competitiveness. Currently available laboratory techniques for detecting the disease are expensive, time-consuming and require trained personnel as well as expensive equipment in centralized laboratories, and in many cases carry the risk of sample contamination. Overcoming portability, heterogeneity, risk of contamination and ease of use limitations rely on the ideal integrated design of the platform within a closed disposable cartridge while overcoming the expense of current methods relies on the amplification step, done under isothermal conditions by the loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) as well as on the development of a low cost robust fluorescence reader. The technology will directly benefit European winegrowers by limiting disease spread and reducing the number of vines destroyed. Wine quality and crop yield will increase, while production costs related to the systemic use of pesticides and the production of healthy vines will be reduced. Other benefits extend to vine nurseries being able to issue quality certificates of planting material, and to authorities when monitoring disease occurrence. Manufacturer SMEs will benefit from accessing new markets with new portfolio products, generating new income sources and from the innovative character of the system, which can be further applied for detecting other pathogens.

VinBot responds to a need to boost the quality of European wines by implementing precision viticulture (PV) tools in the face of serious market threats worldwide and structural shortcomings within the EU wine sector. Wine producer associations have no control over yield management throughout their members’ vineyards, which leads to reduced quality wine at the association level. At the vineyard level, wine growers are not able to accurately assess yield due to the large amount of terrain to inspect, and use sample-based estimates of smaller production areas to estimate yield, which also negatively affects wine quality. An automatic yield monitoring system would allow winegrowers to accurately assess grape yield and relevant phyto-data via a set of sensors, tracking the state and location of the assets, generating maps, capturing sample locations, and sharing such information in a quick, flexible, autonomous and easy-to-use way. By means of a novel, all-terrain, autonomous robot, VinBot automates the traditional visual yield estimation process throughout the entire vineyard, estimating the amount of leaves and grapes on the vine via computer vision and other sensors. Data-intensive computer vision algorithms are offloaded to external internet servers (the cloud). The VinBot extends visual leaf and fruit estimation throughout the entire vineyard, and centralises yield management in the SME-AGs by providing them with online yield maps of their members' vineyards. The VinBot represents a powerful precision viticulture tool, which does not exist today: the cloud-computing agricultural robot. Using the VinBot, the consortium SME wine producer associations will be able to coordinate and optimise yield management strategies throughout their thousands of members' vineyards, based on their collective expertise and commercial objectives. They expect to sell their wine for 8%-20% more over a five year period by employing the VinBot system to accurately estimate yield.

I materiali di imballaggio possono influire in modo significativo sulla qualità degli alimenti in essi contenuti, in particolar modo a seguito di fenomeni di degradazione, di scalping o di permeazione. I composti aromatici sono costituenti minoritari della matrice alimentare, ma piccole alterazioni della loro concentrazione o delle loro proporzioni relative possono produrre cambiamenti sensorialmente rivelabili che possono tradursi nella non-accettabilità da parte del consumatore. Al fine di prevenire tale deterioramento nella qualità dell’alimento, lo sviluppo di nuovi imballaggi dovrebbe mirare ad evitare perdite significative o degradazione di questi composti volatili durante la shelf-life del prodotto.

L’obiettivo dell’idea progettuale è di acquisire nuove conoscenze confrontandole con quelle già esistenti, allo scopo di mettere a punto formulazioni di colture microbiche starter per l’enologia partendo da ceppi autoctoni appositamente selezionati per vini prodotti da vitigni autoctoni in purezza, con l’obiettivo secondario di attivare un regime di utilizzo delle risorse microbiche coerente con vini prodotti da uve biologiche. Si tratta di produzioni che pur possedendo lo status di “nicchie” nel mercato del vino, sono rilevanti nella conversione da una produzione basata sulla quantità ad una produzione basata sulla qualità, un’evoluzione cruciale per il sistema viti-vinicolo ed agroalimentare pugliese.