Award details

UK-China Agritech Challenge- CITRUSAFE

Reference	BB/S020950/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Caroline Orfila
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Professor Richard Blackburn, Dr Christine Bosch, Professor Francisco Goycoolea, Professor Long Lin
Institution	University of Leeds
Department	School of Food Science and Nutrition
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	422,328
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/02/2019
End date	31/07/2021
Duration	30 months

Abstract

unavailable

Summary

The proposal addresses China's development priorities to eliminate waste and improve food safety. The project will exploit complementary Chinese and UK research and industrial expertise to valorise waste from large scale (>10 million tons of waste) Chinese mandarin canning manufacturing for food safety applications. Efficient green technologies will be optimised to extract and refine food grade hydrocolloids and citrus bioactives from both solid and liquid waste streams. The focus will be on improving extraction efficiencies and solubility of the compounds to ensure compatibility with foods and packaging matrices. The exploitable outputs will be well defined biomaterials with downstream processing applications in two manufacturing sectors: (1) food additives and (2) food packaging. Food and packaging prototypes will be developed and selected according to optimal antimicrobial and antioxidant properties against key spoilage pathogens in high risk foods (e.g. meat and fish products) and consumer acceptability. This project will utilise China sustainable materials, provide commercial opportunities to Chinese and UK industries with benefits to the environment and the safety of consumers.

Impact Summary

FOOD SAFETY: one of the main aims of this innovate/BBSRC Newton Fund projects is to improve the safety of commodity products in China, focusing on high-risk commodity products including poultry and fish. Through this project, we will demonstrate the application of pectin biofilm and citrus bioactives as antimicrobials agents against key food pathogens. Our aim is to extend shelf-life of high-risk foods (chicken and fish) by at least 24 h. ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS: The main objective of this project is to deliver improvements in environmental quality by reducing or eliminating unavoidable waste from food processing streams. In addition, improvements to shelf life have the potential to reduce food waste even further, it is estimated that extending shelf life by 24 h would cut food waste by 10%. The project will undertake life-cycle analysis to quantify potential environmental impacts. If Xiang Shan Hua YU Ltd. adopts the technology and expands its waste treatment capability, it will lead to a reduction of 10 million tons of liquid waste and 1 million tons of solid waste in the short to medium term (2-5 years). Adoption of the waste treatment technology by other companies (there are at least 50 other mandarin canning factories in the region) will increase the scale of impact in the longer term (5-10 years). IMPROVED REGULATION: technical advances will lead to development and maintenance of fit-for-purpose regulations and practical guidance for waste utilisation technologies. In the longer term, the project may play a part in development of food safety legislation of packaged food products. ECONOMIC BENEFITS FOR THE UK ECONOMY: This project has significant potential for commercial exploitation of products and industrial processes by UK companies. Successful completion of the proposed project will have significant commercial impact for the UK companies in the short, medium and longer term. While the UK companies have existing routes to market in EEA, the project will openmarket opportunities in China. ECONOMIC BENEFIT IN CHINA: In the long term (>5 years), improvements in food safety systems will allow China to increase food exports. DIETARY HEALTH OF THE CHINESE POPULATION (>5years): Associated with improved food safety will be the increased availability of nutritious foods such as poultry and fish. China is still developing and malnutrition through unavailability or unaffordability of nutritious food is still prevalent. According to WHO data 12.7 million children are stunted in China including 20% of children in rural areas. Increase in food availability should reduce the need for food aid. SOCIAL BENEFIT (>5 years): The project has the potential to stimulate the local economy, increase employment and source of income for rural populations.

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Industrial Biotechnology, Microbial Food Safety
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	Newton Fund Open Call (NF) [2015]
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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