Important goals should be considered for the Agenda 2030, such as providing good health and well-being, responsible consumption and production, climate action, local economy and income generation, among others.
For food industry, the need for development of sustainable food systems is of utmost importance. However, challenges are still to overcome, such as which resources will be necessary to accomplish these goals and guarantee food security? And even if food chains become sustainable, the industry and consumers are able to maintain them if the current production methods and eating habits remain unchanged?
The concrete objectives of SAFIR are within the Programme IV, aiming to:
A. affirming the prestige of scientific research in Romania quantified by international scientific results, while identifying and supporting research teams to achieve, maintain and strengthen the critical mass necessary for their international competitiveness;
B. increasing food systems sustainably whilst reducing side streams and limiting environmental impacts, by implementing easy to use solutions for managing selected agro-food by-products, and introducing the concept of sustainable food you can trust.
The SAFIR project may be considered as a science effort, both at the fundamental and applied levels, to advance the knowledge by using concepts of eco-functional by-products processing, by developing customised ingredients and functional foods, with added value and targeted functions.
At scientific level, the project aims to:
I. Fundamental research and innovation objectives:
1: Identifying natural competitive antibrowing agents for apples polyphenol oxidase and peroxidase by using grape extracts and whey proteins as a source of antioxidants.
2: New alternatives for whey valorization as a source of lactose and proteins for co-crystallization and microencapsulation of bioactives from grape and apple pomace polyphenolic-enriched extract.
3: Fostering the microencapsulation methods to delivery targeted bioactive.
4: Reuse and recycling of whey and BSG as easy to use strategies for transforming waste into postbiotics.
II. Applicative and patentable research approaches (PPA):
2: New insights into quality aspects of hybrid bakery and meat products, with the aim of replacing of meat, fat and flour, respectively, with selected powders.
The SAFIR aims to develop new classes of technology-driven ingredients and functional food, with targeted functions, thus supporting the excellence in science, reflected in the increase in the number of publications with high international impact and patented inventions.