Reduce food loss and waste
How can our lab help you reach the Green Deal goals?
The research group VEG-i-TEC focuses on the evaluation of innovative technologies aiming to optimize the food production line, and to reduce food loss and to optimize the water use during processing as much as possible. On the other hand, emphasis is given to the valorization of the generated food losses/ water into value-added products that can be further used as food ingredients, but also in other applications such as plant protection products, natural dyes, cosmetics. The food loss and waste valorization approach is based on novel green (extraction) technologies preserving the technological functionality and bioactivity of the value-added compounds during the extraction process from the food waste/water matrix. A zero-waste approach is the basis of the research, which completely fits within the circular economy approach.
About our lab
The research group VEG-i-TEC is part of the Department of Food Technology, Food safety and Health at the faculty of Bioscience Engineering of Ghent University, Belgium. The group combines expertise from food science, food chemistry, food microbiology/fermentation and food & water process technology. Researchers interact closely with diverse stakeholders at the local, national and international level to improve vegetable processing taking into account the water and energy consumption.
The VEG-i-TEC research building will be erected on the UGent Campus Kortrijk (Graaf Karel de Goedelaan, Kortrijk, Belgium) with ample of laboratory spaces close-by.
The research building contains flexible spaces designed as:
- a process and wastewater treatment hall in the broadest sense and tailored for the entire food industry
- a hall for the processing of vegetables and potatoes from harvested to packaged product, to which modular mobile pilots for water treatment can be connected
- storage space at different temperatures
- fermentation space for solid state and (fed) batch fermenters
- supporting analytical/microbiological laboratory