Sustainable food security - SEAFOODTOMORROW

Nutritious, safe and sustainable seafood for consumers of tomorrow
SEAFOOD^TOMORROW is a H2020 EC-funded innovation action led by IPMA in Portugal that started in November 2017 and will run until October 2020. The consortium consists of interdisciplinary research teams of 19 RTD centers involved, renowned by its top-quality applied technological development and with strong and cohesive links gathered in previous funded activities (e.g. FP7 ECsafeSEAFOOD), thus anticipating successful outcomes. In addition, 4 IAGs and 13 SMEs with diverse and complementary interests in the solutions under validation and optimization participate in the consortium.

SEAFOOD^TOMORROW aims to validate and optimize commercial solutions for improving the socio-economic and environmental sustainability of the seafood production and processing industry, while contributing to product quality and safety. Activities will focus on the sustainable production and processing of nutritious and safe seafood products through the demonstration and first application in the market of eco-innovative, sustainable solutions of marine and aquaculture-derived food products and nutrients. The project will take into account impacts across different regions and population segments, as well as the specificities of different types of seafood.
Activities will include among others: utilization of agro and seafood byproducts to develop sustainable feeds for aquaculture enabling the production of tailor made products fortified with specific essential nutrients for consumers, assess the feasibility of salt replacers in seafood, validate digestible, attractive, functional and nutritionally adapted seafood for senior people and youths, validate strategies to prevent/remove contaminants from seafood, and optimize sensors and biosensors for the assessment of seafood safety, among others.
The consortium expects strengthening the wider utilization of eco-innovative solutions, as a result of greater user acceptance, higher visibility of these innovative solutions and creation of scalable markets, and increasing the availability of healthier seafood to improve consumers' diet and health.

Objectives

SEAFOOD^TOMORROW aims to develop innovative sustainable solutions for improving the safety and dietary properties of seafood in Europe. Addressing the challenge to meet the growing market need for safe and sustainable seafood, the project will generate new knowledge to develop commercially viable eco-innovative solutions for improving the socio-economic and environmental sustainability of the European seafood production and processing industry.

Role of Ghent University

Ghent University leads work package 4 on markets, acceptability, sustainability and demonstration. The main objective of WP4 is to assess market interest, consumer acceptance and the impact of the solutions developed in other project work packages on economy and society, while demonstrating and stimulating their technology transfer to SMEs, allowing them to create new business activities. The main UGent partners involved in this project are the Department of Agricultural Economics and Food2Know.

Contact

Prof. Wim Verbeke
Department of Agricultural Economics
Phone number: 00329 264 61 81
E-mail: wim.verbeke@ugent.be