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Project

Pilothal for applied research and development around processing processes of vegetables and potatoes (Veg-I-Tec)

At the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering at Ghent University, there has long been extensive experience in the processing of vegetables and potatoes and how this processing affects the quality. The whole chain is, as it were, assured, from cultivation to processing and marketing. Various groups are active in various sub-domains of the processing of vegetables and potatoes: washing, packaging, microbiological and chemical quality and safety (including pesticides), water treatment, deepfreeze, agricultural economy, consumer behavior ... The Laboratory for Food Microbiology and Biotechnology at the Ghent University Campus Kortrijk within the Department of Industrial Biological Sciences, focuses the research on nutrition with research pillars 1) fermentations and 2) chemical and microbiological quality. The research group is also part of Food2Know (UGent). The Laboratory for Food Microbiology and Biotechnology has built up a lot of expertise and network (with sector organizations, companies as well as other knowledge institutes nationally and internationally) in the last 5 years around secondary flows, water quality, water treatment and this in the fruit and vegetable (fruit and vegetables) industry. . The Laboratory therefore has the right expertise to carry out the research activities and the valorisation activities efficiently and with knowledge of the facts. The proposed research is a logical consequence of the four-year FP7 project 'Veg-i-Trade' (www.veg-i-trade.org) in which the Laboratory for Food Microbiology and Biotechnology worked on water treatment techniques in the context of freshly cut vegetables. and fruit and where national and international publications ensued. This knowledge was also disseminated to the business world, such as via a direct IWT-TETRA (Use of essential oils in water as a tool for the removal of pathogenic and spoil flora); and through bil matter research or SME portfolio (Application of water disinfection for the extension of the shelf life of fresh cut lettuce; Application of water disinfection for the extensions of the shelf life of sugar snaps). Through literature study, laboratory and business practice in these projects, an accurate picture was created of the necessary conditions for the successful execution of water disinfection practices in the food industry.

Date:1 Apr 2017 →  31 Dec 2022
Keywords:patatoes, vegetables
Disciplines:Other agriculture, forestry, fisheries and allied sciences, Agriculture, land and farm management, Agricultural animal production, Agricultural plant production