This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 861915. Coordinated by George-John Nychas gjn@aua.gr
Partners
Coordinated by the Agricultural University of Athens (AUA), DiTECT brings together 21 partners from ten countries across Europe and 13 partners from six Chinese provinces representing the agri-food sector and gathering the required expertise in microbial and spectroscopic fingerprinting technologies, emerging ICT-based food tracing systems, signal analysis and data mining. This multi-actor and Sino-European consortium led by AUA involves as full partners European and Chinese academia (Cranfield University, Shandong Agricultural University, University of Naples Federico II, Nanjing Agricultural University, University of Shanghai for Science & Technology, University College Dublin, Zhejiang University, Fudan University, Maastricht University, China Agricultural University, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Sichuan University), agri-food research institutes (Hellenic Agricultural Organisation, ADIV, Institute of Quality Standards & Technology for Agro-Products of CAAS, Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute), international companies (YIOTIS, GLANBIA), six technological SMEs (VIDEOM, WINGS, THETA, NEMIS, WRLS, CENTAUR), poultry, beef and infant food industries (KOTINO, PAP, MINHE, KERCHIN and YIOTIS), accredited food safety laboratories (FOODAL, SGL, HAO and YIOTIS) and a media monitoring company (INNEWS).
Scientific leader: Prof. George-John Nychas (Coordinator) | e-mail: gjn@aua.gr
The Agricultural University of Athens (AUA) was established in 1920 and produces scientific knowledge on Greek Agriculture and Economy since 1920. Three laboratories from AUA participate in the project:
The Laboratory of Microbiology and Biotechnology of Foods (LMBF): its main research activities are focused on food spoilage, food-borne pathogens, and predictive modelling and risk assessment. The LMBF has led expeditions in the following fields:
a) assessment of food safety and spoilage through microbiological analysis (pathogens spoilage organisms), and physicochemical analysis (metabolomics) in combination with multivariate statistical methods, such as MCFA, PCA, discriminant analysis and cluster analysis,
b) responses of stress adapted pathogens grown planktonically or attached on stainless steel surfaces (biofilms),
c) modelling the behaviour of microbial populations throughout the food chain to assist reliable estimation of microbial food safety risk,
d) implementation of Process Analytical Technology (PAT) in the Food Industry; The introduction of non-invasive approach to enhance food safety and quality technology (PAT) in the Food Industry.
Scientific Team: Prof. George-John Nychas, Assoc. Prof. Efstathios Panagou, Mr. A. Stamatiou
The Agricultural Engineering Lab (AEL) of the Department of Natural Resources Management & Agricultural Engineering has coordinated and participates in many H2020 projects such as: Smart-AKIS thematic network on innovation-driven research in smart farming technologies, GATES project for the development of a serious game for precision agriculture adoption in the EU, OPTIMA project (OPTimised Integrated Pest Management for precise detection and control of plant diseases in perennial crops and open-field vegetables), IoF2020 and APOLLO, INNOSETA, PANACEA and EURAKNOS thematic networks.
Scientific team: Assoc. Prof. Spyros Fountas
The Farm Structures Lab (FSL) of the Department of Natural Resources Management & Agricultural Engineering has long year experience in controlled environment agriculture (systems, technologies, applications) and in issues related to monitoring, simulating and optimise process and designs for agricultural constructions and it has coordinated and participated in a series of relevant national and EU research projects.
Scientific team: Assoc. Prof. Thomas Bartzanas, Assoc. Prof. Panagiotis Panagakis
Scientific leader / Contact person: Dr Fady Mohareb |
e-mail: f.mohareb@cranfield.ac.uk
Cranfield University (CU) is an exclusively postgraduate university in technology and management. CU’s vision is to develop outstanding transformational research that meets the needs of business, government and wider society. It is our aim to provide innovative, business-engaged research that is underpinned by academic staff recognised as thought leaders and high impact, highly cited research outputs. Critical intellectual mass is provided through Cranfield being organised around eight major themes, Environment and AgriFood being one of them; which graduates 25% of all agricultural‐related postgraduates in the UK. CU’s Environment and AgriFood theme has a strong international research profile in plant sciences and is committed to expansion and investment of facilities for understanding and exploiting interactions between plant and soil. The theme hosts two Centres of Agricultural Innovation with ~£8M investment in the Cranfield campus in 2016. Last year, the UK Government announced a multimillion-pound investment in three new Agritech centres as part of its Agritech strategy. As partners in two of these, Agri-EPI and CHAP, CU is at the heart of the delivery of this Agritech strategy. The Bioinformatics Group in Agrifood is formed of an entirely computer-based research team, which includes the Group Head (Dr Fady Mohareb), four bioinformatics PDRAs from a mixed background (biology, mathematics, data science, and IT), six PhD students, and 14 MSc students.
Scientific team: Dr Fady Mohareb, Dr Maria Anastasiadi
Scientific leader: Prof. Xin Luo | e-mail: luoxin@sdau.edu.cn
Contact person: Dong Zhou | e-mail: penglai1969@126.com
Shandong Agricultural University (SDAU) was founded in 1906, which is a multi-disciplinary university with agricultural science as its advantage and life science as a distinctive feature, covering many areas of both Natural Sciences and Social Sciences. SDAU has obtained many honors in scientific research, which include but are not limited to 24 National Science & Technology Progress Awards including the National Technology Invention First Award, more than 370 ministerial and provincial achievements awards in scientific research; with the support of one national key laboratory, 2 national key disciplines, one national engineering research center, 2 key disciplines of Ministry of Agriculture, 2 open labs of Ministry of Agriculture and 16 provincial key disciplines spread in 20 colleges among three campus. SDAU has established academic exchanges with more than 30 overseas universities and scientific institutions, such as University of Kentucky, Purdue University, University of Florida, The FOM University of Applied Sciences, and Royal Agricultural College etc.
The Laboratory of Beef Processing and Quality Control of SDAU was established in 1996, and was named as Laboratory of beef processing and safety & quality control, by China Agriculture Research System since 2008; it was also named as National R&D Center for Beef Processing Technology by Ministry of Agriculture since 2018; The main research activities are focused on meat quality, meat spoilage, meat products-borne pathogens, risk assessment and non-destructive approach for evaluation of meat quality & safety.
The Laboratory of Beef Processing and Quality Control has led expeditions in the following fields:
- Meat products-borne pathogens: epidemiological investigation of the major meat products-borne pathogens in beef plants in China; rapid detection approaches and control of the pathogens; the evaluation of approaches to control pathogens.
- Meat spoilage: investigations and modelling of the bacterial shelf-life of different kinds of meat under various conditions; bacterial diversity monitor and spoilage bacteria detection in meat; shelf-life control measures of meat
- Meat quality: mechanism exploration of the development of meat tenderness, color, water holding capacity; improvement of meat quality
Scientific team: Prof. Xin Luo, Assoc. Prof. Yimin Zhang, Dr. Pencheng Dong
Scientific leader: Prof. Danilo Ercolini | e-mail: ercolini@unina.it
Contact person: Francesca de Filipis | e-mail: francesca.defilippis@unina.it
The Department of Agricultural Sciences (DAS) is one of the largest Departments of the University of Naples Federico II (UNINA), which is by itself the 3rd largest Italian University. The staff working at DAS includes more than 120 scientists and 60 administrative staff members. The multidisciplinary research activities carried out are related to food science, agriculture and environment. The quality of the research carried out at DAS is recognized for its excellence at both national and international level: in the last five years members of the DAS have published an average of 100 articles per year ranked in the first quartile (Q1) of their respective subject categories of the Journal Citation Report (ISI Web of Science). DAS hosts a number of different research units whose activities are consistent with the scope of the proposal, including the Division of Microbiology, Food Science and Technology, Human Nutrition, Plant Biology, Biotechnology and Crop Science with over 80 scientists, including faculty, PhD students and post-doc researchers. The DAS is the coordinating Department of the Task Force on Microbiome Studies at UNINA, a collective and interdisciplinary Microbiome initiative bringing together facilities from 15 different departments and expertise from 140 staff scientists spanning from soil/plant/food microbiomics through human microbiome, engineering and social sciences (www.tfm.unina.it).
The team involved will be set at the Division of Microbiology, that hosts laboratories fully equipped for molecular microbiology and metagenomics. It is/was involved in several National and European projects focused on the study of the microbiota during food production and spoilage and on the application of metagenomics to the study of microbial ecology. In addition, the University datacenter SCoPE (Cooperative System for multidisciplinary Scientific Computing), a set of computing and storage resources, is available at UNINA for computationally intensive data analysis.
The team has recognized expertise in:
- Microbial ecology and dynamics during food production and spoilage;
- Application of metagenomics and high-throughput sequencing to the study of food, human and environmental microbiome;
- Bioinformatics for metagenomics data analysis;
- Integration of multi-omics data to build predictive models (e.g. metagenomics, metranscriptomics, metabolomics).
Scientific team: Prof. Danilo Ercolini, Dr. Francesca De Filippis, Dr. Edoardo Pasolli
Scientific leader: Prof. Panagiotis Demestichas | e-mail: pdemest@wings-ict-solutions.eu
Contact persons: Eva Labrakopoulou| e-mail: elabrakopoulou@wings-ict-solutions.eu
& George Manassakis | e-mail: gmanassakis@wings-ict-solutions.eu
WINGS is a dynamic SME which focuses on the development of products/platforms for various vertical sectors (namely, water, energy, smart cities, food safety, health, transportation, finance) through advanced wireless, cloud/IoT, big data and security technologies. WINGS is staffed by members who have been active in research and development for more than twenty years.
As part of its strategy, WINGS aims at offering the incubation for developing new products and services, as well as at attracting investments for expanding its business or for creating affiliate businesses, which will be based on its most mature and validated prototypes. Specifically:
- WINGS has a large collaboration with IBM regarding big data related services/applications for the energy, water and finance, and telecommunications sectors.
- WINGS has raised a seed private fund for creating a spin-out company (Incelligent) that has as a top level pitch sentence the accomplishment of “Proactive resource and customer experience management in wireless networks”.
- WINGS has prepared and is constantly upgrading the CATARACT (Proactive management platform for smart connected water) platform, which leverages on commercial and on more novel sensors, standardized communication technologies, analytics and artificial intelligence, visualization and customizable dashboards.
- WINGS is piloting the MigraineNet system for increasing awareness with respect to migraines and providing personalized predictions of upcoming migraine incidents and information on the causes and first aid in terms of (self-)treatment.
- WINGS is preparing the STARLIT platform, which is based on cloud, IoT and artificial-intelligence technologies, which delivers assisted-living in the context of smart-cities (project iKaaS).
Moreover, WINGS has an ongoing bilateral collaboration with Intel Mobile Communications; the collaboration targets the development of both application and kernel level software for assisting the network interface selection procedure of a mobile terminal. This shows the WINGS capability of software development according to industrial standards.
Scientific team: Prof. Panagiotis Demestichas, Dr. Panagiotis Vlacheas, Dr. Vassilis Foteinos
Scientific leader: Prof. Changbo Tang | e-mail: tangcb@njau.edu.cn
Contact person: Juan Shen | e-mail: 2016027@njau.edu.cn
Nanjing Agricultural University (NAU) is a national key institution of higher learning, directly affiliated to the Chinese Ministry of Education. It was built in 1902. Famously known for its established disciplines in agriculture and life sciences, NAU also offers balanced, comprehensive programs in diverse branches of learning, including sciences, economics, management, engineering, humanities and law. NAU consists of 18 colleges and offers undergraduate programs in 62 specialties, first-level master’s programs in 31 disciplines, professional degree programs in 15 specialties and doctoral programs in 17 first-level disciplines, as well as 15 postdoctoral programs. The university has more than 2,700 faculty and staff members and over 25,500 full-time students, including more than 17,000 undergraduates and over 8,500 postgraduates. The Meat Laboratory of NAU was established in 1994 and the main research activities are focused on food spoilage, food-borne pathogens, and predictive modelling and risk assessment. It has a broad collaboration with the industry, and domestic and foreign universities/institutions, in particular has co-established the National Center of Meat Quality and Safety Control and the USDA-China Joint Center of Food Quality and Safety Control, both of which are approved by Ministry of Science and Technology, China. In addition, NAU has a leadership in the subsection of meat, poultry, fish, eggs and their products, International Standard Organization (ISO/TC34/SC6). Research expeditions:
- The implementation of visible detection technology in the meat product; The introduction of visible and sensitive approach to access the meat safety and quality
- The application of rapid analytical techniques (optical thin-film biosensor, label-free biochips, SPR, and ELISA) in the detection of allergenic potential of novel proteins and chemical hazards in food.
- Predictive microbiology of meat products
Scientific team: Prof. Changbo Tang, Prof. Guanghong Zhou, Prof. Xinglian Xu, Prof. Chunbao Li, Assoc. Prof. Wei Wang, Assoc. Prof. Huhu Wang, Assoc. Prof. Keping Ye
Scientific leader: Dr. Jens Michael Carstensen
Contact person: Alessia Del Genio | e-mail: mail@videometer.com
Videometer A/S is a privately-owned Danish company (SMV) founded in 1999 that specialises in automated visual measurements and visual quality control and is focusing on development of high-performance vision systems for a broad range of industries. The main business areas of Videometer are accurate vision-based measurements of texture and colour, product development for visual quality assessment and R&D intensive vision technology projects. Successful applications of vision technology are based on skills within illumination technology, optics, camera technology, electronics, mechanics, automation, image analysis, computer vision, statistics, software technology and systems design. Videometer vision solutions are based on an integration of these skills and customer needs. Videometer has a unique patented technology for multispectral and colour vision, that includes high-resolution measurements in the ultraviolet, visual, and near-infrared spectral bands. This can bring vision from measurements of appearance to surface chemistry mapping through the use of multivariate statistical methods like spectral unmixing. Videometer also develops vision solutions from analytical instruments to in-line sorting machines for the food industry, the chemical industry, the medical device industry and the pharmaceutical industry. Focus is always on reproducibility of the measurements since this is a key issue when it comes to putting real value into a measurement system, and it is a necessity when talking about accuracy at all. Assessment of visual properties of non-trivial materials like food and feed are often not handled well by standard vision systems. Videometer can extend the potential of vision sensors far beyond these conventional systems.Scientific team: Dr. Jens Michael Carstensen, Dr. Nette Schultz
Videometer Food safety for grain and seed applications
Scientific leader: Dr. Ioannis Raptis | e-mail: raptis@thetametrisis.com
Contact person: Dr. Ioannis Raptis; Dimitris Goustouridis | e-mail: raptis@thetametrisis.com ; dgoustouridis@thetametrisis.com
ThetaMetrisis (est. 2008 in Athens) is a spin-off company from the Institute of Microelectronics, NCSR ‘Demokritos’. In 2014, the company inaugurated the operations of its USA branch, ThetaMetrisis LLC, while in parallel initiated strategic cooperation with major distribution companies in Japan, India, China and central Europe. The company exploits the White Light Reflectance Spectroscopy (WLRS) methodology, developed by the co-founders (Dr. Ioannis Raptis, Dr. Dimitris Goustouridis), for the measurement of the properties of films and coatings. ThetaMetrisis S.A. focuses on the design and manufacturing of turn-key integrated optical metrology tools suitable for a wide range of diverse applications with customers both in academia & industry. In addition, ThetaMetrisis develops custom-made optoelectronic solutions for R&D and manufacturing. The company, has particular interest for the application of photonic systems in health and agrofood applications and works on the realization of portable solution for those two markets.
Research expeditions: Coordination of nationally funded research projects for the development of miniaturized Biosensing tools with application in the quantitative detection of a) biomarkers related to human health and b) harmful species in food samples.
Scientific team: Dr. Ioannis Raptis, Dr. Dimitris Goustouridis
Scientific leader / Contact person: Prof. Qingli Dong | e-mail: qdong@usst.edu.cn
With over 110 years of history, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology (USST) has many distinctive features. As a key university included in the “Double First-class Initiative” of Shanghai, it is co-sponsored by the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense and the Municipal Government of Shanghai. Focusing on engineering, this university has seen a balanced development of other such disciplines as engineering, science, economics, management, literature, law and arts, making it an application-research oriented university, one of the major projects in Shanghai. Endorsed by Shanghai Food Microbiology Engineering Technology Research Center, Dr. Qingli Dong’s team has carried out in-depth research for more than 10 years in predicting microbiology modeling, exposure assessment and dose-response relationship, and risk prevention and control of food pathogenic microorganisms.
Scientific team: Prof. Qingli Dong, Assoc. Prof. Xiang Wang, Mr. Yangtai Liu, Ms. Yuan Wang
Scientific leader: Prof. Colm O’Donnell | e-mail: colm.odonnell@ucd.ie
Contact person: Ming Zhao | e-mail: ming.zhao@ucd.ie
University College Dublin (UCD) [also known as the National University of Ireland, Dublin] is Ireland’s premier university, with ca. 26,000 students and a research budget of ca. €120 million per annum. The university is ranked in the top 12% of universities, worldwide, and has a strong international profile in research and innovation. It has 10 faculties spanning the full academic spectrum, from arts and humanities to science, technology, medicine and agrifood. The university has a highly developed support structure for its research, including finance, project management and innovation. As part of the UCD Research and Innovation unit, NovaUCD is the hub of innovation-related activities at University College Dublin. NOVA UCD specialises in addressing the innovation, commercialisation and impact of the research emerging from the university. The School of Biosystems and Food Engineering is a research-intensive school, with an annual output >100 peer-reviewed journal papers and a track record in participating in and leading major national and international research projects. For example, it has led (and participated in) numerous national and international research projects, including EC Framework Programme. The School has a strong track record of leadership in EU projects e.g. Agrocycle, Protect The School has one ERC Fellow, three Marie Curie Fellows and has a staff comprising 15 academics, 24 postdoctoral researchers and ca. 60 postgraduate students (mainly PhDs). The School’s research performance is ranked in the top 4 universities by the American Society of Agricultural & Biological Engineers (ASABE, USA). The School’s academic staff have a major global research impact, accounting for >50% of the citation impact of UCD in the Agri-Food domain. Research themes within UCD include: Food Engineering and Processing, Process Analytical Technology, Risk Assessment and Traceability, Sustainable Energy, Sustainable Agriculture, Environmental Engineering, Life Cycle Assessment.
Scientific team: Prof. Colm O’Donnell, Assoc. Professor Aoife Gowen, Dr. Carlos Esquerre Fernandez
Scientific leader: Dr. Sotiris Bantas | e-mail: sotiris@centaur.ag
Contact person: Faye Beligianni | e-mail: faye@centaur.ag ; projects@centaur.ag
The company is a dynamic high-tech product company, which started in Volos, Greece in 2014. Centaur Technologies is an Internet of Things solutions company developing wireless sensor electronics and cloud software for data monitoring and analytics. We are focused on Stored Product Protection for the food industry and logistics chain. Our specialties include web and mobile software, wireless electronics, semiconductors, simulation and analytics techniques. The team consists of highly skilled scientists and engineers, including PhD holders, and combines hardware design, software development, data science and agronomy expertise.
Scientific team: Dr. Sotiris Bantas, Dr. Efstathios Kaloudis, Ms. Foteini Beligianni, Mr. Antonis Tzounis, Mr. Nikos Oikonomou
Scientific leader: Prof. Yong He | e-mail: yhe@zju.edu.cn
Contact person: Haiyan Cen | e-mail: hycen@zju.edu.cn
Zhejiang University (ZJU) is one of China’s top higher education institutions, as well as one of its oldest; its roots can be traced back to 1897 and the founding of the Qiushi Academy. Located in Hangzhou – one of China’s most picturesque cities – the University is organized across seven faculties and 36 schools. It is home to 3,741 full-time faculty members, including 46 members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering. Laying claim to several areas of research strength, ZJU currently ranks among the top three on Chinese mainland and within the top 100 in the Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings and QS World University Rankings. Eighteen disciplines of ZJU have been selected for China’s “Double First-class” Initiative (3rd in China) and 39 disciplines graded A in the recent national assessment (1st in China). The University prides itself on a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship. ZJU researchers are making an impact across many priority areas that address global challenges, including artificial intelligence, assembly technology for large aircraft, clean energy, ocean technology, industrial control technology, and global public health initiatives related to the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases. Over 100 of its alumni sit at the helm of domestic or overseas listed companies, making the University synonymous with excellence and leadership. ZJU has partnerships in place with more than 190 institutions from more than 30 countries worldwide. Included among them are such leading institutions as Imperial College London, the University of Sydney and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The collaborative partner has three Zhejiang provincial key sci-tech innovation teams: Sci-tech Innovation Team of Modern Agricultural Equipment & Facility Industry, Sci-tech Innovation Team of Plant-based Food Processing and Sci-tech Innovation Team of Facility Aquaculture Engineering & Equipment Industry; Two MOA outstanding scientific researchers and their ministerial innovation teams: Innovation Team of Facility Agricultural Equipment & Intelligent Control and Intelligent Agricultural Equipment Innovation Team. They are devoted for the world challenge of food quality improvement, concentrating on the national strategic needs and regional industrial planning, the College enhances its strategic layout and core competitiveness of scientific research. The research expeditions include – but not limited – to the following disciplines:
- Biosystems Engineering, Agricultural Mechanization, Food Engineering (Post-harvest, Preservation, Functional food). Fruit and Vegetable Processing and hazard detection engineering.
- Agricultural biologic production mechanical and electronic engineering, agricultural products processing and storage
- Bio-systematic information collection and management,
- Bio-mass processing engineering, electricity supply and consuming technology,
- Water environment and control engineering, bio-resource comprehensive treatment and utilization, etc
Scientific team: Prof. Yong He, Prof. Haiyan Cen
Scientific leader: Mr. George Siragakis | e-mail: foodallergens@gmail.com
Contact person: Demetra Nicolaou | e-mail: Fafalcyltd@gmail.com
FOODAL established on 2008 and is a Cypriot company located in Larnaca. The FOODAL has an important position in food analysis in Europe since it provides analytical services concerning, food safety and food quality. The company is certified by ISO 9001 Quality Management System for Certified Reference Materials production for allergens testing and trading activities and ISO17025 accredited for tests in foods. FOODAL is recognized by IOC for olive oil testing and also recognized by the FIL-IDF (International Dairy Federation). Research is a very important part of FAFAL activities. There have already completed 6 national and international research projects in the last 4 years cooperating with several research institutes (Argicultural University of Athens, General State Laboratory of Cyprus, University of Nicosia, Dept of Food Technology of Athens Techn. Institute, National Centre for Arg. Research, coop. with other research institutes from Serbia, FYROM, Croatia etc). Participated and coordinated at the following research projects:
- Milk kind in Halloumi Cheese (University of Nicosia, Pittas Dairy Ltd)
- Allergens by immunochemical techniques (Univ. of Nicosia, General Laboratory of Cyprus)
- Bread of locust bean gluten free (Univ. of Athens, S.G.L. of Cyprus, Vienna Bakeries Ltd)
Scientific team: Mr. George Siragakis, Mr. Andreas Varlamos, Mrs. Elena Christodoulou, Mrs. Patritsia Grounta
Scientific leader / Contact person: Mr. Elias Sarigiannidis | e-mail: ilias.sari@kotino.gr
Kotino S.A. was founded in 2000 in Nea Artaki, Evia. The relationship of its people with poultry farming is of course much older, based on the unique tradition of the region. The accumulated knowledge and valuable experience of decades has been the safe basis for starting a demanding effort. The goal, the challenge of modern times, was the modernization of tradition. It is a veritable poultry breeding enterprise (broiler), with key values the respect for tradition, product quality and consumer safety. Our commitment to these values is demonstrated by the fact that we are among the first companies in the industry to have a certified quality management system based on the ISO 9001 standard and food safety under the ISO 22000 standard, as well as by developing innovative quality products such as CLASSIC ROOSTER, “FARMHOUSE CHICKEN”, breaded, pre-cooked products, “FARMHOUSE SAUSAGE”, HANDMADE PREPARATIONS (Burgers, Kebab, Roll, Souvlaki, Gyros etc.), Chicken rich in Omega3 fatty acids.
The production process starts with the placement of the chicks in the poultry farm chambers located in the prefectures of Evia, Viotia and Attica, with a total sheltered surface of 35,000 square meters. The breeding of the chicks is done either by the company (self-production) or it is assigned to cooperating poultry farmers, always under the instructions and strict control of KOTINO. Production of broiler feed is made at the company’s poultry feed factory located in Nea Artaki, which has a production capacity of 6 tons / hour. The transfer of the poultry feed to the production units is carried out by privately owned means of transport (silo trucks). When live chicken reach the desired weight, they are led to the slaughterhouse, which has a capacity of 3,600 units / hour. Then the fresh products are transported for processing, standardization and distribution to our new installations (since April 16) in Kryoneri, Attica. The distribution of end-products to customers is done by privately owned means of transport (refrigerator trucks).
The company sells a wide range of chicken-based products (whole, sliced, processed, pre-cooked), fresh or frozen. It also sells all the raw materials necessary for chicken breeding, i.e. poultry feed, chicks, vaccines – antiseptics – antimicrobials and LPG. Our main goal is to broaden our products-range, by producing new innovative and quality products. Our main customers are butchers, bakeries, meat processing units, wholesalers, super markets and retailers.
Scientific leader: Prof. Weili Han | e-mail: wlhan@fudan.edu.cn
Contact person: Chen Chen | e-mail: chenc@fudan.edu.cn
Fudan University was established in 1905 as Fudan Public School. It was the first institution of higher education to be founded by a Chinese person, renowned modern educator MA Xiangbo. In 1917 the name was changed from Fudan Public School to Fudan Private School; in 1937 after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the university moved to Beipei in Chongqing, and in 1941 it became state-run; in 1946 it moved back to its original location in Jiangwan, Shanghai. After the nationwide restructuring of institutions of higher education in 1952, Fudan University became a comprehensive university of arts and sciences; in 1959 it became one of the first National Key Universities along with Shanghai First Medical College (later known as Shanghai Medical University). Fudan is home to 14,100 undergraduates and associate degree candidates, 14,800 graduates, including 3000 foreign degree candidates, 2,700 staff and 3,100 full-time teaching faculty members. Fudan hosts 46 members of Chinese Academy of Science and members of Chinese Academy of Engineering, 99 Chair Professors of Chang Jiang Scholars Program, and 30 National Key Basic Research Program of China (also named “973 Program”) PIs. There are 28 schools and independent departments with 70 bachelor degree programs, 35 doctoral degree programs of Level I academic disciplines, 154 doctoral degree programs, 224 master degree programs, and 29 post-doctoral programs. Over the past hundred years, the university has made outstanding contributions to the country by developing talents, innovating in science and technology, carrying forward civilization, and serving society. Students and teachers of Fudan always keep in mind the motto “Rich in knowledge and tenacious of purposes, inquiring with earnestness and reflecting with self-practice” maintain the school spirit of “civilized, healthy, united, rousing”, practice the school traditions of being “hard working, rigorous, result-oriented, and innovative”, and develop the Fudan spirit of “patriotic service, academic independence, a diversity of approaches, and pursuit of excellence.” They make great contributions to the liberation and development of the people, the construction and development of the nation, and the civilization and progress of society. School of Computer Science was established in 2008. It has more than 150 professors and staff. The research archives include the first class of prizes of Shanghai Science and Technology awards.
Scientific team: Prof. Weili Hun, Prof. Minbo Li, Dr. Chen Chen, Ms Min Xu, Mr. Dapeng Huang
Scientific leader: Prof. Christopher Brewster | e-mail: christopher.brewster@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Contact person: Tim Hendriks | e-mail: t.hendriks@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Maastricht University is a top-ranked international university, renowned for the quality of the research undertaken in many areas. Maastricht University hosts 16.800 students in international BA, MA and graduate programs, and 3.500 (FTE) employees. It is leading in small scale interactive problem-based learning. Maastricht University Researchers at UM work in multidisciplinary teams and in close cooperation with international institutes, business and industry. The Institute of Data Science (IDS) at Maastricht University is an interfaculty program for collaborative innovation involving Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. The research focus of the Institute of Data Science is to accelerate scientific discovery, improve clinical care and well-being, and to strengthen communities. The Institute pursues these goals by fostering a collaborative environment for inter- and multidisciplinary research and training founded on accurate, reproducible, multi-scale, distributed, and efficient computation.
Scientific team: Prof. Christopher Brewster, Prof. Michel Dumontier, Dr Remzi Celebi
Scientific leader / Contact person: Dr. Demetris Kafouris | e-mail: dkafouris@sgl.moh.gov.cy
The State General Laboratory (SGL) is a dynamic centre for the official control, monitoring, research and consultation utilised by the various state services, with national and European recognition. It is the Official Government Laboratory for chemical, biological, microbiological and toxicological control and is the national monitoring centre for foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals, other consumer products and for the examination of illegal drugs and other police exhibits. In cooperation with the competent authorities, it actively participates in planning and implementation of control, monitoring and research programs. It has a well-established expertise, scientific excellence and state-of-the-art infrastructure and undertakes research primarily aiming to investigate problems and emerging threats as well as to support the development and implementation of policies in the fields of Public Health, Food Safety, Authenticity/ Geographical Origin of Products, Risk Assessment etc. The SGL’s state of the art equipment includes SNIF-NMR, IR-MS, ICP-OES, ICP-MS, LC-MS/MS, LCQ ToF, GC-MS, GC-MS/MS, Scanning electron microscope, GC ECD’s, FTIR-NIR, HPLC-PDA, HPLC-RI, HPLC-FLD, etc. Besides the SGL is a public research Institute recognized by the Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation. It carries out applied research in the area of its remit in order to solve or prevent existing and emerging problems, to support policy makers and develop in-house methods. It has managed to utilize more than 10 million euros from EU funds since 2004 and is trying to enhance its capacity in research and innovation in areas under its remit.
The vision of the SGL is the contribution to the improvement of Quality of life through the provision of reliable and high quality services, constant development and excellence. Its mission is the provision of high quality services to the authorities and the citizens through innovative managerial and technological solutions with the ultimate aims to the public health and the environment protection focused on the prevention, the protection of citizen security and consumer rights which is based on the scientific support by the state authorities and European Union Committees. Also, the applied research implementation aim to utilise the National and European resources to support industry and local producers in general.
The SGL is actively participating in the following European Bodies/ meetings / networks / programmes/studies: Advisory Forum of EFSA, Communication Experts Network (CEN), Working group on Food Consumption and Exposure Data, Scientific Networks: Chemical Occurrence Data, Nanotechnologies, Emerging Risks, Food Contact Materials, Veterinary Medicine Products Residues, Pesticide Residues Monitoring, Microbiological Risk Assessment, Risk Assessment of GMO’s, European Reference Laboratories (EURL-NRL) meetings, Expert Working Group on Analytical Methods of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), The Codex Alimentarius, the FAO and the WHO discussions in areas of its competence.
Scientific team: Dr Demetris Kafouris, Mr. Christoforos Papachrysostomou, Mr. Christos Kourtis
Scientific leader / Contact person: Dr Yanfang Zhao | e-mail: zhaoyf@ysfri.ac.cn
Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute (YSFRI), Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences (CAFS), located in the heart of Qingdao, is the oldest multidisciplinary research institute of marine fisheries in China, affiliated to the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA). YSFRI grew out of the Central Fisheries Laboratory, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry founded in January 1947 in Shanghai (moved to Qingdao in September 1949).With an enduring dedication to the pursuit of academic excellence for nearly 70 years, YSFRI has developed 10 research divisions and 3 experimental bases, completed more than 1,300 research projects at state, province and ministry level, made over 300 key scientific discoveries, and won a wide selection of awards more than 200 times (43 national awards and over 160 ministerial/provincial awards), including the National Award for Progress in Science and Technology (2 first-class awards and 5 second-class awards), the National Invention Award (3 second-class awards), and the National Natural Science Award (1 third-class award). YSFRI owns 2 research vessels (namely “Beidou” and “Huanghaixing”) equipped with state-of-the-art facilities to carry out fisheries researches. YSFRI has 419 faculty and staff members, including 3 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) and 157 senior scientists, 19 of whom are Ph.D supervisors and 82 are M.S. supervisors. Currently, YSFRI postdoctoral program offers research opportunities for more than 30 postdoctoral scholars. Over the years, YSFRI academics have garnered national recognition and won a wide array of honors through complementary efforts: 3 awarded the National Expert of Distinguished Contributions to China Award; 62 entitled to special government allowances of the State Council; 6 selected for the New Century Program for Promising Young Talents; 4 honored with the highest Science and Technology Award (1 by Shandong Provincial Government and 3 by Qingdao Municipal Government);4 designated as Shandong Taishan Scholar; 17 recognized as Young and Middle-aged Experts with Distinguished Contributions (to MOA/Shandong Province); and 13 rated as Top-Notch Talent of Qingdao. YSFRI values and nurtures collaborative spirit and has been commended 12 times for its “innovative teamwork” and “inspiring talents” by the CAFS and a variety of government agencies, including the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the MOA and the Shandong Provincial Government. YSFRI sponsors Progress in Fishery Sciences, a bi-monthly journal committed to orientating researchers towards sustainable marine fisheries topics.
Scientific team: Dr Yanfang Zhao, Dr Jixing Pen, Dr. Weiwei Jiang
Scientific Leader: Mr. Apostolos Papadopoulos | e-mail: store@meatcompany.gr
Contact person: Sofia Kouimtsidou | e-mail: finance@meatcompany.gr
Three Generations of Butchers’ Delivery; Grandfather Apostolos Papadopoulos, a refugee from Eastern Thrace, opens his first store in Xanthi in 1926. With the scant means of that time, he always offered the best quality to his clients. At his side was Despina his wife and their six sons. After the war, the family was orphaned by a father, but the boys, with their mother’s supporter, remained in the meat and livestock market in those difficult times. In 1954 they opened a new store in the Municipal Market of Xanthi – a historic building – and in 1965 they began the operation of the salami shop. Thus, with diligence and honesty, the quality and service offered by PAPADOPOULOS BROTHERS is established in the consciousness of consumers. This tradition continues today the grandchildren of grandfather Apostolos as the third generation of butchers. Today, in the special architectural building of the Municipal Market of Xanthi is the store of the company “Apostolos Papadopoulos & Co OE”, which is characterized by its dedication to the customer service and the offer of the best quality. Guarantee for the freshness and hygiene of our meat is our proprietary, European specification, our slaughterhouse with the Community code S 57.
- Since 1997, the privately-owned animal slaughterhouse operates in accordance with European specifications and the European S57 code. Striking refrigeration facilities and systematic compliance with hygiene rules ensure the quality, taste and high nutritional value of the meat. For the protection of the environment, one of the fewest, in Greece, Rendering plants h
- In 2001, in Lambrinos, Xanthi we began the systematic rearing of calves in new modern facilities. In a clean and controlled area, with the collaboration of veterinarians, breeds are breeding, whose diet is based on non-genetically modified. By means of mechanical means and the three-stage biological cleaning function, the breeding and processing areas are continuously cleaned without any environmental impact. This ensures the quality, taste and high nutritional value of the meats been operating since 2009. Whilst a 3-step biological cleaning process works for liquid.
- For over 50 years, the traditional cold meats have been produced, such as the jellyfish (petals), the pastourmas and the cantalou Xanthi. Traditional recipes with pure and selected ingredients have earned consumers’ appreciation across Greece. Our well-known products are smoked pork, smoked salami, mortadela, kokoretsia and others.
- The guarantee of the freshness and hygiene of our meat is the implementation of the quality assurance systems ISO 22000:2005 and ELOT EN ISO 9001:2000.
Scientific leader: Dr. Dimitris Ladikos | e-mail: dladikos@jotis.gr
Contact person: Katerina Pissaridi | e-mail: kpissaridi@jotis.gr
YIOTIS S.A. was founded in 1930 and today employs more than 320 employees, exports to the 5 continents and has an annual turnover exceeding €70m. Products manufactured in its Athens-based facilities include cereal based baby foods, powder mixes for baking and cooking, chocolates, syrups and chilled desserts. The company’s staff is highly educated and constantly trained. Disciplines employed lie in the field of Chemistry, Agricultural Engineering, Food Technology and Chemical Engineering. At YIOTIS research is coordinated by the Research & Development department. Its expenditures account for 3% of the company’s annual turnover, indicating the company’s orientation towards research. For the past 20 years, YIOTIS S.A. has participated in more than 30 National and European Research Projects mostly as coordinator. The company’s organizational scheme combines its highly educated workforce to ensure the necessary administrative and technical support of any large-scale project.
In 2017 YIOTIS S.A founded the Hellenic Research & Innovation Centre (HRIC), which is a state-of-the-art Institute of food safety that offers high quality chemical, microbiological and consultation services to the food industry. HRIC has a surface area of 1305 m2, accommodating the five main departments (analytical chemistry, microbiology, molecular biology, R&D and Nutrition and Dietetics) and the conference room. It operates according to the specifications and the requirements of the standard ISO / IEC 17025 and is accredited by the National Accreditation System (ESYD) Cert. No. 1111. The laboratories are equipped with high resolution instruments covering a wide range of analytical measurements including spectrometric, chromatographic and combined techniques such as ICP-MS, GC-MS/MS, LC-MS/MS, GC-MS/ECD, HPLC, Real Time PCR and ELISA. HRIC has an extensive network of partners from academia and industry in the fields of food technology and chemistry.
Scientific team: Dr. Dimitris Ladikos, Dimitris Alexandrakis, Dr. John Antoniou, Dr. Katerina Pissaridi
Scientific leader / Contact person: Prof. Xia Fan | e-mail: fanxia@caas.cn
The Institute of Quality Standards & Technology for Agro-Products of CAAS (IQSTAP) established in 2003, and reassigned in 2006 by MoA as Research Center of Quality & Standards for Agro-products of MoA. The Institute has 210 staff including research assistants and PhD students (80 permanent staff with 45 senior researchers), work in a research building of 17,000 m2 installed with state-of-the-art instruments and formally opened in August 2008, with annual budget about 12 million USD. IQSTAP has 8 platforms: China National Feed Quality Control Center, MoA Key Lab – Agrofood Safety and Quality, Dioxin Laboratory, MoA, Secretariat of National Expert Committee on Risk Assessment for Agro-Product Quality and Safety, MoA; WTO/TBT-SPS Notification and Enquiry Contact Point, MoA, National Information Monitoring Platform for Agro-product Quality and Safety; Key Laboratory of Agro-product Quality and Safety, CAAS, etc.
IQSTAP has led expeditions in the following fields: Policies, Risk analysis, Standards and reference material, Controlling technologies, Testing technologies and instruments.
IQSTAP has five research priorities: Monitoring and risk assessment of chemicals in agro-products, Residue detection & environmental behaviour for agricultural contaminants, Analysis, traceability and control of quality and safety for animal-derived food, Testing and evaluation for feed quality and safety, Agricultural standards & reference materials.
Scientific leader / Contact person: Dr. Chrysoula Tassou | e-mail: ctassou@nagref.gr
The Institute of Technology of Agricultural Products (ITAP) is a Research Institute of the Hellenic Agricultural Organisation DIMITRA with accredited (EN-ISO 17025) laboratories for Microbiological and Physico-chemical analysis of foods and for genetic identification of agricultural products. The personnel consists of experienced research scientific, technical and administrative staff.
The activities of HAO – ITAP include:
- Research in the areas of Food Quality and Safety, Food Processing and Preservation technologies, Food Molecular Microbiology, Genomics, Wine and spirits, Food Biotechnology and Recycling of Agricultural by-products.
- Technical consulting to food industry in Process optimization of commercial products- Food Quality assurance and safety – Development of new products with novel technologies.
- Training of University students, staff of private and public enterprises.
A significant number of research projects funded by the European Union or by national funds have been implemented or are in progress. Through these projects, the Institute has established collaboration with many Universities and Research Centers in Greece and abroad. The results have been disseminated through publications in international and national scientific journals, announcements in scientific conferences and workshops, in press, media and social media.
Scientific team: Dr. Chrysoula Tassou, Dr. Anthoula Argyri, Dr. Agapi Doulgeraki, Dr. Nikos Chorianopoulos
Scientific Leader: Dr. Souad Christieans | e-mail: souad.christieans@adiv.fr
Contact person: Charlène Leneveu-Jenvrin | e-mail: charlene.leneveujenvrin@adiv.fr
ADIV is an agro-industrial Technical Centre specialized in the meat and meat products sector, working in the framework of joint (national and European) and private contracts (SMEs mainly). The work and themes covered by ADIV range from slaughtering to the end consumer product, food safety, technologically relevant flora (starter cultures) of fermented meat products and biopreservation. Concerning chemical hazards, ADIV work also on the link between meat consumption and carcinogenic risk by assessment of neo-formed compounds (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, aromatic amines heterocyclic, lipid-oxidation products) in meat products generated by processes, mainly cooking. It provides audit, consulting, expertise and training services for SMEs (small and large) thus taking a leading role in the transfer of knowledge to the meat industry thanks to its close partnerships with French federations in the field (ANIA, ACTIA, FICT, Interbev and INAPORC).
ADIV has considerable and wide ranging technical means: an EC accredited trials platform (1000 m²) for experimental series, close ton industrial or artisanal productions of meat and meat products, a microbiology laboratory, a physics-chemical laboratory and a P2+ laboratory where challenge-tests are carried out. The P2+ laboratory is equipped with pilot materials which can reproduce the different unit-based working methods of meat products according to industrial conditions.
The skills of experts from ADIV are constantly refreshed thanks to a strong scientific partnership, particularly maintained by collective and partnered research projects. Those programs are destined to create methods, skills and innovating tools to help companies in their research of performances and support their developments and innovations. ADIV implements about 50 R&D programs these 3 last years, with a multi-species expertise in several topics as described below.
Scientific team: Dr. Souad Christieans, Laurent Picgirard, Dr. Valérie Scislowski, Antoine Cerles
Scientific Leader / Contact person: Dr. Hao Li | e-mail: leehcn@hotmail.com
China Agricultural University (CAU) is one of the top-ranked key national universities in China. It is one of the universities listed in 211 and 985 Projects and directly subordinated to the Ministry of Education of P. R. China. It is also involved in China’s “Double First-class” project. The history of CAU can be traced back to 1905 when the College of Agriculture was founded in the former Jingshi Da Xuetang. Now, this university is the top institution in China for agricultural studies. After more than 100-years’ development, CAU has developed into a research university characterised by agronomy, life sciences, agricultural engineering and food science. In the 4th round of first-level discipline level assessment, six first-level disciplines were awarded A+, and the number of disciplines awarded A+ ranked 6th among Chinese national universities. There are three national key laboratories and one national engineering laboratory, two national engineering technology research centres, one national-level international joint research centre, 86 provincial and ministerial key laboratories (centres, bases); 1 national field science observation and research station, six ministerial field scientific observation experimental stations. CAU has well-established collaborations via 296 counter-signed Memorandum of Understanding or Agreements with 178 universities from 35 countries in North America, Europe, Asia, & Oceania.
The partners involved in this project mainly come from two colleges and one key lab of Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Affairs in CAU, i.e., College of Water Resources and Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, and the key lab of Agricultural Engineering in structure and environment.
This group has strong expertise in the animal environment control and monitor, IOT of animal production and data processing. In recent years, the group has led several projects in the scheme of National Key Research and Development Program of China, including the “Development and application demonstration of technology and equipment for poultry health identification, environmental control and disease-free poultry harmless treatment”, “Research and development of intelligent equipment and information technology for livestock and poultry”, “Near-infrared spectroscopy feed detection application research and special instrument development”, and “Rapid detection technology for feed and prohibited additives using microscopic near-infrared imaging”, etc. It has also involved in several international projects, such as the EU COST Action “Ammonia and Greenhouse Gases Emissions from Animal Production Buildings” and “Field Quantification of Ammonia and Greenhouse Gas Emissions from a Typical Small Dairy Farm in China”.
The main research field of the group focuses on but not limits to the following field: Assessment of indoor air quality of animal houses, GHG and ammonia control using precision ventilation, Big data and the Internet of things for livestock and poultry farms, Feed safety control using infrared spectroscopy.
Beside the research project, the key lab has also developed many environment-related products, e.g., multi-channel gas sample collector (to collector gas sample from multi-points and directly supply the gas to on-site Photoacoustic Gas Monitor for analysis of GHG and NH3 concentrations), web-based portable monitor unit (PMU) for indoor gas and particle concentrations (to generate the monitor cloud for the environment conditions), Acidic electrolysed water generator (to generate the slightly acidic electrolyzed water in a quick way and used for the disinfection of livestock farm and relevant places). The related research products, like multi-channel gas sampler and PMU, have been used in the daily research activities and have generated several high-impact peer-reviewed journal articles. The electrolyte water generator has also been used in real production not only on the farm but also in the food industry, due to its high efficiency and low cost.
Scientific team: Prof Guanghui Teng, Dr. Hao Li, Dr. Fei Gao
Scientific leader / Contact person: Dr. Karel Charvát | e-mail: charvat_junior@lesprojekt.cz
WIRELESSINFO (WRLS) is non-profitable Czech virtual research institute founded in 2003 by Czech participants on project WIRELESSINFO IST 1999- 21056 to share common IPRs from WirelessInfo project. WRLS has a very wide field of activities with a big exploitative research and implementation potential on both on Czech market and international market. Main goals of WIRELESSINFO are activities in research, new development, testing and exploitations of new geographic information systems and technologies for data collection and data management. WirelessInfo has large experience in ICT for agriculture, precision farming, machinery monitoring, and agriculture production, strengthen the rural economy and support the creation of solutions for precision farming, Agri food chain and agri logistic. It also works on more strategical documents related to agrifood business. WRLS was a main technical partner of FOODIE project and currently is working on IoF2020, project SKIN, Enabling, EO4AGRI, Smartagrihubs and EUXDAT. Wirelessinfo is active in number of international networks or as organization or trough staff. Actively participate in GFAR, IGAD RDA, OGC (Karel Charvat is leading OGC Agriculture DWG), ISPA, EFITA.
Scientific team: Dr. Karel Charvát, Mrs. Sarka Horakova, Mr. Vojtech Lukas, Mr. Zbynek Krivanek
Scientific Leader: Prof. Kostas Koutsoumanis | e-mail: kkoutsou@agro.auth.gr
Contact person: Zaphiro Aspridou | e-mail: zasprido@agro.auth.gr
The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki is today the largest university in the country, with about 42.000 “active” students. The teaching – research staff consists of 2.300 people, the special educational staff of 195, and the remaining teaching staff of 296. Furthermore, 748 members of the special administrative – technical staff and 737 administrative personnel are in the service of the university. Research is developed in all fields of theoretical and applied science by all the schools and laboratories of the A.U.Th. All the research is supported by private, public and European institutions with funding.
A.U.Th., in the last three-year-period, has collaborated with 1.700 partners (Universities, Research Centers, Companies) for the implementation of 3.500 Research and Technological Development RTD Projects. During the last three years the Research Committee has managed over 146.627.000 Euro coming from externally funded research and training projects. The last 5 years the Department of Food Science and Technology has been involved in 5 European research project from FP7, 25 National research projects and one Erasmus Intensive Programmes (IP) in Predictive Modelling and Risk Assessment.
Scientific team: Prof. Kostas Koutsoumanis
Scientific leader: Mr. Elias Rouptsos | e-mail: pkaddas@innews.com.cy (P. Kaddas)
Contact person: Marylou Tzempelikou | e-mail: marylou@innews.gr
InNews Cyprus was founded in 2013 and is affiliated with InNews Greece, a Greek Information Technology Company with Shareholders Greek Entrepreneurs. The Group is constantly making significant investments, in various technological sectors, having invested more than € 5,000,000 for Research & Development of innovative solutions. InNews is established in the Greek, Cypriot and South Eastern Europe Markets, positioned in the domain of Media Intelligence, operating a modern Data Center with data volumes surpassing 1 Peta. The company has developed its own software solutions of media analytics addressing niche applications such as: Digitization & Image Processing; Document & Workflow Management; Certified Digital Signatures; Proprietary Speech To Text; Plagiarism Automatic Detection System and Media Intelligence Management. InNews specializes in providing Big Data and Media Intelligence solutions. These services include the collection of Data from all the available Greek and Cypriot Media (TV, Radio, Print, Web, Social Media), the analysis of these Data, the indexing according to the requirements of the client and the provision of these Data in the form of useful information. For this purpose, the company has developed and is operating its own platform: InNews Media Intelligence & Management Information System.
Scientific team: Ms Marylou Tzempelikou, Mr Panagiotis Kaddas, Mr George Pistikos
Scientific leader / Contact person: Dr. Joe Tierney | e-mail: jtierney@glanbia.ie
Glanbia Ireland is a world class, ambitious, integrated agri-food and nutrition business, with a diverse portfolio of quality ingredients, leading consumer and agri brands with the proven talent to succeed in the global market. Glanbia Ireland is a joint venture 60% owned by Glanbia Co-op and 40% owned by Glanbia plc. Established in July 2017, it combines Glanbia Ingredients Ireland, Glanbia Consumer Products and Glanbia Agribusiness. Glanbia Ireland owns leading consumer and agri brands such as Avonmore, Kilmeaden Cheese, Premier Milk, Wexford, mymilkman.ie and GAIN Animal Nutrition. It processes a 2.7 billion litre milk pool from 21 counties and exports high quality dairy and agri ingredients as well as branded products to over 70 countries. With a revenue of 1.8 billion Glanbia Ireland has 11 processing plants, 53 Agri branches and over 2,000 employees Glanbia Ireland brings together in a single structure the ownership, operations and objectives of Glanbia’s Irish dairy and agri-businesses. It is a vibrant, ambitious business with exciting growth plans. Our suppliers have expressed the ambition to expand their milk supply by 30% between 2016 and 2020; the strong cash flow generation of the enlarged Glanbia Ireland business will allow us to fund the required processing capacity expansion without the requirement for supplier contributions in this next growth phase. Glanbia Ireland is a large scale, efficient business with a high quality supply chain and the strength and diversity to face the future with confidence.
Scientific leader / Contact person: Prof. Qun Sun | e-mail: qunsun@139.com
Sichuan University (SCU), as one of China’s top comprehensive research universities, is located in southwestern China and has a comprehensive range of disciplines covering 12 categories, with a total of 44 disciplines authorized by the state to grant doctoral degrees. Sichuan University has established cooperative relationships with over 248 renowned colleges and universities as well as research institutes from 32 countries and regions. The College of Life Sciences of SCU is one of the earliest departments and her subjects include the life science and biotechnology, occupying the front line in modern high technology as well as the application in foods, agriculture, pharmaceutical industry, and environment protection. The department of Food Engineering was established in 1987 and consists of Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology (KLFST) of Sichuan province of China, Agricultural Product Processing Research Institute, and Healthy Food Evaluation Research Center of Sichuan University. The main research area of the department covers food processing and preservation, food safety and control, and food engineering and biotechnology. The Analysis and Testing Center of Sichuan University is the authoritative analytical institution with the largest scale, the widest coverage of the subject, the most complete analytical and testing methods in Southwest China. It is equipped with many advanced analytical instruments, being capable of analyzing the composition, structure and physicochemical properties of samples.
College of Life Sciences, Dept of Food Engineering, Analytical & Testing Center lead research in the following fields:
- Forborne pathogen genotyping/evolution and drug resistance to improve pathogen traceability and safety;
- Develop microfluidic chip combined with LAMP for fast detection of foodborne pathogen;
- Enhance microbial diversity in fermented foods to control nitrite and nitrosamine formation;
- Lipid and protein biochemistry in meats and plant-derived foods for better quality and safety;
- Nondestructive low-frequency NMR to monitor processing and storage to improve food quality and safety;
- In-situ electron microscopy/Raman real-time detecting system for surface study during food processing;
- Organized the China-Israel international conference on biotechnology and will hold 2020 Annual National Conference on Microbiology of China.
Scientific team: Prof. Qun Sun, Dr. Yuanlong Chu, Dr. Yunfei Tian
Scientific leader / Contact person: Xibin Zhang | e-mail: zhangxb@newhope.cn
New Hope Liuhe Co., Ltd is a comprehensive agricultural and animal husbandry enterprise integrating the whole industrial chain of broiler chicken hatching, breeding, slaughtering and processing. It is the largest supplier of parent generation duck seedlings and the second largest supplier of commodity generation chicken seedlings and duck seedlings in China. At present, the total number of commercial breeding agents through “company + farmer” cooperative breeding mode and other modes has reached nearly 800 million, ranking the first in the white feather broiler industry.
New Hope Liuhe was founded in 1995 with a registered capital of 520 million RMB. It is a large agricultural and animal husbandry food group enterprise integrating feed production, livestock breeding, meat processing, import-export trade and other segments. It has 500 sub-companies and 62,000 employees. In 2018, the group’s sales revenue was 69.1 billion RMB, total profit was 464 million RMB, total assets were 8.36 billion RMB, and the bank’s credit rating was AAA.
In 2018, New Hope Liuhe sold 2.29 million tons of poultry meat, pork and other meat products, making it the third largest meat processing enterprise in China. At present, the total number of commercial breeding has reached nearly 800 million, ranking the first in the white feather poultry industry in China. More than 800 million poultry are slaughtered, ranking first in the world in the slaughter of ducks and chickens.
New Hope Liuhe has perfect quality supervision and management mechanism, has passed ISO9001 quality management system certification, ISO22000 food safety management system certification, GAP good agricultural practices certification, ISO14001 environmental management system certification, OHSAS18001 occupational health and safety management system certification, SA8000 social responsibility certification, HACCP food quality management system certification, CNAS national laboratory accreditation qualification.
New hope liuhe has gained enterprise technology centers recognized by the state, state &local engineering laboratory, national agricultural products processing technology R&D professional sub-center, ministry of science and technology innovation pilot enterprises, and so on more than 20 technical innovation platform. New hope liuhe has research and experimental development personnel 1850 people, including 45 doctors, 863 masters, including Biologists, Aquaculture engineers, Agriculture engineers and Food engineers are employed in the department. New Hope Liuhe has carried out the research project of “Fight AbR with Machine learning and a Wide Array of Sensing Technologies, Funded by key research and development projects of the Ministry of Science and Technology China.
Scientific leader: Mr. Arnaud Muller | e-mail: arnaud.muller@nemistech.com
Contact person: James Collins | e-mail: james.collins@nemistech.com
NEMIS Technologies AG is a Swiss diagnostics start-up company in the field of rapid, precise, easy-to-use and cost-effective screening and detection of pathogenic bacteria.
In response to the huge and rapidly growing global challenge caused by pathogenic microorganisms, our patented AquaSparkTM technology platform offers a simple and powerful phenotypic point-of-care screening and detection solution to prevent the proliferation of dangerous bacteria. Our solution can be tailored to many fields including food safety, clinical diagnostics, water safety and animal health.
NEMIS’ pioneer solution delivers a unique value proposition to overcome the current limitations in the rapid detection of pathogenic bacteria. Examples of application fields:
- Food Safety (Listeria, Salmonella spp., E.coli, Coliforms, Campylobacter spp., C.sakazakii)
- Clinical Diagnostics (Carbapenemase producing bacteria, ESBL producing bacteria, S.aureus/ MRSA)
- Animal Health (Urinary tract infections, Antibiotic susceptibility testing)
- Water and Environment (E.coli, Coliforms, Legionella, Vibrio cholerae)
Since May 2018, NEMIS and the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW, group of Prof. Lars Fieseler) are collaborating on the development of first kits for the food safety market (Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes and spp. as well as E.coli/ coliforms). Further food pathogen detection kits will be developed based on our AquaSpark technology platform and other attractive markets such as the water safety testing market (Legionella pneumophila and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and the clinical diagnostic segment (e.g. antibiotic susceptibility testing, S.aureus, Carbapenemase detection) will be further evaluated.
The first priorities of the NEMIS’ development strategy include some of the most widely spread pathogenic bacteria in food and clinical environments such as Listeria, Salmonella, E.coli, Coliforms, Carbapenemase producing bacteria and S. aureus. Several positive proof-of-concept studies have been completed and as an important milestone, the first prototypes for the food safety market will be available mid-2019. The subsequent certification process will take approximately one year. In parallel, the development pipeline will be broadened to cover a larger number of pathogens and applications, specifically clinical diagnostics (e.g. companion diagnostic for antibiotics), animal health and water safety. Several partners for manufacturing and scale-up to enable mass-production of our diagnostic kits are selected. In addition, negotiations with potential collaboration partners for the co-development of specific applications are ongoing.
NEMIS is in close contact with several prominent food producers, hospitals and KOLs. All of them have recognized the uniqueness of our solution to address existing gaps in pathogen detection. They confirm and acknowledge that such an innovative diagnostic solution will allow much broader, much earlier and much more extensive testing in all parts of the production facilities and beyond. This break-through technology has – thanks to its unique value proposition – the potential for market growth and creation of new markets.
NEMIS will set up its own Sales and Key Account Management team in Switzerland to cover the home market directly and to gain market intelligence. A network of international distributors will be established, and today NEMIS is already observing strong interest from potential distribution partners. The unique value proposition, the very low cost-of-goods and the recurrent potential sales volumes are strong economical incentives to motivate distribution partners. Priority markets are the major global food markets: USA, France, Germany, UK, Japan, India, Italy, Spain, China, Brazil. Frist product sales are planned as early as mid-2020.
Scientific team: Arnaud Muller, Dr. Mario Hupfeld, Dr. Urs Breitenstein, Dr. Lukas Tanner, Franzisca Gartenmann
Scientific leader / Contact person: Zhou Dong | e-mail: penglai1969@126.com
Shandong Minhe Animal Husbandry Co., Ltd. is built in 1985, which is reformed from Shandong Penglai Demonstration Farm of Fine Breed Broilers under the Ministry of Agriculture in 1997.At present Minhe company consists of broiler breeders farm, incubation farm, feed mill, commercial chicken base, foodstuff company, import and export company and biological technology company and so on,56 production units all together. Minhe is with an annual output of 3.7 million sets parent generation breeders, more than 300 million chicks, more than 30 million commercial chickens. It has been awarded a list of honorable titles such as “National Leading Enterprise of Agricultural Industrialization”, “Model of National Agricultural Standardization”, “Model of Broiler Exporting Area”, “National Outstanding Livestock Enterprise”, “National First Batch of Broiler Biosafety Isolation Zone for Non-Pathogenic Avian Influenza”, “Vice Chairman Unit of China Animal Agriculture Association”, “Vice Chairman Unit of White Feather broiler Alliance”, “Vice Chairman Unit of National Alliance for Technological Innovation in the Resource Treatment of Iivestock and Poultry Breeding Wastes”. On May16, 2008, shares of the company are listed on SZSE. “Minhe Stock” became the first listed white feather broiler company in China. The scientific research strength of the company is at the leading level in the industry, and many scientific and technological achievements have won the provincial and ministerial level science and technology awards The technology of “Cage Raising of Broiler Breeder during Whole Course” developed by Minhe company won the prize of “National Spark program”. The “Longitudinal Ventilated Chicken House” in cooperation with China Agricultural University won the second prize of Excellent Engineering Design of the Ministry of Agriculture, and the first prize of China Agricultural Science and Technology for “Key Technologies Innovation and Equipment Development and Application of Environmental Control for Large-scale Chicken Raising”. “Chicken Fresh Semen Dilution and Frozen Liquid Study” and “Integration and Demonstration of Large Centralized Chicken Manure Biogas Power Generation Engineering Technology” won the second prize of Science and Technology Progress Award of Shandong Province. “Research on Multilayer Horizontal Raising Technology of Commercial Broiler” won the third prize of Shandong Province for scientific and technological progress, and the project “Methodology, Technology Development and Application of Clean Development Mechanism for Biogas Treatment of Livestock and Poultry Feces” which the company participated in won the first prize of Chinese Agricultural Science and Technology and the second prize of national scientific and technological progress successively. In addition, the company has undertaken a number of national and provincial research projects, and has 21 national invention and utility model patents.
Scientific leader / Contact person: Mingshang Han | e-mail: minghans@126.com
Inner Mongolia Kerchin Cattle Industry Co., Ltd. is located in Tongliao City-the central part of Kerchin Grassland. On the basis of various industries including fattening feedlot, slaughterhouse, it is a shareholding company mainly engaged in meat processing. Kerchin was founded in June 2002.
Kerchin has seven standardized cattle feedlots, each of them can hold ten thousand heads of live cattle. Each base has it is own separate set of units, divided into entrance isolation area, outlet quarantine area, feeding area, coarse and fine feedstuff area, feedstuff processing room, veterinary preventive treatment area clearly and scientifically. Flow of personnel and material is clearly separated and marked. Large feeding facilities and equipment are completed for cattle fattening feedlots.
120,000 square meters of cultivation meadow base, developing water-saving irrigation, improving the cattle feed system, rationalization of farming unified, cultivate and develop kerchin beef industry with “internationalization, professionalization, population and standardization”.
All processing lines are totally complying with EU food sanitary standard, technology and equipment has approached the advanced world level. For ensuring product quality and sanitary, the company has built HACCP food safety quality control system. Meantime, the company also introduced from European countries’ the most advanced technology and software system such as automatic tracing system, automatic grading and sorting system, automatic vacuum collecting and conveying system and automatic PLC control system for the whole production line.
“Food Industry-Moral Industry”, this is the fundamental management concept of Kerchin Cattle Industry staff. Kerchin sets us the own modern develop mode based on up to date planting and scaled feeding industries with completed industrial chain and low production cost. Kerchin develop mode ensures food safety and promote competitiveness of product. With beef industrialization direction, Kerchin relies on local resource and follows the market orientation, through the technical innovation and industry conformity, gradually form the green cattle industry all-in-one development structure headed by meat food processing.
