Collaboration in PRIMA proposals to develop solutions to decrease food loss and waste

The University of Calabria is a public institution placed in South Italy, it is organized into 14 Departments acting in in several fields of studies. The research group working at DIMES (in the Laboratory of Rheology and Food Engineering, RheoLab) has a specific expertise in transport phenomena analysis, food process modelling, rheological analysis of complex materials. Our research activities focus on
i) rheological and physical characterisation of complex systems in food area (hydrogel, organogels, emulsions, emulgels, bigels);
ii) preparation and characterisation of edible coatings and films based on polysaccharides added with antimicrobial and/or antioxidant agents;
iii) valorisation of food loss and waste and/or by-products to be used as source of active ingredients (e.g., antioxidants, pigments, etc.), as raw materials for packaging production, as ingredients in food preparations with controlled rheological properties.
We are able to perform rheological and physical investigations (optical and electron microscopy, DSC, FT-IR, etc.) on different complex systems mainly in food area.

We are interested in participating in a consortium to build a proposal for reduction of food loss and waste; we could be involved in: increasing shelf-life of products through use of edible coatings (both water and oil based) and biobased films with antimicrobial and/or antioxidants activity; reuse of food waste and loss in production of packaging or as ingredients in developing novel foods with controlled consistency.

Rheology, food waste and loss recovery, Food packaging, biopolymers, antimicrobial films, smart packaging.