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DEMETER project wants to investigate new pathways to increase resource efficiency in the agrifood value chain via 4 pre-defined biorefinery pathways for the valorisation of vegetable residues. These residues are currently not valorized and are seen as a nett loss for the vegetable growers and first transformation industries.

These four pathways are:

• production of high quality juices
• production of bulk juices
• production of cold and hot soup production
• cracking of pomace and processing residues into functional ingredients for human consumption

The overal objective of DEMETER project is to establish a more sustainable and resilient agrofood value chain, thanks to the differentiation in valorisation pathways and higher added value products produced out of residues:

• Farmers will generate a higher price for their production guaranteed and reduce the losses in terms of raw materials and money.
• Food processors will be able to guarantee more stable prices for the entire harvests to the farmers, thus strengthening the long term relationship between growers and food processors.

The project includes research and industrial expertise from players through the complete agrifood value chain, from farmer to food processor. The research in the project will be focussing on the crops in which the involved companies are mainly active with and have huge residue losses: carrots, beetroot, broccoli, leek and pomace from apple and orange juice production.

The valorisation of the residues and secondary quality materials through the 4 pathways require specific knowledge and expertise that is currently not available. DEMETER project has identified for each valorisation pathway research challenges. If these challenges will be resolved, a more differentiated valorisation of the entire harvests in the studied vegetable value chains will be possible. It is expected that the project will identify the most suitable biorefining solutions, technologies and process parameters for direct processing of the side streams onsite at vegetable collection and primary processing plants.

For each biorefinery pathway DEMETER will include economic feasibility and LCA study. By end 2022, the industrial partners in the project aim to valorize at least 33% of their annual volume of secondary raw materials, with a minimum profit margin of 10%.

DEMETER project partners: Verduyn NV (Belgium), INRAE SQPOV and BIA units (France), Verduyn France sarl (France) and Juicy Group (Belgium)