Project Description:

The ALIMTECH project addresses urgent challenges in the global agri-food industry, such as resource scarcity, pollution, food waste and fossil fuel use. It seeks innovative solutions from science and technology to improve resource efficiency, traceability and food safety at all stages of the value chain.

Moreover, it aims to enhance the competitiveness of subsectors, optimize production processes, and reduce energy consumption. It prioritizes sustainability by utilizing waste, aligning with the Spanish circular economy strategy.

It will focus on various agri-food chains, including traditional sectors such as meat, fruit and vegetable, and the wine industry, as well as novel or alternative food industries, such as functional ingredients or insect-derived ingredients. It aims to adapt to the changing needs of the global market and society’s demands.

ALIMTECH operates as a consortium composed of 16 companies in collaboration with 12 technological centers and universities. These research experts will support companies by providing necessary assistance and sharing their knowledge to ensure that research translates into positive outcomes for the industry.

Main Objective:

• A platform called ALIM TRACK will be developed, based on blockchain technology, which will enable companies to create immutable and accurate traceability models. This will result in a significant improvement in resource efficiency across all value chains in the agri-food industry.
• Additionally, it seeks to promote the competitiveness of subsectors, optimize production processes, reduce associated energy expenditure, and promote sustainability through waste utilization.

Problem to be solved:

Improving traceability and food safety, aligning with the objectives of the Agri-food PERTE. In addition, it seeks complementary solutions to enhance the competitiveness of subsectors, optimize production processes, and reduce associated energy expenditure. Sustainability is prioritized through waste utilization, in line with the goals of the Spanish circular economy strategy.

Within the primary ALIMTECH project, ITCL is directly involved in the following challenges:

• Research an intelligent expert system for the integral optimization of the wine fermentation process (EXOFERM).
• Identifying advanced optical sensors and AI for quality control and food safety of meat products (HIPERES).
• Achieving optimization of production efficiency and process safety in smoking processes through sensor-based, robotic, and AI solutions (AHUMATECH).
• Determining the quality and traceability of fruit in pre-classification tasks through AI and VA (PREFRUTIA).
• Applying advanced visualization technologies for optimizing production efficiency in food processes (VIRTOFIP).

Project Duration:

April 2023 – March 2025

Project in cooperation with:

Funded by:

Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Tourism. Grants for industrial strengthening actions in the agri-food sector within the Strategic Project for the Recovery and Economic Transformation of Agri-food, under the framework of the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan 2023.

Contact:

Miguel Portal – ITCL Centro Tecnológico.