PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
In Europe, a total of 28.4 million tonnes (Mt) of fresh fruit is lost or wasted per year, representing 22% of total EU food waste. Fruit losses occur along the whole value chain, but a remarkable 23% (6.5 Mt) is lost in the primary production stage, during cultivation and harvesting. By saving 6.5 Mt of fruit, 2.3 Mt CO2-eq related emissions - equal to greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted by 343,238 EU citizens - would be saved.
However, an accurate quantification of these losses, necessary to develop suitable strategies for reducing them, is missing. LIFE GLEANSMART will reshape the paradigm of fruit food losses by proving a tested methodology to strategically plan new harvesting and gleaning procedures, thus improving fruit farmers' competitiveness. LIFE GLEANSMART will decrease food losses by their upcycling, introducing non-harvested fruits into a new circular value chain. The project will result in substantial net reductions in water, energy, fertilizers, fungicides and other resource usage, as well as a decrease in CO2 emissions.
LIFE GLEANSMART contributes to the achievement of the new Action Plan for the Circular Economy, the Farm to Fork Strategy at the heart of the EU Green Deal, and the EU's commitment to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (12.3) target on food waste.
OBJECTIVES
The LIFE GLEANSMART goal is to develop, test and validate an innovative circular methodology based on the accurate quantification of food losses, that will enable farmers to quantify, trace and define data-driven supported decisions to allow for the recovery of at least 25% of current fruit losses at the primary stage, and their transformation into six added value upcycled powdered food ingredients validated in three food products. This will be achieved through both digitally automated and traditional techniques for gleaning and ultimately delivering high added-value products made with powder produced from the recovered fruit.
Specifically, the project will:
Demonstrate the feasibility of an innovative circular value chain based on gleaning for upcycling fruit that is usually lost or wasted.
Develop and validate a holistic platform to support sustainable fruit “savings” based on an advanced data-driven Decision Support Tool (DST) fed by multi source data coming from satellite data, sensors, drones and robots.
Solve the current statistical gap in the fruit sector in Spain and the rest of EU in terms of quantifying field fruit losses and waste by a robust methodology and advanced tools.
Demonstrate the feasibility of processing and reusing saved fruit into six powdered upcycled ingredients for at least three food products or other added-value products.
Demonstrate the commercial viability of equipment and support services to trigger investment for the long-term growth of the project.
Ensure project results will be replicated beyond its geographical and thematic scope.
Ensure a wide adoption of the GLEANSMART methodology at EU level and the long-term uptake of the project results by engaging and cooperating with private stakeholders as well as public entities and advocate for a gleaning-friendly regulation at EU level.
RESULTS
The project aims to:
Achieve a daily harvest of at least 1,000 kg/hectare (60% more efficient than manual harvesting), after collecting a minimum of 4,000 kg of each targeted fruit type in demonstration trials.
Launch two autonomous robotic solutions able to inspect, quantify and collect food waste in different fields, ensuring a good quality and treatment in each step of the collecting process.
Validate a new web tool that allows precise quantification and evaluation of the fruit losses in a crop.
Integrate a drone to acquire and process images.
Collect 12,000 kg of fruit by the GLEANSMART robots during the project.
Achieve mission reductions and improvement of the environmental impact with the recovery of this fruit.
Generate at least six new upcycled fruit powder ingredients validated in three food products on a pilot scale. A minimum of 100 kilograms will be produced for each of the six newly created powdered fruit-based upcycled ingredients. Furthermore, their technical, economic and environmental feasibility in three distinct food or high-value products will be confirmed.
Harvest an additional 4% of fruit of sufficient quality for human consumption and repurpose a further 2% for non-food applications.
