New technologies and approach to a food processing

Nowadays, the attention of consumers towards food waste is increasing. A large part of the waste occurs thanks to incorrect consumer behavior in the management of fresh food products and in the food preparation phase (food processing). Considering the ways in which food is processed and cooked, can have a high impact on the final quality. For these reasons, we would like to develop different technological approaches looking to increase the sustainability of the food processing, the final food nutrition quality and create value for the final consumer.
Indeed, here there are proposed three technological approach:

• Identification or development of one or more smart sensors in a food machine for controlling the fermentation process and improving the final nutritional quality of the dough | “Smart sensing of food processing”.
• Identification of at least a compact water disinfection system, applicable to small domestic appliances able to improve water safety | “Water”.
• Study and improvement of the coffee infusion system | “Infusion”

1. Smart sensing of food processing

• Identification of key nutritional aspects that are influenced by food processing
  Study of the dough mixing and fermentation process to identify:
  • the key parameters of the process: e.g. the gasses released during fermentation, the volumetric and thermal behavior during mixing and fermentation, the visual characteristics that change during food processing.
  • The correlation between these variables and the process control parameters
• Development of the smart sensing platform
  • Scouting of existing solutions
  • Scouting of possible suppliers
  • Creation and testing of the solution (prototype)

2. Water

• Optimization of operational parameters (dose, effect) by advanced tools (simulation).
• Integration and testing of technology in a small domestic appliance (coffee machine);
• Microbial and sensorial analysis of the coffee beverage (cold water extraction); 
• Evaluation of microbial reduction after water treatment.

3. Infusion

• Study and develop a new methodology (supported by simulation tools) to develop and validate new coffee infusion geometry and other parameters.

1. Smart sensing of food processing

• A solution to increase the nutritional quality of processed food
• An improved way to dough mixing and fermentation 

2. Water

• Integrated solution for rapid water disinfection

3. Infusion

• Methodology to verify the uniformity of coffee infusion extraction and relation to powder properties.
• Infusion process characterization.
• Model to simulate the coffee infusion process and optimize the extraction process.
• Compare the nutritional content of the coffee extracted with the new and the current infusion system.