Scaling up of at least one fermented food validated under real productive conditions

In order to realize an optimized scale-up process after preliminary laboratory activities, it has widely recommended to reflect about the following principles: 

• the study of scaling-up process has to consider the final product; 
• the details of each preparative step need to be defined evaluating all possible operative parameters, times and equipment used under larger scale conditions;
• to be ready to solve unexpected problems and situations. 

The present project will involve the scaling up of some lab-scale results produced throughout 4.1.1 – 4.3.3 task activities. Even though deliverable of these tasks, even when research activities are focused on very different topics they are largely based on microbial processes. 

In this task, only fermentation carried out under large-scale conditions is close to that verified under lab incubators. Harder difficulties are expected to be encountered when the microbial processes should turn into foods. 

Due to this complexity, the scaling-up process here considered will be carried out by realising an industrial scale-down approach in which results, steps or methods reported in other task of this WP will be included.

The operation plan here proposed foresees two activities. 

• At first, the leader of 4.1.1 – 4.3.3 tasks will be invited to propose his/her own idea of scale up process related to microbial processes and fermentation. A cost/benefit approach will be applied in order to exclude those scale-up processes that have lower chances to produce successful results. In a second step, these processes will be considered for their complexity preferring those that can be realised into a food plant.  The idea is to preferentially avoid all the processing steps that need to be carried out by third parties before to be part of food process. This difficulty may be solved by finding other enterprises able to perform the scale-up all those steps that cannot be realistically carried out into the food plant. Once these preparing activities will or will close to be concluded, the task will turn towards more concrete activities. 
• Food plants will be contacted in order to verify the possibility to produce the final product that will be considered for all nutritional, quality, safety and shelf-life aspects as usually done for all food prototypes. 

At the end of activities, a report concerning the possible scale-up of at least one promising food product will be produced.

This task aims to demonstrate the realization of at least a fermented food under real production conditions. Even though first and main attempts will be addressed to food products from dairy and meat sectors, no specific food chain is excluded for possible scaling-up activities. 

In order to achieve this result: 

• A list of possible scale up processes will be produced
• The inclusion of specific ingredients will be considered if they have a food grade status and if they are available in sufficient amount 
• If the innovative or combined technologies, deriving from lab-scale results of spoke 4 WPs and tasks, need to be applied for the production of the new foods, the process could be in different locations where these technologies are located
• It is expected the production of large amount of food product, eg 100 kg, will be realized including, depending on kind of product, its packaging, 
• The food will by characterized for its main chemical, physical, microbiological and sensory characteristics during shelf-life.