LIFE Project: LIFE GLEANSMART: New sustainable circular system to reduce food loss through fruit harvesting and recycling
- Type Project
- Status In progress
- Execution 2023 -2026
- Assigned Budget 2.007.637,00 €
- Scope Europeo
- Autonomous community Comunitat Valenciana
- Main source of financing LIFE
- Project website Web del proyecto
LIFE GLEANSMART aims to develop, test, and validate an innovative circular methodology based on the accurate quantification of food losses. This methodology will enable farmers to quantify, track, and define data-driven decisions that enable the recovery of at least 25% of current primary-stage fruit losses and their transformation into six validated value-added recycled powdered food ingredients in three food products. This will be achieved through both digitally automated and traditional techniques to collect and ultimately deliver high-value-added products made with powder produced from recovered fruit.
(Mt) of fresh fruit per year, representing 22% of total EU food waste. Fruit losses occur throughout the entire value chain, but a remarkable 23% (6.5 Mt) is lost at the primary production stage, during cultivation and harvesting. Saving 6.5 Mt of fruit would save 2.3 Mt of CO2-related emissions, equivalent to the greenhouse gases (GHG) emitted by 343,238 EU citizens. However, a precise quantification of these losses, which is necessary to develop appropriate strategies to reduce them, is not available.
LIFE GLEANSMART will shift the paradigm of fruit-related food losses by piloting a proven methodology to strategically plan new harvesting and collection procedures, thereby improving the competitiveness of fruit producers. LIFE GLEANSMART will reduce food losses through recycling, introducing unharvested fruit into a new circular value chain. The project will result in substantial net reductions in the use of water, energy, fertilizers, fungicides, and other resources, as well as a decrease in CO2 emissions.
- Demonstrate the viability of an innovative circular value chain based on the collection and recycling of fruit that is typically lost or wasted.
- Develop and validate a holistic platform to support sustainable fruit saving based on an advanced decision support tool (DST) based on multi-source data from satellites, sensors, drones, and robots.
- To address the current statistical gap in the fruit sector in Spain and the rest of the EU in terms of quantifying field fruit losses and waste through a robust methodology and advanced tools.
- Demonstrate the feasibility of processing and reusing saved fruit into six powdered recycled ingredients for at least three food products or other value-added products.
- Demonstrate the commercial viability of the equipment and support services to leverage investment for the project's long-term growth.
- Ensure that project results are replicated beyond its geographic and thematic scope.
- Ensure widespread adoption of the GLEANSMART methodology at EU level and long-term uptake of project results by engaging and cooperating with private stakeholders as well as public entities, and advocate for favorable regulation of food harvesting at EU level.
- 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 target fruit type in demonstration trials.
- Launch two autonomous robotic solutions capable of inspecting, quantifying, and collecting food waste in different fields, ensuring high quality and treatment at every step of the collection process.
- Validate a new web tool that allows for the accurate quantification and evaluation of fruit losses in a crop.
- Integrate a drone to acquire and process images.
- Harvest 12,000 kg of fruit using GLEANSMART robots during the project.
- Achieve mission reductions and improve environmental impact with the recovery of this fruit.
- Generate at least six new recycled fruit powder ingredients validated in three food products on a pilot scale. A minimum of 100 kilograms of each of the six newly developed fruit powder ingredients will be produced. In addition, their technical, economic, and environmental viability will be confirmed in three different high-value foods or products.
- Harvest an additional 4% of fruit of sufficient quality for human consumption and reuse an additional 2% for non-food applications.
- Coordinator/entity name: Alvaro García
Postal address: CALLE BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 5-11 VALENCIA PARC TECNOLOGIC, 46980, PATERNA VALENCIA,
LIFE GLEANSMART contributes to the achievement of the new Circular Economy Action Plan, the Farm to Fork Strategy at the heart of the European Green Deal, and the EU's commitment to meeting the Sustainable Development Goal (12.3) target on food waste.
- PRODUCTOS SUR SL
- AINIA
- VISUALNACERT SL
- ASOCIACION VALENCIANA DE AGRICULTORES
- ODYSSEY ROBOTICS SL
- ASOCIACIóN AGRARIA DE JóVENES AGRICULTORES
- AGROSINGULARITY SL
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