Food Screening EMR is an Interreg V Euregio Meuse-Rhine aimed at supporting regional agrifood SMEs in their transition to a more sustainable, future-proof business model. The project will focus on three separate domains: the integration of sensor technology into the agricultural value chains, building food and health claims to improve product placement and investigating new cultivation techniques that yield healthier food crops. Food Screening EMR is financially supported by the European Regional Development Fund, the Province of Limburg (the Netherlands), the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate and the State Government (Landesregierung) of Nordrhein-Westfalen.
In this project, the Food Claims Centre Venlo (FCCV) is participating as one of the partners to gain insights into how practical measurements of nutrients, generated with a new sensor, can be used to inform consumers about these specific product traits. The project is a collaboration between Maastricht University’s Sensor Engineering Department (lead partner), the department of Plant Envirogenetics and the FCCV together with three universities (Hasselt University, RWTH Aachen and University of Liège), IMEC vzw and two regional SMEs (Yookr BV and ZUMOlab GmbH). The main aim of the project is to develop a handheld platform for the on-site detection of nutrients. This will provide end-users with valuable insights on how to implement this sensor technology, amongst others, into the agricultural value chain. In collaboration with UM’ Plant Envirogenetics group, BASF Vegetable Seeds and Brightlands Campus Greenport Venlo we will support SMEs by teaching them how to integrate new cultivation methods to create healthier food crops and make nutrition and health claims on these products to improve their product placement in the market.
To ensure that all activities in the project are relevant for the euregional agrifood industry, the consortium contains strategic partners from the field such as Brightlands Campus Greenport Venlo and BASF Vegetable Seeds. In addition, local SMEs and bigger enterprises that seek support in any of the three domains covered by the consortium can join the User Group and help to steer the activities in the different work packages.
