Search for solutions to offer an outlet for surplus fruit and vegetable products

Tecnova investigates new technologies to provide high added value to the production surpluses of two of the most representative fruit and vegetable products in the sector, such as avocado, the main Andalusian subtropical, and cucumber, one of the products with the largest wintering area in Andalusia. It is a project funded by the European Regional Development Fund and the Ministry of Economy, Knowledge, Companies and Universities, within the framework of the Order of Agents of the Andalusian Knowledge System.

The project was born from the commitment of the Technological Center with the members of the Andalusian fruit and vegetable sector. For them, one of their main concerns is to increase the added value of fruit and vegetable products with the generation of new strategies in the line of healthy eating.

The main objective of the project is the design of a new technological process that allows the obtaining of new healthy vegetable snacks from cucumber and avocado fruits, through the application of combined technologies of fortification, abiotic stress and freeze-drying process. These technologies will make it possible to obtain a crisp and stable product, with a high composition of antioxidant and mineral biocomposites, intended for a healthy diet.

It favors fruit and vegetable production processes

With the achievement of the new products, the ChipNature Project encourages the technological development of new foods of plant origin, with healthy nutritional characteristics, generates a new agro-food production process based on non-polluting technologies. It also guarantees to prolong the useful life of dehydrated foods and their food safety and to maximize the efficiency of raw materials by transforming them into new products with greater added value.

ChipNature offers possibilities to the different actors in the process. In the first part, from the production the surpluses of fruit and vegetables are used, on the other hand, the investigation offers companies interested in the process to know the parameters for the dehydration treatment of both products, both cucumber and avocado. At the same time that the current consumer, who is looking for healthy and easy-to-consume products, can find it in this type of snack.

With this new method, it contributes to diversify the commercial strategy of the producers and marketers of the Andalusian agro-industrial sector, it adds value to the surplus agricultural production of cucumber and avocado. It favors the cost control of the agri-food production process by controlling the loss of raw material through the application of technologies.