Demonstration of innovative functional food production systems based on a sustainable value chain of marine and freshwater raw materials for conscientious European consumers

NOVAFOODIES will offer novel & competitive functional products to European consumers from a reliable, traceable, and sustainable fisheries and aquaculture value chains. To reach this, NOVAFOODIES is composed of an international consortium covering the whole value chain and expertise: production, processing, transformation, biosecurity, legislation, consumer associations, experts in business, IT, and sustainability. NOVAFOODIES will:-Demonstrate at TRL 6-7, in 10 cases studies, cost-efficient and sustainable fish, micro- and macro- algae production processes that will benefit from natural ecosystem services. -Bring to TRL6 an innovative & sustainable microwave-assisted algae drying process to maximising efficiency and lower costs-Upscaling to TRL 6-7 an innovative biorefinery concept for separation of functional extracts from fish and seaweeds which will be optimised for the technoeconomic and environmental validation. 12 functional food prototypes will be prepared using these extracts as well as fish, bycatch & algae for human products, and aquafeeds, which will be assessed in terms of properties, biosecurity, and standards, and will be brought to consumers by educative activities as e.g. showcookings.-Bring to TRL7 an innovative process to make ecological packaging material from macroalgae-Bring to TRL6 a process to convert the beach wracks material to invertebrate biomass for aquafeeds.-Bring to TRL6 a process to valorise fisheries bycatchs to create novel food for human consumptionNOVAFOODIES will develop a MarketPlatform & Mobile App using IoT technologies and advanced data analysis for tracing & wastes optimisation along the value chain, enhacing consumers trust.Partners are committed to the exploitation of developed technologies, being actively involved in the dissemination & exploitation, as well as education and training activities in local areas to promote sociolaboral inclusion and paving the way to the market entry of new products and processes.