Code of Practice for the production of organic food

Processing organically produced food in an even more sustainable and high-quality manner - that is the goal of the SusOrgPlus project, which is coordinated by the Department of Agricultural Engineering at the University of Kassel. To this end, the scientists led by Dr. Barbara Sturm are developing a code of practice for production processes, i.e. a catalog of suitable procedures. The project team also wants to develop better processing technologies and identify suitable additives for the production of organic food, such as colorants and flavorings from fruit or vegetables.

"At the moment, too many organic foods lose quality during processing. That doesn't have to be the case," says project coordinator Dr. Barbara Sturm. "Also, many processing operations use more energy than necessary." Sensible standards, on the other hand, can bring further benefits to the organic sector.

The joint project will run until 2021 and is coordinated by the University of Kassel. The overall project will receive funding of 1.24 million euros. The part of the University of Kassel is funded with 285,606 euros.

The partners in the project are five universities (University of Kassel, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, University of Teramo, Italy, University of Tuscia, Italy, Agricultural Economics and Veterinary University of Bucharest, Romania), a research center (SINTEF Energy Research, Norway) and a dryer manufacturer (Innotech Ingenieursgesellschaft mbH, Germany).

The SusOrgPlus project builds on the SusOrganic project, which was completed in early 2018. There, quality standards were defined and optimized processing methods for organic products were developed.

Contact:
Dr. Barbara Sturm
University of Kassel
Department of Agricultural Engineering
Tel.: +49 5542 981-603
Email: Barbara.Sturm[at]uni-kassel[dot]de