From 14 to 18 September, Santarém Polytechnic University’s School of Agriculture (Portugal) is hosting an ACE²-EU Applied Blended Challenge (ABC) focused on sustainable solutions for the food industry and opportunities to make use of underutilised biomass. Lietuvos inžinerijos kolegija students Klaidas Kolojanskas, Nedas Ribkauskis and Joris Vaivilavičius are taking part in the programme.
Participants are exploring ways to transform terrestrial and aquatic biomass residues into safe, sustainable and valuable food ingredients. Fruit and vegetable pomace, peels, seeds, other processing residues and algae can be valuable sources of nutrients and bioactive compounds, and the programme explores their potential applications in food production.
On the first day, participants met with stakeholders, explored the key challenges surrounding the sustainable use of terrestrial and aquatic biomass, and defined the problems to be addressed. The second day focused on practical activities, including biomass processing, the extraction of valuable compounds and the preparation of food ingredients.
Over the following days, participants will develop food prototypes and product concepts, conduct analytical and sensory evaluations, and assess the sustainability of their proposed solutions. At the end of the programme, the teams will present their solutions to lecturers and stakeholders and receive feedback on their work.
