Research project Evaluation of food quality throughout the vegetable processing chain
General introduction
New technical knowledge has been accumulated on pre-treatment and regeneration techniques for vegetables and how to retain maximum quality all the way to the consumer's or patient's plate. This is the result of the VeggieChain project. "Regeneration" means reheating and preparing pre-prepared and cooled (or frozen) vegetables for consumption in the best possible way. Vegetables that have been processed (frozen, preprocessed or prepared) are an important part of ready-to-eat meals for the 21st century consumer. In the healthcare environment, many commercial kitchens work with the intermediate steps of preparation - cooling - regeneration. The optimal preservation of taste, color, aroma, vitamins and health-related components, to the degree possible, is even more important now.
Research approach
Through small-scale and semi-industrial experiments, innovative processing strategies for vegetables have been developed. In addition to pure nutritional preservation, efforts were made to maximize the sustained appeal of taste, color and smell. The patient or resident's desire to eat regenerated vegetables is crucial in care environments such as hospitals or nursing homes.
Relevance/Valorization
In short, the technological foundation has been strengthed for regenerated vegetables as a healthy, appealing product. This is particularly important in healthcare settings. Several stakeholders in the agri-food industry also benefit from this project. The vegetable processing industry in Flanders (especially frozen vegetables) can strengthen its position as a market leader in Europe through the new knowledge and through the use of state-of-the-art technology. This will also anchor open-air vegetable cultivation in Flanders. The ready to eat meal sector is growing. That sector, together with caterers and restaurants can present better final results since the process of regeneration (as a vegetable processing step) has been intensively studied. Finally, technology suppliers and machinery companies also stand to benefit in order to further optimize their technologies and implement the results with B2B customers. The ultimate goal of providing consumers with the fullest possible prepared vegetables has become much more achievable.
