At Eco Artesa we are committed to innovation as a means to be more sustainable. Following this line, in 2021, knowers that in the European Agricultural fund for rural development (Feader) and throught the Catalonia Generalitat, aid is promoted for the execution of innovative pilot projects, Let's present the candidacy to start with the operational group that would work on "The Liquats- Evaluation of indigenous varieties of legumes from organic framing and application of innovative solutions to reduce waste”. In may 2022, our proposal was accepted and we begin the journey. We did it together whith the Artesa de Segre Cooperative as group leader of GO (together with our as beneficiary members), Restauración Colectiva as a non-beneficiary members and IRTA(food research and technology institute ) as a technoloy center and project coordinator. We have to take into consideration that an Operatinal Group consists of the association different partners with common interests around a specific and practical innovation project, linked to the agri-food sector. The GO's memmbers commit to actively working together to solve a specific sector problem or to take advantageof a specific opportunity.
The objective we set for ourselves was to develop different innovative products, according to the superpluses of indigenous varieties of legumes from organic farming that have a high nutrittional value. In this sense, we first carried out a selection and characterization of the different varieties of native legumes used in the pilot test. Afterwards, let's work on the development of a sweet cream designed for people with dysphagia and two vegetable drinks based on legumes. Finally we planned different dissenimation actions for the project. As a secondary purpose, we also emphasized reducing food waste, promoting the use of native varieties and adding value to agricultural production.
At this time, we are in conversation with different companies and suppliers to carry out the production and marketing of these products, with the hope that they end up forming part of the commercial circuit. We belive that their development represents a competitive advantage for the companies that produce them, as well as that they will also provide value to those surpluses that, for differents reasons, don't meet quality standars to be marketed or represent production surpluses, but that can also provide added value to the Catalan agricultural sector, becoming the base of other products.
The project, that ended last September definetely contributes to the reduction of ecological footprint of organic producction and therefore to the sustainability of the organic production system. It is financed by Operació 16.01.01 of Cooperation for innovation the “Rural development program of Catalonia 2014-2022”.
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