“Production of animal products using agricultural industry waste”

The 2nd online meeting (Skype Meeting) of the Inno.Trition Project – “Innovative use of olive, winery and cheese waste by products in animal nutrition for the production of functional foods from animals” was successfully completed on 19 May 2020. The meeting was attended by all partners of the Project (the Arta Chamber as Lead Partner, the Department of Agriculture of the University of Ioannina, the University of Aldo Moro of Bari and the National Council of Research -Institute of Sciences of Food Production. The Coordinator of the Joint Secretariat Mr. Gadaletta, the Project Officer Ms Pierri and the Info Point Officer Ms. Nikou also participated in the meeting.

Ms. Nancy Diamantopoulou, the Project Manager of the project opened the skype meeting with a welcome speech, focusing on the recent health crisis and a brief presentation of the project implementation so far. The project team presented the activities, with special reference to product development and pilot application in animals, in which the research institutes presented the methodologies adopted and the way in which they have contributed to the implementation of the project so far.

More specifically, the Department of Agriculture of the University of Ioannina has completed the production of the silage using three raw materials by olive mill wastewater, grape pomace raw material and de-proteinised Greek feta cheese whey plus corn. A detailed description was presented analyzing the composition of each material and of the final product, the preparation methodology for the production of the mixed agrowaste silage finalizing the optimization process of the composition of the 3-types waste in order to produce the final silage mixture which will be used for the in vivo experiments. It also presented the chemical profile of the relevant products used and the results of the relevant analysis. The University of Bari has performed 2 trials regarding the production of silages with similar agrowaste products in cooperation with the National Research Council – Institute of Food Production Science ISPA, while presenting the silage preparation process by phase to phase procedure. They have made a selection of the optimum ensilage using olive mill waste water, cheese whey, grape pomace and wheat straw working with a scale filtration unit. The extraction of bio phenols has been characterized and the phenolic composition was presented too, setting up the two experimental silage trials. The National Research Council – Institute of Food Production Science, ISPA proceeded with the presentation of the analysis that has been performed concerning the silage trials in 4 different levels, as well as the relevant results. The Chamber of Arta finally proceeded with a presentation of the platform that is under construction as well as its scope. The platform is an online application of cooperation between producers in the field of wine, olive oil and cheese production who are interested in disposing of waste in the production process, but also breeders who are interested in receiving this waste. The presentation analyzed the proposed user registration and acceptance processes on the platform, the workflow procedures for users, user collaboration frameworks and the platform’s statistics collection environment. All partners had power point presentations and the progress of the programme was obvious to the attenders.

The main objective of the INNO.TRITION Project is to produce higher quality products using low cost ingredients (from waste) in an innovative way thus rendering the local agro-industry more competitive. The INNO.TRITION project is going to last 24 months and is co-financed by the INTERREG Greece-Italy VA 2014-2020 program, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the National Resources of Greece and Italy, with a total budget of 602,725.25 euros.

Interreg V-A Greece-Italy Programme is a European Territorial Cooperation Programme that aims to help public institutions and local stakeholders to develop cross-border projects and pilot actions and to create new policy, products and services, with the final goal to improve the citizens’ quality of life. Strategically, the programme will enhance innovation in a number of fields such as blue growth, tourism and culture, agro food and cultural and creative industries. Interreg V-A Greece-Italy Programme aims to get maximum return from EUR 123 million financed per 85% by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and per 15% by the 2 member states through a national co-financing.