Alternative sources for high added value food and/or feed ingredients

In line with the Farm to Fork strategy for a fair, healthy and environmentally friendly food system, biodiversity strategy, and the European Green Deal priorities, successful proposals will support the large-scale production of high value food and or feed ingredients from alternative sustainable sources (excluding animal sources), without impacting or regenerating local biodiversity and ecosystems.

Project results are expected to contribute to the following expected outcomes, depending on the choice between focus on food or/and feed ingredients:

• Availability of premium (i.e., nutritious, healthy, functional and environmentally sustainable) food ingredients meeting consumers’ expectations, including on economic level.
• Availability of high added value sustainable feed ingredients, ensuring nutritional quality and health and safety profile.
• Rebalanced ratio between animal and plant-based proteins in human consumption, needed for healthy food supply respecting the planetary boundaries^[1].
• Contribution to the sustainable food supply for a growing world population (SDG 2 Zero hunger).
• Increased circularity of biomass resources, and resource efficiency, as confirmed by the LCA assessments, leading to improved EU strategic autonomy via reduction/replacement of imports.
• Public awareness and acceptance of bio-based solutions.
• Support market uptake growth and acceptance of scalable bio-based solutions.

Technology Readiness Level (TRL): Activities are expected to achieve TRL 8 by the end of the project – see Horizon Europe General Annex B.

Expected EU contribution per project: It is estimated that a contribution of EUR 14 million would allow these outcomes to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of a proposal requesting different amounts.

Europe needs to increase its strategic autonomy by diversifying sources of sustainable food ingredients (including proteins). Promoting healthier or more sustainable foods are gaining ground among European consumers. Since the introduction of the first Novel Food Regulation in 1997, consumers have witnessed a growing number of novel foods and food ingredients introduced on the market, e.g., based on new crops or algae, to name a few. Additional effort is required to support this trend and bring more products to the market, while ensuring their high environmental sustainability, as confirmed by the life cycle assessment, as well guaranteeing high quality for the consumers (including toxicological safety, high nutritional performance, taste, and texture, technological functionality etc.). Even more importantly, novel ingredients require the development of new value chains, and attention to issues such as production costs, food safety, scalability and consumer acceptance. Furthermore, positive environmental impacts cannot be taken for granted with novel ingredient sources, and care must be taken to ensure that comparisons between novel and existing sources are valid.

The scope of this topic is to deploy the production of improved nutritious, healthy, and environmentally sustainable food and feed ingredients from alternative non-animal sources.

Proposals under this topic should:

• Validate at large scale the processing and production of food ingredients from sustainable alternative sources, demonstrating their clear-cut environmental sustainability gains, and reduced environmental footprint, compared to existing alternatives, as based on peer-reviewed life-cycle analysis.
• Contribute to the EU sustainability targets under the Farm to Fork strategy and the European Green Deal, such as reduction in fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, water and energy ensuring a holistic approach.
• These sources may include e.g., novel crops, plant-based resources, fungi, algae (micro and macro), microorganisms (bacteria, yeast, etc.), biomass side streams or food waste.
• Ensure that food safety criteria are met, and that any circularity approach is achieved in a safe, non-hazardous way, without (re-)connecting epidemiological pathways or introducing pathogen/toxin/pollutant enrichment cycles when involving biogenic materials, show sustainability of production, reduced environmental footprint compared with alternative sources.
• Address consumer understanding, awareness and acceptance, especially related to nutritional profile, safety, taste, functionality, quality and texture of foods / feed palatability based on alternative sources.
• Communicate and disseminate the results by inclusive actions (e.g., mutual learning exercises, interaction with the educational system) seeking the engagement of the civil society (e.g., consumer organisations, special focus groups, NGOs), and awareness on issues related to high resource efficacy, and circularity of biomass, as well as innovation and scientific approaches.
• Benefit from high potential of bio-based innovation, seeking cross-sectorial solutions, and complementarities to the projects under BBI JU, Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe.
• Depending on the chosen source, the projects may propose necessary technical options for sustainable intensification of production, e.g., development of new varieties, and/or cultivation practice, in line with all relevant legal EU and national frameworks, to enable future scale-up. Environmental side-benefits should be duly considered, if relevant, e.g., carbon storage potentials, soil health etc.
• A life cycle assessment should be included in the proposals. An assessment of economic and social impacts should be included.
• Present the economic impact on consumers, including the comparison of new products with their current alternatives on the market (if available).
• Apply and/or adapt existing/mature or novel digital technologies, if they are instrumental to achieving the project’s outcomes and scope, especially to ensure high standards of resource efficiency and environmental protection. Applications of digital technologies that should be considered in the scope are among the following areas: i) chemicals, materials and process design & modelling ii) (real-time) process monitoring and optimisation (including environmental performance) iii) predictive maintenance & plant engineering and iv) data analytics and data management of the processing and production of food ingredients in the scope.

(Note) Points i)-iv) should consider the contribution to/from data/feedback loops across circular, bio-based value chains but also coordination of processes among different sectors (especially if symbiosis concepts apply in the project)

• Quantify and showcase the achievements and challenges of the project to national/regional stakeholders and policymakers, investors and brand owners^[2] to foster their support to scale up the industrial capacity to deploy sustainable circular bio-based solutions across Europe.
• Design and perform dissemination activities to targeted stakeholders, including public and relevant industry actors, enabling the replication, market and social acceptance of the large-scale development of bio-based solutions in the processing and production of food ingredients in the scope. Consider the parallel topic HORIZON-JU-CBE-2022-R-04 (Proteins from alternative and unconventional sources) to pursue potential synergies and avoid overlap.

Proposals must implement the multi-actor approach and ensure adequate involvement of all key actors in the value chains relevant for this topic, across the sustainable circular bio-based system, such as researchers, feedstock producers and suppliers, regional actors, regional policy makers civil society, as well as the bio-based processing industry, including brand owners. Please see the section Additional requirements in the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2022^[3] for more details.

[1] Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems - The Lancet (Willett et al, 2019)

[2] for a description of the term, see annex Glossary in the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2022 (https://www.cbe.europa.eu/reference-documents)

[3] https://www.cbe.europa.eu/reference-documents