The initiative, linked to the Strategic Project for the Recovery and Economic Transformation (PERTE) Agri-Food and coordinated by the National Centre for Food Technology and Safety (CNTA), involves a total of 17 companies in the sector. All of them will seek to develop over the next two years significant advances in digitisation and new technologies such as, for example, the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and NIR and hyperspectral image analysis to security controls.
The headquarters of the National Centre for Food Technology and Safety (CNTA) in the town of San Adrián (Navarra) hosted the launch of Spain Food Valley. This, linked to the Strategic Project for Agri-Food Economic Recovery and Transformation (PERTE), starts with a portfolio of 28 projects worth 37.3 million euros. A total of 17 companies from the sector will participate in their development and execution, coordinated by the aforementioned CNTA. Thus, the presence of firms such as Alinter (IAN Group), AMC Natural Drinks, Fruit Tech Natural, Huercasa, Iberfruta-Muerza, Viscofan and Viuda de Cayo, among others, stands out.
Its intention for the next two years is, on the one hand, to “improve the competitiveness of the agri-food industry”. And, on the other, to make progress in the areas of digitalisation, traceability and food safety. To this end, they plan to develop and implement the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and NIR and hyperspectral image analysis in security controls. Also, the manufacture of new ingredients and products with high added value from food by-products or the optimisation of the industrial use of water, among many other practical cases.
Spain Food Valley coincides in time with another programme led by CNTA, Eatex Food Innovation Hub, with which it shares “its transformative vocation”. In this sense, the intention of its promoters is to establish synergies between the two “to facilitate access to and transfer of the most cutting-edge technologies to all the companies that make up the food chain”.
Source: Navarra Capital