Food is precious: Fraunhofer Agriculture and Food Industry Alliance

Inspired by Bavarian and Israeli resilience: How can developing countries provide food security to their citizens?

Climate change, the war in Ukraine and other geopolitical conflicts have an acute impact on all of us, but especially on developing countries. Both Bavaria and Israel, with their long-standing economic and scientific partnership, are looking for new solutions for food security.

Prof. Dr. Andrea Büttner, Executive Director of the Fraunhofer IVV and spokesperson for the Fraunhofer Food Alliance, also took part in the discussion in mid-February and takes the view that "a secure supply of safe food can only function on the following basis: Sustainability and partnership. That is why we in the Fraunhofer Food Alliance and in the Leistungszentrum Sichere intelligente Syste-me (LZSiS) are working together with our partners* on solutions for today and tomorrow. Regionally, nationally, globally."

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Innovative solutions for the food industry

Climate change and dwindling resources, as well as uncertain supply chains and rising food prices, pose major challenges for the global food industry. The potential on the path to a sustainable food supply is great.

13 Fraunhofer institutes are conducting research in the area of the food industry and are working together on solutions along the entire value chain: from innovative approaches, e.g. in the areas of agriculture, product protection and analytics, food and logistics, to new processing technologies and developments in terms of sustainability and the circular economy.

The Fraunhofer Food Industry Alliance builds on decades of collaboration. The competencies of currently 13 Fraunhofer institutes are bundled under the umbrella of the alliance, which is part of the Fraunhofer network of around 76 institutes. Customers from the food industry benefit from this unique scientific infrastructure and interdisciplinary know-how - for their solutions of a sustainable food industry.

EVENT: OCM 2023 - 6th Conference on Optical Characterization of Materials on March 22-23, 2023 in Karlsruhe, Germany.

The International Conference on Optical Characterization of Materials (OCM-2023) is organized by the Karlsruhe Center for Spectral Signatures of Materials (KCM). The KCM is an association of institutes of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology KIT and the Automated Visual Inspection Division of the Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB.

Optical characterization of materials is a rapidly growing scientific field. OCM 2023 provides a platform for scientific exchange between leading researchers. Topics of interest include characterization of materials by spectral properties from UV (240 nm) to IR (14 μm), multispectral image analysis, X-ray methods, polarimetry, and microscopy. Typical areas for these applications and techniques include the food industry, recycling of waste materials, detection of contaminated materials, mining, process industries, and raw materials.

For more information and to register, click here.

News: Whitepaper Resilient Value Chains for Food Production

Due to current crises and resource scarcity, there is great pressure for action across all sectors to strengthen the resilience of food production.

The white paper "Resilient value chains for food production" by Fraunhofer IPT, Fraunhofer IME and Fraunhofer IVV identifies strategies for strengthening resilience and provides recommendations for action.

To this end, the researchers have considered two dimensions: the technical resilience of the production facilities used and the ecosystem resilience of the food grown.

The white paper is available free of charge on request at resilienz@ivv.fraunhofer.de.

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