Food and agriculture at large scale research infrastructures

The food industry faces major global challenges, often related to sustainability and health. Many diseases today are lifestyle- or food-related, at the same time as a growing population means that food production must increase. Thus, increased food production is both part of the problem and part of the solution. The goal of the Swedish national food strategy is to increase both the production and export of food and the vision is to be globally competitive, innovative, and sustainable by the year 2030.

Increasing demand for new healthy high-quality food products requires a deeper understanding of the structure of raw materials and foods on a micro and macro scale. Foods are complex materials, often made up of many different components and substances. Knowledge about the relationship between structure, process conditions, and sensory quality is crucial in order to take advantage of the possibilities with new alternative sources of protein, circular production, lowering salt and sugar content while maintaining quality and removing additives. In addition, it is important to understand the interaction between food and packaging materials or manufacturing equipment, to minimize, for example, waste and cleaning problems.

The new large-scale research infrastructures, which are emerging in Sweden in the form of MAX IV and ESS, offer unique methods and tools for the food industry in their research and innovation processes. X-ray and neutron scattering offer completely new opportunities to study foods than before, such as increased level of detail, dynamic conditions, and three-dimensional analysis.

RISE runs several pilot projects with companies and performs experiments at various research sites around the world. The pilot trials are financed by VINNOVA and serve as an incentive for the industry to discover the possibilities with the new materials research techniques. Among the VINNOVA pilots are Swedish food companies such as Lantmännen.

Northern Lights on Food

Northern Lights on Food has been formed as a platform for the food industry, to gather around opportunities with large-scale research infrastructures. Challenges and opportunities have already been discussed at a major workshop with industry and academia.