ASINCAR - Agrifood technological centre

ASINCAR is a Spanish Agri-food Technological Centre and also an Agrifood Cluster (Gold label of the European Cluster Excellence Initiative) formed by nearly a 100 members (>95% SMEs) coming from the whole value chain. Under any of the roles, its main mission is to contribute to the competitiveness and sustainability of the Agrifood companies and their adaptation to future market scenarios through innovation, cooperation, knowledge and technology transfer as well as support for accessing new markets. Facilities are located in Noreña (Asturias, North-West Spain) and currently counts with 38 multidisciplinar professionals.

ASINCAR is also a Training Centre with more than 17 years of experience that covers the whole value chain. Yearly, ASINCAR teaches around 1000 students (food active workers, unemployed, MSc students) aiming to prepare and update the workforce to the different skills required by the future food industry. The main training topics cover: i) processing and production; ii) food quality; iii) hygiene and food safety; and iv) food lab. ASINCAR is constantly updating its training program to introduce more efficient teaching methods to move towards a constructivist educational model where the student is at the core of the learning process.

 ASINCAR main activity areas are:

·        Research, Development and Innovation projects.

·        Laboratory for microbiological, chemical-physical and sensory food analysis (recognized by the national competent authority).

·        Technical assistance and technological advice.

·        Vocational training.

 From a research and innovation perspective, ASINCAR participates in multiple regional, national and European projects. Main innovation lines of the centre are described below:

On-line and advanced IT systems for food value chain

o   Food traceability systems.

o   NIR-based systems for real-time monitoring of microbiology and macronutrients of food preparations and final product.

o   Predictive models for food microbiology.

o   NIR-based systems for fraud detection.

o   NIR-based tools for the assessment of surface hygiene.

o   Analytical devices for the on-line monitoring of food contact materials.

o   Combination of NIR with other analytical and characterisation techniques for further applications.

Development of improved / new food products

o   Healthy and functional food products (incorporation of functional ingredients over different food matrices; improvement of nutritional profile of processed products).

o   Development of new formulations, including the preparation of gourmet products.

o   Adaptation of food to user specific requirements, for example for seniors.

Food preservation technologies and enhancement of shelf life

o   Optimization of parameters in traditional thermal treatments.

o   Implementation of cutting-edge conservation technologies, as high-pressure processing, biopasteurization, flash pasteurization, vacuum cooking.

o   Mixing of preservation methodologies, for instance combination of thermal and packaging systems.

Packaging systems

o   Optimisation of packaging systems, for instance MAP.

o   Active and intelligent packaging systems, as for detection of meat freshness and shelf-life forecasting or oxygen scavenger packaging.

o   New materials for packaging.

Micro- and Biotechnology applied for Food Safety

o   Development and validation of new and improved food microbiology tests.

o   Shelf-life enhancement and control.

o   Optimization of productive and fermentation processes.

o   Development of challenge tests.

o   Biocontrol.

o   Isolation, characterization and monitoring of wild-type strains.

o   Analysis and exploitation of technological capacity of microbial strains.

o   Study preservation capacity of beneficial microorganisms.

o   Development of biosensors for specific microorganisms as Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella spp.

Valorisation of agri-food by-products

o   Conversion of residues in biogas.

o   Development of fertilizers.

o   Obtaining fish components with high added value.

o   Exploitation of vegetal subproducts, as e.g. from kiwi.

A key infrastructure aspect of ASINCAR is the existence of a Pilot plant (500 m2) that reproduces all the working flows and common steps, including equipment, of food processing industry and it is available for trials and demonstration activities.