Seafood-Age 7th Project Meeting and 3nd training session

SEAFOOD-AGE partners had the pleasure of organizing the 7th interim meeting on 11th and 12th May at The Hub of the UCC in Cork. It was a hybrid event, with 13 people atttending on-site and 11 people following the presentation online.

• 11th May: Coordination issues were addressed by Eva Balsa-Canto (IIM-CSIC) and Communication activities by Uxía Vázquez (INXENIA). Next, Elena Couñago (CETMAR) presented the 2nd and 3rd tasting trials developed with the collaboration of Fundación Dorzán. Afterwards, presentations were made by Ina Bremenkamp (UCC) and Marta L. Cabo (IIM-CSIC) on issues related to the packaging. Uxía Vázquez (INXENIA) gave an update on the progress made regarding LCA. Harri Määttä (OAMK), Eva Balsa-Canto and Carmen G. Sotelo focused their interventions on different aspects of the labelling solutions and Carla Pires (IPMA) made a review of the deliverables and indicators of the finished WP that she leads. Finally, Emmanuel Tsekleves (LANCASTER) gave a speech on the findings and emergent themes from their work on fish and seafood product consumption.

• 12th May: During the morning, the 3rd training session on Circularity, traceability and safety was adressed to the partners. It was organised by Rozenn Le Vaillant (TQC), who presented also the activities in progress for developing competencies for innovation. Alejandro Garrido (INL) also talked about the interlaboratory validation in course. To wrap up, the project coordinator made a review of the general progress and reviewed the key issues to ensure the achievement of the project objectives.

Seafood-Age 6th Project Meeting and 2nd training session

For the first time in two years, the interim meeting went presential, more precisely hybrid. The M30 meeting was held past 8th & 9th November at the INL in Braga.  

A total of 34 participants attended the meeting, 18 of them online.

•          8th November: Coordination and Communication issues were addressed by Eva Balsa-Canto (IIM-CSIC) and Uxía Vázquez (INXENIA), followed by Elena Couñago (CETMAR) who presented the first results of the tasting trial developed with the collaboration of Fundación Dorzán. Afterwards, short presentations were made on behalf of BENBOA, LANC, IPMA, IIM-CSIC and IRMRS to give an update of the last developments made regarding the obtention of ingredients and the production of the RTE product. Paco Teira (BENBOA) offered a sample of the fillet with sauces to the partners and Manuel López (NOTPLA) showed the sachets that will be included in the final product. Finally, Uxía Vázquez (INXENIA) presented preliminary results on the carbon footprint of the SEAFOOD-AGE product and the progress made regarding packaging was presented by Maria de Sousa (UCC), Marta Lopez (IIM-CSIC) and Manuel Lopez (NOTPLA)

•          9th November: During the morning the 2nd training session addressed to the partners took place. This session, organised by Rozenn Le Vaillant (TQC) counted on the participation of Harri Määttä (OUAS), Ina Bremenkamp (UCC), Manuel Lopez (NOTPLA) and Hayley Alter (LANC), who gave didactic and demonstrative speeches on aspects related to packaging and smart predictive labels. The meeting finished with the participation of Carmen G. Sotelo, who talked about labelling and traceability. To wrap up, the project coordinator made a review of the project progress and invited to debate on the call for extension.

Video tutorials developed by IPMA instruct on how to assay biological activity of compounds

During the 1st training session organised by TQC on 4th November, the Portuguese Institute of Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) showed the different methods to assess the bioactivity of ingredients. This action was intended to familiarize the partners with techniques and processes that can be carried out at lab. IPMA’s presentation was supported by a series of video tutorials developed by them in the framework of SEAFOOD-AGE project.

Now, these videos are available through SEAFOOD-AGE Youtube channel for any researcher or technician interested in these techniques:

How to obtain extracts from the algae Alaria esculenta in the lab?

How to assay in the laboratory the reducing power of biological compounds?

How to assay in the laboratory the chelating activity of biological compounds?

How to assay in the laboratory the antioxidant activity of biological compounds?

How to assay in the laboratory the anti-obesity activity of biological compounds?

How to assay in the laboratory the anti-hypertensive activity of biological compounds?

How to assay in the laboratory the antidiabetic activity of biological compounds?

Seafood-Age 4th Project Meeting & 1st Training Session

4th Project Meeting

The fourth project meeting (18M) was celebrated via videoconference on the 3rd of November 2020. Thirty-three participants followed the presentations and participated in the discussions.

In the morning, the technical packages were addressed, while transversal topics were discussed after lunch.

Interesting progresses were presented in this meeting after one year and half of collaborative work, being rewarding to see that the different aspects of the RTE product are taking shape despite the restrictions to access the labs.

The 1st training session went successfully virtual on 4th November

Even though this kind of action was supposed to be face-to-face in order to get familiar with techniques and processes that take place at a lab or pilot scale, the partners involved were successful preparing very comprehensible and high quality home-made audiovisuals.

Researchers from IIM-CSIC presented the production of ingredients. IPMA showed the different methods to assess the bioactivity of ingredients. ICTAN explained the production of the RTE product, INL presented a demonstration of the microbial kit and IRMRS screened a video about the seaweed culture and harvest.