The coordinator E.Balsa-Canto addressed to the partnership to assess the overall project development. Despite of all difficulties that have had to be overcome by the partners, the objectives have been achieved and the results are satisfactory.
She reviewed the work that remained to be done and explained that the results can still be communicated beyond the project.
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.
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.
With the aim of meeting all WP leaders availability, the fifth project meeting (24M) was celebrated during two sessions:
• 5th May: Coordination and Communication issues were addressed by Eva Balsa-Canto (IIM-CSIC) and Uxía Vázquez (INXENIA), followed by Hayley Alter (LANC) presenting co-design activities and Carla Pires, Narcisa Bandarra (IPMA), Xosé Antón Vázquez (IIM-CSIC) and Silvia Blanco (IRMRS) reporting the progress made regarding the production of ingredients.
• 25th May: The session was opened by the WP5 leaders, Carla Pires and Narcisa Bandarra, who talked about the Fish protein hydrolysates and Fish oil bioaccessibility. Alejandro Garrido (INL) presented the results obtained detecting Listeria, Marta López Cabo (IIM-CSIC) focused on the shelf-life studies and Eva Balsa-Canto showed software simulations of the cooking parameters depending on the geometry of the fillet.
Within WP6, Manuel Lopez (NOTPLA) and Maria de Sousa (UCC) reported on the different packaging being developed in the framework of SEAFOOD-AGE project. As for WP7, Harri Määttä (OUAS) showed how the SPL is working and Ana Sanchez (IIM-CSIC) contributed with methods for controlling traceability and labelling along the value chain.
Afterwards, Uxía Vázquez presented the provisional results of the Life Cycle Assessment from fish catch to the fillet preparation and Pierre Roudaut (TQC) talked about the plan for the trainings, interlab validation and pilot demonstrations. To finish, Elena Couñago (CETMAR) spoke about the Knowledge Outputs generated by the project and the sensorial tests to be carried out after summer.
Thirty-three participants followed the presentations and participated in the discussions.
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.
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.
The Seafood-Age consortium has adapted to the current circumstances of lockdown and border closures and held its third project meeting (12M) via videoconference on the 13th of May 2020. The meeting was organised by Eva Balsa-Canto, who acted as Lead Partner and moderator of the meeting, consisting of a series of sessions all day long. Twenty seven participants followed the presentations and participated in the discussions.
In the morning, partners reviewed the progress achieved in the framework of the technical work packages. Carla Pires (IPMA), Silvia Blanco/Mick Mackey (IRMRS) and Xosé Antón Vázquez (IIM-CSIC) showed the first results of the work performed during the previous 6 months regarding the production of ingredients and the assessment of their bioactivity.
Carmen G. Guillén (ICTAN-CSIC) and Hayley Alter (ULANC) gave an overview on the optimization of RTE production and the co-design workshop that have been running respectively. Ina Bremenkamp (UCC) presented the progress on eco-packaging solutions. Harri Määtä (OAMK) talked on the development of the Smart Predictive Label and Pierre Rodault (TQC) proposed a plan for the training sessions to be celebrated during the next year.
In the afternoon, transversal work packages were presented by Uxía Vázquez (Communication), Elena Couñago (Capitalization) and Eva Balsa-Canto (Coordination). Different aspects were discussed and agreements were reached, thus allowing to continue progressing despite the slowdown caused by the current pandemic, that still keeps most of the labs closed. Several technical meetings will take place online in the coming weeks to strengthen collaboration and move forward with the project activities.
The Seafood-Age consortium met in Lisbon (Portugal) on the 6th and 7th of November to host the 6M Project Meeting. The meeting consisted of a 2-day event in which partners reviewed the progress achieved and designed the Execution Plan for 2020. The meeting was held at the IPMA’s premises and was co-organised by IIM-CSIC, IPMA and INXENIA.
The first day started with a Co-creation workshop led by CETMAR. The workshop aimed at exploring, together with our stakeholders, the desirable properties of Seafood-Age products (RTE seafood, eco-packaging and smart predictive labels).
In the afternoon, we discussed technical aspects related to Work Packages WP4-WP6; while WP7 and WP8 were addressed during the second day.
Transversal activities on Project coordination, Communication and Capitalization were discussed at different moments during the meeting and formally introduced the second day.
The first coordination meeting of the SEAFOOD-AGE project took place on 14 May in CETMAR’s facilities.
During the session, the eight work packages leaders presented the objectives, the responsibilities of the partners involved, a breakdown of the activities and the timetable in which they will be executed, as well as the expected results and deliverables.
This first contact served to launch the project, create working groups and start the execution of scheduled tasks.
