News

Indigo Rock Marine Research at the “Seaweed around the clock” event

Our Irish partners are giving a presentation at “Seaweed around the clock” on the 2nd June and will be also part of the “Irish booth”.

About Event

The Marine Institute, Bord Iascaigh Mhara and DAFM are sponsoring a virtual booth for Ireland at the global online Seaweed Around the Clock event.

Seaweed Around the Clock is the second edition of the largest global seaweed event uniting people and businesses of all backgrounds in order to talk about the growing seaweed industry.

It will be all about raising awareness, showcasing innovations and funding organic seaweed farming. The objective: with the support of the non-profit Seaweed First, the aim is to raise funds in order to support sustainable seaweed projects globally during the first 24h Seaweed Telethon.

The booth/platform is open from June 1st until July 2nd. The event itself takes place over 24 hours on June 2nd, with a showcase of Irish stakeholders from 3-4pm.

Further information about the event can be found here: https://seaweedaroundtheclock.vfairs.com/ where free register for the event is open. Last year there were >5,000 attendees for a 16 hour live streamed event. This year it will be held for 24 hours and will have a virtual platform, like a conference which will allow:

  • Watch live debates, keynotes, cooking & fashion shows
  • Click & Meet ! Connect from June 2nd to July 1st
  • Explore Exhibition Hall and poster presentations
  • Support organic seaweed projects through a donation platform

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.

The third blind tasting session was organised by CETMAR on May 5, 2022 at the senior center “Os Cortizos»

Within the activities scheduled for the SEAFOOD-AGE project, our partner CETMAR organized on May 5 a new blind tasting session among the potencial consumers (people > 65).

After the success of the last two events held in Ourense and Vigo, on this occasion the event took place at the senior center “Os Cortizos” located in Redondela (Vigo) where 24 attendees, divided on two groups, had the opportunity to taste three different recipes made with SEAFOOD-AGE products.

In order of collecting relevant information to improve the products and know their future reception, the participants were invited to express their opinion through a form in which they were asked about the appearance, smell and taste of the different dishes.

The event ended with an explanation about the objectives of the project, the elaboration of the products and the packaging thanks to which the attendees were able to learn a little more about SEAFOOD-AGE.

Finally, the attendees were given gift packages made up of a tote bag inside which there was a spoon, a snack bag and an information flyer about the project.

Collaboration from IIM, OPROMAR, IRMRS, IPMA, BENBOA, NOTPLA, Fundación Dorzán, Centro de día Os Cortizos and CETMAR was appreciated during the organization of in this event.

Oral and poster communications by INL at BioIberoAmerica 2022

After the editions of Salamanca and Brasilia, the BioIberoAmerica Congress held its 3rd edition in Braga – Portugal, April 7-9, 2022.

BioIberoAmerica 2022 is a unique congress that brings together scientists, entrepreneurs, industry and clinical representatives, who develop their research and work in the area of biotechnology.

This three-day event featured oral presentations, poster sessions, debates, workshops and parallel sessions. The topics covered the different areas of biomedicine and biomaterials, agricultural, marine, food, environmental and industrial biotechnology (bioenergy and bioremediation), molecular biotechnology, systems biology and metabolic engineering, bioreactors, biocatalysis, separation processes and biosensors, biotechnology, Nanobiotechnology, Bioinformatics, Ethics and Society. In this edition, BioIberoAmerica 2022 participants were invited to submit their papers on a new research topic – Sustainable Food Systems in Iberoamerica.

Our colleagues from the INL have participated in the congress, where they presented their papers related to some of the articles developed under the SEAFOOD-AGE.

In other sections of the website you can find the poster and the presentation made by our colleagues.

Successful tasting of the RTE SEAFOOD-AGE product

On April 7, a blind tasting of seafood products for people over 65 years old was held in Vigo. This was the second tasting, after the one held in Orense last October.

The event, which took place at the headquarters of Afundación in Vigo, included a talk on healthy eating given by the nutrition expert Mr. Manuel Penín, an hedonic test of food products and a group product evaluation.

In order for the tasting participants to be as objective as possible, the details of the products to be tasted were made known at the end of the activity.

Both the training on healthy eating and the product tasting activity were very well received. Thirty-four people participated in the talk and thirty-one in the tasting. Three different recipes were tasted and discussed after the tasting. In addition, the SEAFOOD-AGE project was presented to the participants.

The product was well accepted and aroused a lot of interest, both with regard to the nutritional approach and the use of discards and the revaluation of marine products.

Afundación and Espazo+60 collaborated in the development of the activity, both with the people who attended and with the cession of their facilities.

Collaboration from IIM, OPROMAR, IRMRS, IPMA, BENBOA, NOTPLA, Fundación Dorzán and CETMAR was appreciated during the organization of in this event.

Seafood-Age project presented at the Business2Sea 2021 event

Past November 18th from 10:00h to 11:30h, our coordinator Eva Balsa-Canto was presenting “Strategies for the Green Deal at SEAFOOD-AGE Project” at the workshop on «Green technologies and circular economy towards climate change mitigation and sustainability»

The 11th edition of this event was organised by Forum Oceano and Fundación CETMAR in a hybrid format in Vigo, Spain.

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.

PrinLab participates at the Oamk’s Northern Responsible Food webinar

Our partner Harri Määttä (from PrinLab – Development Laboratory for Printed Intelligence) presented the outcomes of Seafood-Age project during the introduction to printed electronics as part of a panel discussion in an OAMK’s webinar at 5.11.2021.

Presentation of PrinLab and printed electronics can be watched at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5lyh2zLV74 from 7:06. The panel discussion where Harri was participating and discussing about the smart labels in safety and traceability of food started at 10:41.

“Oamk’s Northern Responsible Food webinar discussed, among other things, what responsibility means in food production and how to guarantee safe food for consumers. And how can technology such as printed intelligence be utilized in the food industry, and how does top chef Sami Garam think the future will change the contents of our dinner plate”

1st tasting trial event with potential consumers (people >65)

In the framework of SEAFOOD-AGE project WP3, CETMAR organised a tasting trial event with potential consumers (people >65) in Ourense (Spain), to explore elderly eating acceptance towards innovative RTE seafood products.

To start with the activity, a nutrition for healthy ageing talk by a specialist from Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (NUTRIAGE project) was developed in order to encourage the participation in the trial, and also to raise awareness about healthy ageing.

Secondly, three recipes were presented with different SEAFOOD-AGE food products. With the help of a form and a focus group, information about their preferences was collected. Although results from the tasting trial is under revision yet, this activity proved to be of great help to better shape the product. Moreover, the activity had a great acceptance among participants, who were really excited to be part of this experience, to learn about this project and to taste this food for the first time.

Apart from project partners collaboration to elaborate the presented recipes (from ingredients to packaging), the associate partner Fundación Dorzán was key for the organization of this event.

Collaboration from IIM, OPROMAR, IRMRS, IPMA, BENBOA, NOTPLA, Fundación Dorzán and CETMAR was appreciated during the organization of in this event.