1. Information about the procurement
ICT Solutions applied to the agrifood value chain for on-site diagnostics and early fraud identification
The initiative “Innovation in the development of agricultural analytical methodologies” of the Council of Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development of Andalusia (CAPDER) seeks to improve the analytical methods used by different actors along the agrifood value chain. The initiative aims to satisfy several needs as identified by the end users of the Agency for Agrarian and Fisheries Management of Andalusia (AGAPA) and the Andalusian Institute for Agricultural Research and Training, Fisheries, Food and Ecological Production (IFAPA). The needs can be comprised as follows:
- Rapid on-site diagnostic methods for various strategic sectors of the Andalusian agricultural sector.
- New methodologies adapted to the laboratory routine for food authentication and detection of fraud.
- New methodologies that include the standards of Andalusian cotton in the software of the equipment that carries out the analysis.
These innovative methodologies should reduce the response times of the results of agrifood analytics, improve the efficiency of resources (reduction of associated costs), increase the quality and safety of food, improve processes and optimize the agrifood value chain chain, as well as the effectiveness of the safety, traceability, warning and risk management mechanisms.
Group 1 – on-site diagnostic portable kits
- Identify negatives in the official AgriFood Inspection framework.
The implementation of agrifood inspection programmes requires a large number of determinations (in 2015, 6,328,202). In addition to the resources required for the implementation of these plans, the time needed to carry out the time samples needed must also be taken into account. An example of this cost is the damage caused by the need to immobilise merchandise in inspected companies or the preventive closing of shellfish areas. It would be necessary to have on-site diagnostic kits or portable devices which will reduce the number of determinations to be made in the laboratory, thus making it possible to obtain a first result. These results are essential to ensure food safety and the quality of these products, as well as to detect fraudulent practices, in order to mitigate these costs and speed up the execution of the Agro-Food Inspection plans.
- Obtain a rapid and low cost measure of moisture and fat content in olives and pomace oil in situ.
The measurements for the olive fruit, which determine the optimal harvesting date (when the oil biosynthesis is finished), can lead to the harvest of the olives from the trees by avoiding their natural drop. Thus, the olive oil can be classified as extra virgin. Nowadays, olive growers carry out a fruit analysis with a financial cost and the results are obtained within at least 24 to 48 hours. Likewise, the oil miller needs information about the olive characteristics (mainly moisture and oil content) for process regulation to improve the oil yield. As for olive growers, the analysis results are available too late for process regulation. Even when the oil millers regulate the extraction process, they do not know how the regulations work since the pomace characteristic can be available 24 h later.
- Obtain a rapid measure of polyphenols content in grape, wine and grape must.
The monitoring of polyphenols during grape ripening, winemaking, and aging during bottling (in bottle and / or barrel) is key to ensuring its stability and quality. Currently, the quantitative determination of polyphenols in grapes, must and wine is long and tedious, and requires expensive infrastructure. A rapid and quantitative measurement of the different families of polyphenols in grapes, must and wine will allow the adaptation of the processes of vinification, according to the product characteristics. Decision making can be done more quickly without having to wait for determinations that can take days, thus improving the quality and profitability of the product and the process.
Group 2 – tools for early fraud identification
- Comprehensive and versatile analytical tool for food authentication.
Effective tools are needed for the determination of the commercial quality of food products, differentiated quality and to fight against fraud and adulteration, in order to respond to the requirements of authentication during an official control.
- Comprehensive and versatile analytical tool for milk species determination in dairy products.
Dairy products, including cheese, are among food products whose quality is susceptible to fraud and must be authenticated by official controls. Possible adulteration in this type of products can be detected through the analysis of the protein composition of dairy products, the presence and concentration of different genetic variants of characteristic and major proteins (caseins, lactoglobulins).
- Solutions to improve the analysis of Andalusian cotton fibres.
The equipment available for the analysis of cotton fibres, called High Volume Instrument (HVI), has, despite being internationally standardised, a limitation for all Mediterranean – including Andalusian – cotton. More precisely, the calibration and the ranges of the physical characteristics of cotton, depending on the primary physical parameters and their subsequent processing by algorithms and tables that manage the software of the equipment, do not cover some of the ranges of Andalusian cotton. These tables have been made based on the characteristics of US cotton. Consequently, the final assessment of the Andalusian cotton is hindered and this is why although it complies with the international standards and with the current programme, it is penalised.
