Taking a ‘Food System’ approach will provide a resource efficient and food secure future of the UK food industry, by engendering vision in the UK science base and improving uptake by the industry.

KEY ACADEMIC AND INDUSTRIAL PARTNERS

ACADEMIC

University of Birmingham

Loughborough University

University of Nottingham

INDUSTRIAL

2 Sisters Food Group

AB Sugar

Bioscience KTN

Cargill

FDF

McCain Foods (GB) Ltd

Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC)

Marks & Spencer plc

Mars

Nestle

Pepsico

Premier Foods

J Sainsbury plc

Unilever

FURTHER DETAILS

The Centre provides a step change in process engineering, with the key transformations required in intelligent product design providing targets for novel resource efficient engineered processes. Delivering step changes requires a fundamental change in manufacturing practice linking long term consumer/product requirements, in a co-creation with industry, to provide pull through of technical unlocks in territories in which innovations are required. We will meet the current and future needs of the Food Manufacturing Industry, tackling issues in the 4 main areas of global need: a) Global food security - providing manufacturing capability for conversion of (under utilised) crops; b) Health enabling food structures manufactured with nutritional value and optimised nutrient delivery; c) Sustainable production - reduced energy and water requirements including, reduce/re-use waste (for valorisation into new materials), and d) Maximise the efficiency of food production and supply using advanced manufacturing strategies for example, flexible and distributed manufacture.

KEY RESEARCH CHALLENGES

The scope includes the manufacturing activities from ‘post-farm gate to supermarket shelf’, and more specifically the implications of these activities on the areas of Resource Efficiency and Sustainable Production. The Centre activities will tackle the research related to two specific Grand Challenges: 1) Innovative materials, products and processes and 2) sustainable food supply and manufacture, through a number of research themes:

New processing technologies – use of novel processes (for example, Microwave-Vacuum-Drying, MVD) to be commercially used for the efficient manufacturing of foods structures
Upgrading of ingredients for improved resource utilisation - recovery and valorisation of natural materials and transformation of waste streams
Food manufacturing for healthy diets and lifestyles – how to manufacture healthy, nutritionally balanced wholesome food
New flexible manufacturing processes - flexible manufacturing approaches such as distributed manufacture
Eco-Food manufacturing - strategies, methodologies and tools for the food sector to measure and maximise resource efficiency in production
Sustainable Food Supply Chain – how to produce the right amount of food at the right time in the right place using the minimum resources.

Source: (http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/research/centres/innovativemanufacturing/imrcfood/ 5Feb15)

UK Food and Drink Landscape