On August, 2024, the DIL Deutsches Institut für Lebensmitteltechnik e. V. hosted the kick-off meeting for the ErnteWert research project titled "Sustainable Harvest for Healthy Added Value – Food Innovations from Broccoli By-Products."
The three-year project with the funding code 2823KTF003 is funded by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) and supervised by the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE). Prof. Dr. Diemo Daum and Hannah Ovelhey from Hochschule Osnabrück presented their research concept aimed at developing nitrogen-efficient and sustainable broccoli cultivation. The approach seeks to minimise unwanted environmental impacts such as nitrous oxide emissions and nitrate leaching from soils through reduced nitrogen fertilisation and optimised harvesting methods.
Dr. Nino Terjung and Franziska Witte from DIL are responsible for product development. They are working on creating innovative food products from broccoli by-products by applying various technologies such as Pulsed Electric Fields (PEF) and high-pressure processing. The goal is to develop products with optimal taste, extended shelf life, and high nutritional value. The product development is closely aligned with findings from consumer research.
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Enneking, Dr. Sebastian Kretschmer, and Ann-Kristin Welk are focusing on consumer research by conducting surveys to determine consumer acceptance of the developed products. These insights are directly incorporated into product design to ensure both market viability and sustainability.
In parallel, Prof. Dr. Sergiy Smetana and Abbigel Sadhu from DIL are concentrating on life cycle analysis (LCA). Their objective is to analyse and reduce the carbon footprint of the entire broccoli value chain by identifying key areas where optimisation can be particularly effective.
The research project is supervised by Anna Wangerow from BLE, who also attended the event.
In addition to professional presentations and discussions, the meeting included a tour of DIL's facilities and a field visit. Participants had the opportunity to observe broccoli cultivation and ongoing field trials firsthand. Overall, the project meeting facilitated intensive exchange among the participants and laid the foundation for further steps in sustainable broccoli production and processing.