Conference on the food industry of the future

The closing event of the PROAGRO project was organized by the iFood Cluster and innomine DIH on September 6, in connection with the future food industry.
Linda Szommerné Egyed, the president of the iFood Cluster welcomed the online and onsite participants of the event at the MATE Kaposvári Campus.
After the welcome, the presentation of Dr. Gyarmati Tünde, consultant of innomine DIH Nonprofit Kft., referred to the agri-food industry subsidies, which aim to increase digitalization in the agricultural and food economy, as well as the fact that it promotes the cooperation of the sector players in the South Transdanubia Region. Among other things, foreign good practices, the issue of matchmaking and financing, the Virtual Agricultural Hub, and some development methods that determine the digital maturity index of companies were discussed.
The Virtual Agricultural Hub platform was created within the framework of the project, the main goal of which is to connect actors engaged in agriculture or the agri-food industry, digitization technologies related to these industries, and EU funding opportunities.
“The future facing businesses: digitalization.”
After that, we could hear the presentation entitled “All kinds of sugar” by Dr. Erzsébet Némedi, Bettina Czakó and Dr. Dénes Száz, experts from Expedit Nodum Kft. The title represents the view that the future digitalization processes will bring about changes and new solutions in the field of food production.
In the framework of the presentation, technologies such as 3D printing of food, which aims to provide customization, nanotechnology to enhance physiological properties, and the use of artificial intelligence to increase the efficiency of production processes, were discussed. In addition to production, the renewal of packaging materials is a serious challenge, where efforts must first be made to minimize the generation of hard-to-degrade waste, and traceability and recycling are also important aspects. An interesting solution, for example, is edible packaging made from algae or biopolymers, for which there are already initial attempts.

In the rest of the event, Zsolt Teleki presented the experiences of the DIGIT Brain application, with which he drew attention to the opportunities from direct sources in Brussels, their advantages and pitfalls.

The event ended with the presentation of the fall programs of the iFood Food Cluster.