EcoPROLIVE: Ecofriendly PROcessing System for the full exploitation of the OLIVE health potential in products of added value

European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme has approved the EcoPROLIVE project (www.ecoprolive.eu), an initiative that brings together 9 entities of 4 European countries in the purpose of developing an innovative processing for the full exploitation of high valuable constituents in the olive into novel products that are healthy and greener. The aim is to build an integral production system for the full exploitation of olives for olive oil production and at least one multi-functional food ingredient The proposed innovative process is very different from the current approaches of olive oil industrial production, as well as from the waste revalorization alternatives. It follows a “zero waste” approach where all resulting products have commercial value. EcoPROLIVE main goals are: demonstration of the technical and economic feasibility of the processing and its environmental study; ensuring the market uptake of the technology and novel products, fully characterized (nutritional, functional, toxicological) to avoid market barriers; design of the optimal process and scale-up from lab/pilot plant to preindustrial application; validation at an operational environment; monetizing the technology and developed process (patents) into scalable markets and; replication in different scales and countries, starting with the main olive oil producers represented in the consortium (Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece). The consortium composed by: Contactica S.L. (Project Coordinator), Isanatur Spain S.L., Ingenieria para el Desarrollo Tecnologico, S.L., Universidad de Zaragoza, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (Spain), Prometeo SRL, Alma Mater Studiorum-Universita di Bologna (Italy), CVR - Centro para a Valorização de Residuos (Portugal), Evangelos Mihopoulos & SIA O.E.(Greece), estimates that EcoPROLIVE will have a total eligible cost of 2.417.712,00€, and will receive funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement Nº 635597, of about 1.999.500,00€.