TITAN project: Advanced tools for transparency of the food supply chain

TITAN is an EU-funded project that will demonstrate the latest transparency-related solutions to help drive the formation of a demand-driven European economy predicted on the production and consumption of healthy, sustainable, and affordable food. TITAN has the ambition to build transparency in food supply chains via implementation of innovative, including digital technologies to boost the health, sustainability, and safety of products, processes, and diets.

As part of the TITAN project, the Food Quality and Safety Research Group from INL is working in collaboration with partners from Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands on two specific pilots, one of them being specifically focused on the olive oil value chain. In this pilot, INL is developing a miniaturized device for decentralized analysis, and the specific identification of certain autochthonous olive varieties to ensure authenticity in the different points of the olive oil value chain. This device will be combined with blockchain technology to ensure traceability as well, which will enable all stakeholders to track the journey of their product from the olive tree to the bottle in the supermarket.

INL is also involved on a second pilot in which a similar approach is being developed for the detection of traces of the main allergenic ingredients that can contaminate the bakery value chain. In this case, DNA analysis is being combined with AI to develop a predictive model to reduce the risk of unintentional contamination with allergenic ingredients. A tailored algorithm will be developed considering the specificities of the food industry and its list of ingredients and suppliers.

One of the most important outcomes of TITAN is to build an EU Hub that will function as a center of expertise and as a first point of contact with the aim of promoting and facilitating systemic solutions related to transparency. The Hub will function as a one-stop shop that helps companies to become more competitive. Stakeholders such as food industries are welcome to join TITAN’s Network Of Expertise (NOE) that will be built during the runtime of the project, the NOE consists of representative sets of experts in the identified topics of TITAN (Transparency, Sustainability, New (Digital) Technologies, Food System Approach) and the related subtopics.

In order to contribute to creating a rich and vibrant ecosystem in the food supply chain domain, TITAN has organised an Open Call for innovative solutions to select and fund eight of the most innovative and ambitious pilots that will enhance the value of food supply chains through increased transparency.

Details can be found on the project’s website: https://titanproject.eu/open-call/