Work package 4 is coordinated by the Technology and Food Science Unit of the Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (ILVO, Belgium) in collaboration with its industrial partners BND telersvereniging/NOLIKO. The WP4 partners operate in close collaboration with the Flemish team from WP5 (the Plant-Fungi Interactions group of KU Leuven and the industrial partner De Ceuster Meststoffen (DCM)) within the framework of an IWT-funded Research & Development program.

WP4 is firstly focusing on the detailed nutritional characterization of vegetable by-products (incl. the most relevant HBPC) to be able to estimate their potential to be recycled into the food chain. In a second step, the most interesting underutilized biomass fractions will be used to set up pilot scale processing experiments of which the goal is to produce or derive biomass fractions that can be used as food product, ingredient (technical, functional) or additive. Innovative processing techniques will be compared with the conventional technologies currently used by industry. The most promising fractions will be passed on to WP2 (Rational Food design), while those with lower or no potential for the food chain will be stabilized and handed over to WP5 (Organic Fertilizers).