- The BREADCRUMB project aims to analyse and propose solutions to the situation currently experienced in five value chains: fruits and vegetables, meat, eggs, cereals, and fish.
- Chema Gil, CREDA representative in the project, assures that “participating in BREADCRUMB is a challenge, since it is the first time that CREDA faces a modelling case.”
February 02, 2024
The Center for Agro-Food Economics and Development is one of the 22 entities that make up the new European project BREADCRUMB, an initiative framed in the Horizon Europe research aid program of the European Commission. The objective of this project is to propose solutions and prevent food losses and waste generated by the marketing standards of the sector. These are a set of standards imposed so that the market is unique and supplied with agricultural products of standardized quality that satisfy the expectations of consumers.
In this situation, BREADCRUMB aims to provide an empirical understanding using studies and evidence collected to demonstrate that this set of marketing standards generates a certain amount of food losses throughout the supply chain. Thus, the project seeks to dispose of suboptimal foods, which do not meet standards, but are still safe for consumption.
BREADCRUMB research will mainly be dedicated to the supply chains of five basic products in the human diet, which also register high percentages of waste: fruit and vegetables (43%), meat (23%), eggs (29%), cereals (20%), and fish (51%).
Chema Gil, doctor in Economics and director of CREDA, leads the centre’s participation in this project. Gil is forceful, “it is a challenge for us.” Although the Catalan centre has previously participated in initiatives on food waste, “this is the first time that we face a modelling challenge that will open the doors to new project proposals on this topic, both nationally and internationally.”
The proposal of initiatives of this type “will open the possibilities of analysis. With the use of sectoral data, the effects of different interventions can be quantified from a global and holistic perspective.” Furthermore, in the future, “this type of models can be applied to analyse the effects of public regulations and business strategies, as well as the rebound effects that may be generated.”
In a general area, this initiative seeks to innovate: (1) in supporting decision-making, informing both the European Commission and the Member States about the interventions that can be carried out to prevent losses; and (2) in targeting food businesses to improve access to markets for other types of food. Thus, BREADCRUMB is a project that will generate scientific, social, economic and technological impacts, since in addition to seeking solutions to food waste, it also aims to improve market access for suboptimal foods.
To achieve its objectives, BREADCRUMB will use a multi-stakeholder approach that guarantees the active participation of a wide variety of actors, including food companies, R+D organizations, sector associations, etc. These will be divided into 6 work packages: identification of marketing standards, creation of estimates, selection of solutions, improvement of the potential of suboptimal foods, expansion of results, and project management.
The BREADCRUMB project is led by Eigen Vermogen Van Het Instituut Voor Landbouw (Belgium) and has a total of 22 participating entities from 7 countries: Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Slovenia, Spain, Italy and Portugal. The representation of Spain is distributed between ANECOOP Sociedad Corporativa (Valencia), the association Organización de Productores Pesqueros Pescado Azul de Cataluña (Barcelona), PNO Innovation SL (Barcelona), AINIA (Valencia) and CREDA (Castelldefels).