New lease of life: transforming biowaste into a valuable resource

Biological waste products could be recycled to create new products in a waste-free circular economy. © New Africa, Shutterstock.com

EU-funded researchers are improving the tracking and certification of biological waste to help give it a second life as new bio-based products. By Gareth Willmer Central Macedonia, a region on the northern mainland of Greece, is an important producer of food. It generates a quarter of the country’s agricultural output and is the source of … Read more

The science of sourdough – how citizens are helping shape the future of fermented foods

EU-funded researchers are looking to sourdough to help develop new plant-based fermented foods. © Birol Dincer, Shutterstock.com

Citizen scientists are drawing on personal experience to help researchers create new plant-based fermented foods and maximise their health benefits. By Michael Allen Many will remember the sourdough bread-baking craze that emerged at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when people were stuck at home and looking for something creative to do. With social media … Read more

Researchers combine citizens’ help and cutting-edge tech to track biodiversity

The brown marmorated stink bug has become an invasive pest, threatening fruit and vegetable crops in Europe. © Oleksandr Filatov, Shutterstock.com

Researchers are using new technologies, including AI, as well as contributions from citizen scientists, to improve how we monitor and protect increasingly threatened habitats and species across Europe. By Bárbara Pinho In 1998, in a small park in Zurich, Switzerland, one bug woke up in a new world. The bricks on the roof of a … Read more

Roasting chestnuts, recycling walnuts: turning festive treats into sustainable new materials

Nut shells contain cells with unique interlocking structures that make them interesting for transformation into strong, biodegradable materials. © Elena Veselova, Shutterstock.com

EU-funded researchers are exploring how to make strong and sustainable new materials from hard-to-crack nutshells. By Jack McGovan Dr Notburga Gierlinger, an Austrian researcher specialising in the study of the structure and composition of plant materials, is particularly fascinated by nuts. Confronted with a pistachio or walnut, she would open it with caution, intrigued by … Read more

Waste not, want not: turning food waste into fertile soil for sustainable growth

Efforts to recycle food production waste into natural fertilisers are a win-win for farmers and the environment. © LamoonfilmPhoto, Shutterstock.com

EU-funded researchers are turning food processing waste into a valuable resource, transforming discarded biomaterials into natural fertilisers. By Sofia Sanchez Manzanaro In Catalonia there are 7.7 million residents and approximately 7.9 million pigs. That’s over one pig per person. Large-scale pig farming has led to an excess of nitrogen in the soil, a problem shared … Read more