Resource efficiency can represent an economic opportunity for the food sector with the help of innovative research that takes into account the environmental impact of a food item from its production through to its processing and its eventual disposal.

The EU funded project RESFOOD has developed technological solutions and practices across crop cultivation, fresh food processing and waste valorization that have the concrete potential to impact on the European food sector in the next future. Solutions range from optimized irrigation management and improved technologies for water reuse and nutrient recovery, through to new monitoring and disinfection techniques of fresh-cut food, and more environment-friendly extraction techniques of valuable materials from food by-products. Tests in real case scenarios have been performed to assess their application for the European food industry.