Innosol4med is a European project within the PRIMA initiative that aims to develop innovative solutions focused to ready-to-eat products  to enhance the characteristics of traditional Mediterranean diet ready-to eat foods.

The modern lifestyle is eliminating traditional and ethnic diversity in the consumer food choices and is having a major impact on dietary habits, mainly based on ready-to-eat foods which at the same time poses several complex  challenges for the food sector, affecting both human health and environmental protection.

Unhealthy lifestyle and dietary habits increase the risk of non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, obesity, chronic respiratory disease, and type 2 diabetes, which are the leading cause of death worldwide.

The InnoSol4Med project is based on the concept that preventing these diseases based on dietary changes, especially focused on ready-to-eat products, healthy food choices, and lifestyle modification is a critical challenge for individuals and overall public health.

PRIMA is a call for countries in the Mediterranean region in which companies, universities, and research centers from all Mediterranean countries or associated countries can participate.

InnoSol4Med brings together 11 partners from 5 countries in the Mediterranean region, including Croatia (3), Italy (3), Spain (2), Turkey, and Morocco (2).

The consortium is multidisciplinary and is led by the Department of Marine Studies at the University of Split (Croatia) and includes 6 universities (Split, Bolonia, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Çukurova, Chouaib Doukkali y Sidi Mohamed Abdellah), 1 research center CSIC, 3 SMEs (DOMCA, Centaurus and Greener) , and a large company (Martino Rossi).

The main objectives of InnoSol4Med project includes:

• Research on innovative matrices (essential oils, natural compounds/extracts) from sustainable sources (agro-food by-products) and autochthonous microbial strains, as new functional ingredients and solutions for the improvement of quality, safety, nutritional value and functionality of traditional foods to be incorporated in ready-to-eat foods.
• Develop food products in synergy with non-thermal innovative technological solutions (ozone, nanoemulsions, fermentation) aimed to be incoporated to ready-to-eat foods.
• Measuring consumer attitudes andpreferences for low-processed and healthy ready-to-eat foods (RTE) in order to propose new and tailored business models and awareness campaigns that can support the adoption and exploitation of the innovative solutions developed in the project.

The European initiative PRIMA (Partnership on Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area) aims to implement research and innovation actions that improve the efficiency and sustainability of agri-food systems, as well as the quality, availability, and management of water in the Mediterranean region.

It is a 10-year initiative (2018-2028) partially funded by the Horizon 2020 program.

19 countries are currently participating: Algeria, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Malta, Morocco, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Tunisia, and Turkey.

In R&D projects, the term “dissemination” indicates the set of actions and strategies aimed at disseminating information on the results of the project to maximize its impact on individuals, entities, and stakeholders. This is essential as it facilitates the transfer of results and their use by a wider audience

Some of the dissemination actions carried out during the project, include:

• Presentation of the project in cluster meeting

The project is led in Spain through the Center for Industrial Technological Development with financing from the European Regional Development Fund.

The project has a timeframe from 2023 to 2026 and a budget of €200,000.00, of which a total of €170,000.00 corresponds to the partially reimbursable grant.