ASINCAR Food Pilot Plant

ASINCAR owns a pilot plant (ca. 500 sqm) that reproduces the environment of a food SME, incorporating main equipments and all the areas and working flows present in a company. This is an ideal scenario for the validation of new food technologies and the testing and upscaling of new formulations and procedures before going to the real setting. This space allows a better optimization and adaptation of the processes to the industrial environment, and also reduces the risks associated to the implementation of new equipment, formulations or the launching of new products to the market.

Main activities developed in the Food Pilot Plant are:

1. Scaling up of food products;
2. Industrial validation of food technologies;
3. R&D projects;
4. Tech transfer workshops;
5. Vocational training

The Pilot Plant already possesses a relevant number of advanced Digital and Green technologies. The main idea is to provide Food companies with a demonstration site where they will be able to see/test in a practical and immediate way the benefits related to the use of specific solutions over food applications; and on the other hand, make Tech actor available a space for the validation, demonstration of their own technologies as well as the integration with other tech systems. Some of this relevant equipment are highlighted below:

• Digital: classical sensors monitoring the plant activity, ERP and IoT framework, circular belt with two hyperspectral imaging systems, NIR (Near infrared Spectroscopy) equipments, advanced weighing system, automated maturation chamber for cheeses, energy efficiency system
• Green: extruder, IR dryer, colloid mill, ultrasound

• Mission Statement: The main mission is to support Food companies in the upscaling of their products and processes as well as test relevant food technologies, while offers technological actors a pre-industrial space to scale up and demonstrate their technologies in a relevant environment.

• Vision: Being a key player for the Food industry and related Tech actors to speed up their innovation cycle, the process of the technology transfer and the market uptake of new foods and technologies, at the same time that trains future workers of the Food industry and updates the competences of current worker