ProOrg - Core Organic project (2019-2020)

The organic food market is one of the fastest growing food sector in the world but except the exclusion of a positive list of additives and technological aids, mandatory standards for the processing of organic food are lacking in the European Regulation.

To contribute to the sustainable innovation in the organic food sector, the project has the objective to develop a flexible and practicable Code of Practice (CoP) for processors of organic foods, as well as labelling organizations.

 Main goals of Pro-Org project:

• to adopt a participatory approach involving experts from different scientific disciplines, representatives of processors, traders, labeling organizations, as well as individual companies,
• to develop a multi-dimensional evaluation framework (criteria, indicators, parameters, evaluation methods) for organic food processing,
• to test the practicability of the defined criteria and strategy directly in food processing companies,  
• to collect qualitative and quantitative informations about consumer expectations (preferences, acceptance towards food technologies)
• to test the effect of specific informations related to food processing on consumer expectations
• to conduct a survey to gather information and data on trends in the organic food market and the role of different processing technologies and processed foods.

ProOrg is one of the 12 projects selected in the 2016 CORE Organic call; it brings together partners from 16 institutes and 8 different countries.