The research consortium is made of four laboratories

Context

Despite prevention efforts by bakers, the amount of surplus bread from small to medium bakeries within a city is equivalent to that from several industrial bakery sites (~ 800 t/year for a metropol of the size of Rennes (450,000 inhabitants) according to our estimates, supermarkets excluded).

The micro-COSMOS project is rooted in three additional findings on the management of these surplus bread:

- that of the ADEME report (2016) with 60% of surplus bread produced in small-scale bakeries being destroyed (disposal) and 25% used as animal feed;

- the dependence of bakeries on surplus collection by an associative system which, in part, can be turned towards the largest producers of surplus bread (semi-industrial bakeries, bakeries hosted and owned by supermarkets) which are obliged to sign agreements with caritative associations (loi AGEC in France);

- the emergence on the ground of various initiatives for bread recycling* as food (grinder providers and specialised bakery sites), which are still too small to carry out advanced upstream research. All these players are initially motivated by the zero-waste approach and are in line with the top valorisation priorities of the food waste hierarchy (loi Garot 2016 in France).

The small scale, which is the identity of the micro-COSMOS research project, therefore refers to artisanal or semi-industrial bakeries (< 30 employees) in an urban environment on the one hand, and SMEs, some of them wih deeply-rooted social missions, related to the valorisation of surplus bread as new food on the other hand.

The project also intends to take advantage of these local players and existing innovation niches, and to this end several actions are included in the project.

At last, bread is a food product that is easy to stabilise and store, and of which recycling is perceived positively by consumers for still unclear reasons, but certainly partly due to the tradition of bread recycling (crostinies, puddings…). For the micro-COSMOS consortium, small-scale bakeries, their production of surplus bread and the valorisation of these surplus are a case study of choice for studying food recycling and determine the appropriate conditions (quality, safety, economic, environmental, social conditions) before assessing their possible transfer to other types of food products.

General objectives

- To gain a better understanding of the recycling process of surplus food in an urban context and on a small processing scale, through a cross-disciplinary approach. Four doctoral research projects in four different disciplines (process engineering and particle functionalities, biochemistry and health risks, contextualised life cycle analysis of valorisation routes, consumer and social sciences) are being carried out as part of this project, and should feed into each other.

- To innovate on the basis of this new knowledge, and with local stakeholders. A number of actions are planned, in the form of surveys of stakeholders, joint breadmaking and cookie-making trials and workshops to co-design valorisation routes. Finally, the project deliverables will be translated into recommendations for stakeholders, with additional testing of some of teh best solutions by stakeholders.

Work plan

Expected outcomes

In the face of the gaps revealed by the state-of-the-art, the following ambitions are targeted:

On the food processing dimension of the project

• The microbiological quality of surplus bread used to produce bread powders;
• The generation of surplus bread powders with controlled and varied functionality. Focus will be on simple innovative process solutions (based on the experience of the « Crumbler » implemented by the Expliceat start up for bakers), and some more advanced process solutions will be explored for preparing up-scaling beyond the project;
• The incorporation of functional powders into healthy and tasty bakery products. In particular, the texture at the end of baking, and during storage, and acrylamide formation will be controlled in a joint manner since they are intimately coupled. This ambition is based on the know-how of bakers, with a feedback transfer of the project's innovations.

On the organisational dimension of the project

• The characterisation of surplus bread (quantity, type) and the drivers of their production and recycling at the city level obtained by field research and surveys;
• The design of short and local chains for bread recycling that will base on the low-impact principles (reverse logistics, shared logistics,…) and that will be inclusive of the vision and expectations of the local stakeholders (co design);
• The consumer acceptance for bakery products made from surplus bread, and the link to their purchase intention;
• A boost to the construction of the bread-recycling-as-food niche, through the learning and networking processes conducted in the micro-COSMOS project.

Through the sustainability impact assessment planned in the project

• An environmental comparative assessment of surplus bread valorisation routes, taken into account in both their organisational and technological dimensions. The influence of the context (geographical, economical, social…) on the design and the sustainability assessment of options will be considered to produce useful results for the local decision-making process;
• An alternative business model for value creation by the valorisation of surplus bread by the bakery, that will lie on the environmental, social and sensorial quality of the product.