New €3m project to stimulate food and activity research

Afresh, which stands for ‘Activity and food for regional economies supporting health’, is part of the EU Food Cluster Initiative, which aims to strengthen food research in the EU and build competitive advantage by encouraging cross-learning from various food regions.

With €3 million in funding from the EU, the aim of the 36-month Afresh project is to develop a research agenda for reducing diet- and physical inactivity-related chronic diseases, such as diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular diseases and various types of cancer.

It will go about this by developing innovative products and services in the field of nutrition and physical activity. Partners come from Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, France, Spain, Poland and Hungary, and the inaugural meeting was held this week in the

Hungarian city of Debrecen.

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“During the project meeting it was clearly stated that the future cooperation between the food sector and the physical activity sector will bring forward initiative solutions for a healthy lifestyle, adapted to modern working conditions and time constraints,”​ the project coordinators said.

The novelty of the project is said to be its multidisciplinary approach to closing the gap between various European economic hotspots for food and activity work. A number of innovative activities are already underway – for instance, a mobile health screening bus conducting health checks and providing physical activity advice; and new products developed by researchers at Debreceni University, such as gluten-free cake and polyphenol-rich tea and currently undergoing consumer testing at the on-campus ‘i-shop’.

The new Afresh project is being coordinated by Stuttgart Region Economic Development, and the partners are: Ghent University in Belgium, France’s Association Agropolis, Liverpool John Moores University in the UK, Spain’s National Canned Fish and Shellfish Manufacturers Association, Stichting Catholieke University in the Netherlands, Warsaw University of Life Sciences in Poland, and Debreceni University in Hungary.

More details on Afresh and the Food Cluster are available at www.foodclusterinitiative.eu​