The CAFÉ (Computer-Aided Food processes for control Engineering) project is a Large collaborative project developed in the 7th framework program of the European Commission (Theme 2: Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, and Biotechnology).
This project lasted from 2009 to march 2013 and was coordinated by Denis Dochain, from CESAME, Université Catholique de Louvain-la-neuve (UCL), Belgium.
This project involved 16 european partners: Alctra, BIV SA, C-Tech Innovation, Irstea, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), Wageningen University and Research centre, Institut des Sciences et Industries du Vivant et de l’Environnement AgroParisTech, Inra, Povltavske Mlekarny AS, Psutec SPRL, Societa di Progettazione Elettronica e Software S.C.R.L. SPES, Telstar Technologies SLU, The University of Manchester, Universita Degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata, X-Flow BV.
The objective of the CAFÉ project is to provide new paradigms for the smart control of food processes, on the basis of four typical processes in the areas of bioconversion, separation, preservation and structuring. The novelty of the project lies in the capacity of combining PAT (Process Analytical Technology) and sensing devices with models and simulation environment with the following objectives:
- to extract as much as possible information from the process/plant in the form of precise estimations of unmeasured variables defining, in particular, product quality, and of physical parameters changing as the process dynamics does or difficult to know beforehand;
- to save and encode in a reliable and usable way, basically via physical/deterministic models;
- to develop control methods to keep uniform quality and production despite the variability in the raw material and/or to respond to sudden changes in the demand.
The four selected case studies are: wine making (bioconversion), microfiltration of food beverages (separation), freeze-drying of lactic acid bacteria (preservation), and ice cream crystallization (structuring).
For more information, visit the website of the project: http://www.cafe-project.org/