ADCATER

by

Advanced Digital Solutions for Professional Food and Nutrition Catering Service 


ADCATER will develop advanced ICT technologies and integrate them into a Smart Food Catering Supply Chain platform that provides: economic efficiencies to growers and suppliers; personalized nutrition accuracy to diners/patrons, wholesalers, and caterers; and verification of personal, organizational, and global nutritional policies. This will be achieved by harnessing computer vision & deep learning technologies to identify and decode images of prepared food “served to plate before the meal” and “left in plate after a meal,” applying advanced analytics to derive valuable information such as served meal ingredients, the degree of adjustment and dietary gaps to the diner profile, batch traceability data, effective and up-to-date nutritional supervision, food waste, and correlation between consumer consumption and health.

ADCATER will:

  • Contribute to Strengthening European research on digitization in the agri-food system by grouping relevant expertise coming from 3 different EU MS and one AC, combining research in computer vision and data analysis and gathering (Fraunhofer, IMCBEIA, UNIROMA1), operational knowledge on catering supply chain (FoodFix), and nutritional data and measurement capabilities (Hebrew University);
  • Realise the potential of ICT and digital technologies to share data throughout the food value chain, by implementing Advanced Food Traceability, connecting all segments of the supply chain, enabling all segments to achieve efficiencies of freshness and amounts while providing accurate and precision nutrition to Diner;
  • Validate a new business model that will combine high-level research expertise and IT SMEs active in the food market.

ADCATER aims to achieve a TRL 5, an integrated smart “food to fork” system that provides health care, stakeholders, detailed information regarding actual nutrition intake, and financial efficiencies. The system is to be tested in Sheba Medical Center in Israel.

PROJECT TITLE –Advanced Digital Solutions for Professional Food and Nutrition Catering Service

ACRONYM- ADCATER

Proposal ID (see online application): 40705 

Project duration (months): 24 

Total project costs (K€): 1,734 

Total requested budget (K€): 1,421 

Countries/regions/partners involved: Israel, Germany, Italy, Romania 

Technology Readiness Level (TRL): 5 

Partners

1  FoodproFix ltd  FFX
2  Inside Media Communication LTD  IMC
3  The Hebrew University  HeU
4  Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft  FIT
5  Department of Computer, Control, and Management Engineering  Antonio Ruberti UniRM1

Project Phases and Activities

Phase I – User requirements analysis and SoTA
Act. 1.1 – User requirements analysis and SoTA
Act. 1.2 – Identification and representation of traceability parameters in Business Intelligence information systems
Act. 1.3 – Design of telemetry services and user interfaces
Act. 1.4 – Dissemination of the results obtained during Phase 1 of the project

Results:

In the current stage of the project, the following aspects were addressed:
– Analysis of the current state of the art, being presented the existing technologies and approaches that ensure food traceability. At the same time, the main actors involved in the supply chain were analysed and identified.
– Identification of traceability parameters, for this deliverable we brought a summary of articles from academia in which a series of use cases specific to traceability systems were analysed.
At the same time, a study of business intelligence applications was presented, discussing the following characteristics: their cost (open-sources, SaaS, PaaS, etc.), the types of databases used to generate visualization / reporting tools, but also integration with third party applications.
– The preliminary architecture of the ADCATER solution was presented to place the implementation strategy of telemetry services, and section 4.3 also presented the methodology for designing the users interfaces.
The results of the project were disseminated by participating in national events, seminars and workshops and international. Also, the identity of the project was established by creating a logo, a web page a project and an account on a social network. The dissemination of scientific results was achieved by drafting and presentation of an article at an international conference.

Phase II – Definition of traceability algorithms for stocks monitoring and system development
Act. 2.1 – Definition and validation of  algorithms for production, stocks, and distribution processes
Act. 2.2 – Development of the integrated solution
Act. 2.3 – Dissemination of the results obtained during Phase II  of the project

Results

In the current stage of the project, the following aspects were addressed:
– For a better understanding of the ADCATER integrated solution’s development methodology, we described the traceability flow in the entire supply chain stages.
– We also presented the technologies and algorithms used within the ADCATER traceability platform.
– Described the ADCATER integrated solution’s architecture, and each module’s implementation methodology was detailed.
Also, Beia facilitated for more than 10 internship students the participation to Libelium online training course platform. The training platform comprises two modules, one regarding the programming of IoT sensors, second module is oriented towards several telemetry verticals – air quality, precision agriculture, water quality, etc.

Phase III – Solution testing and validation
Act. 3.1 – Defining test scenarios
Act. 3.2 – Testing and validation of the solution
Act. 3.3 – Dissemination of the results obtained during Phase III  of the project

Results

During the third stage of the ADCATER project, the integrated solution underwent a thorough testing and validation process. Testing cases, covering crucial aspects like functional, integration, final acceptance, and performance testing, were meticulously planned and executed. Functional requirements were crafted to provide a clear framework for managing user roles and offering contextual support for test scenario descriptions, incorporating various user roles to ensure all interaction modes with the platform were scrutinized and validated.

The solution validation process included executing predefined test cases and logging the results. Dissemination activities, such as participation in events and conferences, were undertaken to share project outcomes. Currently at TRL 6, the prototype demonstrates robust functionalities and a secure user interface within a controlled environment. Progression to TRL 7 demands an exploitation strategy that encompasses gathering feedback from stakeholders, optimization based on collected data, and fortifying relationships with these entities to validate the solution in an operational environment, thereby paving the way for a substantial public launch in the industry. Thus, the ADCATER solution exploitation strategy was addressed by evaluating the solution’s maturity level and defining a feedback methodology based on surveying key entities in the target market.

Social Media

Check the Twitter account here.

Project meetings

  • ERA-Net ICT-AGRI ADCATER kick off meeting on 25th May 2021
  • ERA-Net ICT-AGRI ADCATER Steering Committee 2, February 21st 2022

  • ERA-Net ICT-AGRI ADCATER Steering Committee 3, January 5th 2023.Beia Consult International participated on January 5th of this year in the online event – ADCATER Steering Committee 3 – a meeting in which all the partners within the ADCATER consortium were present, discussing vital points regarding the current status of the project, prototype implementation, and progress towards established KPIs. Discussions also included consideration of extending the project’s end period to September of this year.

Publications