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The Murcia consortium formed by the UCAM, ALIMER, Estrella de Levante, La Comarca, Juan Jiménez García and the IMIDA presented this morning in the Ministry of Employment, Universities, Business and Environment, its new R + D + i project for produce insect meal from organic and vegetable waste

The group led scientifically by the UCAM and industrially by ALIMER, together with the agrifood companies of the Region of Murcia Estrella de Levante, Grupo Alimentario de Lorca, SL `LACOMARCA', JUAN JIMÉNEZ GARC�A, and the IMIDA research center, has presented this tomorrow in the Ministry of Employment, Universities, Enterprise and Environment the strategic project of R + D + i 'Valoragrim', which will develop until 2021 and which aims to transform organic and vegetable waste into optimal insect meal for food Of fishes.

Diego Amores, researcher of the group `Technology of the industrial process and food culinary 'of the UCAM and leader of this project, highlighted this morning the impact at European level of projects like this, which allow to establish sustainable strategies to transform waste into protein.

The 'Valoragrim' project is divided into five major phases.

The UCAM, until the end of the year, will analyze the waste coming from the companies of the consortium (Estrella de Levante, Juan Jiménez, Alimer and LACOMARCA), in a process of compositional characterization.

In the following months, the company Entomo AgroIndustrial, subcontracted for the production of black soldier fly larvae, will begin to produce these insects fed with the generated waste, so that later the Catholic University deals with the elaboration of the flour from the same.

In a penultimate phase, IMIDA will be responsible for managing the food of the fish (golden) by controlling different parameters that can influence them, such as their growth.

Finally, the research group of the UCAM will complete the process with a certification of the safety of the fish and a nutritional and sensory evaluation of the meat of the same, where it will be verified, also, if there is any type of component in the fish that could affect to the flavor or the quality of it.

The Minister of Employment, Enterprise, Universities and Environment, Javier Celdrán, stressed that this year the funds of this initiative are doubled (from 1,985,775 to 4,428,960 euros), which aims to promote R + D + i with highly innovative strategic projects to encourage the cooperative and multidisciplinary transfer between all public and private agents (research centers, technology centers and universities) directly with companies.

On the other hand, it should be remembered that the Office of Transfer of Research Results (OTRI) of the UCAM has made possible in the last year, the management of contracts with companies with an amount exceeding four million euros.

Source: UCAM