“Enhancement of Italian products derived from the olive through analytical techniques Innovative” – this is the title of the VIOLIN project, funded by AGER with € 1,008,000, which is headed by the scientific advisor prof. Luigi Mondello of the University of Messina, (Dip.to of Chemical Sciences, Biological, Pharmaceutical and Environmental).
The project will use scientific expertise and advanced instrumentation of the analytical-food sector and is expected to have a significant relapse in the agri-food sector and a positive impact on the local environment, being the cultivation and production of oil two principal activities of Italian agribusiness, which are in the Mediterranean basin the largest global concentration area.
The Management Committee of Ager (food and Research Project) has recently approved the ranking of scientific research projects financed with 4 million Euros to support the Aquaculture sub-funds and Olive and Oil. Ager is a project that creates for the first time, at the national level, a network of banking foundations that select, support and promote innovative research projects of high specialization in the cereal, fruit and vegetables, wine and livestock.
A panel of 20 international experts selected, according to criteria of peer review, the 3 winning projects (funded with 2.5 million euro) among the 38 candidates for project proposals in Olive and oil industry. These projects are aimed to achieve results that can affect in a short-term to the quantity, quality and extra virgin Italian olive oil exploitation, from the raw material production.
VIOLIN The project is aimed to enhance oil extra virgin olive oil, using analyzes for its qualification and diversification, also in order to support appropriate communication and information strategies. Among the objectives: the construction of a database in which the compositional profile of each sample will be stored and correlated to the specific properties and the origin, the development of systems for monitoring and / or preserve the quality of oil during storage, also in reference to the packaging; the management and utilization of by-products processing. A multi-level communication plan will use all channels of modern science to reach civil society, the scientific community and stakeholders, finally creating a “culture of Italian oil quality.”
Scientific Partnership members are: the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, the Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna, the University of Turin, the Edmund Mach Foundation, the University of Sannio, the ‘Tuscia University, the University of Genoa, University Campus Bio-Medico of Rome, the University of Bari, the University of Verona.[:]