Innovations in postharvest technologies for food security and safety, and for value addition to agricultural residues

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Food security and safety issues must be met within the context of population growth beyond 7 billion, climate change, and environmental degradation. Globally, a third of harvested food is lost to damage, rot, and vermin before it reaches the consumer. Preventing such losses will help ensure food security and relieve the need to deforest land for food production. To address these issues, the program’s objectives are to: 1) develop methods using electro-technologies to dry and thermally process crops to prevent degradation; 2) develop storage technologies for produce to maintain quality and increase nutrient content; and 3) develop electro-technological processes to use waste biomass to produce biofuels and bioactive compounds. The program’s goals are thus to make total use of harvested biomass as a source of nutrition that can be safely consumed, and of bioenergy and bioproducts from residual biomass.