• At the beginning of September, the consortium of the European Safe Smart Food project traveled to the Latvian capital on an international mission
• They visited the Riga Food fair, the most important event of the Baltic food industry, to discover what's new on the market
• The consortium organizes the final event of the project, from September 21 to 23, in Barcelona, with a visit to Juvé & Camps, a gastronomic eco-workshop and dynamics for the generation of innovation, among other activities

The Safe Smart Food project consortium traveled to Riga in early September on an international mission aimed at exchanging experiences between European clusters. They visited the Kipsala International Exhibition Center where the Riga Food fair was being held, the most important event for the Baltic food industry. Riga Food annually describes trends in the food industry, highlights new developments and presents a number of international companies.

Safe Smart Food is made up of 5 clusters from 4 countries of the European Union: Smart Food Cluster (Lithuania), Business Upper Austria (Austria), Packaging Cluster (Spain), Foodservice Cluster (Spain) and Food Products Quality Cluster (Latvia). They were able to learn, during the visit to Riga, practical examples and gastronomic and innovative solutions from the Cluster Manager of the Food Products Quality Cluster of Latvia, Armands Lejas-Krumins.

A guided tour was carried out by the most outstanding exhibitors of the event to obtain ideas, knowledge and information that allow greater professional and business development. A total of 400 companies from 25 countries around the world participated as exhibitors in the annual gastronomic fair, offering ideas and solutions on healthy and ecological food in the different innovation days of the event.

The entities were able to explore business opportunities in foreign markets and study the possible ways of international collaboration. Among the many activities of the event, they participated in different seminars in the food and packaging sector, such as "Innovative and sustainable solutions in food and packaging" organized by the Latvian Technology Center.

In turn, the mission had a route through establishments in the city where the clusters enjoyed new culinary products, exploring the diversity of menu ideas and learning about Riga's gastronomy.

The visit to Riga was perfect to finalize the phases of the Safe Smart Food project, which will conclude with the final event next week, on September 21, 22 and 23, co-led by the Foodservice Cluster and the Packaging Cluster. The agenda of the day is planned to celebrate and enjoy the sessions together with the members of the clusters, entities and international institutions that have been part of this initiative, during these more than two years of joint work.

The celebration will begin next Wednesday 21 at the Juvé & Camps winery in Sant Sadurní d'Anoia with the presentation of the results obtained from the project. We will have an intervention by ACCIÓ and an institutional welcome from the Packaging and Foodservice clusters. Then we will make a guided tour of the vineyard and a tasting of 2 or 3 references.

On Thursday 22 we will travel to the city of Barcelona to learn first-hand how innovation and excellence are driven by SMEs in the territory specialized in the food and packaging sector. Clusters become key figures for the development of the global economy and industry and we will explain why. In addition, we will carry out a workshop to drive innovation by the hand of Alfons Cornellà.

Finally, the third event will be the Gastronomic Workshop that we will carry out in the Terra Veritas space on Friday, September 23, with the ecochef Mireia Anglada. It is a practical workshop with a final tasting buffet, in which recipes will be made based on sustainability, health and ecology.