“Think about it: we can live without cars and even without energy. We did it for many years. But we can never live without food. As humans, it is our primary need. This insight calls for an optimalisation of existing processes, finding out how we can become more sustainable and above all, maximize the use of raw materials and seek to extract the maximum nutritional value from products.”
Peter de Jong is ISPT’s specialist on food and agriculture. He started working at ISPT around 2014 as Manager for Mild Fractionation for Food, a project that explores how technologies promote new extraction of complex molecules and proteins from various process flows within the food industry.
Collaboration gives birth to new ideas through the blending of unique viewpoints
Peter de Jong – ISPT’s specialist on food and agriculture
“What was special about this project was that through ISPT, we brought together a group of people and organizations that are not likely to work together. I found that collaboration with this group gives birth to new ideas through the blending of unique viewpoints. When I look at Mild Fractionation, for 8 years the same parties, which are also competitors among themselves, are still working together. In the end, I think that is what ISPT is all about. We are a networking organization: we bring people together and facilitate collaborations. That is how innovation is brought to life, and that is what we are trying to achieve here.”
Peter de Jong: “More and more people are becoming aware of the challenges we are facing. A few years ago, people rarely talked about things like material scarcity, energy consumption or food production, but now my work touches topics discussed at birthday parties.”
Peter has a background in Chemical Engineering. After completing his studies most of Peters alumni pursued a career in the chemical industry, but Peter chose for a career in dairy, starting at Campina Melkunie and later at NIZO Food. Around the same time, he completed his PhD specialising in dairy production processes. Next to Peters work at ISPT, he is a lecturer at Van Hall Larenstein, where he teaches students on the development and application of innovative technologies for sustainable production in dairy chains.