Sensor4Food – Advancing photonic sensor systems for a smarter and safer food and poultry future

Developing smarter and safer food chains

Project Duration

30.6.2026 – 28.2.2030

Source of funding

European Union – Horizon Europe

HORIZON-CL4-2025-04-DIGITAL-EMERGING-01

Total Funding

6 981 298,75 €

Sensor4Food develops new photonics-based sensing technologies and AI solutions to improve quality, safety, and traceability in poultry production. The project covers the key stages of the value chain, from feed to final product and side-stream valorisation. The solutions will be tested in three industrial pilot environments in Spain, Italy, and Norway. The goal is to generate real-time, actionable information to support decision-making across the food chain.

Sensor4Food is a Horizon Europe project coordinated by Turku University of Applied Sciences. It develops five complementary photonics-based sensing technologies to improve quality, safety, and traceability in poultry production. The project combines advanced sensing, additional measurement technologies, and AI-enabled data platforms to generate accurate, real-time information for decision-making across the value chain.

The solutions are developed and validated through six use cases covering the key stages of the chain from feed to final product and side-stream valorisation. These include feed safety, biosafety risks, animal welfare, meat quality, side-stream processing, and traceability. Validation takes place in three industrial pilot environments in Spain, Italy, and Norway.

The project aims to move food-chain monitoring away from slow and fragmented practices towards faster, more accurate, and more resource-efficient operations. Although the solutions are developed in the poultry sector, they are designed so that they can later be applied in other agri-food domains, such as pork production, dairy, and aquaculture.