VEG&LAIT is holding its annual meeting in the Île-de-France region

Coordinated by the UMR STLO and funded by the French National Research Agency, VEG&LAIT aims to establish a sustainable mini-sector for mixed milk and legume products, based on local processing. At the end of these first two years, the UMR Agronomie and Invitation à la Ferme tested the first crops of six legume species on dairy farms in Brittany and the Grand Est region. In close collaboration with these trials, the UMR STLO, Valorex and Asso LEGGO coordinated the production of flours and the development of recipes for mixed dessert creams, ‘yoghurts’ and ice creams. Whilst these interactions were entirely successful, logistics presented us with challenges, as there are few post-harvest operators capable of processing small batches of seeds. The annual meeting provided an opportunity to allocate new resources to this area. Following on from the initial technical and economic assessment conducted by the UR ETTIS, a group of students from the UMR SAS modelled the effects on the apparent nitrogen balance of introducing legumes for human consumption into dairy farms. Finally, two PhD projects were launched on key issues for VEG&LAIT: 

• one on health risks at the UMR SECALIM, informed by technical data from Terres Inovia, 
• and the other on consumer perceptions of mixed products, hosted at the UMR CSGA and drawing on previous work co-led by STLO and CSGA since 2020. 

The annual meeting provided an opportunity to share expectations, anticipate organisational decisions and propose solutions. The group will meet again halfway through the third year, this autumn, via remote means. This will also mark the halfway point of VEG&LAIT’s five-year programme and the period of coordination between the upstream and downstream sectors of the mixed mini-sector.

Contact 

fanny.guyomarc-h@inrae.fr

More information

https://anr.fr/ProjetIA-23-PLEG-0006