Desenvolvimento, produção e controlo de qualidade de produtos vegetais desidratados

This report aims to describe all activities performed in the course of the academic internship at Frueat – Produtos Alimentares, Lda., based in Porto, with an industrial unit in Viseu, as part of the MSc in Biotecnologia and Inovação – Ciência Alimentar. Frueat is a company that develops and manufactures dehydrated food products, specifically fruits and vegetables. The company uses products with little to no market acceptance due to physical traits such as unusual size or unappealing visual aspect, thus taking advantage of that food while fighting its waste. The internship took place at the production plant in Viseu, for 6 months long. I worked in several areas of the food industry and nutrition such as: food safety and its control, measurement of water content and activity, implementation of a food safety system based on HACCP rules and assembling a laboratory; food quality control, handling complaints and shelf testing the products; sensory analysis, ensuring the quality control of old and new products; participating in the development of new products, increasing the product line of laminated fruits, while creating a new brand, called Veegs, for vegetables and tubers. During this internship, I followed up closely the construction of the new company premises in Viseu, collaborating with the blueprints’ structure and choice of equipment and utensils. Throughout the internship and the preparation of this report, a comprehensive scientific survey was done on the presented topics. This internship allowed me to reorganize the food safety system, improving daily practices that ultimately ensured a better company market value and positioning, through the development and launch of new products. I acquired a rich and fulfilling experience in a way that it allowed me hands-on contact with the Portuguese food industry reality.