UMT Résilicidre

The cider industry has to adapt to changes in growing practices, reduced inputs and climate change. Faced with the new variabilities associated with these changes, cider processing has new challenges to meet.

The Résilicidre Joint Technology Unit focuses on these issues, with the aim of delivering results (knowledge, technical itineraries, tools) that will enable operators in the sector to respond more effectively to the challenges they face now and in the future.

The UMT, based in Le Rheu, started work in January 2022 and will run for five years. It follows on from two other collaborative contracts (UMT NovaCidre and Nova2Cidre) between the Institut Français des Productions Cidricoles (IFPC) and the BIA unit.

The 2022-2026 UMT Résilicidre project focuses on issues relating to the adaptation of cider processing to the new variabilities associated with changes in cultivation practices, climate change and low-input processing.

These questions are divided into two components:

• To characterise the impact of changes in cultivation practices and climate change on fruit quality and help adapt cultivation and harvesting methods.
• To adapt cider processing to the variability of the raw material and to consumer expectations (organoleptic and input-free).

The first component has two objectives

• The first objective is to identify, and if possible prioritise/quantify, the effects of raw material variations and/or heterogeneities on the quality of finished products or on transformation processes.

Variability in fruit characteristics may be caused by: i) low-input practices in the orchard (organic farming, low-input orchards), ii) climate change (water supply to the tree, fruit maturity, composition and keeping qualities, etc.) and iii) responses already in place (water management, biocontrol treatments, use of plant defence stimulators (PDS) and their unintended effects, varietal choice, etc.).

The knowledge acquired from previous UMTs on the determinants of fruit and finished product quality has already enabled a number of markers to be targeted for observation: polyphenolic profiles, sugar and acid content, nitrogen nutrients, fruit texture, pool of microorganisms added, etc. The scope of markers can be broadened with the help of additional knowledge that will be acquired, with, for example, terpenes and varietal aroma precursors (thiols). Beyond simple characterisation, the UMT's added value will be to quantify the impact on processes and finished products and i) to add new questions to the component on adapting processing practices, but also ii) to provide recommendations upstream in the industry, to adapt production itineraries or varietal choices, for example.

• The second objective is to propose upstream pre-processing itineraries. The UMT Résilicidre intends to focus on proposing levers that will have a direct impact on the quality of the fruit to be processed, or that will enable it to maintain its potential. It is clear that, in the context of rising harvest temperatures, the management of this stage will become a crucial factor in maintaining both the suitability of the fruit for processing (health and technological) and the quality of the finished products, in order to avoid the risks associated with mycotoxins and the degradation of the aromatic component.... While these issues naturally arise first and foremost at the interface between production and processing (harvesting and short-term storage of fruit before processing), they could be extended further upstream in the orchard to treatments affecting the suitability of fruit for processing.

The second component

The second component is partly based on what has been initiated in the Nova²Cidre UMT; several complementary objectives are brought together in this component of the programme:

• Propose processing routes with fewer inputs,
• To improve and adapt the sensory qualities of the sector's products, which are ‘pleasure’ products,
• Improve knowledge of the nutritional qualities of cider products in order to promote them,
• Improve technological qualities.

This work could include breakthrough processes or proofs of concept for modifying and/or improving processing routes.