3 questions to Bernard Picoche from Actalia
Every month, learn more about our members in 3 questions! This month, Bernard Picoche from ACTALIA answers our questions.
What is your business activity?
ACTALIA is the largest technical centre for the food industry in France with 170 employees, equipped with various laboratories and technological workshops and located on several sites throughout the country.
ACTALIA is a multi-industry centre with strong recognition in various sectors such as dairy products, seafood and vegetable products for example. The objective of ACTALIA is to be a scientific and technical tool at the service of professionals to innovate (product, process) and strengthen the control of food quality from a sanitary, organoleptic and nutritional angle. ACTALIA is made up of 6 departments (CECALAIT, CONTROL AND QUALITY, INNOVATION, MILK PRODUCTS, SENSORIAL, FOOD SAFETY).
For whom are your products/services intended?
They involve all sectors of the food industry, from upstream to downstream (production, processing, distribution), through some of its service providers (analysis labs) and suppliers (equipment manufacturers, suppliers of kits for laboratory analyses, suppliers of disinfectant products for example). The clients of ACTALIA are national, European or even international depending on the activities.
ACTALIA operates in a confidential and tailor-made manner and offers cutting-edge expertise linked to numerous scientific partnerships with upstream academic research (via UMTs for example). ACTALIA is a member of tje ACTIA and is approved by (Research Tax Credit) with a doubling of the expenditure base. This expertise is recognized by the Ministries of Research (CRT label) and the Ministry of Food (ITAI label).
Why is innovation and research important in the agri-food sector?
The needs of professionals are becoming more and more specific and ACTALIA can meet them through its acquired expertise and permanent academic resources. Companies need to innovate constantly and ACTALIA offers a complete range of support from the idea (consumer group) to the industrial launch, including pre-series in a workshop with sanitary approval (e.g. seafood delicatessen for example). Similarly, companies must meet increasingly complex requirements in terms of microbiological safety and health. ACTALIA is the only one offering analytical and technological expertise in virology (e.g. norovirus in shellfish), parasitology (protozoa), Anisakis), equipment hygiene (refer to national EHEDG) and has a P3 confined hall unique in Europe to qualify the microbicidal effectiveness of the technologies and disinfection (effectiveness of the disinfection procedures of the professional). ACTALIA is also a reference in QRA (Quantitative Risk Analysis) for the dairy industry and offers high-performance molecular biology tools (WGS, metagenomics...) for the resolution of manufacturing accidents of microbiological origin (origin of contamination with Listeria monocytogenes in a seafood processing workshop for example). Finally, within the framework of clean label expectations, ACTALIA is working on the interest of clean technologies such as ozone for example.
