Thirty engineering students from the Arts et Métiers campus Arts et Métiers Cluny are working on an innovative solution: transforming a shipping container into a connected, automated micro-factory to recycle unsold bread into eco-friendly, socially responsible flour. The prototype, called FlourBox, will be operational this summer in an industrial bakery in Besançon and will enable around 6 tons of bread to be recycled.
This project, carried out with key partners such as the Food Bank, the Carrefour group, and the La Poste group, aims to combat food waste and create a self-financing national supply chain.
An innovative idea driven by committed students:
The Blé du Cœur FlourBox project is based on an innovative approach combining recycling, solidarity, and sustainable development.Arts et Métiers engineering students, divided into three teams, integrated this project into the educational framework of their training. Throughout the 2024-2025 academic year, they worked collaboratively:
- A team took care of the health aspects, in collaboration with the ISARA laboratory in Lyon.
- The other two teams divided up the technical tasks: one designed the interfaces between the various machines in the microfactory. The other took charge of the human-machine interface, automation, and electrification.
This project is supported by a team of 30 committed engineering students, as well as professors and technicians who have also put their technical expertise to work for a social and environmental cause.
A prototype ready to prove itself: the FlourBox
After a year of intensive work, the teams finalized the prototype in early June. This fully equipped 14 m² container is equipped with an automated system that complies with hygiene standards while optimizing production. It will be installed in Besançon throughout the summer, run by two first-year students from the Grande École program, who are doing an internship. Fifty percent of the flour produced will be donated free of charge to the Food Bank, and the remaining 50% will be sold at a solidarity price in a Carrefour store located 22 km from the production site.
Towards a solidarity-based food transition
Le Blé du Cœur is part of a national initiative to repurpose unsold food. The project is supported by Jonas Caillet, president of the association, who participates in parliamentary working groups at the National Assembly to define a 2030 agenda for combating food waste. Today, 13% of food waste in France is bread. Le Blé du Cœur offers an ecological and socially responsible alternative that is likely to play a key role in future public policy. This pilot site is the first step towards a national system for reusing unsold bread.
