Entrefino quality project goes into second year
14/12/2018
Begun at the end of 2017, the project, called SELAMBQ, is a multi-year project co-operation programme that aims to halt the deterioration in quality of entrefino, which European leather industry body COTANCE (co-ordinator of the project) has described as a niche raw material for the tanning industry.
Other parties involved in the project at industry bodies such as UNIC from Italy, Acexpiel from Spain and FFTM from France. A group of European tanners have supported and financed SELAMBQ; these include Russo di Casandrino from Italy, Riba Guixà, Colomer-Ledexport, Inpelsa and Bosch Girona from Spain, and Bodin-Joyeux, Megisserie Richard and Megisserie Alric from France. The Spanish associations of lamb farmers and meat producers, Interovic and Anafric, are also collaborating on the project.
During the first year, activity focused on mapping more than 300,000 Spanish entrefino skins, with analysis of their defects carried out by a team of researchers at the University of Zaragoza.
Sample analysis has highlighted a series of defects due to breeding and slaughtering practices that require an improvement in technical solutions and good practice, including at animal welfare level. These solutions would lead to an upgrading in the management of the animals and, consequently, in the quality of their skins and, therefore, in the leather tanners can make from this material.
SELAMBQ will now develop a campaign to raise awareness in the upstream part of the supply chain, establishing some shared standards on breeding and slaughtering activities that could lead to the development of certification and quality guarantees.
Image: Riba Guixà
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