Interactive evolutionary modelling of living complex food systems: freeze-drying of lactic acid bacteria

Modelling the production and stabilisation process of lactic acid starters has several practical applications, ranging from assessing the efficacy of new industrial methods, to proposing alternative sustainable systems of food production. In order to reach this objective, however, it is necessary to overcome several obstacles, tied to the complex nature and interactions of the target processes. In this paper, we present a novel complex system modelling approach, exploiting both stand-alone evolutionary search and visual interaction with the user. The presented framework is then tested on a real-world case study, for which it shows promising results.