EU to lead a food safety program for three years in association with 23 counterparts from 12 countries.
The effort, dubbed “FOODSAFETY4EU,” will be coordinated by the Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche (CNR) in Italy. Work is set to run from the start of 2021 until the end of 2023 with a budget of €3 million ($3.5 million).
A multi stakeholder program comprising of stakeholders from 12 countries will put efforts in R&D and will be sharing their scientific knowledge to work upon and provide better services.
Digital tools, co-designed strategies, communication models, policy making and risk assessment will be employed to deal all the issues if comes, at its earliest.
The Horizon 2020 funded project includes Ruokavirasto (Finnish Food Authority), the Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (AFSCA) in Belgium, Economic and Food Safety Authority (ASAE) in Portugal, European Food Information Council, FoodDrinkEurope, ISEKI-Food Association, Euro Co-op and Wageningen University in the Netherlands.
It is the first project funded for the “Supporting the food safety systems of the future” program by the European Commission.
“Recent consumer concerns on the transparency of the process of safety assessment of our foods as well as technological developments and innovations have shown that there is a need to reflect on the EU food safety system of the future,” according to the topic brief.
A network of 44 other food safety supporting partners will populate the platform and interact by expressing opinions, sharing information, data and reports; providing strategy advice and sharing project results.