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Ensuring the Integrity of the European Food Chain (FoodIntegrity)

Project


Project code: BfR-SiN-08-1342-499
Contract period: 01.01.2014 - 31.12.2018
Purpose of research: Applied research

Food Integrity 'the state of being whole, entire, or undiminished or in perfect condition'. Providing assurance to consumers and other stakeholders about the safety, authenticity and quality of European food (integrity) is of prime importance in adding value to the European Agri-food economy. The integrity of European foods is under constant threat from fraudulently labelled imitations that try to exploit that added value. The FOODINTEGRITY project will directly address this issue and will be an international focal point for harmonisation and exploitation of research and technology for insuring the integrity of European food. Comprising an inner core of project participants from industry, academia, research institutes, technology providers and a global network of stakeholders, FOODINTEGRITY will rationalise and harmonise capability to provide a coherent structure and process for assuring the food supply. FOODINTEGRITY will: facilitate the sharing of information between stakeholder groups regarding European food integrity; establish processes for harmonising & exploiting existing databases; establish fit for purpose methodology to address stakeholder needs; identify and address research gaps by procuring and delivering €3M of commissioned projects; establish a self-sustaining Food-fraud early warning system for identifying emerging fraud risks; establish a self-sustaining worldwide network of stakeholders to ensure maximum uptake of the project legacy. Improved verification procedures will be developed for food control and industry stakeholders using 3 key commodities as exemplars: olive oil, spirit drinks & seafood. In addition a consumer study in China will assess their consumer attitudes in the face of substantial counterfeiting of European food. Finally it will establish expert food authenticity platforms that will supply independent expert opinion on food authenticity/food fraud to the European Commission, Codex and other national/international bodies'.

KBBE.2013.2.4-01: Assuring quality and authenticity in the food chain. Call: FP7-KBBE-2013-7 – single stage Ensuring the Integrity of the European Food chain (Food Integrity)

New tools and resources have been developed within this European research project to detect and mitigate food fraud. Particularly it was aimed to facilitate to the up-take of research developments into routine activities. This will add value to European products and help protect consumers both in Europe and abroad. BfR was involved in the workpackages Food Integrity Network, Knowledge Gap, Gap analysis and Dissemination & Knowledge Transfer and contributed to various activities: Several scientific opinions and video about central food authenticity issues such as isotopic ratio analysis, non-targeted analysis and joint database have been prepared together with Food Integrity partners. This outcome is available in scientific journals [1] and in Food Integrity Youtube Channel [2]. Moreover, a knowledge base has been established that contains analytical methods for authenticity testing for various matrices together with a handbook on food authenticity [3]. The knowledge base will be hosted by European Commission, European Food Fraud Knowledge Centre at the JRC, Geel, Belgium in future. A lot of effort has been put in the gap analysis at the beginning of the project which resulted in a procurement for nine new subprojects, respective workpackages within the project. After a broad collection of topics the following key issues have been prioritized by a group of stakeholders: • Standardization and harmonization of untargeted food integrity methods • Approaches to assure the integrity of complex foods. • Common platform and tools for sharing information across stakeholders (producers, retailers, regulators, consumers) to increase transparency along the food supply chain. • Rapid, cost efficient methods for fraud detection Moreover, a stakeholder workshops “Authenticity of herbs and spices” and an international symposium on “Standardisation of Non-Targeted Methods for Food Authentication” as well as two training activities, “FT-IR spectroscopy for food authentication” and “Stable isotope analysis of wine”, for young scientists have been organized by BfR within the project. In the following some more of the S&T results/foregrounds of the project/ all project partners are summarized: • A FoodIntegrity network has been established comprising experts and stakeholders on food integrity issues • Eight scientific opinions (“white papers”) on key scientific issues chosen by stakeholders have been published/submitted/in press in high profile scientific journals and summarised in end-user friendly video/infographics. Another 16 peer reviewed publications published with several more in press • A user-friendly knowledge open source knowledgebase of information on analytical methods used for authenticity/fraud detection purposes has been produced, beta tested and its sustainability secured through agreed hosting at the European Commission’s Knowledge Centre for Food Fraud and Quality, JRC, Geel, Belgium. • Comprehensive analysis of gaps in food fraud research undertaken in 2014, 2017 and 2018 the latter outputs will be transmitted to DG Research in order to inform Horizon Europe. • Transnational study of olive oil regulations and standards around the world together with an assessment of the best methods currently available for detecting geographical origin of olive oil. • Assessment and technology transfer of rapid methods for authenticating spirit drinks has been undertaken • Large pan-European citizen science study of fish mis-description in the HORECA sector has been completed and revealed substantial mislabelling in the restaurant sector • A toolbox linking seafood claims to analytical and paper trail methods has been produced • A wiki containing news stories on food integrity issues has been developed together with a novel algorithm for collecting news stories on food integrity issues • A study of Chinese consumers on how they perceive and purchase European food products together with guidance to European industry on how best to market their products to Chinese consumers • A system for predicting the type of food fraud involved when a food incident occurs together with a fully functioning Early Warning System for predicting food fraud risks • A range of methods and processes for authenticating of complex foods including a novel method using protein signatures and methodology for tracking markers of composition and stability along the food-production chain • Use of mobile phone technology to detect species substitution in the fish sector. • Feasibility study on information sharing and analysis along the food chain to identify emerging food integrity issues, together with the development of a practical system for improving supply chain integrity through data sharing • The development and validation of a protocol, to process large data sets originated from untargeted analyses • NIRS microsensors and ICT platforms for ensuring on-site authentication of high added value European foods in a real food industry production system • Industry applications in the area of: guides and tools, assessment of rapid methods for application within industry (XRF, hyperspectral imaging, Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy, NIRS, Raman) • Six major FoodIntegrity dissemination events: York 2014 (150 attendees), Bilbao 2015 (200), Prague (250) and Parma (350), Belfast (200) and Nantes (300) • 17 workshops and external dedicated sessions (York (2), Bilbao (2), Prague (2), Lodi, Lisbon, Parma (2), Budapest, Belfast, South Africa, Canada, China, Singapore and Nantes) have taken place to discuss key food integrity issues. • International outreach activities included FI support and presentations for major conferences in China, South Africa, Argentina and Canada. • In addition, FI participants have presented and contributed to following international organisations/committees: CEN, Standing Committee for Agricultural Research, European Commission lunchtime seminar, Codex, GFSI. • Publications to date: 8 FoodIntegrity newsletters, 50 publications to date, papers and 20 videos. • A website which is a central source of information on all aspects of food authenticity Further information on the project and more details about the results of each workpages can be found on the CORDIS database of the European commission [4]. References: [1] Food Integrity Publications: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/110951/results/en [2] Food Integrity You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEBrY7D_LGFc_JkHQBzAddg?view_as=subscriber [3] Food authenticity Handbook: https://secure.fera.defra.gov.uk/foodintegrity/index.cfm?sectionid=83 [4] Food Integrity Project on Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/110951/reporting/en

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