Objective
RASFF alerts show that monitoring of chemical contaminants in food and feed is very relevant in European food safety. Also consumers placed chemical contaminants on top of the “worry-scale” of food-related risks. According to the General Food Law, food and feed industries are responsible for the safety of their products. Often expensive instrumental single-analyte methods are being applied by regulatory and industrial laboratories. There is an urgent need for replacement by validated screening tools which are simple, inexpensive and rapid, but also show multiplex capability by detecting as many contaminants in parallel as possible. The CONffIDENCE proposal has been designed to provide long-term solutions to the monitoring of persistent organic pollutants, perfluorinated compounds, pesticides, veterinary pharmaceuticals (coccidiostats, antibiotics), heavy metals and biotoxins (alkaloids, marine toxins, mycotoxins) in high-risk products such as fish and fish feed, cereal-based food/feed and vegetables. A balanced mix of novel multiplex technologies will be utilized, including dipsticks, flow cytometry with functionalised beads, SPR optical and electrochemical biosensors, cytosensors and metabolomics-like comprehensive profiling. After validation, the simplified methods will be applied in impact demonstrators that contribute to exposure assessment and validation of hazard models. Moreover, hazards of emerging contaminants will be assessed through toxicological testing. Dissemination to scientists and to relevant stakeholders, including the food and feed industry, regulatory control bodies, DG-SANCO, EFSA, exporting countries, CRLs, routine laboratories, CEN and consumers will be assured by e-communication, press releases, public workshops, open days, presentations, publications and a science education module. The consortium consists of 17 partners from 10 countries, representing 9 research institutes, 5 universities, 2 large food and feed industries and 1 SME.
Fields of science
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensorsbiosensors
- engineering and technologyother engineering and technologiesfood technologyfood safety
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacypharmaceutical drugsantibiotics
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagriculturehorticulturevegetable growing
- social scienceslaw
Call for proposal
FP7-KBBE-2007-1
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
CP-IP - Large-scale integrating projectCoordinator
6708 PB Wageningen
Netherlands
See on map
Participants (17)
166 28 Praha
See on map
28006 Madrid
See on map
70736 FELLBACH
See on map
1049 Bruxelles / Brussel
See on map
SW1P 4DF LONDON
See on map
2800 Kongens Lyngby
See on map
3721 MA Bilthoven
See on map
BT7 1NN Belfast
See on map
00185 Roma
See on map
5030 Gembloux
See on map
33720 Tampere
See on map
Participation ended
33101 TAMPERE
See on map
3881 LA PUTTEN
See on map
1800 VEVEY
See on map
15782 Santiago De Compostela
See on map
6900 MARLOIE
See on map
4120 Neupre
See on map