Food safety research in Poland – a tasty prospect
For Accession Candidate Countries (ACCs), an important part of assimilating into the European Union involves aligning the country's research objectives with those of the European Research Area (ERA). There are also considerable opportunities for obtaining funding through the EU's Framework Programmes. Since goods, including foodstuffs, will be traded freely across borders, it is imperative that food safety be held to the highest standards. Technology can play an important role in this endeavour. To catalyse such activity in Poland, a series of two-day workshops were organised in different regions of the country. Each of the five workshops addressed a different aspect of food quality and safety. The project, which received funding from the EU, was titled 'Research and innovation in food technologies – brokering European partnership and transfer of knowledge to Poland by series of practical workshops' (Polfood). Four leading research institutes in Poland were involved in setting up the workshops. During the first day of the workshops, general information concerning the current status of food quality and safety research in the EU was shared. Details about specific research objectives in the relevant framework programmes were also made available. The second day focused more on connecting Polish researchers with Polish industry and small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) representatives. By asking the participants what particular fields they were interested in before the workshops, it was possible to better pair them up with potential partners. The outcome of Polfood was not based solely on the workshops since profiles of the participants were developed and stored in a searchable online database. This helped extend the project's impact beyond the country's borders by enabling interested European parties to find suitable partners in Poland.