Periodic Reporting for period 2 - FoodSafeR (A JOINED-UP APPROACH TO THE IDENTIFICATION, ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT OF EMERGING FOOD SAFETY HAZARDS and ASSOCATED RISKS)
Période du rapport: 2024-04-01 au 2025-09-30
Europe is facing significant threats to public health due to emerging microbial and chemical hazards including bacterial, fungal and plant toxins. Recent risk emergence in the food sector has further highlighted the need for preventative measures. FoodSafeR develops a framework tackling drivers and indicators impacting on the emergence of hazards and associated risks. Selected microbial and chemical emerging hazards have been studied to advance the knowledge on identification and transmission for targeted countermeasures. An innovative, open and easily accessible Digital Hub has been developed with the help of a world-class consortium of organisations and specialists in food safety (International Advisory Board). The hub is designed to provide communication of the most relevant food safety signal trends worldwide and to propose risk assessment and management strategies in workspaces. Food safety management systems established over the past decades in Europe need to be adapted to make the food system more robust towards multiple stressors coming up dynamically. FoodSafeR aims to design, develop and test the building blocks of an innovative, pro-active, and holistic food safety preventive and management system with a look on the dynamics of emerging risks at its heart. In conclusion, FoodSafeR embodies integrated approaches to hazard characterisation and risk management in a comprehensive suite of future oriented case studies, tools, methods, strategies, models, guidance and training materials.
A food system analysis of drives of change from inside and outside our food systems was performed to early identify emerging food safety hazards and associated risks. The drivers for emergence of food safety hazards were identified by literature meta-analysis and input from project partners and food safety professionals, then categorized based on STEEP principles, prioritized based on a survey of hazards most associated with each driver. Indicators were developed to measure the change of each driver over time. A set of FoodSafeR activities tackles microbiological food safety hazards and risks both from the analytical and logistical side. While developing further the FoodChain-Lab software with food producers to study the peculiarities of short regional food chains, we assessed the microbiological risks associated with novel or low-regulated food chains. We investigated six case studies, among them the safety level of ethnic food chains or artisanal food production. A further factor facilitating emergence is persistence (enduring presence) of pathogens in food processing. Sampling activities were accomplished and a toolbox of persistent strains of Listeria monocytogenes has been produced. A genome-based study tried to identify genes underlying the persistence phenomenon and a “Concept of a Persisters Database” was designed. Further activities dealt with the detection of foodborne viruses in ready-to-eat pork products, and for the identification of antimicrobial resistance genes from fish raised in aquaculture systems.
We have been investigating chemical food safety hazards and the emergence of associated risks in a set of five activities. Topics included detection and prediction of mycotoxin and plant toxin emergence fate and concurrent potential reduction of furans (focusing on food sauces processing) and mycotoxins during thermal processing (for instance concerning gluten-free products), the smart consumer-friendly detection of toxins and detection of illegal addition of toxic chemicals to food (such as turmeric-lead chromate case, where an extensive research/sampling network has been established across Cameroon, India, Bangladesh, Ghana, Philippines, Nigeria, and Tanzania). Relevant mycotoxins and plant toxins have been identified, and methods were established for qualitative and quantitative determination of these components. Work is in progress on new prediction models for emerging mycotoxins in grains, using machine learning (ML) and big data, focusing on toxins like ergot alkaloids, Alternaria toxins, enniatins, and beauvericin.
The FoodSafeR open digital hub has been further developed into a 70% fully functional, content-rich platform supporting food safety risk assessment, management, and stakeholder collaboration. Key functional modules have been activated and populated, including interactive network map, DataLab, Toolkit, Lifelong Learning section as well as enhanced communication features. A full public launch is planned for February 2026.
Finally, the frame of future-oriented Food Safety Management System (FSMS), drivers of change impacting the FSMS and the food safety output level of FBOs have been identified and ranked based on the results of Living Labs and workshops with FBOs. An evaluation of the effectiveness of risk identification and control and de-escalation measures to increase the resilience of the supply chain towards food safety shocks have been launched and tested in three case studies. Life-Long Learning materials have been developed and a technical feature to integrate such a module into the FoodSafeR Hub has been established.
We have been investigating chemical food safety hazards and the emergence of associated risks in a set of five activities. Topics included detection and prediction of mycotoxin and plant toxin emergence fate and concurrent potential reduction of furans (focusing on food sauces processing) and mycotoxins during thermal processing (for instance concerning gluten-free products), the smart consumer-friendly detection of toxins and detection of illegal addition of toxic chemicals to food (such as turmeric-lead chromate case, where an extensive research/sampling network has been established across Cameroon, India, Bangladesh, Ghana, Philippines, Nigeria, and Tanzania). Relevant mycotoxins and plant toxins have been identified, and methods were established for qualitative and quantitative determination of these components. Work is in progress on new prediction models for emerging mycotoxins in grains, using machine learning (ML) and big data, focusing on toxins like ergot alkaloids, Alternaria toxins, enniatins, and beauvericin.
The FoodSafeR open digital hub has been further developed into a 70% fully functional, content-rich platform supporting food safety risk assessment, management, and stakeholder collaboration. Key functional modules have been activated and populated, including interactive network map, DataLab, Toolkit, Lifelong Learning section as well as enhanced communication features. A full public launch is planned for February 2026.
Finally, the frame of future-oriented Food Safety Management System (FSMS), drivers of change impacting the FSMS and the food safety output level of FBOs have been identified and ranked based on the results of Living Labs and workshops with FBOs. An evaluation of the effectiveness of risk identification and control and de-escalation measures to increase the resilience of the supply chain towards food safety shocks have been launched and tested in three case studies. Life-Long Learning materials have been developed and a technical feature to integrate such a module into the FoodSafeR Hub has been established.
All outcomes achieved so far, whether of conceptual nature or on creating novel insights in occurrence, transmission and mitigation of microbial and chemical hazards, have moved current knowledge beyond state of art. Most of the work of the first reporting periods has already been published or is currently in revision. A pending key component of FoodSafeR’s impact is the development of the FoodSafeR Digital Hub. Considerable advances have been made towards the successful launch by applying a co-creation approach between developers, the FoodSafeR consortium, and stakeholders in the food safety community. The consortium has been active in propagating the tool to scientific and stakeholder communities in all five continents. The FoodSafeR Digital Hub will serve both as a network for a trusted community of food safety professionals, and as a platform for discussion, sharing training materials and tools, and forming workspaces based on food safety topics. The Business Model Canvas (BMC) is continuously being updated for the framework defining the business model for the FoodSafeR DigitalHub. Further steps beyond are described in the section “work performed”.