Objective
Foodborne pathogens in processed ready-to-eat products pose a serious threat to consumers with compromised immune system. Sensitive, specific and rapid detection of such pathogens is thus essential at production level to prevent their entrance into the human food chain. Conventional microbiological detection methods simply take too long (2 to 7 days) to detect and identify pathogens in food and no real time data is available. Other traditional testing methods, such as ELISA, are also relatively costly and time-consuming. Traditional methods require the taking of a product sample, its posterior culturing until sufficient microorganisms have been generated to enable ready detection on culture plates. While a number of methods such as PCR may provide faster detection (6-12 hours) they involve complex procedures and highly specialised trained personnel. In today's modern food supply chain, products enter and leave the market within two to three days. Slow traditional analytical methods are clearly deficient as they enable contaminated meat products to reach the market, resulting in human disease and even mortality. Moreover, most analyses need to be carried out in large analytical laboratories as the required instrumentation is expensive and requires highly qualified staff. Only very large farms and slaughterhouses can thus afford to perform regular, on-site, microbiological checks. There is a clear need for a rapid, handheld, easy to use and cost effective microbiological analyser which is tailored and well suited to the needs of the meat industry to enable its use on the processing floor thus allowing rapid process control testing. A biosensor based approach presents a promising and sensitive alternative tool for the detection of low numbers of cells in a question of minutes (with no need for enrichment steps) as opposed to days. Electrochemical methods would also enable the application of more user friendly and cheaper instrumentation.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering sensors biosensors
- social sciences sociology demography mortality
- medical and health sciences basic medicine immunology
- engineering and technology materials engineering amorphous solids
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
FP6-2003-SME-1
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Data not available
Coordinator
BARCELONA
Spain
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.