Challenge
Food and feed safety is frequently compromised by the occurrence of chemical contaminants in food and feed. From the most important ones, mycotoxins, toxins of higher plants, pesticides residues, environmental contaminants, or processing contaminants can be given as examples.
The list of above mentioned toxic and bioactive compounds is already monitored today by using ever more sophisticated analytical methods for enhancing sensitivity and precision. However, purely analytical methods do not consider the biological effects of such compounds, and cannot fully answer the question of food safety. This can be achieved through the various types of in vitro or in vivo biological activity assessments. The toxicity of a compound on cellular health is complex. To date, there have been very few studies reported that have tried to determine the risk to human health following exposure to such cocktails of chemical contaminants. Determination of the combined toxicity of mixtures of contaminants is extremely complicated task, and new in vitro approaches have started to be addressed.
The main interests for substantial knowledge transfer are innovation in the field of analytical chemistry incorporating holistic analytical approach for analytical methods for targeted analysis of contaminants and health beneficial compounds, analytical approaches for non-targeted screening and metabolomic fingerprinting/profiling, and methods for identification of important metabolomic markers. Furthermore, interests in fit-for-purpose methods for assessment of currently unknown risks resulting from presence of mixtures of chemical contaminants in food and feed and novel approaches used in bioprospecting, a new tool for uncovering important natural resources for improving health, are included.
Project objectives
The principal objective of MultiCoop is transfer of competences, techniques and technologies among the three Universities, one from widening country (VSCHT) and two internationally-leading counterparts (QUB and BOKU), resulting in strengthening of overall scientific and innovation capacity in transnational scientific collaboration in food and feed safety research.
The MultiCoop project will achieve this by fulfilling the following specific objectives:
1. To increase an expertise of project partners in the field of food and feed safety assessment by organizing series of trainings and mobilities
2. To disseminate and communicate outcomes achieved by raising scientific capacity in the field of food and feed safety assessment through the wide range of activities
3. To disseminate outcomes achieved by raising scientific capacity in the field of food and feed safety assessment by writing the common scientific papers
4. To identify recommendations for research topics resulting in preparation of common projects proposals
5. To help in enhancing of researchers´ profile as well as competences particularly of the institution from widening country
