Project description DEENESFRITPL Food safety and consumer protection Although European regulations and knowledge related to food safety are advanced, consumers are not yet fully protected against foodborne diseases. The question of how to boost food safety is a concern for society, the health sector and the food industry. Better understanding of the risks to enrich knowledge in the food market is instrumental. Quantitative microbiological risk analysis (QMRA) can help estimate the dangers that emanate from the exposure to food potentially containing pathogenic microorganisms or toxins. This topic is especially challenging due to the inherent variability of microorganisms and consumers. The EU-funded project FANTASTICAL will develop QMRA applications that can be applied by institutions and the food industry to increase consumer protection. Show the project objective Hide the project objective Objective Food safety remains a main concern for consumers, society, health agencies and food industry. Despite the efforts made during the last years, the number of outbreaks and food borne diseases is still high. Recent outbreaks within the European Union (e.g. L. monocytogenes in frozen vegetables) show that efforts are needed to coordinate scientific advances into decision making in order to implement new measures to increase consumer protection. Quantitative Microbial Risk Analysis (QMRA) can be applied to support food safety management. QMRA is based on a mathematical description of the microbial response during the farm-to-fork chain of the product. Its application requires an accurate characterization of uncertainty and variability, inherent to any biological process. Because of these, QMRA must follow a probabilistic approach, considering the variance of the response variables. Consequently, decisions must be made with an acceptable level of risk given the knowledge gaps. A deeper knowledge of both uncertainty and variability is a top priority in the EU, since it would allow a better application of QMRA, leading to a better safety standards for policy makers and industry. FANTASTICAL aims to develop novel approaches and tools for QMRA that can be implemented by all the stakeholders, i.e. agencies related to consumer protection (EFSA, ECDC) and industry. It will link a database of microbial responses with robust statistical functions for variance analysis and stochastic simulation in a user friendly software. This project will reach out to the potential users and provide them with hands-on, open access tools to better understand microbial variability and uncertainty, resulting in more realistic QMRA. Thus, it will lead to an improvement in consumer protection and safer products. It will also complement Dr Garre’s curriculum and provide him with soft skills required to take the next step of his scientific career towards becoming an R3 – Experienced Researcher. Fields of science natural sciencescomputer and information sciencessoftwarenatural sciencescomputer and information sciencesdatabasesengineering and technologyother engineering and technologiesfood technologyfood safetyagricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagriculturehorticulturevegetable growing Programme(s) H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Main Programme H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility Topic(s) MSCA-IF-2018 - Individual Fellowships Call for proposal H2020-MSCA-IF-2018 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EF Coordinator WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY Net EU contribution € 175 572,48 Address Droevendaalsesteeg 4 6708 PB Wageningen Netherlands See on map Region Oost-Nederland Gelderland Veluwe Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 0,00
