FoodSafetyGuardian: Using digital solutions to lower the risk of foodborne illnesses

Project Information

Novo

Grant agreement ID: 946025

DOI

10.3030/946025

Project closed

EC signature date 26 March 2020

Start date 1 April 2020

End date 31 March 2022

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 1 067 150,00

EU contribution

€ 747 005,00

Coordinated by

NOVOLYZE
France

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Novo (FoodSafetyGuardian: Using digital solutions to lower the risk of foodborne illnesses)

Reporting period: 2021-04-01 to 2022-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Food safety validation and verification requirements are commonly met by applying pathogen testing methods based on finished product sampling. Nevertheless, these methods are not sufficient to guarantee food safety, due to the sporadic nature of foodborne pathogens, and do not allow to get real-time data reporting and analysis, which create delays to take effective corrective actions if a problem is identified. Given these limitations, there is a need for the development of new methodologies to ensure that finished products meet food safety objectives.
It is estimated that approximately 420,000 individuals die every year after having eaten contaminated food. The overwhelming majority of foodborne illnesses are linked to low prevalence bacteria that often go undetected, such as Salmonella, E. Coli, and Listeria. Keep these microbes under control is a critical priority and societal challenge for the food industry.
The project is focussed on development of Novolyze FSG Platform, a cloud-based software solution to monitor and verify in real-time kill step efficiency. Project also includes the development of an extension specifically focus on the cleaning and sanitation operations monitoring.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Work has been completed to develop tool and features for Corrective Actions management. Also, Deviation Identification Mechanisms as well as User’s notification features have been implemented. The Environmental Monitoring module has been released. An operational version of the platform including Process Control and Environmental Monitoring modules is available providing users the possibility to manage food safety risk from process to environment.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The Platform approach addresses shortcomings in sampling and refocuses food safety plans on the control of these steps vs. verification of presence/absence of pathogens. The digital solution combines expertise in microbiology and food industry analysis with automation enabled by internet of things (IoT) and predictive algorithms. The solution focuses on process intervention and sanitation steps that do make food safe. It collects data from probes, securely communicates the data to servers and analyses the data to predict process behaviour and risk level. Digitization provided by our technologies allows to evaluate and reduce risks in real-time with much less sampling, is impactful also in terms operational costs.

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