Nutrition: Project METROFOOD awarded 2 M Euro fund for food safety
3/11/2016
The European Commission has approved the project PRO-METROFOOD, coordinated by ENEA, which has the objective of strenghtening research in the field of metrology to ensure food quality and safety, promoting technological transfer and information and scientific dissemination activities in the interest of consumers.
The European Commission has approved the project PRO-METROFOOD, coordinated by ENEA, which has the objective of strenghtening research in the field of metrology to ensure food quality and safety, promoting technological transfer and information and scientific dissemination activities in the interest of consumers.
The project has been awarded 2 million euro from the Horizon 2020 fund to set up the new European research infrastructure METROFOOD-RI [1] with pilot services to improve and guarantee the reliability and comparability of measures ensuring quality, safety and traceability of agri-food products.
METROFOOD-RI will be operative at national level with the Joint Research Unit METROFOOD-IT-coordinated by ENEA- and the participation of institutions of excellence such as the CNR, CREA, ISS, IEO, FEM and the Universities of Udine, Brescia and Naples.
“With this funding, METROFOOD has officially started. The research infrastructure, involving 17 European Countries and the FAO, aims at protecting food quality and consumers’health and combating food fraud- Giovanna Zappa of ENEA, project coordinator, pointed out- The objective is making available impartial research tools to ensure food safety from field to table”.
ENEA’s activities are conducted at the Casaccia and Trisaia Research Centers and, particularly, at the Reference Materials Plant, the only facility of this type in Italy and the Mediterranean, located in Trisaia, Basilicata. The facility produces reference materials for the agrifood sector-food, beverages, feeds, raw materials and processed goods- necessary for calibrating tools, validating methods, evaluating results and conformity of products and crucial for guaranteeing reliability, objectivity and comparability of measures.
At international level, ENEA is involved in several projects promoting new production and food consumption models, such as the UNEP Program “Sustainable Food System” and “Call for Action 2016” to relaunch the mediterranean diet as a healthy and sustainable nutrition model.
For more information please visit:
Giovanna Zappa, Biotechnologies and Agroindustry Division, ENEA Casaccia Research Center, giovanna.zappa@enea.it
[1] The project METROFOOD was rated “emerging” for its scientific excellence in the domain “Health and Food” and now counts 36 partners from 17 different European Countries and the FAO. In addition to allowing the development of research and the advancement of knowledge in the different fields related to the Agribusiness, METROFOOD-RI could improve production and the expansion of markets, promoting product and process innovation and enhancing competitiveness and sustainability. In addition to improving safety and health of production METROFOOD-RI will bring science closer to citizens’needs, strenghtening consumers’ trust.