A major cross-continent initiative to tackle food and drink fraud is set to start work after securing €10m (£8.8m) towards its funding.
The EU-China-Safe project will begin on 1 September and run for four years, having been granted funds by the EC’s Horizon 2020 R&D programme and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology.
It will be led by the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen’s University Belfast and involve key players in the food industry, research bodies and governments across two of the world’s largest trading areas.
In total, 33 organisations will be involved, including suppliers Cranswick, Danone andNestlé, and Northern Ireland blockchain company Arc-net.
EU-China-Safe was set to be one of the world’s largest food safety projects, said Queen’s. Comprising more than 15 countries and more than 150 researchers, it would help reduce food fraud and improve food safety through “focusing on improving food legislation, food inspection and increasing access to information across both continents”. The emphasis would be on using innovative technologies, including a virtual laboratory, to detect food adulteration as well as increase traceability and transparency of global supply chains – and use of blockchain would be “a new way to track and trace food commodities”.
“The project will deliver important outcomes to regulators, the food industry and consumers in both Europe and China,” said Professor Chris Elliot, director of the Institute for Global Food Security.
With increasingly complex food fraud networks raking in an estimated £41bn globally each year, the new project would “serve to better protect several billion people,” Elliott added.
“Working together as a coalition of 33 partners to share knowledge and maximise our technologies will empower the food industry to provide safer, authentic food and will boost consumers’ confidence and ultimately facilitate the expansion of EU-China trade.”
Tackling food & drink fraud more effectively has the potential to add nearly £5bn to the profitability to UK food & drink, according to a report last month by Crowe Clark Whitehill and the University of Portsmouth’s Centre for Counter Fraud Studies.
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