Safe and secure supply of food

Food safety, animal welfare, plant health, labelling and traceability: all come under the spotlight through EU funded FP7 research.

Food safety has come to the fore as an issue over the last few years as scares have shown that we can't necessarily trust ingredient labels. In order to be more confident about what we are buying, testing procedures need to be robust. So we continue to research ever more efficient testing techniques.

But unwanted ingredients may not have been put into our meals deliberately. There are also risks from pathogens and pollution. These know no borders, so we coordinate our research efforts with new EU countries, neighbouring countries and those from which we import, all apply the same standards and rules.

We need to know what we are buying is good for us, but what about how we choose to eat? In Europe today, 4 of the 7 biggest risk factors for premature death - blood pressure, cholesterol, Body Mass Index, and inadequate fruit and vegetable intake - relate to how we eat. Rising numbers of those overweight or obese, along with the related health issues, is a real challenge to our health systems. A range of research projects is looking into alleviating diabetes and finding ways to bring down levels of obesity.