QUALITYLOWINPUTFOOD: Food quality and safety in the European organic supply chain

• Forschungsstelle: EU FRP
• Projektnummer: 03.0384-2
• Projekttitel Englisch: QUALITYLOWINPUTFOOD: Food quality and safety in the European organic supply chain

Schlüsselwörter (Englisch)

Organic farming; low input farming; food supply chains; food quality and safety; food production costs; plant production; livestock production; food processing

Alternative Projektnummern (Englisch)

EU project number: 506358

Forschungsprogramme (Englisch)

EU-programme: 6. Frame Research Programme - 1.5.1

Kurzbeschreibung (Englisch)

See abstract

Weitere Hinweise und Angaben (Englisch)

Full name of research-institution/enterprise:
Forschungsinstitut für biologischen Landbau FiBL

Abstract (Englisch)

The proposed Integrated Project (IP) aims to improve quality, ensure safety and reduce cost along the organic and 'low: input' food supply chains through research, dissemination and training activities. It focuses on increasing value to both consumers and producers and on supporting the development of realistic business plans for all components of the food chain, using a fork to farm approach.
The proposed project has 4 main objectives:
(i) To identify consumer expectations perceptions and actual buying behaviours towards organic and low input foods to enable such farming systems to be developed 'in tune' with consumer expectations, using a range of consumer surveys/test marketing methodologies (7% of project effort)
(ii) To quantify the impact of current organic and 'low input' management practices on the nutritional, sensory, microbiological and toxicological quality/safety of foods, using multi-factorial field trials and food analytical & nutritional experiments/surveys (30% of effort)
(iii) To develop novel strategies/technologies which improve the quality, ensure safety and reduce production cost throughout the organic and 'low input' food supply chains. This will be achieved by a combination of laboratory and field research, including 'farmer participatory' approaches and will be facilitated through involvement of 10 industry partners (6 SMEs) representing primary production, processing, marketing, services and quality assurance businesses (55% of effort)
(iv) To identity socio-economic, environmental and sustainability impacts of project innovations, efficiently disseminate project results and provide training opportunities to user and stakeholder groups and junior scientists (8% of effort).

Datenbankreferenzen (Englisch)

Swiss Database: Euro-DB of the
State Secretariat for Education and Research
Hallwylstrasse 4
CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland
Tel. [phone]
Swiss Project-Number: 03.0384-2