15th December 2021 : top level pitches and passionate speakers

The first edition of the Pre-Forum was held by FoodSafety4EU on the 15th December 2021 (10.00-12.00 CET, online), gathering an online audience of more than 120 scientists.

The topic of this edition was “Sustainable food: how to keep it safe?“.

Below is the list of the pitches given by the experts. You can access all the pitches directly on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvKtxTyYscY.

1. 08:31–23:00 Dr. Stef Bronzwaer, Research Coordinator, ED Office, EFSA, presented the modern context of food sustainability and the current objectives of the One Health paradigm in today’s EU Food Safety System.
2. 24:25-40:05 Dr. Sandra Coecke, Horizontal Team Leader F2F Methods and Models for One Health, European Commission JRC, presented the next generation of food safety testing models and methods, considering the sustainability needs of European food production.
3. 42:35-46:30 Dr Maurizio Notarfonso, SPES GEIE / Federalimentare, presented the Seafood Tomorrow project, aiming at ensuring the safety of European seafood by improving testing methods and supporting innovative technologies.
4. 47:12-51:08 Dr Solveig Langsrud, Norwegian Food Research Institute Nofima, presented the SafeConsume project, a H2020 Research and Innovation Action aiming to mitigate risk of food borne infection at the consumer part of the chain, considering Education of young people, Tools and products, Improved food safety policy and Communication with consumers.
5. 53:06-56:40 Dr Giuseppe Meca, Researcher and Professor, Universitat de Valencia, presented the BiOrangePack project, aiming to increase the efficiency, sustainability and competitiveness of the post-farming processing chain of organic citrus fruit, by intervening in points of weakness and the unresolved problems of this supply chain.
6. 57:36-01:02:36 Dr Karl Presser, Premotec GmbH, presented the Expert Finder App, a new digital tool of the FoodSafety4EU platform, aiming at creating a database of scientific, society and industry experts of Food Safety, in order to facilitate exchanges of information, knowledge and networking on particular food safety related issues whenever needed.
7. 01:03:42-01:07:10 Dr Marco Ricci, Politecnico di Torino, presented a research project on microwave sensing for food contamination monitoring, especially focusing on physical hazards that can only hardly be detected in foods currently.
8. 01:07:47-01:11:30 Dr Michele Suman, Food Safety & Authenticity Research Manager, Barilla SpA, presented the Barilla Sustainable Farming strategy, beyond farm gate and value chain actions, leading to a “Handbook for the Sustainable Cultivation of Quality Durum Wheat”, a new “sustainability tool” tailored on a decision support system called granoduro.net® and the design and use of a set of rules on durum wheat cultivation contracts.

The conference then turned into a participatory session of learnings and discussion, the audience asking questions to the experts, expressing opinions and sharing ideas via real-time polls and requests (Mentimeter), concerning their respective pitched projects, their views of the current EU food safety concerns, or their opinions on recent scientific and society topics.

You can find all insights and outcomes in the article here.

These insights will definitely guide FoodSafety4EU in the definition of next year’s 2^nd PreForum! This was a very successful attempt at gathering an expert audience around sustainable food safety, as well as a truly joyful event!