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EU funds project to improve organic food chain, pathogens and toxins from fungi.

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EU funds project to improve organic food chain

[Date: 2004-04-13]

http://dbs.cordis.lu/cgi-bin/srchidadb?

CALLER=NHP_EN_NEWS & ACTION=D & SESSION= & RCN=EN_RCN_ID:21878

Under the thematic priority 'Food Quality and Safety' of the Sixth

Framework Programme (FP6), the European Commission is funding an

Integrated Project called 'QualityLowInputFood' that aims to improve

quality, ensure safety and improve productivity in organic food

supply chains in Europe.

Over the next five years, the project will receive 18 million euro to

carry out research across the food chain, from fork to farm, for

protected crops (tomato), field vegetables (lettuce, onion, potato,

carrot, cabbage), fruit (apple), cereal (wheat), pork, dairy and

poultry products.

QualityLowInputFood will measure consumer attitudes and expectations,

and develop new technologies to improve the nutritional,

microbiological and toxicological quality and safety of organic

foods.

'The research will provide meaningful information that is currently

lacking, on the extent to which differences in production systems

affect nutritional value, taste and safety of food,' explained

professor Carlo Leifert from the university of Newcastle, who is

coordinating the project. 'The project is expected to make a

significant impact on increasing the competitiveness of the organic

industry to the benefit of the European consumers and organic

farmers.'

Research shows that European consumers want tasty, safe, affordable

and nutritious food which does not harm the environment. 'Low input'

farming, which aims to avoid the use of synthetic pesticides and

fertilisers, is therefore favoured.

'The best known low input system is organic farming, which is one of

the most dynamic sectors of agriculture in Europe, but also faces

substantial challenges to meet consumers' demands for safe, high

quality, affordable organic food,' commented Professor Leifert.

The project will, therefore, start with investigating what consumers

expect from low input foods and measure what they buy in order to

establish what producers need to do to satisfy consumer demand. A

second element of the project will be to compare low input and

conventional products for features such as nutritional value, taste,

shelf life as well as risks related to reduced fertility, pathogens

and toxins from fungi.

Based on their findings, the project team on the will develop new

techniques to generate better, cost effective products. These will

then be circulated to the food industry.

'The focus here will be on farm-based research in cereals,

vegetables, dairy, poultry and pork production. For example,

agronomists will test different management strategies for

improvements in soil fertility, disease, weed and pest control to

improve yields of high quality, organic plant foods, while livestock

experts will assess how improved husbandry methods and feeding

regimes can improve the nutritional quality of organic milk and

minimise parasites and bacterial infections in pig and dairy

production,' said Professor Leifert.

For more information, please contact:

Professor Leifert

E-mail: c.leifert@...

Tel: +44 1661 830222

For further information on the thematic priority on 'food quality and

safety' in FP6, please visit:

http://www.cordis.lu/food/home.html

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