UCD’s new Innovation Partnership to enhance food safety and quality
A new three-year Innovation Partnership programme in food quality and safety has been launched.
Print27 April 2016
A new three-year Innovation Partnership programme in food quality and safety has been launched. Funded by Enterprise Ireland, the €1.7m programme, Sequencing Alliance for Food Environments (SAFE) aims to develop a new predictive software toolbox to enhance food quality and safety approaches using environmental intelligence data.
SAFE is a partnership between UCD’s Centre for Food Safety and six leading food and nutrition companies: Dairygold, Dawn Farm Foods, Glanbia, Kerry, Mead Johnson Nutrition and Nutrition Supplies, along with Creme Global.
Currently, methods used to control bacteria in food productionn are said to be neither rapid or specific enough. Also, large amounts of energy and materials are required, which is unkind to the environment. The SAFE programme aims to develop new state-of-the-art safety and quality decision making software, to minimise the risk of bacterial contamination in the food supply chain in a smarter, faster and in a more specific and sustainable way.
Professor Seamus Manning, UCD’s professor fo food safety, said he is excited about the possibilities the new research can deliver. “This programme positions UCD researchers, Ireland’s food industry and software research collaborators at the forefront of surveillance, with the potential to use the data to protect consumers.
“It’s a proactive move, rather than a reactive one,” he said, “and our collaborators and Enterprise Ireland are to be acknowledged for taking this step.”
For further information about the UCD Centre for Food Safety visit www.ucd.ie/cfs/.
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