CONFFIDENCE

CONtaminants in Food and Feed: Inexpensive DEtectioN for Control of Exposure

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'RASFF alerts show that monitoring of chemical contaminants in food and feed is very relevant in European food safety. Also consumers placed chemical contaminants on top of the “worry-scale” of food-related risks. According to the General Food Law, food and feed industries are responsible for the safety of their products. Often expensive instrumental single-analyte methods are being applied by regulatory and industrial laboratories. There is an urgent need for replacement by validated screening tools which are simple, inexpensive and rapid, but also show multiplex capability by detecting as many contaminants in parallel as possible. The CONffIDENCE proposal has been designed to provide long-term solutions to the monitoring of persistent organic pollutants, perfluorinated compounds, pesticides, veterinary pharmaceuticals (coccidiostats, antibiotics), heavy metals and biotoxins (alkaloids, marine toxins, mycotoxins) in high-risk products such as fish and fish feed, cereal-based food/feed and vegetables. A balanced mix of novel multiplex technologies will be utilized, including dipsticks, flow cytometry with functionalised beads, SPR optical and electrochemical biosensors, cytosensors and metabolomics-like comprehensive profiling. After validation, the simplified methods will be applied in impact demonstrators that contribute to exposure assessment and validation of hazard models. Moreover, hazards of emerging contaminants will be assessed through toxicological testing. Dissemination to scientists and to relevant stakeholders, including the food and feed industry, regulatory control bodies, DG-SANCO, EFSA, exporting countries, CRLs, routine laboratories, CEN and consumers will be assured by e-communication, press releases, public workshops, open days, presentations, publications and a science education module. The consortium consists of 17 partners from 10 countries, representing 9 research institutes, 5 universities, 2 large food and feed industries and 1 SME.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

New tests for food and feed contaminants

Descrizione progetto (Article)

The presence of chemical contaminants in food is one of the principal concerns among food-related risks for European citizens. However, current screening tools for food contaminants are slow, complex and generally designed to detect only a single compound.

The EU-funded 'Contaminants in food and feed: Inexpensive detection for control of exposure' (http://www.conffidence.eu (CONFFIDENCE)) project was set up to help address these issues. The project team was tasked with developing screening tools for a wide range of common food and feed contaminants.

CONFFIDENCE used a number of recently developed multiplex sensing methods that can rapidly screen samples for multiple contaminants simultaneously. The developed tests were all validated through laboratory testing and field trials.

An emphasis was placed on cereals, fish (feed) and seafood, but tests were developed for other foods and feeds too. The list of contaminants for which CONFFIDENCE developed tests covers organic pollutants, pesticides, antibiotics, coccidiostats, inorganic arsenic, methylmercury, alkaloids, marine biotoxins and mycotoxins.

Some of the developed tests were used in a large survey on organic pollutants, inorganic arsenic and methylmercury levels in seafood. The tests were also used to investigate the health risks of new marine biotoxins (spirolides and palytoxin).

Several of the multiplex tests developed by CONFFIDENCE are now commercially available, while others are in the process of being commercialised. The outcomes of this project will have a far-reaching impact on consumer health in Europe and worldwide.