Major New Research Project ProSafeBeef launched by Minister for Agricuture & Food, Mary Coughlan TD
L – R: Declan Troy, Head, Ashtown Food Research Centre, Minister for Agriculture & Food, Ms Mary Coughlan, T.D., Mr Antonio di Giulio, Head of Food, Health & Wellbeing, DG Research, EU Commission and Dr Tony Smith, Dept. Agriculture & Food
Declan Troy, Head of Ashtown Food Research Centre, Teagasc welcomed both Ms. Mary Coughlan, T.D. Minister for Agriculture and Food and Mr Antonia di Giulio, EU Commission to the Centre to launch a major research project funded under the EU 6th Framework Programme .
This project, worth €19 million over its five-year duration, passed all the evaluation stages in Brussels with high scores and was successful in achieving an EU funding contribution of €10.8m, about €2.5m of which will stay in Ireland.
The overall objective of this new research project called ProSafeBeef is to reduce microbiological and chemical contaminants in beef and beef products and to enhance quality, choice and diversity in the beef-chain in order to boost consumer trust and invigorate the industry. Declan Troy is the overall project co-coordinator with some 42 partners. The partners include universities and research organisations from all over Europe, as well as Brazil, New Zealand, Australia, the USA and Canada.
Prosafebeef will enable the beef industry in Europe to deliver innovative, novel and improved fresh beef and beef products that are safe, high quality and consumer driven for national, regional and global markets thus allowing for a more competitive and sustainable industry.
The project will satisfy consumer demand for choice and both invigorate and add value to the beef chain (fork-to-farm) by developing innovative beef processing techniques and innovative beef products that are safe, attractive to the customer and of high nutritional quality.
This project will develop a strategically focused beef safety management system based on the principles of quantitative risk assessment and the development of new control and intervention strategies that inspire confidence in the beef chain. Dr Geraldine Duffy, Head of the Food Safety Department will lead the food safety research part of the project. This research aims to provide a quantitative risk based assessment of key microbial pathogens (Verocytotoxigenic E. coli, Salmonella, Campylobacter and Listeria) and a range of chemical contaminants (including anti-parasitic drugs) in beef. The physiological and molecular basis for microbial persistence, virulence and adaptation to stresses encountered along the beef chain will also be investigated.
ProSafeBeef will engage with SME's, expert collaborators from third countries and INCO partners with a vested interest in beef export to ensure effective delivery of the project technological and research outputs to the end users and wider stakeholders in the beef industry.
These activities will permit ProSafeBeef to deliver to the beef industry a toolbox of strategies and practice to reduce microbiological and chemical contaminants in the beef supply chain through an integrated fork-to-farm framework approach, and develop a range of novel products that are safe, convenient, of high quality and attractive to the consumer.
