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CONtaminants in Food and Feed: Inexpensive DEtectioN for Control of Exposure (CONffIDENCE)
Start date: May 1, 2008, End date: Dec 31, 2012 PROJECT  FINISHED 

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.
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