Food Quality & Safety

Piloting & Capacity Building (2007-2010)

Description

TRACEBACK is the acronym for “Integrated system for a reliable traceability of food supply chains”, an integrated project of the European Union Sixth Framework Programme of Scientific and Technological Research, Priority 5 “Food Quality and Safety”. The main objective of the TRACEBACK project is to develop a well functioning generic system for traceability and information handling within food chains. TRACEBACK is a project within the European Commission’s Sixth Framework Programme involving 28 partners from 11 countries. The partners range from research institutes and universities, computer and consultancy firms, to representatives from the food industry. The project deals with traceability along entire food chains, and is divided into a number of different work packages covering different aspects of traceability. Some of the most important objectives are summarized below:

• Analyzing and defining the food chains and identifying weak and sensitive points in the chains where there are risks for contamination or loss in quality of the final product.
• Development of sensors and devices for sensing technique for monitoring, identifying and avoiding specific contamination or situations that might cause damage and loss of quality in food chains.
• The development of a system for compiling and handling information generated from the sensors used in the food chain.
• Teaching and training of potential users of the devices and the information system.
• Economic assessment of the feasibility of traceability technique in commercial situations.
• Pilot testing of the traceability system in commercial companies constituting whole food chains.
• Creating an industrial platform for communicating results from the project directly to the industry. The platform is also meant to stimulate industrial implementation, innovation and feedback concerning traceability.

TRACEBACK will develop innovative models and tools to support the implementation of an ideal traceability system for the entire food chain, characterized by objectively connecting product flow and related information flow, ensuring available and reliable traceability information along the entire food chain, accommodating technologies currently adopted by all actors of the food chain without imposing any technology change.

Services

NSCE is involved in four workpackages (WP) within the project:

• WP6 | Integration of Components: The concept of integration in the TRACEBACK project means to put together all the systems, components and RATIS with the less effort possible. This is the main activity for this work package, and the other one is the development of specific services for the pilot testing of the system.
• WP7 | Pilot Testing: This project is focused on the set up, validation and demonstration of the innovative traceability system. This is also the main goal of the present work package, Pilot Testing, whose objective is to test, validate and deploy the new traceability technology developed in the previous work packages to verify and guarantee that standards achieved in laboratory and small-scale applications are also met under industrial and routine field conditions, concretely in the tomato and feed/dairy food chains.
• WP8 | Training and Capacity Building to stakeholders: The work package mission is to transfer professional knowledge arisen from the project research activities and practically train academic and industrial stakeholders on the innovative project technologies inside and outside the project consortium. In particular:
  • To set up an Evaluation Plan to support and steer the training programmes
  • To define a feasible Training Plan
  • To train academic and industrial researchers internal to the Consortium
  • To train staff personnel from industrial partners on the use of the innovative traceability system
  • To train young researchers inside the Consortium
  • To train operators on specific traceability aspects (liability, risk assessment, etc) of the food chain,
  • To enhance the capability building of the INCO countries on the issue of traceability
• WP10 | Exploitation (Industrial Platform): In this project, Exploitation and Pilot testing are in tight relationship conceptual and functional relationship. First of all, Pilot testing is considered as a preliminary activity of Exploitation: this allows approaching the enterprises involved in pilot testing also for facilitating innovation ideas related to their testing. Further, the audience created by the first workshops of exploitation will be the best basin for picking up ideal partners for testing the pilot and for multiplying innovation models across EU Member States, Candidate Countries and in INCO countries. This WP will start from an innovation model already established by the WP leader and foresees a very concrete and down-to-earth interaction with local enterprises with the aim of driving innovation in local regions. The objectives of this exploitation model are:
  • To launch innovation dynamics in a selected group of end-users in different European and INCO (International Cooperation) countries.
  • To create innovations/business ideas in industry with the results based on research and development in this project in combination with knowledge in the companies.
  • To demonstrate how business ideas on traceability can be created.
  • To establish a dialogue between industry and research in all participating countries and between the countries.
  • To identify the best approaches for successful TRACEBACK innovations and best practice from different countries in Europe.
  • To establish groups of companies and researchers in each participating country, where the innovation process in traceability is driven.
  • To introduce a good combination of enterprises in the first two pilot projects together with WP 7

Traceability for Agriculture Competitiveness (2009-2010)

Description

The main objective is to strengthen innovation and research in Egypt through the implementation and adaptation of the TRACEBACK project by engaging Egyptian and European research center to exchange knowledge and experience and by engaging the Egyptian private sector with national research institutes on the other side to strengthen a demand driven research. NSCE as lead partner has led the process of developing and implementing this project.

Services

NSCE as lead partner has led the process of developing and implementing this project.

Approach implemented by the consultants:

• Training of Agriculture Research Centre on new methods and approaches in traceability research with European institutes
• Coordination with local Egyptian partners and European Partners to implement Trace Me Back results in Egypt
• Supply chain analysis of Dairy, Olive Oil and Green Bens through field research
• Software localization for technology developed with Trace Me Back

Overall planning and project management of project activities:

• Mapping of the three supply chains under study: Dairy, Olive oil and green beans.
• Customizing the traceability software and micro devices developed with the Trace Me Back project.
• Testing the technology in Egypt.
• Dissemination of project results.
• Training