On 8-9 March 2012, the 1st meeting in Foggia (Italy) was held to start the activities of the EU Project entitled "QUAFETY - Comprehensive Approach to Enhance Quality and Safety of Ready to Eat Fresh Products". During the meeting, all aspects regarding the operational and administrative management of the project were discussed.
The Quafety Project is co-funded by the European Commission through the 7th framework program, the total contribution is of about 3 million Euro and involves 14 partners, of which 6 Universities, 2 R&D Institutions, and 6 SME (small and medium enterprises), from 7 different countries (Italy, United Kingdom, Israel, Poland, Netherlands, Portugal, Greece).
QUAFETY partners.
8 March 2012
Thursday 8 March was dedicated to show the EU Project to the audience. For this event, well known guests reported their EU project experiences. The workshop started with welcome greetings of Professor Agostino Sevi, Dean of Agriculture Faculty of University at Foggia.
Professor Agostino Sevi.
Professor Giancarlo Colelli, Scientific coordinator of QUAFETY, introduced the project showing the objectives, the activities that will be conducted by the different partners in the next three years, and the expected results.
Professor Giancarlo Colelli, Scientific Coordinator of QUAFETY Project.
Professor Colelli explained which management steps had been taken to write the project proposal, which negotiation steps have been made to obtain the funding and the clearance to start by EU Commission.
Above and below: some objectives of the QUAFETY project.
Professor Colelli highlighted the importance of results dissemination through the project and informed about the creation of an official website (www.quafety.eu) that is under construction.
FreshPlaza magazine has been involved in QUAFETY Project as the partner for the results dissemination.
On 8 March, the EU Commission official, Catherine Eccles (DG Research & Innovation European Commission) reminded the audience that QUAFETY project started on 1st January 2012 and will finish on 31 December 2014.
Dr Eccles highlighted that the European Commission received 154 proposals for the call of October 2011. EU Commission received 23 proposals regarding ‘ready-to-eat products’, of which only 3 proposals were funded, among these there was the QUAFETY Project.
Dr Teresa Mulloy (Puglia Sviluppo Spa) explained politics and opportunities for Apulian enterprises to develop and enhance import-export at international level.
Dr Teresa Mulloy.
Dr Mulloy explained the political commitment of regional institutions to increase the competitiveness of enterprises, particularly of SMI, on international market. She showed the "Country Focus Projects", whose objectives are to develop trade relations with Russia, China, India, Brazil, USA, Canada, and to enforce the current commercial relations with Japan.
Dr Mulloy underlined the concept of single market where the commercial relations with other EU Countries must be considered as a strength and not as a critical issue. Dr Mulloy finally explained "Sprint Puglia" introduced in 2004. "Sprint Puglia" is the regional help desk to support the enterprises and give them the news about projects for commercial development.Professor George J. Nychas (Agriculture Faculty of Athens - Greece) reported his EU project experience. He is a scientific coordinator of SYMBIOSIS project that has been funded within the 7th framework program and has involved 14 partners coming from both EU and Extra-EU Countries.
Professor George J. Nychas.
The objective of SYMBIOSIS project was to control the quality and safety of meat during production, storage, and distribution by using different technologies and nanotechnologies, such as image analysis and mathematical models, to reach the market with a safe and high quality product. Professor Nychas has showed the objectives, the activities that are conducted, and the obtained results.
Also, the professor Claudio Babiloni (University of Foggia) reported his experience into two EU projects (PharmaCog and DECIDE) in cooperation with institutions and enterprises coming from different Countries.
Professor Claudio Babiloni.
The two projects regarded the relations between Alzheimer and food. Particularly, the objective was to study how vitamins and antioxidant compounds can reduce or slow down the neurodegenerative processes caused by the disease. Furthermore, the application of new technologies, such as the study of EEG markers on brain images, can allow to identify in advance the subjects with neuronal degenerations.
During the second session of 8 March the bureaucratic and administrative aspects regarding 7th framework program EU projects were discussed. On this subject Dr Catherine Eccles and Dr Giuliano De Seneen (Distretto Agroalimentare Regionale Scrl) explained the guidelines for the optimal financial and administrative management of the different project activities.
Dr Giuliano De Seneen.
They explained how to manage the costs of the activities and to make both financial statement and final accounts. In addition, they informed about the technical and financial reports that must be periodically send to the EU Commission.
9 March 2012
During the 2nd day of the meeting at Agriculture Faculty of Foggia, the 14 partners involved in the QUAFETY project presented their institutions and described their activities in the project.
Agriculture Faculty of Foggia (Italy).
Professor Giuseppe Spano introduced the Agriculture Faculty of Foggia and presented the different research groups involved in the project that will work to reach the objectives of the project.
Professor Antonio Ferrante presented the Milan University and the Professor Eleftherios Drosinos presented the Agriculture University of Athens, then they described their activities in the project.
Professor Domingos Almeida (Universidade Catolica Portuguesa, Portugal) described the activities that his research group will conduct during the project.
Professor Domingos Almeida.
Dr Victor Rodov (photo on the right) presented the Israelian research group "The Agricultural Research Organisation Of Israel – The Volcani Centre".Then, Professor Hilary Rogers presented the Cardiff University (UK) and Professor Jane Sutherland has presented the London Metropolitan University (UK).
Alun Cole, Managing director of Markes International Ltd (Llantrisant, UK), introduced the enterprise that produces scientific machinery and instrumentations.
Dr Alun Cole.
Professor Antonio Stasi presented the regional food zone (DARe), which will evaluate the feasibility and sustainability of the solutions suggested by the project.
Professor Antonio Stasi.
Dr Rossella Gigli presented FreshPlaza, the International magazine on fresh produce. FreshPlaza has been involved in the QUAFETY project for the results dissemination.
Dr Rossella Gigli, FreshPlaza Managing Editor for Italy.
Dr Daniela Ribeira has presented the Portuguese Enterprise "80g" that produces fresh-cut fruit products.
Dr Daniela Ribeira.
Dr Reuben Vaida described the activities that are conducted at Einat Food Industries Agricultural Cooperative Society Ltd (Israel), whose core business is the production of baked products. Recently, the industry also introduced the production of the fresh-cut products.
Dr Reuben Vaida.
Dr Maria Grzegorzewska presented the Polish research group on vegetable section (Instytut Ogrodnictwa) and the activities that her group will conduct in the QUAFETY project. Particularly, the research group will evaluate the effects of heating on quality and safety of fresh-cut products.
Dr Maria Grzegorzewska.
Ultimately, Dr Germano Profeta presented the enterprise "Agronomia" the Italian partner for the production of fresh-cut leafy vegetables. Agronomia will test directly in situ the innovations regarding the leafy vegetable processing coming from the QUAFETY project.
Dr Germano Profeta.
During the second part of the day, all partners involved in the QUAFETY project settled the management of the activities. Particularly, the delegates of each partner were present at the 1st steering committee of QUAFETY project. In this meeting, the partners have arrived at important decisions for the development and coordination of the activities.
The last session was dedicated to the management of the first four work packages through parallel meetings of partners involved in each work package.
The coordinator of QUAFETY project, Professor Colelli, closed the workshop summarizing the most important results of the meeting and the short- and long-term commitments. The meeting finished to the satisfaction of everybody and represented an opportunity to give visibility to the project and to reinforce the relations among partners.
QUAFETY partners. Click here to zoom the photo.
The next meeting, being scheduled on 18th month of the project, will be next June 2013 in Athens (Greece).