Food quality and safety issues in the priority areas within MoniQA

Abstract

MoniQA (Monitoring and Quality Assurance in the total food supply chain) is a Network of Excellence funded under the EU 6th Framework Programme. Its aim is to work towards the harmonization of worldwide food quality and safety monitoring and control strategies by establishing durable integration of leading research institutions, industrial partners and small and medium enterprises working in complementary fields of food quality and safety analysis. One of the main objectives of the project is to ‘develop harmonization guidelines for validation and standardization of detection methods and technologies in food safety and quality’. To achieve this, the relative importance of the range of contaminants and residues causing problems in food needed to be established. This paper outlines the methodologies adopted for prioritizing harmonization issues and identifying needs for research and development of analytical methods within the areas of natural contaminants (bio-toxins, food allergens), microbiological contaminants, chemical contaminants originating from environmental sources (heavy metals, etc.), industrial activity (dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls, etc.) or agricultural practices (pesticides and veterinary drag residues), food additives (colourants, sweeteners, etc.), processing contaminants (acrylamide, trans fatty acids, etc.) and authenticity (cheaper substitutes, fraud, etc.). Qualitative methods are also included in the prioritized activities, as there are no internationally accepted validation protocols.