Sciensano hosted the METROFOOD-FED.BE kick-off meeting on March 21 in Tervuren. This 3 year BELSPO-funded project supplements the implementation of METROFOOD-RI at a Belgian federal level. On that occasion, Sciensano gathered with BELSPO and METROFOOD-RI delegates from Belgium and Italy to present the foreseen activities of METROFOOD-FED.BE.
The core goal of the project is to develop, advance and implement Sciensano federal components (services) for the promotion of metrology in food and nutrition in the European and (inter)national research and innovation (R&I) landscape. METROFOOD-FED.BE aims to develop specific Sciensano services related to materials in contact with food. Via its dedicated activities, the project will ensure that Sciensano’s services are robust, well-developed, reinforced, optimally positioned and sufficiently innovative to meet the needs of a wide range of target users seeking to improve practices and apply state-of-the-art metrological solutions.
Sciensano’s selected services will be robustly tested and prepared for optimized performance and provision at par with ESFRI standards for long-term inclusion in the ESFRI research infrastructure, METROFOOD-RI. This will be achieved by means of open transnational calls, where potential users of Sciensano services will have the opportunity to access two services free-of-charge for their metrological needs in food and nutrition :
- one is related to the physico-chemical characterisation of nanoparticles in materials in contact with food and their potential migration
- the other will address the safe & sustainable development, risk assessment and compliance evaluation of materials in contact with food.