University College Dublin researchers provide a vital role in a program to improve food manufacturing quality and safety in Ireland and around the world.
University College Dublin (UCD) has entered a €1.7m ($1.9m) three-year innovation partnership with Irish government organisation Enterprise Ireland and industry-funded Sequencing Alliance for Food Environments (Safe) to enhance food quality and safety.
Enterprise Ireland is an agency responsible for the development and growth of Irish enterprises in world markets. Safe is made up of UCD’s Centre for Food Safety, six food and nutrition companies and predictive intake modelling software developer Creme Global.
The collaboration aims to produce technology that food manufacturers can use to mitigate bacterial contamination in their supply chain. Safe believes the current methods to control this are neither sufficiently rapid nor specific.
The program has a two-year research period in which UCD researchers will track environments in various food manufacturing plants in Ireland. This data will then be used to develop software to provide quicker and more accurate analysis of bacteria present in food factories.
Séamus Fanning, professor of food safety at University College Dublin, said: “I am excited about the possibilities of what this research can deliver.
“This program positions university researchers and our Irish food industry and software research collaborators at the forefront of surveillance with the potential to use this data to control their production environments and protect their consumers.”
Gearóid Mooney, director of research and innovation at Enterprise Ireland, said: “By developing a state of the art safety and quality decision making toolset to mitigate the risk of contamination in the food supply chain, this project demonstrates a new level of partnership, collaboration and joined up thinking between our client companies and our research institutes.”
