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Agro-food sector is of major importance for the European economy as a whole and faces a process of adaptation to new regulations (White Paper on Food Safety) and new market demands, which calls for a guaranteed high quality product. Grain milling industry has detected one of their main problems in the final product quality assurance, is the control of raw materials and the control of their toxicity: mycotoxins (ochratoxin A, aflatoxins,.) pesticides, and formation of acrylamide. Current analyses in laboratories are long and relatively expensives, so it disturbs flour production and increases final process costs. lAGs are very interested in developing and disseminating a new measurement technology at competitive market price. The global objective of the project is to increase the food safety in the grain processing/milling industry according to the mew regulation and market demands, requiring a high quality products and demonstrated reliability.
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The operative objectives are:
<UL> <LI> To design and develop reliable, fast and economic measurement systems focussing on the most common pollutants (mycotoxins, pesticides and acrylamide) on the grain milling/processing industry. Both is field and in processing plant.
<LI> To establish a simple guide of "best procedures" and strategies for decreasing levels of pollutants in food stuffs within the previously mentioned agro-food sub-sector.
<LI> To develop a risk management tool that allows, by means of an easy and economic procedure, to ensure final product (flour) quality and safety, integrating all the results obtained (measurement system results, correlation with official results and best procedures) in a friendly and easy-to-use software tool to be used by the milling companies.
<LI> To exploit and disseminate the project results amongst the SMEs within the sector at different levels to help incorporate these new technologies.