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Consumer trends in food consumption are rapidly changing in Western and Asian markets. Increasing preference is being given to food safety, health and nutritional properties of foods, and sustainable and 'clean green' food production.
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These choices contribute to consumer well-being and encourage best practice in food production. Like the EU, New Zealand has an export-dominated food industry, particularly in dairy, meat, wine, fruit, vegetable and seafood. It has well co-ordinated production systems, an active research base that is respected internationally, and strong Government support since food products constitute the majority of exports.
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This proposal provides opportunity to share and learn from common experience in the EU and NZ, which can contribute to EU aspirations in the food industry. EU-NZ research linkages are important due to increasing needs of food industry globalisation. Collaborations between EU and NZ will be developed by:
<UL> <LI> Strengthening relationships between consumers, knowledge providers and industry in the EU and NZ.
<LI>Developing best practice for delivery and production of safe, sustainable, traceable quality food in the EU and NZ, based on shared experiences.
These objectives will be achieved through: Two joint EU-NZ workshops aimed at identifying best practice for achieving effective cross-sectoral collaborations among industry, universities and research institutions and involving consumer foresight in food research. Twenty fellowships to be awarded to EU researchers to undertake study visits to NZ. A joint EU-NZ conference to disseminate outcomes from the workshops and study visits.
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Through this proposal, we can jointly stimulate some focused collaboration between EU and NZ food researchers as a means of achieving our complimentary consumer driven and food industry goals, and more effectively begin to address some increasingly global food issues such as safety, traceability, animal husbandry and sustainability.
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For more information about this project, please visit the <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/research/biosociety/food_quality/projects/175_en.ht…; target="_blank">European Commission Food Quality and Safety in Europe</a> Web site.