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The ultimate goal of the project is to assist the total food chain in Central and Eastern European countries to reach international quality and safety standards, and in turn, to enhance European competitiveness as a whole by developing an industry, which is synonymous with safety, diversity, sophistication and products of high quality.
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The objectives of the project are as follows:
<UL> <LI> To promote a new decision-making culture among managers and policy-makers in order to put quality and safety issues into the centre of the total food chain management.
<LI>To identify future key technologies and new business models to promote the quality and safety requirements in food production, by establishing a Food Quality and Safety Platform in CEE countries.
Food quality and safety are crucial aspects of human life and are, therefore, prime policy objectives of the EU. Food quality and safety have to be secured through regulations with regard to inputs, production processes, outputs, transportation, storage, packaging, labelling, documentation of origin and the like, for creating an adequate infrastructure for food markets and their smooth development.
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The food industries in the CEE are undergoing sweeping ownership, technological, organizational and financial changes. The new decision-making processes should put a strong emphasis on safety and quality standards. Substantial changes in financial services, wholesale markets, commodities exchange, price information, transportation facilities and infrastructure are also needed. A foresight process is highly instrumental to tackle these complex issues.
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By bringing together the relevant stakeholders with their wide range of expertise and accumulated skills it is possible to identify emerging technological and market opportunities and threats, consider S&T and socio-economic factors in their entirety, and thus devise appropriate policies and strategies, based on consensus among these stakeholders.
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For more information about this project, please visit the <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/research/biosociety/food_quality/projects/176_en.ht…; target="_blank">European Commission Food Quality and Safety in Europe</a> Web site.