Fraunhofer Food Chain Management Alliance to become a New BfR Research Partner
The Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) and Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V. are to sign a cooperation contract today in which they agree on close cooperation in research for the purpose of improving food safety in all stages of the supply chain. The BfR will be cooperating in particular with the various Fraunhofer institutes which are organised into the Fraunhofer Food Chain Management Alliance. This comprises twelve institutes which supplement the BfR’s assessment and research work. "This means that two of the strongest partners in the field of food safety research in Germany have joined forces," says BfR President Professor Dr. Dr. Andreas Hensel. "The goal is to consolidate the knowledge of the institutions and make joint use of it".
Topics of the future collaboration between the BfR and Fraunhofer Food Chain Management Alliance are research issues concerning the logistics, traceability, contamination and analysis of food. In a globalised world with global goods flows, the main challenges for food safety along the food chain, all the way from the field to the plate, are to be found in this area.
Within the scope of the research partnership, specialised events are to be conducted jointly, and mutual research projects planned, applied for and realised. In addition to this, the partners aim to intensify the transfer of knowledge. With these measures, the available resources of the partners involved are to be used in a cooperative manner which creates synergies, especially in the various areas of food research.
The BfR and the institutes of the Fraunhofer Food Chain Management Alliance have already been cooperating in individual projects for many years. This collaboration is to be intensified with the cooperation agreement. The Fraunhofer Food Chain Management Alliance consolidates the activities of the Fraunhofer Society in the field of food research and sees itself as the interface between public national and international funding agencies and the food industry. As a federal government institute which is completely independent in its health assessment work, including the area of food safety, the BfR forms the interface to politics.
The picture shows Professor Dr. Reiner Wittkowski, Vice President of the BfR, and Dr. Karin Schlesier,Head of Research Coordination of the BfR,
bottom: Professor Dr. Dr. Andreas Hensel, President of the BfR and Dr. Hans-Otto Feldhütter, Fraunhofer Society
About the BfR
The Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) is a scientific institution within the portfolio of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) in Germany. It advises the Federal Government and Federal Laender on questions of food, chemical and product safety. The BfR conducts its own research on topics that are closely linked to its assessment tasks.