From a niche market, the organic sector has become a global market with long supply chains and intercontinental trade, rewarding players with a significant price premium. As a consequence, it is facing vulnerabilities to fraudulent activities, as shown by the police operation Opson VIII, affecting authenticity of these food products and impacting adversely consumer trust. Indeed, the recent "Barometer of organic product in France -2023" of the Agence Bio, pointed out that consumers have more doubts on the organic product' integrity, it is now the second hindrance to buy organic products,...
The presentation focuses on some of the recently developed and released food matrix certified reference materials (CRMs), namely the mass fractions of short- and medium-chain chlorinated paraffins in an existing fish tissue CRM, the mass fraction of fipronil in egg, the mass fractions of pesticides in wheat flour, the identity (genetic identification) of Hippoglossus hippoglossus (Atlantic halibut), and the alcoholic strength, carbon-13 and deuterium isotope ratios in ethanol from grape sugar fermentation (96 % vol.). Raw materials were converted into suitably homogeneous and stable...
PARC is a partnership set up under Horizon Europe to strengthen research and innovation in the assessment of risks, hazards and exposure to chemical substances. Bringing together communities working in the fields of public health, occupational health, food safety and environmental protection, PARC aims to develop research and innovation on new methodological approaches that can be used to assess the risk of chemical substances in today's and tomorrow's regulatory context, with a view to the Sustainable Chemistry Strategy. PARC is also contributing to the implementation of human...
The provision of safe, high-quality food is vital for human health, and innovation in the food sector is needed to protect the environment, ensure sustainability, and respond to future needs. EURAMET, the association of National Metrology Institutes (NMI) in Europe, approved in May 2022 the European Metrology Network (EMN) for Safe and Sustainable Food (EMN Food). The EMN Food aims to foster collaboration and coordination in the measurement science community to meet metrology needs along the food chain, working within the European Union's Farm to Fork Strategy. The network promotes a...
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) provides scientific advice to the European Commission, the European Parliament and the EU Member States on risks associated with the food chain. Guided by this mission, EFSA already acquired robust knowledge and expertise in the field of dietary exposure to single chemicals or (restricted, pre-defined) groups of chemicals. There is a growing scientific consensus, however, that the effect of simultaneous exposure to multiple chemicals (also referred to as unintentional mixtures) must be considered, and the EU Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability...
Total Diet Studies (TDS), as a methodological approach to perform dietary exposure assessment, emerged in the early 1960's. The specifities of TDSs are that: i) they cover most of the foods people eat( often exceeding 90% by weight), ii) the foods are prepared as consumed and iii) samples are pooled before conducting laboratory tests for food chemicals. TDS base their sampling approach and exposure estimates on food consumption data, which are, ideally, nationally representative. Consequently, the TDS data currently represents the best available tool towards identifying, among a...
Long-term management of human health requires a comprehensive understanding of the environmental influences that affect it. To achieve this, there is a need for comprehensive, high-quality data on exposure in order to study the causes of certain diseases in humans and thus manage situations more effectively. Food is one of the major routes by which humans are exposed to chemical substances; whether they are of natural or synthetic origin, intentionally produced or not, they are hazards that can enter the food chain at different levels and, depending on their toxicity and levels of exposure,...
Confidence in the quality and safety of food is a high priority worldwide. The presence of undesired chemicals as well as the lack of essential chemical substances to fulfill the dietary requirement can potentially lead to serious consequences for human health. The trace elements have their own place in this context with some elements being essential to humans and other very harmful. When assessing the quality and/or safety of foods there is a demand for reliable information and providing results which are fit-for-the-purpose to enable correct assessment of quality and/or safety. Trace...
The EU legislation on contaminants Council Regulation (EEC) No 315/93 of 8 February 1993 provides that food containing a contaminant in an amount which is unacceptable from the public health viewpoint shall not be placed on the market (food can only be placed on the market when it is safe). Furthermore, it is foreseen that contaminant levels shall be kept as low as can reasonably be achieved by following good practices at all stages of the production chain and in order to protect public health, maximum levels for specific contaminants shall be established where necessary. In recent years,...
The feed drive system for machine tool consists of rolling elements such as ball screw and linear guideways. It is well known that in the positioning of linear guideways using steel ball rolling, the contact surface has nonlinear spring characteristics. This phenomenon is deteriorating the accuracy of the machine tool. In this study, we have manufactured a feed drive system in which the physical contacts are only linear guides by using a linear motor as actuator. At first, we measured the responses to some fine feed amount for feed drive system. Next, the same experiment was performed by...