European Food for Life platform: Targeted research for the future

The CIAA said that new and emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil, are seeing growth in exports of value-added products – Whilst over the last decade, Europe's share of the global food and drink market has declined from 24 per cent to 20 per cent.

Consequently, it said that that the rate of innovation in Europe must increase, supported by higher investments in R&D.

As part of our special series on Food in the Future FoodNavigator.com takes a look at the progress and plans for the European Food for Life platform – a technology platform aimed to engage the European food industry and research institutions in R&D that aims to develop new technologies and processes for the food products of the future.

The European Technology Platform (ETP) on Food for Life, now in its sixth year, aims to deliver innovative, novel, and sustainable foods through focused research and technology transfer.

“Since Europe is increasingly unable to compete on cost alone, effective and rapid innovation will be needed to reverse this decline …European food companies are well-positioned to launch more value-added products due to the fact that they have access to superior technology,”​ said the CIAA.

Through the platform, it hopes to encourage increased R&D spending from the private and public sectors and target research on the key research priorities: optimal development, wellness, and ageing; intestinal health and immunity; and weight management and obesity.

The Food for Life platform believes that such targeted activities will support “a successful and competitive pan-European agro-food industry”​ based on technology transfer, sustainable food production and consumer confidence.

Research priorities​

The CIAA recently said it wants to prioritise work on Food and Consumers, Food chain management, and Food quality and manufacturing, as the key focus of the Food for Life platform – in addition to the initial priorities of Food and Health, Sustainable development of food and Consumer trust in the food chain.

CIAA, Director of Food Policy, Science and R&D, Beate Kettlitz also said that in the longer term, research on nanotechnologies may become a priority for the Food for Life platform.

She added that the CIAA is already thinking about the follow up projects and new goals for the beginning of the 8th framework – which would begin in 2013.

Lack of R&D​

However, the ETP warned that the food and drink sector is lagging behind the competition in terms of R&D, as investment has stagnated since 2006.

Last year the CIAA said that R&D investment in the EU sector remained at 0.37 per cent of industry output over the past four years. By contrast, it said that investment is higher (and growing) in Japan, the US, Australia and South Korea.

It said that fresh investment and focus on long term R&D strategies would act as a means of introducing new products and processing techniques to the market.

Economic Growth​

The EU is the largest exporter and importer of food worldwide, and the European food and drink industry is the EU’s single largest manufacturing sector. The CIAA said that building it’s competitiveness in the global food and drink industry is therefore central to Europe’s overall economic growth and sustainability.

“In the face of global competition, we are working hard to strengthen the competitiveness and sustainability of Europe’s food and drink industry. A thriving food and drink sector means a thriving European economy, which is why this is so important for the future,”​ said CIAA president, Jesús Serafín Pérez.