The OLEUM project will generate innovative, more effective and harmonized analytical solutions to detect and fight the most common and emerging frauds and to verify the overall quality of olive oils (OOs). By a core group of 20 partners from 15 countries OLEUM will undertake RESEARCH ACTIVITIES based on the development of IMPROVED and NEW ANALYTICAL METHODS by targeted and omics approaches with the aim: i) to detect new markers of the soft deodorization process; ii) to discover illegal blends between OOs and other vegetable oils; iii) to control OO quality (e.g. freshness); iv) to improve the organoleptic assessment with a Quantitative Panel Test, based on current official methods, and supported by tailored reference materials for better calibration of the sensory panels coupled with rapid screening tools to facilitate the work of the panelists. The most promising OLEUM solutions will be subjected to VALIDATION in conformity with internationally agreed standards by peer laboratories. OLEUM will recreate a realistic “deodorization scenario” by producing tailored, soft deodorized OOs by lab-scale and up-scaled pilot plants to apply analytical solutions to known samples. Substantial KNOWLEDGE and TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER activities will be envisaged to aid in implementation of: a) a web-based easily-accessible, scalable and constantly updated OLEUM DATABANK, containing all the information from OLEUM research and other reliable international sources, will be available for download data and spectra and to help achieve satisfactory harmonization of analytical approaches among control laboratories; b) the OLEUM NETWORK of relevant OOs stakeholders to maximize the impact of proposed analytical solutions. Finally, a robust dissemination strategy by the OLEUM project aimed at effectively sharing results with all stakeholders in the OO supply chain has the potential to improve consumer and market confidence, and preserve the image of OOs on a global scale.

The PATHSENSE (Pathogen Sensing) ETN will bring together an interdisciplinary team of world-leading researchers from Europe to tackle a highly ambitious scientific project, focusing on the molecular mechanisms of sensory perception in bacterial pathogens. PATHSENSE will establish an innovative doctoral training programme that will deliver 13 PhD graduates and high-impact scientific outputs. The relationship between molecular structures and biological function is central to understanding any living system; however the research methodologies required to unravel these relationships are often complex and fast-changing. The team participating in this Network has the infrastructure and track-record to train ESRs in these state-of-the art methodologies, including structural biology, proteomics & protein biochemistry, molecular biology, bacterial genetics, food microbiology, mathematical modelling, cell biology, microscopy and comparative genomics. PATHSENSE will investigate the poorly understood structure-function relationships that exist within a large multi-protein complex called a “stressosome”, which acts as a sensory organelle in bacteria. The project will involve extensive inter-sectoral mobility of the ESRs across 7 EU countries to make full use of the complementary skills available at each of the hosting institutions. The inter-sectoral Network comprises 8 leading Universities, 1 public research institution, 4 companies (from spin-off to large multi-national) and 1 governmental agency. A major objective of this Network will be to exploit the fundamental research to develop novel antimicrobial treatments that have applications in the food and public health sectors. This project will deliver high-impact science, 13 highly-trained innovative researchers and will produce a long-lasting inter-sectoral network of collaborators who will continue to work together to exploit fundamental research for the socio-economic benefit of Europe.

Thousands of chemicals contained in food packaging may potentially migrate into foods and result in consumer exposure. There is an increasing alarm about their potential toxicological effects since most of them lack data, while others (e.g. bisphenol A) have created significant debate because of their documented endocrine properties. This project, SafePack, aims to offer a publicly usable in silico strategy to establish rapidly and cost-efficiently the level of safety concern of packaging chemicals without animal toxicity testing. There has been already initiatives to screen packaging chemicals using in silico toxicology, but all of them use qualitative approaches, mainly mutagenicity predictions, suitable for hazard identification. However they do not provide information about hazard characterization (how much is needed for triggering a toxic effect) and even less about health risks. In toxicology, "the dose makes the poisons" and it is very important to address safety concern by balancing predicted toxicological alert with potential exposure as done in standard risk assessment. The SafePack project aims at a) fill the toxicological data gaps of large sets of packaging chemicals using computational tools to predict toxicities, b) compare predicted toxicological values with exposure to obtain Margins of Exposure (MoE), a powerful method to establish level of safety concern, c) implement the overall workflow in freely available VEGA platform to make it ready for free utilization. Thousands packaging chemicals will be compiled. A number of toxicity endpoints relevant for risk assessment will be sequentially screened using available in silico predictive models: mutagenicity, carcinogenic potency and chronic toxicity; also, endocrine activity and developmental toxicity will be covered. The quantitative predicted values will be compared to exposure estimates providing MoEs, the size of which determines the level of safety concern.