Project
The project FoodAuthent
Product authenticity in foods - Development of a system for the collection, analysis and exploitation of product authenticity data in the food sector.
The research project FoodAuthent creates framework conditions and incentives to use fingerprinting procedures routinely. These serve to document and prove the authenticity of food.
The proposed system should enable the gathering, analysis and exploitation of chemical "fingerprints" of food, thus providing proof of the authenticity of food. For this purpose, cooperatively usable, cloud-based food fingerprinting databases are set up and linked to open-source data analysis procedures and batch-specific product information.
What is FoodAuthent?
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Application
- Enable authentication of food
- Improve quality assurance
- Increase transparency
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Standardized fingerprinting analyzes
- Data standards
- Process standards
- Open source data analysis software
- Spectroscopic analysis methods
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Database
- Raw / measured data
- Classification models
- Metadata
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Cloud computing
- Electronic Product Code Information Services (EPCIS)
- Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN)
- Discovery Services
Goals
- Use of fingerprinting analysis in the food sector: Creating foundations and incentives for routine use
- Demonstrate proof of the authenticity of food: Use of analytical fingerprints to prove regional origin (FoodRegio-Detect) and absence of adulteration (FoodFraud-Detect)
- Improve analytics: Direct fast tests for the chemical analysis and evaluation of selected food groups (hard cheese, seed oils and spirits)
FoodAuthent – Partner and Advisory Board
The project partners come from the areas of food analysis, food trade, software development, data mining and standardization.
Partners of the joint project are GS1 Germany GmbH (Project Coordination), benelog GmbH & Co. KG, German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), Eurofins Analytik GmbH, Lablicate GmbH and the Department of Computer Science and Information Science at the University of Konstanz.
Benelog GmbH & Co. KG
The IT integration service provider has comprehensive and field-proven know-how in the areas of highly complex, scalable, cloud-based systems and big data processing. The benelog GmbH & Co. KG i.a. is involved in the conception, realization and operation of the GS1 EPCIS 1.1 and fTRACE implementation and will, in particular, contribute their experience to the NoSQL / Schemaless databases and the EPCIS 1.1 standard for the reference implementation for the provision of the analysis data obtained.
German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment
"Recognizing risks - protecting health"- this is how the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) has overwritten its work on consumer health protection. The institute was established in November 2002 and is the scientific institution of the Federal Republic of Germany, which prepares expert opinions and statements on questions of food and feed safety as well as the safety of chemicals and products. BfR is part of the business area of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL). In its scientific evaluation and research, it is independent.
Eurofins Analytik GmbH
Eurofins Analytik GmbH is part of the globally operating Eurofins Group and offers chemical and biological analyzes as well as expert advice for food, feed, non-food products and pet food. Eurofins has been developing methods for authenticating foods using 1H NMR for several years, i.a. for coffee, tea, olive oil and fish oil.
GS1 Germany GmbH
In particular, the standardization organization brings in its expertise and solutions in the areas of traceability and data transfer: With F-Trace, the wholly owned subsidiary F-Trace GmbH offers a neutral platform for lot-specific traceability of products, which ensures a transparent and secure value chain. Its components include the data exchange format EPCIS, which enables companies to track objects along the value chain and to communicate events.
Lablicate GmbH
Lablicate GmbH implements innovative software solutions for its customers, both in industry and in the fields of research and development, which enable user-friendly and automated evaluation and processing of measurement data. Lablicate offers i.a. with "OpenChrom" a manufacturer- and operating system independent analysis software for various chromatographic and mass spectrometric application areas, which is adapted to customer needs in the respective needs and also maintained as a free open-source version and made available.
Universität Konstanz
The Chair of Bioinformatics and Information Mining at the University of Konstanz has long experience in extracting knowledge from large, heterogeneous data sources. Thus, the University of Konstanz contributes significantly to the data analysis in order to answer the question of food authenticity. The methods used and developed are easily utilized by the open-source data analysis platform KNIME.
Advisory Board members
Dr. Thomas Kuballa, Chemical and Veterinary Investigation Office (CVUA) Karlsruhe
Prof. Dr. Franz Ulberth, Joint Research Centre
Prof. Dr. Christoph Steinbeck, Friedrich-Schiller-University
Standards – indispensable basis of FoodAuthent
As part of FoodAuthent, a modular, standards-based system should be developed:
- Cooperative, cloud-based food fingerprinting databases
- Open, reproducible pattern recognition and data analysis methods
- Interfaces to IT systems that contain batch-related product information
The integration of these components into standards-based IT solutions makes it possible to exploit the great potential of fingerprinting analytics for all stakeholders in the food sector.
The basis for this are standardized data exchange formats, optimized and standardized protocols for sample analysis and an innovative system concept. The technology developments planned in the project can therefore only be realized through cooperation between an interdisciplinary consortium of private, governmental and university institutions.
Finally, open resources are created in this way, which contribute to the fact that analytical fingerprinting processes can contribute significantly in the future to the safety and transparency of food product flows all the way to the consumer.
Read More »Promotion of FoodAuthent
The project is supported by funds of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) based on a decision of the Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany under the innovation support program managed by the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE).
The duration of the project is three years and ends in December 2019.
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