Background

The demand, consumption patterns, consumers’ engagement and perceptions of food are changing and diversifying. A growing part of consumers become more interested in how their food is grown, processed and brought to market. The consumption of meat and dairy products per capita is decreasing in most European countries, with differences according to countries and species. This consumption may decrease even more as a consequence of the development of radically new technologies ( cultured or vegetable “meat”, vegetable “milk”, insects…) as affordable alternatives and new consumption patterns ( flexitarism…). Besides a main stream, we see an increasing segmentation of the market.

While safety issues remain a priority, the market needs products with new characteristics/qualities and products better suiting the requirements of specific populations (pregnant women, young children, seniors, people experiencing intolerances or allergies…). Beyond the nutritional and organoleptic qualities (“intrinsic value of food”), other criterion such as environmental footprint, animal welfare or the production of public goods (open landscape, image of naturalness…) are determining consumption choices. This is also called the “extrinsic value of food”. Facing such new challenges and the necessity of attain added value from the export of animal products, food processing companies are now starting to develop husbandry guidelines for the supply chain.

More than ever, a greater focus on animal derived food integrity[*] (safety, authenticity and quality of products, but also their extrinsic value) is needed to secure Europe’s role as a leading global provider for safe and healthy animal derived products and help European food systems earn consumer trust. New efforts will require highly inter- and trans-disciplinary cooperation, systems and multi-actor approaches and major contribution by social sciences and humanities to find new tools and innovations along the food chain to improve quality and sustainability of the food systems, understand consumption patterns and consumer preferences.

Taking stock of the preparation of the EC-FOOD2030 strategy, during the year 2017, the Animal Task Force would like to engage a dialogue between farmers, industries, stakeholders from the primary sector and from the food chain, along with decision makers, scientists and citizens to provide input for public policies and contribute to dialogue and communication in order to support the construction of animal derived food integrity.

Format

The seminar is a kind of follow-up to the ATF-EAAP Special session that was organised in Tallinn, Estonia, on August28th, and would like to engage discussion with farmers, food processors and industries, retailers, nutritionists, scientists, but also with the society on the expected and possible contribution of the primary sector, in collaboration with the whole food chain, to support the animal derived food quality approaches and integrity. The most important findings of the session will be discussed with a panel.

Aim

The seminar aims to contribute to:

• Give insights on changes in consumption patterns and on the growing demand in terms of intrinsic and extrinsic qualities of animal products;
• Address how research and innovation can help the livestock sector contribute to food quality and integrity;
• Engage a dialogue between research, farmers, industry, decision makers, stakeholders from different backgrounds and citizens;
• Provide input for public policies if we want to secure Europe’s role as a leading global provider for safe and healthy animal derived products.

[*] FOODINTEGRITY EU project, website:
“Providing assurance to consumers and other stakeholders about the safety, authenticity and quality of European food (integrity) is of prime importance in adding value to the European Agri-food economy”.

More information and provisionnal programme:

FREE PARTICIPATION

REGISTRATION NEEDED : mail@ (with first name + last name + organisation + position + email + phone number)