"Food systems are in the heart of meeting all challenges of societies worldwide. We face biodiversity loss, climate change, hunger and an increasing number of diseases related to production and consumption patterns. The food system is a major cause of all this. It uses huge amounts of energy to produce food, while one third of the food produced globally is lost or wasted. There is a real urgency to address this, taking into account the relationship between food and health.
Within the Healty and Safe food Systems programme, we want to provide the world with healthy and safe food within the boundaries of the planet.
“One part of the programme deals with the purity of products, so we study how to maintain that and how to produce new products. Another part is about testing products to judge whether they are healthy and safe. And a third part deals with the consumer. Our researchers gain insight into how you could encourage or facilitate consumers to make healthier, safer and sustainable choices.”
In this chapter two projects are highlighted to illustrate the important work of the KB-programme Healthy and Safe Food System.
Designing backwards helps food industry move forwards
Gulden Yilmaz-Jongboom: “Reverse engineering is a very nice example of developing and applying new methods, because it shows how you can look at the needs within the industry or consumers and engineer back what you have to do. Researchers have developed a computer model for this.”
Mini intestines replace test animals
Gulden Yilmaz-Jongboom: “Animal free testing is an ongoing trend, although it's still in a developmental stage. If you take the animal testing out of the equation, you have a more efficient system, which will be essential for enabling a safe and healthy food system in the future.”
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