To reach the objective we need to change consumers behavior to reduce exposure to hazards and decrease risk through:

• Effective and convenient tools and products
• Information strategies
• Education
• Inclusive food safety policy.

The ambition of SafeConsume is to initiate a new and broader approach in future research, innovation, education and food safety policy, widening the space of opportunities for improving food safety.

SafeConsume is funded by Horizon2020 and coordinated by Nofima. The project will run for five years with 32 partners in 14 countries in Europe.
The background for the project is the need for new strategies to help consumer mitigate food risks. Hazards in food accounts for about 23 million cases of illness and 5000 death in Europe every year. Nearly 40 percent of foodborn outbreaks are domestic/kitchen outbreaks and food safety violations at the consumer stage are common, particularly due to poor hygiene and insufficient heating and cooling.SafeConsume will target the top five foodborne hazards in Europe, accounting for about 70% of the health burdens related to foodborne illness.

Since consumer behavior is both a core problem and solution, SafeConsume will map food-handling behaviors in all regions of Europe, documented by large web-based studies, and in-depth investigations. The data will include the general population as well as typically vulnerable groups such as pregnant women and the increasing population of elderly.

A pan-European overview of consumer behaviours will be made by collecting risk-based behavioral data from households in five European countries. This will be done through observation, interviews and sampling during five critical stages of food handling from retail to consumption, and combining this with data from the literature.

To move towards a situation with lower health burden from foodborne illnesses, all actors and elements that affect consumer behaviour and subsequent risk have to be considered. Our novel approach is to describe and understand consumer behaviour using a holistic methodology based on Theory of Practices. To aid the transformation of scientific results into consumer-driven innovative solutions, our tactic is to integrate principles from Design-Driven-Innovation through the whole process involving scientists, technologists, designers, educators, market actors, NGOs and authorities. 4 (ToP) and combine this insight with microbial risk assessment

The SafeConsume project is divided into nine work packages, representing the different phases of the process. You can send general inquires to media@safeconsume.eu, or email directly to the respective work package leaders.

There are 32 different partners from 14 European countries. Among them are three multinational companies and four SMEs.