UK Food Safety Research Network

英国对食品安全有着坚定的承诺，食品制造商完全专注于为客户制造健康和安全的食品。在政府部门的协助下，已经制定了许多计划来监管食品的生产方式，并监测可能污染食品的危险。然而，我们也从英国的研究中了解到，人们带着与食物相关的疾病去看他们的全科医生是很常见的，每年大约有四分之一的英国人口患有腹泻。这些病例的原因很少被确定，在这些疾病每年给英国造成的估计GB 9B费用中，GB 6B是未知原因。在能够更仔细地观察一些病例的研究中，疾病的原因往往是一种微生物病原体，它从环境或牲畜甚至从人进入食物。因此，一些危害，如细菌，既是检测的挑战，也是从进入食物链进行控制的挑战。随着食物链随着新的食品生产方式、消费者的新食品偏好以及影响食品生态的气候变化而演变，这些挑战只会变得更加复杂。与UKRI-BBSRC和食品标准局合作，诺里奇的Quadram Institute Bioscience正在提议在两年内建立一个新的“英国食品安全研究网络”。作为应对这些复杂挑战的科学创新和协作研究的中心，该网络将在食品行业、政府部门和科学家之间创建一个社区，以创建一个共同的研究愿景和计划，以改善现在和未来的食品安全。为了建立这一功能社区，该网络将通过以下步骤取得进展：对可能影响食品安全的领导人进行广泛的观察：该网络将确定现有食品网络和来自工业界、学术界和政府部门的食品安全利益相关者的情况，并从这些环境中激活跨越多个学科的临界数量的专家，以形成一个协作创新和知识交流活动的网络。我们将包括考虑环境、动物和人类健康科学的“同一健康”学科。确定食品安全研究的机会和需要：网络成员将带来他们的经验和观点，以确定可以转化为研究和培训优先事项的食品安全挑战。我们相信，成员将有动力参与该网络的这一问题定义阶段，因为由于食品系统利益相关者在所有阶段的参与，将根据影响的途径设定研究优先事项。利用跨学科人才来推动合作项目：该网络将通过资助概念验证和其他类似项目的方案来追求我们的研究优先事项，这些项目在“创新文化”下运作，以借鉴整个网络成员组织、学科、通过实施和发展来自网络发现的技能来增强食品安全社区：网络将通过举办一系列不同的培训活动和赞助网络成员站点之间的科学家和食品行业员工交流，来扩展我们在合作研究中开发的方法和知识。这些计划将积极支持网络合作伙伴之间在食品安全和互操作性方面的技能发展。推动网络发现改变食品安全领域：网络将高度可见，并通过网络、音频和视频平台发出积极的声音，以支持网络与政策制定者和其他资助者的互动。网络研究和培训成果也将被更广泛和公开地分享，以进一步支持食品安全技能的发展。

The UK has a strong commitment to food safety, with food manufacturers being entirely focused on making foods that are healthy and safe for their customers. With the assistance of government departments, there are many programmes in place to regulate how food is produced and to monitor for hazards that might contaminate foods. However, we also know from studies in the UK that it is common for people to visit their GP with food-associated illness and that about a quarter of the UK population have diarrhoea each year. The causes of these cases are rarely determined, and of the estimated £9B annual cost to the UK from these illnesses, £6B are from unknown causes. In studies that were able to look much closer at some cases, the cause of illness was often a microbial pathogen that carried over into food from the environment or from livestock or even from people. Therefore, some hazards such as bacteria are both a challenge to detect and are a challenge to control from entering the food chain. These challenges are only becoming more complex as the food chain evolves in response to new ways of producing foods, new food preferences by consumers, and climate changes that impact the ecology of food. In association with UKRI-BBSRC and the Food Standards Agency, Quadram Institute Bioscience in Norwich is proposing to establish over a 2-year period a new 'UK Food Safety Research Network'. Acting as a hub for scientific innovation and collaborative research to address these complex challenges, the Network will create a community between food industry, government departments, and scientists to create a shared vision and plan for research that can improve the safety of foods now and in the future. To establish this functional community, the Network will progress through steps of:Taking a broad view on the leaders who can impact food safety: the Network will identify the landscape of existing food networks and food safety stakeholders from industry, academia, and government sectors, and from therein, activate a critical mass of experts spanning multiple disciplines to form a Network for collaborative innovation and knowledge exchange activities. We will be inclusive of the 'One Health' disciplines that consider the sciences of the environment, animals, and human health.Identifying areas of opportunity and need for food safety research: the members of the Network will bring their experience and perspectives to identify food safety challenges that can be translated to research and training priorities. We believe that members will be motivated to participate in this problem definition phase of the Network because research priorities will be set against routes to impact by virtue of participation from food system stakeholders at all stages.Harnessing interdisciplinary talents to drive collaborative projects: the Network will pursue our research priorities with programmes that fund proof-of-concept and other similar projects that act under a 'culture of innovation' to draw upon the insights, data, and technologies from across the Network members' organisations, disciplines, and levels of seniority.Enhancing the food safety community by implementing and developing skills from Network discoveries: the Network will extend the methods and knowledge developed in our collaborative research by hosting a series of different training events and by sponsoring the exchange of scientists and food industry employees between Network member sites. These programmes will actively support skill development on food safety and interoperability between Network partners.Bringing forward the Network discoveries to shift the food safety field: the Network will be highly visible and have an active voice through web, audio, and video platforms to support Network engagement with policy makers and other funders. Network research and training outcomes will also be shared more broadly and publicly to further support food safety skill development.