QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY Belfast has announced it is to lead a €3 million research project to improve the safety of animal feeds and the entire European animal-based food chain.
The global project – Quality and Safety of Feeds and Food for Europe – aims to deliver better ways to ensure the quality and safety of animal feeds in Europe. It involves 11 partners from the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Germany and China.
Prof Chris Elliott, director of Queen’s school of biological sciences, said: “ ‘You are what you eat’ was a mantra often applied to human food consumption and as consumers become more concerned about where their food comes from, the same mantra should be applied to the livestock that produce much of our food.
“The safe production and handling of animal feed has a major impact on the health of our livestock and ultimately on the quality of the meat, milk and other animal-based food products that we eat and drink,” he said.
There was a tremendous opportunity for both the Northern Ireland and Republic agrifood sectors to become firmly established as proponents of safe, nutritionally beneficial and ethical foods with a strong local branding, he added.