BASELINE - challenges and benefits of the FP7 project

The overall objective of the BASELINE project was to provide harmonised and validated sampling protocols structured as international standards. These procedures should support European policies in food safety and need to be suitable for food producers in order to collect comparable data improving quantitative risk analysis of selected biological and chemical agents. The public health protection in the food chain must be based on risk assessment procedures. This approach requires the standardisation and harmonisation of sampling techniques and analytical methods. New risk based criteria, named Food Safety Objectives (FSO) and Performance Objectives (PO), have complement the existing concepts of microbiological criteria (MC) and maximum residue limits (MRLs) for many chemical contaminants. The major output of the project has been to generate a proposal of improved sampling plans and related safety criteria, by using mathematical modelling for different groups of food products as seafood, eggs and egg products, fresh meats, milk and dairy products and plant products. The project results have been translated in BASELINE Recommendations for EU policymakers concerning improving food chain safety