The Food Standards Agency (FSA) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) are awarding a total of £200,000 to fund six projects to bring the public and researchers together to investigate food standards challenges.
These citizen science projects include exploring the bacteria on home grown produce, parents testing the safety of baby formula, and people with food hypersensitivities analysing the allergens in food bought online.
All of the funded projects are linked to the FSA’s Areas of Research Interest themes (Opens in a new window), covering issues such as antimicrobial resistance (AMR), food hypersensitivity and food safety and hygiene in the home. The funding was delivered in collaboration with the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) (Opens in a new window) and the Economic and Social research Council (ESRC) (Opens in a new window), both part of UKRI. It is part of a wider effort to coordinate activities and develop a joined-up approach to tackle the challenges of maintaining safe food in the UK.
Citizen science projects put the public at the heart of the research process. Rather than being the subjects of the research, citizens are actively involved in collecting and analysing data, and even deciding what questions they want to ask and co-developing the approaches with researchers. Citizen science gives participants the opportunity to directly contribute to scientific research and influence policy.
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