The United Kingdom’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) has entered into a partnership with the country’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Quadram Institute, a private non-profit company, to form a new Food Safety Research Network.
The FSA and BBSRC have invested a combined £1.6 million in the network, which will be hosted by Quadram.
Quadram describes itself as a state-of-the-art facility for bioscience and clinical research.
“[T]he network will ensure that the FSA is well-placed to tackle the challenges of foodborne illnesses by bringing together experts from government, industry and academia to address current and emerging issues of food safety in the UK,” said the FSA’s Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Robin May.
According to the FSA, there are an estimated 2.4 million cases of foodborne illness a year in the UK, or roughly 35 cases per 1000 population. The annual cost of these illnesses is estimated to be £9 billion (with £6 billion from unknown causes).
FoodWorld 